Debi Livingston, BCH, CI, is a Board Certified Hypnotist and Instructor with the National Guild of Hypnotists. She has a private practice in Berkeley and is Director of ISHI, a Hypnosis Training School in Berkeley.

Have you been thinking about those new year's resolutions? "This is the year I am really going to lose weight, quit smoking, quit swearing, quit procrastinating, stop yelling at the kids so much. I will find time for myself. I will start exercising. I will be a kinder person. I will organize the garage." What happens after just a few days of these best made plans? Why don't the resolutions become permanent?... Our brain didn't come with an owner's manual. There probably wasn't anyone teaching you about the amazing power you have, waiting to be unleashed from within you. Growing-up, you were taught what to think and what to feel based upon what was going on in your environment. These thoughts and feelings became the foundation for who and what you believe you are, including habits, both positive and negative.We all brush our teeth but we don't think about every step in the process. However, that wasn't true when you were being taught about oral hygiene. You had to learn each step involved in brushing your teeth. After repeating this process the information was shifted from your conscious mind and planted into your subconscious. This process works the same way with every habit you now desire to be rid of, from smoking and drinking to over eating and procrastination.

Let's say you've been smoking for ten years. The physical habit with its emotional response has made a deep imprint in your subconscious. Now you're saying that you will quit smoking. Here now, is a conversation between the Conscious and Subconscious Mind:

Conscious Mind: Did you hear that idea? Subconscious Mind? You're going to quit smoking.Subconscious Mind: Yeah, I heard it.Conscious Mind: Do you like that idea? Shall I send it in to you?Subconscious Mind: Nope, I like smoking. I like the feeling I get with that first inhalation.

Your subconscious mind is still sending you the feelings you are used to feeling. You can apply any habit to the above scenario, including the habit of low self esteem and lack of confidence.If you've been caught up in negative self-talk for years, then say one positive affirmation "I'm a wonderful person" but you have no emotional feeling to support that statement! You have to teach yourself how to think and feel differently about yourself and the world which surrounds you. The only way to successfully do that, is from within your subconscious mind. This is known as being in 'trance' or 'hypnosis'.Hypnotists are trained to guide you into your subconscious mind. Hypnotists act as your personal motivational coach, inspiring and enthusing your subconscious mind to want to create those changes. You can picture and feel what it would feel like to be a non-smoker, to truly accept yourself, to easily pass up dessert without feeling like you're missing something. Get the idea?

Go into trance while focusing on your new year's resolutions, release blocks preventing you from achieving those goals and imagine how you'd feel if you've already accomplished them! Now you will have the most successful new year's resolutions ever! This time your resolutions will be more than a wish, more than just a hope. You will be empowered from within and confident in knowing that your resolutions are no longer a struggle.