Quote:
Originally Posted by Fuss
Thanks for the warm and thoughtful replies to my post.
My life is always a work in progress. I'm a veteran, (u can thank me for your freedom later   ) I'm hooked in with the VA. I'm on top of shit.
Doing Yoga, and back at the prayer and meditation.
I Quit drinking Whiskey and all alcohol! Can I get an Amen and a Hallelujah! If you're out there and you got the booze bug, but you're not drinking, then keep it up my brother.
My goal this week was to get off the diet coke. I was drinking 12 cans a day!
I did it. I have not had a diet coke in a week. But water still taste like medicine!  |
Way to go!
That is a perfect example of what I referred to as a "minor" addiction. That is, not really physical, but habitual and social. For some people smoking can actually fall into that category as well.
I've been doing self-hypnosis since I was 18, but never really understood the power of it until about 6 years ago. For Father's Day, Beth asked me what I wanted and I said to (finally) get certified as a hypnotherapist.
She got the course material for me, I completed it. Not surprisingly, I probably knew 90% of it, and most of the missing stuff was changes in what was acceptable.
For example, "aversion therapy" was very big historically, but now is frowned upon. (Think of, "If you put a cigarette in your mouth it will literally taste and feel like dog crap.")
Now, my hypnosis is pretty solid, although it takes time to stay on top of my game. Sometimes I fall away and I do a "personal weekend hypno retreat" of sorts to get back on track.
What Really Made a Difference For Me
========================
Right after I came back to hypno - May, 2013 - I struggled to get suggestions to stick. Some would but others would fail miserably. I consulted several hypnotherapists for coaching.
About a year later, I was having quite a bit of shoulder pain. I was going to physical therapy, taking meds, using a TENS machine, but all in all, that dull, aching pain was always with me.
One evening, while I was watching TV, I fired off a post-hypnotic suggestion, along with a little finger-pressing routine. (For those who know the term, something like a "mudra.")
It was kind of like, "Pain is gone. 1-2-3-NOW!"
I'd fire it 3 or 4 times, and, suddenly, to my wondrous surprise, the pain was gone! The fact that it returned 10 minutes later did not phase me in the least because it had worked!
So, if I watched TV for (say) 90 minutes, I might have to fire off my painkilling suggestion 6 or 7 times, and every single time, without exception, it worked.
Over time the physical therapy worked, but whenever I got even a hint of pain, I could push it away with "Pain is gone. 1-2-3-NOW!"
There are limitations. I can lower my pain "score" (on a 1-10 scale) by about 3 points. IOW, I can't take a severe pain like 7 or 8 and make it go away, but I can lower it to an ache.
About a year later, it hit me that I could leverage my belief that the hypnosis was working to do other things. In fact, my personal self-hypnosis technique is entirely based upon the format [statement] 1-2-3-NOW!
Here's what I did with it initially...
1. I had an addiction to Snickers bars. Specifically, the big double bars with almonds. A typical weekend (Fri-Sun) included 7 or 8 of them!
2. I had a soda addiction. If we went to dinner, I would consume as many as 12 sodas!
I did ONE session with myself. About 30 minutes long. I was completely conscious in this session. First, I conditioned myself, by saying things like...
My hypnosis is strong.
** I have proved that by firing my pain relief mantra (which is what I called it) over 1,000 times in a row without failure.
** I am in a highly suggestible state.
Then I moved to the suggestion part by saying...
I don't want snickers bars.
I don't need Snickers bars.
I don't like Snickers bars.
One session, and then lots of reinforcement in the grocery store by repeating the above. In the beginning I was actually afraid to walk near a Snickers bar and would fire the suggestion from maybe 30 feet away. No joke
But it worked. A month later I killed the sodas.
About 15 months later I was reminded of what Howard Sartin said about addictions: "If addiction is one side of the coin, then abstinence is the other."
He was right.
I decided to test whether or not I had really broken the addiction by having a Snickers bar. It was great, and I really enjoyed it. But I had only one. Now I have maybe 2 or 3 Snickers bars a year (with almonds, of course).
Same with the sodas. I think I've had maybe 3 or 4 in 2018.
Hypnosis is amazing.
Dave
