Quit Smoking – A Jar Of Nausea
I’m sitting at my desk searching for inspiration for my 260 something such article. My eye falls to a jar by my computer. It contains cigarettes butts floating in water. Not the sort of thing you typically expect to find in an office.
You may wonder how a jar with butts helps people quit smoking.
I use a strategy for clients who need a top up for any reason. I take them into hypnosis and have them think about smoking, then I remove the lid and pass it under their nose. Everybody pulls their head back a little.
Nobody likes the smell, it stinks, and some feel a little nauseous so I remind them that no matter how bad they feel they won’t vomit.
The room quickly fills with this stench so I replace the lid quickly. I then have them imagine the nicotine from a packet of cigarettes, squeezed out, about five drops onto a spoon. Again the jar under their nose.
You pour the nicotine onto your skin, you feel the burn, you smell the burning skin and hair. Again the jar.
You feel the pain as it burns into your lungs and arteries, and seeps into every cell in your body. The jar is passed under your nose again.
You are again asked to think about smoking, here comes the jar, you are reminded of the burning lung tissue, the smell the pain.
This method is very effective for some people. Unpleasant for all, including myself, the imagery is graphic, but not unrealistic. The smell is pungent but not unlike what people around you smell and only a slightly stronger version of what your hair and clothes smell like!
Imagine if you could flip your lungs out after an evening of smoking and drinking, the stink and the colour it would sicken you. Just consider how hard your body is working every to manage this assault.
In hypnosis this de-sensitisation process can work very quickly. It is not done usually in the first session because there are more important things to address. Especially the triggers and unconscious connections.
These are some of the sneaky back door aspects of smoking and have absolutely nothing to do with smoking. If you want to quit smoking it is very good to start to think clearly about all the stinking nasty aspects, then take your 100% committed self into your hypnosis session and you will be completely successful.
Quit Smoking – A Jar Of Nausea by Ian Newton
