What can you do with hypnosis? Quitting smoking is something a lot of people do with hypnosis(1). And a while ago I helped Richard quit smoking again with it. He had stopped for six months, but after nice suggestions from friends and brothers that you can smoke at night during Ramadan, he had started again.
Not at all convenient, so what do you do? Then you slide into my live session on Instagram to see if hypnosis can help you (and you get to inspire other people right away 😉 ).
If someone has quit smoking for a while, such as six months with Richard, and then they start again, chances are that smoking has been replaced with another activity.
He especially wanted to quit because he noticed that smoking was causing his fitness to decline while exercising.
Then his daughter (age 5) suddenly joined. As a father who smokes, you might ask yourself "How long do I want to be in her life?"
After all, if you continue to smoke, you are shortening that time compared to when you do quit smoking.
I asked her what she thought about Dad smoking and why. She thought it was stupid because she didn't want Dad to die.
This was an interesting moment, because you could see with Richard that this was coming in. After making the moment a little lighter by talking with her about small talk, I came back to Richard.
Putting smoking in a negative light
And I gave him the suggestion, "Every time you light a cigarette, you see her little face and she says this clearly to you."
This may feel a little mean, but this is going to be very helpful if you are a parent who wants to quit smoking. In war and love (and in this case, love), anything goes.
It's also the reason I quit smoking. I also have four children myself, so I can very well imagine how this feels as a parent.
I said to Richard "To me, those little individuals are something important after all, and to you, of course, too ..."
He agreed.
Then I wanted to check how it felt to Richard now. After all, this is how you check to see if you've already made a change in the unconscious beliefs that cause someone to smoke (or just suddenly not feel like it at all).
He expressed slight doubts.
So it was time for another suggestion:
"I understand and I will say, every time you put one on, it just gets worse, because then you have to think of the little girl who said that to you just like that, then you hear that little voice.... And then you think, this is not him man....this is not going to be him.... And then you may go on with it for a while, until you're really completely done with it.... Because every puff it just gets worse ... you see that little face again ... you hear that little voice again and you think, God boy, what am I doing?.... And at some point it stops, because yeah, well, I don't want to let any other images pass, there are children there."
When you are really 1-on-1 in the treatment room, you can come up with very horrible scenarios that you really don't want to go through and that can scare people away from lighting another cigarette butt.
After this suggestion , I asked again how it felt to him now.
Now he began to suffer from guilt. (Before quitting smoking, things were going in the right direction.)
The great thing about this session was that his little daughter joined for a moment. That was very smart and good of her. Because children are often a very good motivating factor when you want to quit smoking.
There are other motivating factors as well. So even if you don't have children you can quit smoking, but in this case it was very helpful.
Quit smoking and show the benefits
Now that I had instilled enough fear, it was time for hopeful suggestions.
"Yes, but is this wise? And the great thing is, as you have already experienced that once you stop, you get all kinds of positive benefits. For example, you can run 5 kilometers more easily, more fitness, and so on. I'll also tell you how old you get and how many benefits that brings. Then you meet someone and they say, "I haven't seen the time Are you still 39? .... You then again: No, no, that was 10 years ago when I quit smoking. Oh really?"... That feels good ... So you're still in the perfect age to make that choice and get a lot of benefits from it.... You already know the benefits ... so I won't repeat them all. But the risk of all kinds of diseases decreases dramatically when you stop. Even after a year there are benefits and after 10 years there is almost nothing left in your body in terms of the damage of smoking. That's kind of nice, especially if you're 39 and heading toward the age where nasty diseases are more common. If you made the right choice now, as you are now, you may experience many benefits later, and who knows, if it is God's will that you see your little daughter grow old and have good children. Otherwise, maybe just not."
Yet after this, he still had a bit of a craving for a cigarette.
Everything is a choice
That's fine, of course. Anything you do should be up to you, but know that it is your own choice.
It's good to be aware that you are making that choice. That every time you pick up a cigarette you know you are choosing to be shorter in your children's lives.
If you do that every time, at some point it doesn't feel right anymore anyway.
And you can also wonder what your friends or brothers think about it when you choose to light that cigarette every time. Richard was very sure that his would not think it was cool if he continued to smoke anyway with this knowledge.
Post-hypnotic suggestions on quitting smoking
I then gave a post-hypnotic suggestion about how smoking might go for him.
"This is a choice, though, that you will then soon make 15 times a day. Maybe at some point it will be 8 times a day, or even 5 times a day. Maybe there will come a time when you only do it once a day. And then, oh my god ... take this hypnosis with you .... What happens then?"
Then Richard felt like throwing away the cigarettes anyway and expressed a complete lack of desire for them.
The anti-smoking rant
Then I went on and on about how bad the industry behind smoking and drinking really is. Because I really wanted to help him quit smoking, and the conviction that he didn't feel like it anymore could be a little stronger.
"Look, I'm not an evangelist, don't get me wrong. You really have to know for yourself what you're doing, you know? I mean, if people go all out on booze, drugs, or whatever, I really don't care. I mean, like I'm the saint. I've done all kinds of things myself, you know. So I know exactly what it's like. But at some point you grant people to let go of that dependency, so that they're not dependent on something anymore. What I find really annoying, but well, that's hindsight now, is that those big industries, for example the tobacco and alcohol industries ... You have to think, alcohol is associated with dozens of types of cancer. So women who drink one glass of alcohol a day, for example, already have a 20% higher risk of breast cancer, and they can just buy it in the supermarket ... Actually, it's just a crime against people, but yes, it seems so cozy, you know ... Yes, you want to. But again, you have to know yourself what you do ... But of course it's a bad thing ...
There's nothing you can do about that either, it's just poor education. If they did it differently, no one would smoke, no one would drink. Then we would all stay away from it, you know what I mean? Because this really doesn't make sense ... But now it's already in your head, it seems cozy, but it's actually harmful ... It's nice to have a drink after dinner, cozy right? A lot of people do it ... Yes, that's right, I get that ... And I actually think that's the biggest crime, because it causes all kinds of diseases in a lot of people and loved ones have to say goodbye earlier because of that damn industry ... I can't stand that very well."
After this rant, he said with more conviction that he would not light another cigarette.
I briefly summarized what he could imagine and what kind of example he could set for his children.
Watch the session here:
Like me, do you want to help people quit smoking and transform their lives? Then it's always helpful to delve into hypnotherapy.
For example, come to the free online master class for an introduction.
Or register directly for one of our seminars or trainings. There you will learn techniques directly to give people good feelings.
Sources:
1. https://www. tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00207140008410048
