IMAGIC MOMENTS TO REMEMBER FOREVER: REEL HYPNOTHERAPY

MY NEW BUSINESS PARTNER, ANGELA, AT TEA

Quitting anything involves certain motivations: EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION, INTRINSIC MOTIVATION, and IMAGIC MOTIVATION.

Take, for example, quitting smoking.

For over ten years I smoked a pack of cigarettes a day, Sportsmen filters to be specific.  This gives me the cig creds to proclaim that quitting smoking is easy; I’ve done it dozens of times! (I find this line to be funny, and I’m plagiarizing this line from I-don’t-know-who.)

Had I attempted to quit smoking through extrinsic motivation (that motivation prompted by external incentives) I could have, for example, created an automatic bank transfer of my planned used-to-be-a-habit cigarette money to an annual holiday account.  I’ll unpack the numbers (pun intended).  A large pack of smokes costs approximately $15.00.  And so to smoke a pack a day for one month costs ($15 times 30 days) $450.00. 

Yikes! 

Smoking $450.00 a month costs $5400.00 per year ($450 times 12 months).

Yikes again! 

I live in Regina, Canada, and can travel by air anywhere on the planet, to Australia or to China or to Japan including the return fare, for $2000.  And if I did fly to any of these places I would still have $3400.00 to spare in my imagined holiday account. 

Factoid:  I could embark on two major trips a year by plane with the money I saved from smoking! This is an example of extrinsic motivation.   

Or I could save that $5400.00 smoke money in my bank account for other things, I could have simply by purchasing a gym membership.  Most regular gym memberships cost approximately $40.00 per month. This is just another example of extrinsic motivation. The actual spending of the money would be extrinsic motivation; whereas exercising every day following a weight training program would certainly result in improved physical health, would be intrinsic motivation. 

Intrinsic motivation, in contrast to extrinsic motivation, is motivation from personal incentives.

Intrinsic motivation needs are those one imagines for social and physical survival.  Here are some examples:  Looking in the mirror and realizing the need for protecting my skin from the unnecessary yellowed wrinkles caused by continued smoking (social survival); looking in the mirror and knowing that I’m reducing my risk of heart disease by quitting smoking; looking in the mirror and knowing that I’m reducing my risk of chronic lung congestion, reducing my risk of mouth, throat, and lung cancer by quitting smoking (physical survival).

And now IMAGIC motivation (motivation via hypnotherapy imagery):

IMAGIC according to the OXFORD DICTIONARY:

ADJECTIVE:  RELATING TO IMAGES; THE NATURE OF AN IMAGE; IMAGELIKE

Imagic motivation is simply conjuring up the necessary images to quell or suppress any desire that is causing one problems.  In this case, quitting smoking shall be my example, and I’ll employ acapella singing as my metaphor.  Singing acapella, relies only on vocals and requires no musical instruments. Acappella is singing without the instruments; Imagic motivation is vivid mental imagery without the physical aids. Persons wanting to quit smoking do not need to actually crush cigarettes with their actual fists in the physical sense.  Imagic moments are only the starkly imaginings of such. 

A couple other imagic examples:  Staring into the cigarette lighter flames and imagining the words and encouragement from those close who love me; and drinking bottled water rather than lighting up a cigarette.

Hypnotherapy can help clients self-employ their extrinsic, intrinsic, and imagic motivations to quit their unwanted addictions.  Actually, with great success, hypnotherapy can help clients conquer their issues with regard to anything (weight loss, insomnia, sexual dysfunctions, or just fill-in-the-blank).

Typically, in my private hypnotherapy practice my clients subjects themselves to the following format:

INTRODUCTION

I provide information, explanation, and procedures of the session.

DELIBERATION

We (the client and I) compose the scripts to be suggested during the hypnotic state.

HYPNOSIS  

I offer the suggested scenarios and the client (being compliant) imagines being the main actor in the suggested scenes.  All hypnotic suggestions and received are the imagic moments and motivations.

SCRIPT #1        INDUCTION … BODY RELAXATION AND COUNT-DOWN

SCRIPT #2        DEEPENING … UP THE STAIRS, DOWN THE STREET, THE MOST PERFECT PLACE

SCRIPT #3        CREATING AN ALTERNATIVE BEHAVIOUR

AWAKENING

The client is awakened from the Deepening state of hypnosis.

CLOSING

We (the client and I) discuss the session and the client expectations for the future.

All the co-scripted scenes become vivid images (imagic moments) for my clients, employing all the five of the human senses (for example, azure skies, shimmering lakes, delicate winds, crisp air, crunchy leaves, humming drones, pungent spices, honeysuckle fragrance).  As soon as the client succumbs to the suggestions during the Induction and the Deepening pieces of the hypnotic session, the client begins to conquer the addiction.   

[*Click on NEIL CHILD HYPNOTHERAPY, on the right side margin of this blog, for a more detailed explanation of Quitting Smoking and other issues examined.]

Be it smoking or drinking or gambling or eating or lusting or anything that pester, the degree to which it is purportedly addictive is dependent upon the client’s biddableness to the detrimental whim. For the pragmatic purpose of argument, one’s biddable needs (whatever they are) must be measured as a zero-sum proposition, in order for the client to be remedied.  It’s either all or naught or all for nothing. 

What!  Can’t I just sip a little wine (buy maybe only socially)?  Can’t I just nibble on some nachos (but maybe only as a snack)?   Can’t I just puff on the odd cigarette (but maybe only when I’m imbibing)?

Listen up, addicts.  The antidote answer is always to say “NO, NO, NO.”  Not adhering to a zero-sum outcome is a footle experiment.  It’s either all or naught or all for nothing!

Factoid:  We are the fountainheads of all our issues, and this includes addictions.  Blaming without (on external circumstance and other people) is futile; whereas, blaming within (oneself for the all the choices made) is the real and only way to recovery.

And the real way to recovery is …

THE REEL WAY TO RECOVERY – IMAGIC MOMENTS THAT LAST FOREVER!

Marching in my CHAUCERIAN PARADE this week:

RYLIE FROM LAST BLOG

RYLIE'S ART