Wholeness Healing Center

Notes of Growth

by Ann Greving Brown, LCSW, Social Worker for GISH

Everyone needs at least one crazy friend who will drag you into things . . .
things like the hypnosis for trimming your weight. Yes, my crazy friend called me one summer day, and with a short deadline, I said a very hesitant, “Yes.” The “yes” was more for her than me. Oh, I needed to lose weight, but I had no intentions of doing it with my mind.

Everyone also needs a crazy goal. Call it a bucket list if you wish, or call it a goal. For as long as I could remember, I wanted to run. You know, like a gazelle. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? I was a bench-sitting athlete in high school. Laughing tightened my abs more than the sit-ups. I could never get too serious about exercise; that is, until I met my friend to do this silly thing called hypnosis.

Fast forward please. It is July 2011 and the class has begun. After some
introductory comments, I am settling in for my first experience with hypnosis. Deb’s calming voice quickly lulls me. Next thing I know, I am awakened by my own snoring! Oh, I forgot one little detail: I am a busy working mother of six. I can sleep almost anywhere.

Prior to the course, I had barely done a 5k. For you non-runners, a 5k is a fancy term for 3.1 miles. Those 3.1 miles were not graceful, they were not pretty, and they were not athletic at all. During Deb’s class, my mileage was miraculously rising. By the fourth week, I ran 10 miles! I ran TEN, count them, TEN miles!

Fast forward again please. It is May 6, 2012 and I am in Lincoln, Nebraska at the starting line for the Lincoln Half Marathon. For you non-runners, a half marathon is of course half of a full marathon and is 13.1 miles. My beautiful, skinny daughter is next to me. We were both injured but decided to at least start the race. She unfortunately had to drop out at mile three due to what we later learned was a stress fracture. There were tears from my injury and from leaving my daughter, but I finished. My time was excruciatingly slow, but I finished. Just last week I shaved an hour off my time and completed my second half marathon.

When I look back on my adventure, I am grateful for my crazy friend who led me to the hypnosis. I truly believe I could have never, ever run a half marathon had it not been for TRIM LIFE.