Follow deeper with into the story of my first encounter with hypnotherapy; the how it went and why it just became a big fat HEAVEN YES. I Love Hypnotherapy!
I have heard the word hypnotherapy before but not really knew what it was nor known anyone who had tried it until a friend of mine shared her experience of it. She went into detail about all that came up for her in that session, the how and why.
“ 20 years of smoking daily and fairly heavily has ceased with 2 sessions; that’s the power of hypnotherapy..”
My first reaction; “Oh wow, that’s deep and far out there”, the second; “I want to try this, maybe I’ll try it with the smoking”.
The Very First Session
So, I went for the first session to be free from cigarettes. I had been smoking for 20 years and around 15-20 cigarettes/day, sometimes more bu1ut very rarely less. In this 20-year period, I had managed to stop in periods, sometimes for a few months, once for 1 year, but I always started again. So, quitting for me wasn’t the “real” challenge, it was the part of not starting again. And also, I did not want to replace it with food, because I had done that before. And that’s not dealing with the issues, just masking it and moving the unhealthy behavior from one to another. Before going to the session, I smoked as normal, I even had a cigarette before I went into the session
First session- absolutely WOWED! And it made so much sense! One thing is to hear someone else talk about their session in hypnosis, completely another to experience it for myself with my own life experience. What came up in that session was an event of subtle and deeply rooted feelings of not feeling seen, not feeling heard, just feelings of being very unimportant. Healing those “stuck” emotions just brought so much lightness to me.
After this session, I really just had no urge to smoke. It was very different experience the 3 first days because the thoughts about smoking did come up.
Such as “I’ll just finish this and have a cigarette”, “I’ll make a coffee and have a cigarette” or “Oh, I’m stressed, have a cigarette”.
The thing was though, I could hear these thoughts so clearly, and then just observe them. And not feeling any reaction; no reaction besides, “But, I don’t want to smoke”. No emotional impulse, no having to mentally with will power tell myself that “NO; don’t smoke”. I also did not replace cigarettes with food or in other ways. Just an observation of those thoughts, and then also reflecting on how much of my time I actually spent on keeping that addiction alive. Wow, how much more time I would have now! And it was as I felt myself just more real, and more me.
For 2 weeks, it was just amazing, smooth sailing! No stress or more thinking about the urge nor thoughts to smoke.
The Relapse!
And then… Something happened. I had a relapse!
I dated a man and at a moment I felt rejected. The thing was though, I wasn’t rejected, I just felt it. Just old beliefs coming up, and even if I could logically see this because the situation was actually very clear, those strong emotions just got so strong. I felt overpowered by them. So, as I was feeling the stress and pain, I tried to numb, I took a couple of puffs on a vape I had at home. It’s so funny, because I knew what was happening, like while I was doing it. Yet, I couldn’t bring myself to not do it. I was seeking some kind of release of the pain I was experiencing. That that was one of the reasons I had smoked for so long wasn’t any new discovery, I was well aware of this for years, and in ways, I did that because it works, for the moment. But that’s it, it works for the moment, but you never get any real release, any healing, any resolution and I knew this too.
Then the day after, I had one cigarette, day after that a couple more. And then, I contacted my hypnotherapist again. I got an appointment a week later, and in the meantime, she gave me some practices and tips do in this week. I smoked during that week, but less than I previously did.
Second Session
The second session was tough and long, much that came up.
Feelings and fears of being rejected, not enough, stressed of not being worthy. A specific event in my life that I knew even before this session it had affected me. I just hadn’t realized to what extent, and in this session, it was so very clear, all of it. This session was about healing the pain and hurt, steaming from the fears of being rejected by those close to me.
Since that session, I haven’t smoked one cigarette, not a puff. I haven’t even come close to smoking. Of course, life has thrown some curve balls, so I’ve experienced stress and in this for a brief moment the thought of “I want a cigarette” has come up but stayed for a second, I can also honestly say that I can count those moments on my fingers. And it’s never felt further than that, a thought lasting for a second, and clearly no urges where I had to use my will power to resist. I can’t even remember when was the last time that thought came up. Sometime last year it must have been…
"The Polish Up"
I had a polish up session a few months ago. It wasn’t really for cigarettes though as I didn’t feel any urge or thoughts of smoking. But I was noticing a pattern where I was starting to stress eat a little bit, not major but enough to make me feel into the why and wonder if it wasn't simliar patterns to smoking? I was studying a course which brought with much grief, old grief that needed to come up, and it made sense that by habit with these new strong emotions I was trying to push away/numbing them. So, the combination of wanting to heal both the grief and those impulses of wanting to push away/numb, I had a session to heal and transform this.
Overall...
So, all and all, I’ve been smoke free for 1 ½ years, it’s taken 2 sessions, 3 if you count in this last session. Which still even if we count in the third is pretty pretty amazing.
20 years of smoking daily and fairly heavily has ceased with these sessions; that’s the power of hypnotherapy. And yeah, I have zero desire to smoke or to push away/numb any feelings and emotions. I love feeling myself, and just feel so much more alive and authentic. I am at same time not saying that maybe any pattern or an urge in a difficult time will show up. We simply never know what life brings. But, I would be very chocked if I would ever start smoking again, or stop wanting to heal issues and instead choose to numb them down.
After the 2nd session I was just even more impressed with the method, process, result and just of all of it really. So, I decided to continue to go for sessions to heal and transform other issues as well. I’ll tell more about the following sessions and how it lead me into working with Hypnotherapy in coming posts.
Until then, always here for sessions and to answer any questions you might have.
Much Love,
Gule 💚