I wrote the other day about Success in 3D. The United States spends more than $1.8 trillion per year on Health Care – about 15% of the gross domestic product (GDP). Most of this money is spent on a small percentage of the population for disease that are for the most part, behavioral.

Two million people a year have coronary artery bypass surgery or angioplasty to treat their heart disease, at a cost of $30 million. These procedures rarely prevent heart attacks or prolong life, because the affected vessels get clogged up again and again. Doctors tell their patients that if they drink less, eat less, stress less, and get more exercise, they will live longer and not need repeated surgeries. However, research has shown that 90% of all people who have bypass or angioplasty don’t change their behaviors.

Why do we resist behavior change so tenaciously? Why, even at the risk of death, do we hang onto such dysfunctional behavior? Because the facts speak only to our minds, and the head can always find more reasons to maintain the status quo than it can to make changes.

Behavior change only happens when we speak to the heart. It’s feelings, not facts, that move us beyond our old limitations. To change, we have to really, really want it. What’s great about hypnosis is that you can train yourself to really, really want the change your head knows you should make. Yes, I want to change!