It is great to run in the early morning, but I just don't have the energy for it any more. Why has prising myself from under the duvet become so difficult? A friend told me that hypnotherapy had given her the motivation to give up smoking. Could it help me?
I was a little nervous. Hypnosis works by implanting suggestions in your unconscious mind, and I didn't want to turn into a Manchurian Candidate-style robot assassin. In the end I chose a CD called Raise your Energy and Increase your Motivation by Glenn Harrold. Though more low-key than Paul McKenna, he is apparently the UK's bestselling hypnotherapist. The cover blurb claims he will lull me into a state of deep relaxation then deliver encouraging messages to my brain.
When I put the CD on, at bedtime, I discover that Glenn sounds like an East End gangster. "Go to sleep. You go to sleep," he rasps menacingly into my ears. I'm not sure it's going to work. But soon my head is heavy, and before I know it, I am out for the count.
The next morning I feel strangely zingy and at lunchtime I race over to the salsa water aerobics class at my local gym. Was this one of Glenn's sneaky subliminal suggestions?