Jim Hoke Hypnosis Blog

 

Smoking used to be cool. It was a way to be independent, to be rebellious, to show your strength. But since the medical world has linked smoking to so many health issues, it has lost favor in society. More and more, smokers are being made aware that though they may be welcome in public places, their habit of smoking is not.

 

You used to be able to smoke on airplanes, in restaurants, even in some offices. But those days are gone, and many smokers are ready to quit, freeing themselves from a habit that costs them time, money and health.

 

There are many options to help smokers quit – nicotine patches and gum are sold at most every grocery store and drugstore, supposedly helping smokers wean themselves from the nicotine in the cigarettes. Do they work? According to the Shiffman “Real-world” study, only 3% of those using the Rx nicotine patch and 9.2% of those using the OTC patch were not smoking at six months. In the nicotine gum groups, only 7.7% of the Rx gum group and 8.4% in the OTC gum group were not smoking at six months. Sadly, the average for the four groups was just 7%.

 

Then there are the stop smoking pills that have become available…according to studies, they can be effective for a small percentage of people, but the side affects are a bit dramatic. People taking Chantrix, for example, can suffer from anxiety, nervousness, tension, depressed mood, unusual behaviors and thinking about or attempting suicide. I think I’d rather smoke.

 

Many studies have proven the effectiveness of counseling and hypnosis for smoking. In many study groups, counseling along with another treatment method boosted results noticeably, and counseling or therapy on it’s own has been show to be effective with smokers trying to quit cold turkey.

 

Hypnosis has been proven very effective for smoking cessation, citing reports of 40% to more than 60% success, even after 6 months and beyond. Yes, there are side effects…let’s see. Increased self esteem, improved health, sense of well being, decrease in anxiety and nervousness. That sounds a lot better than unusual behaviors and depression!

 

There are a few things you should know about hypnosis. It’s easy, you’re totally in control, and it can be a profound experience. Hypnosis is simply a relaxed, meditative-like state where you can access and change your inner beliefs – and habits, like smoking. Habits come from your inner, subconscious mind, so doesn’t it make sense that you can change habits by visiting that part of your mind? Your hypnotist is simply your guide.

 

Many people think they can’t be hypnotized, but they just don’t understand what hypnosis really is. Most people go into a state of hypnosis every day, while reading a book, watching TV or even driving a car (ever heard of highway hypnosis?). It’s simply a focused state of awareness where your subconscious mind is accessible.

 

A good hypnotist will spend time with you, helping you understand their program, which can range from one to more than twelve sessions. When you choose a hypnotist, you’ll want to find one that does more than just read you a script. More seasoned hypnotists will help you find the reasons that you are compelled to smoke, and help you resolve them. They will have techniques to help desensitize you from smoking, and retrain your brain for success as a non-smoker.

 

To be successful in a hypnosis session, you’ll want to find a hypnotist that makes you feel comfortable and at ease, and one with a structured stop smoking program. Find out how many sessions they usually recommend for smoking cessation, and whether they charge by the session or the program. One hypnotist may charge $200, and have a reputation for helping you quit in just one session, another may charge just $50 per session, but sell you a 12-session program. Either way, however, you win. Just consider how much money you’ll be saving when you quit! You’ll be doing your body, mind and wallet a favor.

 

Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a chronic health problem that develops as a result of damage to the lungs. This acronym is used to identify three medical diagnoses categorized as COPD. These include emphysema, asthma, and chronic bronchitis.

Asthma starts when a person’s body views something in the environment, such as chemicals, cigarette smoke, or foods, as hazardous. The immune system begins to emit proteins known as histamines. These proteins produce inflammation in lung tissues to help the body ward off invaders. This stiffens lung tissues and weakens breathing.

Persons can be diagnosed with asthma in childhood or even later in life. One of the best ways that family and friends can help individuals with this condition is to quit smoking cigarettes, since secondhand smoke kills. If someone just diagnosed with this condition does smoke, he or she ought to quit smoking as soon as possible.

Physicians also classify chronic bronchitis as a form of COPD. This condition develops in people who have smoked for a number of years. Tobacco smoke causes tar and bacteria to become trapped in the lungs. This bacteria cause recurrent inflammation of the bronchi, or airway tubes, of a person’s lungs.

Chronic bronchitis irritates and stiffens these passages. People with this disease find deep breathing and exercise difficult. Because their lung tissues are stiff and irritated, they become short of breath with even a little exertion. Sometimes, if these people stop smoking, some of their breathing difficulties will diminish.

The third lung disease categorized as COPD is emphysema. A person’s lungs have air sacs at the end of the bronchial tubes. These grape-shaped sacs, called alveoli, inflate and deflate as an individual inhales and exhales. Persons with emphysema become short of breath and are unable to breathe deeply or exhale completely since air stays trapped in these alveoli. If these people find ways to stop smoking, these symptoms may get better.

Medicines and breathing exercises may help people who have COPD. In spite of these therapies, however, these people continue to have significant anxiety levels. Having COPD is like trying to breathe underwater. Even though you try to stay under longer, you feel you must breathe – now! Therefore, you swim toward the surface and take a deep breath. Those who have COPD, however cannot swim to the surface and take a deep breath.

Several stop smoking programs treat clients with COPD. Most COPD patients understand that smoking increases their breathing problems. Most have been smoking for many years, however, which often makes consciously quitting extremely hard.

Many stop smoking programs are available. Most encourage people to utilize the conscious mind to stop smoking. Since the dependency on smoking is etched strongly in the mind’s unconscious, few people who quit smoking with the help of approaches stay quit without making changes at the unconscious level. Moreover, the majority of these programs center on the smoker’s physical addiction to nicotine, which comprises only about one-tenth of the smoking addiction.

A number of stop smoking programs claim to help persons to relax better. The most effective ones use Ericksonian hypnotherapy and Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP. Polarity responses often happen with traditional hypnotherapy and straightforward post-hypnotic suggestions.

Ericksonian hypnosis uses metaphors that relay suggested thoughts that promote peace to the unconscious to help people to overcome the propensity to do the opposite of what is suggested. Often, people who learn to relax through the use of the NLP Flash strategy are able to decrease anxiety and panic attacks better. Therefore, they breathe more easily.

Ericksonian Hypnotherapy provides an innovative alternative strategy for helping individuals learn how to stop smoking. Professionals who teach this understand that the problem is rooted in the unconscious. Therefore, they assist people at this level, through stop smoking hypnosis. Contrary to the techniques used by traditional approaches, hypnosis to quit smoking focuses on stress reduction, mental addiction, and the habit, which together make up 90 percent of one’s smoking habit.

Through Ericksonian hypnosis and NLP, these patients can live a better life. These approaches coach individuals with breathing problems to decrease anxiety. In addition, they assist eliminate unconscious associations between cigarettes and environmental factors. This extinguishes nicotine cravings. These treatments provide hope to persons with COPD.

Summary: Three chronic lung problems are categorized as COPD. These include asthma, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema. Controlling anxiety that occurs because of breathing problems and finding ways to stop smoking are probably the most effective methods of helping patients with COPD experience a higher quality of life. Ericksonian hypnotherapy and NLP approaches assist patients to control anxiety and quit smoking.

Alan B. Densky, CH is the developer of the best way to quit smoking cigarettes with hypnotism. He offers a powerful Stop Chewing Tobacco program based on those same methods. See more at his Neuro-VISION hypnotherapy & NLP site where you can use Free hypnosis videos and articles.

"There’s nothing much to photograph you know," jokes Dr Vanit Nalwa, when asked if she could be photographed in the chamber where she conducts her hypnotherapy sessions. “No candles or swinging pendulums!” Dr Nalwa, well-known Delhi-based hypnotherapist and neuropsychologist, isn’t far off the mark. For many people, the word hypnosis conjures images that have more to do with magic than medicine.

But the truth is that hypnotherapy is a scientifically-acknowledged discipline that can be used by itself or in combination with other types of therapies to help patients achieve their goals, says Reema Shah, Mumbai-based psychologist and hypnotherapist. Approved by the American and British Medical Associations, hypnosis is “scientifically researched and can even be seen on a brain scan,” claims Dr Dayal Mirchandani, a Mumbai-based psychiatrist.

Using the subconscious
According to Shah, hypnotherapy is very effective with anxiety disorders, phobias and traumas. Addictions like smoking and drinking and even kleptomania can also be cured effectively through hypnotherapy, though results may vary from person to person. Dr Nalwa, who trained in the UK and has had patients ranging in ages from six to 60, says that generally people come for various phobias as well as marital and work-related problems. She encourages people to try hypnotherapy only if they have an open mind about it and says that often, people approach hypnotherapy as a last resort due to lack of awareness.

Dr Mirchandani says that hypnotherapy can work very well for pain control. “It has been used during labour and works very well,” he says. He mainly uses hypnotherapy for medical conditions like asthma, painful arthritis, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, etc. “It could also be used on people who are grossly overweight to help them lose their appetite,” he adds. Shah says it’s also an effective therapy for insomnia.

Hypnosis is a state of relaxation. “It’s the state between being fast asleep and being alert,” Dr Nalwa says. Shah tries to explain it. “It’s like a daydream, where you are conscious and aware, yet you are oblivious to external distractions.”

A daydream-like state may sound magical but most hypnotherapists would suggest it only if required. “If clients specifically ask for hypnotherapy, the first session is spent assessing whether they really need it,” says Shah. Therapists usually decide if hypnosis is required depending on the kind of problem, the extent of it and also their assessment of the client’s personality.

It doesn’t always work, says Dr Nalwa who restricts her sessions to six. “If it’s not working with six sessions, then it is not the therapy the client needs,” she believes. Shah says hypnotherapy can take anything from three sessions to 10 to be effective, particularly if it’s a deep addiction.

Working it
Hypnotherapy works with the subconscious mind. According to Shah, the brain operates on four measurable frequency cycles: Delta, Theta, Alpha and Beta. Theta is the subconscious part where all emotional experiences are recorded, while Alpha is where dreaming and daydreaming takes place. Beta is the conscious region for reasoning and daily activities. When we sleep, the brain automatically cycles down from Beta to Alpha and hypnosis takes advantage of this natural phenomenon. “It causes the brain to cycle down into Alpha without going to sleep. The subconscious mind is open to suggestive input and unlike the conscious mind, it doesn’t think or reason and responds to what it is told. Suggestions are then made into real behaviour changes by the mind,” Shah says.
Dr Nalwa says hypnotherapy goes into stored memories in the brain. “It’s like accessing your database in the brain and making changes at that level.” Dr Mirchandani thinks that most people go into a naturally occurring state of trance without realising it, while reading a book or watching an interesting movie. He teaches self-hypnosis to people with chronic painful conditions or those with anxiety disorders, an area where hypnosis is very effective. “It helps them calm down, whether before a meeting or an interview,” he says.

Bangalore girl Subha Narayan would sweat before interviews and group discussions and be anxious to the extent of walking out rather than go through the ordeal. “Hypnotherapy helped me to deal with my fears and techniques I learnt from my counsellor helped me calm down before an interview session,” says Narayan, who now works for a pharmaceutical company and is comfortable giving a presentation to a roomful of people, a fearsome prospect earlier.


The mythbuster
But misconceptions still abound when it comes to hypnotherapy. One of the biggest myths is that people can be hypnotised and made to do things against their will, perpetuated largely thanks to stage hypnosis and B-grade movies. “No one can be hypnotised against their will,” says Shah. “The subject must be hundred per cent cooperative.” No person gets ‘stuck’ in a hypnotic state either.
And this is what all hypnotherapists tell you. No person can be made to do anything under hypnosis that they wouldn’t normally do in a completely alert state. In other words, you wouldn’t go against your normal value system even under hypnosis. “The subject can choose to accept or reject the suggestions given even when under hypnosis,” asserts Shah. “You exercise your personal free will even in that state,” says Dr Nalwa. “There’s always a small percentage of highly susceptible people, but most people would not do anything under hypnosis they wouldn’t do normally.”
There’s also the general impression that strong-willed people cannot be hypnotised. Those who practice hypnotherapy will tell you it’s actually the opposite! “Strong-willed people have fewer fears and more confidence and they usually find it easier to go into a trance-like state,” says Dr Mirchandani. Dr Nalwa concurs, “People who respond best are usually intelligent and articulate.”
But some people do not respond to hypnotherapy very well. “That’s because their defences are very strong and they don’t allow themselves to relax easily,” says Shah. So if it isn’t mumbo jumbo why isn’t hypnotherapy used more extensively? In the last few years, though attitudes have been changing, it is still not as widely known as counselling.
One reason could be the lack of proper regulation. It has resulted in the number of lay hypnotists far outweighing certified therapeutic hypnotists. Shah and Dr Mirchandani agree that many debatable institutes now offer short-term courses in hypnotherapy. “People become counsellors but do not have proper psychological knowledge,” says Shah.
So if you’re wondering how to select a good hypnotherapist, the answer would be to visit someone who is qualified, preferably with a degree in psychology or a related branch.
But Dr Nalwa, who started practicing hypnotherapy in Delhi in 1996 thinks there’s a positive shift. “People are more open and forthcoming and certain techniques are even becoming part of corporate training.”

Session lessons
Everyone’s curious. What happens in a hypnotherapy session? Well, if it’s a first session, the hypnotherapist will usually give you an introduction to the therapy, and also tell you about other available options for treatment (e.g., cognitive therapy or medication), as well as find out about your background, the problems you face and other issues that may be related.

Once hypnosis begins, the hypnotherapist helps you relax. This could be by talking to you in a particular manner, by storytelling, by asking you to focus on something particular, by using a mental image that’s soothing or even by chanting mantras. Basically, you are guided to a hypnotic state using whatever you are comfortable with. Once you have achieved a state of true relaxation, the hypnotherapist uses different techniques to address the subconscious and find the root of the problem. Suggestion therapy, visualisation, age regression and neuro-linguistic programming are commonly used. “It’s difficult to describe but overall, hypnosis is a pleasant sensation,” says Bangalore girl Subha Narayan who was cured of her fear of public speaking through hypnotherapy. “My limbs felt numb but I was aware of my therapist speaking.”

Depending on your personality and the depth of your problem, a session can last between 10 minutes to half an hour. Once you’re brought out of hypnosis, you may or may not be able to recall what went on.

True life story
From solving marital problems to curing phobias, addictions and chronic pains, hypnotherapy has proved effective in many cases. Dr Vanit Nalwa mentions a man who came to her with a serious marital conflict. The couple had a small daughter and therefore, her patient did not want a divorce as it would disrupt the daughter’s life. Dr Nalwa was the only professional who offered to help him even if his wife was not ready to participate in the process.

“I helped him change his attitude towards his wife, so that he did not feel the need to react to all she said or did,” explains Dr Nalwa. The couple remained married and raised their daughter, despite living in different cities for a period of time. -->

READ THIS DESCRIPTION! This is a very relaxing hypnosis video designed to put you to sleep. Follow these directions carefully: Put the video in full screen. Raise the volume a little higher than you have it. Stare into the center of the spiral. Listen very carefully to the music. Enjoy your rest!

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