In fact my most favourite time of the day was when I woke up in the morning I would have my morning coffee and 3 cigarettes ( ok maybe 5- don't judge me) before I would go to work. And yes that was even if I started at 4:30am.
But about 7 weeks ago I was sitting on my verandah ( or courtyard- I still don't know what to call it) while I was having my morning dart when I was chatting to Kim- the amazing lady who works at my apartment complex. I happened to mention that I was wanted to give up and she told me how she had just done a hypnotherapy course and could she hypnotise me. Faster than you could say Longbeach Menthol Fresh Burst I was in.... so this is how it went.
I had never been hypnotised before so I wasn't really sure what to expect but it went like this..
- Kim just asked me a few questions before and we talked about what I wanted to do
- Then I sat down , made sure I was comfy and then she asked my to focus on my hands.. and then the magic happened.
- The sensation is weird- you are definately not asleep, and kind of just feel like you are listening with your eyes closed. I just really focussed on what Kim was saying because knowing my short attention span there was I every chance I would find myself questioning something really important like " are the Dockers always going to be shit" or " why did the chose to finish Shitt's Creek at season 6 when it is still so good ".
- During the session I knew my hands where moving, and my body was twitching, but It wasn't something I had control over- my body was just doing it. My favourite was when Kim was telling me I was walking into a room and I was standing at a desk which was my control panel and I was looking for my anxiety control and I started waving my arms around. I remember I was cleaning my desk because I couldn't find my controls because my control panel was just too messy. (If that's not a sign of what was going on in my head I don't know what is!)
- When Kim brought me out of the hypnosis I felt tired, and I had no idea of how long I had been under for ( it felt like 10 but apparently it was more like 25 minutes). We had a little chat about what had happened and then Kim left and I went to bed... and slept. And slept... and slept.. and then slept some more. To say I was tired was an absolute understatement. Kim said it was normal because working with your subconcious is hard work.
And that was it! I had absolutely no desire to smoke from that moment on. I had awful nicotine withdrawals for the first 2 days. More poor body was craving nicotine, but I just did not want to smoke. I instead slept more and locked my self in my apartment where no one could annoy me. Or I couldn't kill anyone.
I had two more sessions after that, on the second we discussed smoking, my anxiety and over eating ( ok and maybe we touched on my over drinking) and on the third session we just consolidated the three sessions. The effect this has had on my anxiety is also amazing. So if you see me making a weird hand gesture with my hand- don't worry I'm just turning down my anxiety dial to a 2.
So 6 weeks on I have faced all my major triggers.
- I have been out drinking ( more than once)
- I can be around people who smoke
- I get up and go to work with no cigarettes (interesting I am not drinking as much coffee- this has not been deliberate it just tastes almost too strong now)
- I have had a few stressful things happen where I would normally turn to cigarettes
- I have been incredibly bored
- I have been to the football and seen my team perform dismally
I don't really know why it was such an amazing success but I think maybe one of the main reason for this success was that Kim told my subconcious that I was a "non smoker". I think the choice in language is really important. Saying I had "given up" is so different to saying "I don't do it."
I am also very open to alternate therapies and I have also done quite a lot of guided meditations in my time so I am quite good at " relaxing myself". I felt incredibly comfortable with Kim and she has the most soothing calm voice. I also really, really wanted this to work.
So 6 weeks on I am incredibly proud but also incredibly amazed at just how easy and successful the process has been. Giving up smoking has been fantastic but the added bonus of getting my anxiety under control has been the best.
I would honestly recommend giving it a try and it anyone wants Kims details- let me know...
