Session #9: Waking Hypnosis for Stop Smoking Clients

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Imagine building a more successful hypnosis business just in the next 10 days. To learn how please visit work smart hypnosis.com and take the 10 day hypnosis business challenge yours free today. Welcome to the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast with Jason Lynette, your professional resource for hypnosis training and outstanding business success.

Here’s your host, Jason Lynette, and welcome back. It’s Jason Lynette. Work Smart Hypnosis podcast session number nine. I wanna give you a quick heads up and I’m really excited to have this wonderful problem. I’d share first of all that uh, and I mentioned this in a previous episode, that, uh, when I first began doing this podcast, several people expressed the concern that, wow, that is a big time commitment.

Um, that’s gonna take a lot of energy, a lot of focus. Through the wonders of batch recording, a lot of these programs. Um, I’ve actually got several interviews that are just ready to be released, going to different conventions, interviewing people, some of them about the same length of programs that we’ve done so far.

Some of them as short as about nine or 10 minutes, just to give you a little bit of a taste, a little bit of a flavor of what other styles of work are out. So with that in mind, rather than just being Thursdays as we’ve been so far for the next couple of weeks, this podcast is gonna be coming at you Mondays and Thursdays.

So two opportunities a week to get some great new information. As we’d like to say, professional hypnosis training, and outstanding business success. Uh, I wanna spend a few moments with you today with, uh, Discoveries of my own with some strategies that I’ll fold into place and, uh, specifically all about working with clients for quitting smoking.

Now, if you ask nearly any good hypnosis trainer out there, or anyone who’s been in hypnosis long enough, you’ll start to hear the phrase more and more that perhaps the question of when does the hypnosis experience truly. And the answer to that really is that the process begins the moment they become aware of you.

The entire experience is about hypnotic suggestion. So we can harness that in a couple of ways. What if everything that we’re doing outside of the session is building upon, building upon, building upon the success that we’re gonna have within the session? You know, the way that I used to talk about this theme that I’m alluding to right now.

Um, I used to say it in a very incorrect way. I used to talk about it in terms of placebo. I used to talk about it in terms of just expectation, which to be fair, placebo and expectation don’t have any side effects. So if that is the case, I’m, I’m okay with that. But the premise that I tend to bring to hypnosis is that we’re taking techniques that we already know to be effective.

And by doing them inside of hypnosis, by doing them with the hypnotic process attached to it, we’re actually gonna add even more success. Easiest example, take for example, the process of, uh, creative visualization, let’s say for an athlete. Uh, as I’m recording this right now, it’s August and, uh, works out that many of the clients that I’ll see this time of the year are actually teenage athletes.

Um, Just yesterday, a cheerleader with a fear of, uh, doing a back handspring. I’ve got a couple of golfers right now. I’ve got, uh, a couple of football players, and again, all those teenage athletes specifically right now, it’s August and the school season’s about to begin. So to take that creative visualization that we already know to be effective and do it within the process of hypnosis, we’re gonna strengthen those results.

The simplest paraphrase, let’s get all the conscious. Aggravation or the conscious distraction out of the way. And then by doing so, then the work becomes a little bit more concise, a little bit more effective. So to take a step back, look at the process of age regression. Well that originated elsewhere.

Look at the principles of parts therapy and you can trace that back. Uh, check out, uh, Roy Hunter’s book. Uh, and there’s an interview about to be, uh, released with him in this series too. But check out, uh, Roy Hunter’s book about, uh, releasing, um, don’t have the book in front of me, but it’s parts therapy book, and you’ll get the entire history of that process.

Where it was being done, of course, without hypnosis, and yet through the years we’ve modeled the experience down to be able to effectively do it in hypnosis. Look at the entire study of NLP neurolinguistic programming, being a modeling of human excellence. And the process then of replicating what people naturally do effectively.

So, which again, is a paraphrase, but to look at that perspective, here’s where I’m coming at as I’m gonna spend some time with you today talking about how to help clients with smoking cessation, working with them to effectively quit. I’ll give credit where credit is due, but of course, a lot of these strategies came into play by.

Let’s start with a simple one. First of all, over the years I’ve seen different hypnotists or even people who work with clients for quitting smoking, using other modalities. Utilize something that at first I was very resistant to, and that was in my office. Now I’m sitting next to it in the moment, is a giant glass jar filled with packs upon packs of cigarettes.

Some of them are still in the plastic and unwrapped. Some of them are. Actually cigarettes pulled out and shredded into pieces. Um, and it’s funny cuz there’s a story behind most of them in here. Uh, a couple of packs of chewing tobacco. What else do I have? Oh, there’s a plastic case here that this guy was fun.

Um, he was a three pack a day smoker and when he came in, I have to admit, he kind of made me a little nervous. But the magic moment was when he went to throw out his plastic case that he’s had the cigarettes in for years, in his words. I’ve tried to quit smoking so many times, but I’ve always hung onto this plastic case because it was a memento and get ready for the moment when my brother checked me out of prison about 20 years ago.

Oh, no, no. I didn’t hurt anybody. I just didn’t pay my taxes, basically was his story. But let’s take him as an example for a. and look exactly what’s going on. He had been holding onto something, quote, just in case he had to go back. You know, I had another client in the office years ago that she came in and she said,

This is how I quit smoking before I took the pack of cigarettes and I put them in a plastic baggy and I sealed it up with some rubber bands and that was in a little desk drawer in my kitchen. And that way I always knew if I had to go back to the cigarettes, that’s where they’d be. And she goes, And that worked for me last time.

I stopped for eight years. That’s what I want to do now. To which of course, the obvious question has to be. Well, great. Do you wanna schedule eight years from now again as well so we can do the exact same. So needless to say, changing that pattern, changing that perspective. So here’s where I’m coming at from this, with waking hypnosis, waking suggestion, and again, depending on the texture reading, you’re gonna see sometimes the phrases used interchangeably and sometimes meeting two different things.

Let’s just talk bigger picture perspective. Just give you some strategies you can fold in step one. I never wanna lie to my clients. There was a time at a convention that I saw someone get up and say, Oh, I have a 90 and I forget the exact number. I have a 93.8% success rate with smoking cessation. And the speaker was very proud to be up there and share that.

He completely made up that number because it sounds good. I don’t wanna lie to my clients. However, what if I can model the experience that my clients were already having, and by doing so, build a much greater. And I’ll give you some of the history behind this, this glass jar thing that I’ve just mentioned.

I fought that idea for years. I didn’t wanna be the one in my office telling people exactly what they had to do. I like the principles of, I’m gonna help you do this for yourself. Yet. Meanwhile, of course, very often taking that role of fixer to help a client create the change. They don’t know how to do it.

So we should step into that role from time to time. Absolutely. That’s my opinion. So I was never the one to say, You have to throw the cigarettes out at my office yet, even without that prompting, I had a desk drawer completely packed full of cigarettes. Clients were doing that anyway. And what was perhaps the difference between those people who came back for another session and were absolutely thrilled and ecstatic and smoke free and feeling wonderful?

And what was the difference between them and those who were coming back? Perhaps not changing much, changing substantially yet. Perhaps just a little frustrated that they were still engaging in the behavior. The difference was that action step. So modeling the experiences of my clients over time, I discovered, well, what’s the difference between those people who stop and those people who cut back dramatically?

And the difference was those people who took. Those people who kind of metaphorically drew that line in the sand, made a decision, moved forward and did not look back. So in my incoming phone call with my smoking cessation client, I’m now gonna model this experience to build upon their success, to which I’ll tell them, and I’ll just give them half the story.

Now, most of the people that I worked with will either stop completely or cut back dramatically as early as the first session. And what’s amazing about that is it is a bit of a false dichotomy. We could perhaps twist the language and call it a double bind, but there’s clearly other options that are there now, aren’t there?

I gave them two though. Most of the people I work with tend to stop completely as early as the first session, though some of them may just cut back substantially, cut back dramatically. So I left out that third option of absolutely no move. Nothing changed at all. And the interesting thing is, as I was beginning to develop, and this is all building to what I’m doing now, this was in the process of learning, testing, developing my own strategies.

What I discovered though, is that by leaving out that third option, that third option no longer occurred for me. I gave them two completely viable. Options as early as our first session. Now, I’ll give you the background in terms of the order of this. I used to say, and you’ve already heard me say this, I used to say most of my clients tend to either stop completely or cut back dramatically, and I was giving those two options equal weight.

So sure enough, as the first session was done, people were fitting into those two categories almost at a 50. So then shifting the language slightly and listen carefully for the specificity here as early as the first session, the majority of my clients tend to stop completely, though some of them cut back dramatically, and we spend that next session knocking out the rest of the behavior.

By doing that, the numbers began to shift once. The suggestion that I was giving, which again, to be fair, is not the, Oh, I get 93.8%, so it’s not a number I pulled out of nowhere. This was in terms of tracking my results and figuring out what exactly was the difference from one group to the other, and yet by giving that good, viable expectation of it could be this one or it could be that one, both of which are by all means feasible, my clients then began to sort themselves into those categories.

What’s beneficial about this too, specifically, this isn’t a podcast episode, but go back to, uh, the blog pages on Work Smart Hypnosis, Uh, just do a search for reframing, and there’s an entire post there about reframing client outcomes and it addresses what do you do if you’re working with a client and perhaps something traumatic happens while you’re in process.

Rather than that being every reason why the problem is gonna come back, what if we can then spend that to become every reason why it doesn’t have to come? What if the fact that you were just in this car accident is now every reason why you just don’t have to smoke. You can appreciate your life, your health, your safety, and all of that.

So just a little addition into that incoming phone call. Most of my clients tend to cut mostly, Let me start it again. Most of my clients stop completely as early as the first session, though some just cut back dramatically and we spend the next session knocking out the rest of the cigarette. Which again, that phrase was developed just by modeling the experience of what was happening already.

How does this come into play? Clients now in my office, and I’ll ask a question now on in the phone call I mentioned to you that most of my clients today stop completely, those, some of them will cut back dramatically and I’ll then kind of smile in a clever way and just ask, Would you like to know the difference between those two groups?

And of course, yes, yes, they would. To which y’all just indirectly reference to that jar. You may have noticed that big ugly jar in the corner of the room. Yeah. Um, so the differences between those people who stop today and that other minority that tend to just cut back from this first session, the difference is those people who take action, do you still have cigarettes?

And I’ll wait for the answer. The next question, what’s your plan with those cigarettes now, to be fair, at this point in the conversation, most of them will begin to pull them out, throw them in the jar, and be done with them at that point, fantastic. And then others may need a little bit more encouragement.

But it’s that thing that’s gonna make this time different. Perhaps when they tried the patch, when they tried the gum, when they took the pills before they held onto the cigarettes, we wanna build that environment that this time is going to be different. And by doing that, that’s gonna begin to shift that belief structure even further.

So then I’ll tell them and listen for the, uh, number of binding statements in this one, because I’m a big fan of. And what I’ve discovered over the years from seeing hundreds of clients for quitting smoking, those people who take action today. Are the ones who come back next week and they’re very happy with their results and whether you throw them out here in this office, whether you throw them out in the trash can out there in the lobby, or whether there’s something more meaningful for you.

I had a woman years ago tell me that she wanted to go home and chop them up at our brand new granite countertops, and that meant a lot to her to chop them up with her brand new knives and her brand new granite countertop and be done with. Um, you know, whether it’s here, whether it’s at home, but as you throw them away, what that does for you has prove to yourself that this time you’re serious and this is what you’re doing now.

So, and I’ll kinda smile again. So I look forward to hearing what you do between now and the next time we meet. Now, depending on the client is when I may use this strategy too. I may even say, some people even tell me that they want to go out and smoke their last cigarette and then come back in and then get started after they’ve thrown them.

And what’s kind of funny about that is every time I’ve offered that they go, Yeah, I kind of wanna do that. Perfect. Because then we’re attaching even more ritual to the experience they’ve had their last cigarette, then they’ve thrown them out. Now it’s go time. So there’s another piece of advice in terms of how you frame that process.

The next piece of information I can actually credit Don Martin towards, Uh, though it’s your classic listing pattern to tell a client that one of three possible outcomes would be there. And, uh, the way that I tend to phrase it is this would be that. Um, now I don’t know exactly physically or how you’re gonna respond to this process today.

Everything is subjective. I’d say about a third of the people will walk out the door today, and it’s as if he’d never smoked. Out of sight, out of mind, you couldn’t care less. Maybe the next third of people, maybe it’s that moment where this woman’s driving in her car, she hits the stop light and just by accident, just by habit, the hand goes for the purse and then she realizes, Oh wait, I already threw them out.

And she kind of laughs at herself and she goes back on with her life. It might be that group notice that I hinted again at throwing the cigarettes out. Yeah. And the last third of people, they may have that brief mind battle that yes, no. Yes, no. , but this time it’s different. They let the moment pass and it passes even faster than it ever came on before.

Or you end up making use of one of the techniques that I’m gonna share with you today, and then you’re fine. I don’t know which one of those three groups you’re gonna find yourself falling into, but did you notice that all three of those groups were successful? Yeah. So we’re gonna spend some time today, so no matter which one of those three you fall into, you’re gonna hold onto that success and you’re gonna do fabulous.

Do you have any questions before I hypnotize? Tends to be that delivery. So again, what have I done so far? Just by shifting my conversation and that opening strategy, I’ve given them one of two categories of success and I’ve given them three different possible variations of that success. And the beautiful thing is that then in your process, which is I’m assuming now, is already gonna be sound and effective.

No matter what happens, the client has an expectation that they can then begin to sort themselves into, rather than the previous option of it either worked or it didn’t work. Now you’ve created multiple variations, which are in many cases all quite successful. And then from there in the next session, should you choose, deal with what emerges, you’ve got that foot in the door and the process could become even more effective.

Uh, perhaps in a future episode and a future session, I’ll share a little bit more about what I tend to do During the session though, I’ll share with you after I’ve made the use of a bit of testing convincing, uh, I’ll mention this phrase, that part of your mind that could accept a suggestion for your eyes to close.

As if they wouldn’t open that part of your mind that could accept a suggestion for that arm to grow stiff and rigid as if it wouldn’t even bend is really the same part of your mind that could accept this single suggestion. Now that changes everything, that for the first time in your life, for the first time in any circumstance, in order to be successful today, all you have to do is nothing.

There’s something you used to do a whole lot of, and now you don’t have to do it. To let it become as easy as that, and that even if there is the slightest moment, that seems as if there might even be a bit of a challenge to even take that moment and just kind of laugh at yourself and realize, again, to be successful today, all you have to do is nothing.

And I share that little brief bit of pattern and especially the inviting of. As a response to any difficulty that might have, just as a wonderful way to interrupt that pattern and establish a new. So here we are today. Couple of tips in terms of using waking hypnosis, waking suggestion to really improve your smoking cessation results.

Let me know your thoughts on this, put this into place, test it, and I hesitate to make this next statement, um, even if you have to go out and buy a glass jar and buy a couple of packs of cigarettes and fill it up artificially just to get yourself started. I’m okay with that. Um, I’m happy to say that the ones here at my office, there’s actually two of them.

Uh, they’re both quite full with, uh, real packs that have actually come in from bass clients. But if you’re just getting started or if you wanna start using the strategy, You know, give them 40, 50 bucks, buy a couple of packs and put it into use from there. Or do what I did and just gradually connect, collect them, and then put them out visibly when, uh, you know, once you’ve got enough, there’s a magical thing that occurs to another little bit of waking hypnosis.

They walk in the room and they see that big glass jar nowadays here at my office and there’s, there’s that environmental suggestion that, Okay, good. This is the place where people go to stop smoking. Let me know how this works for you. Share your feedbacks on this post. I’m Jason Lynette. I look forward to hearing of your success with this strategy very soon.

Thanks for listening to the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast and work smart hypnosis.com. Please visit the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast, listing on iTunes and share your positive feedback. Are you still there? Good. Got a funny story for you. So at the time of recording this, it is, it’s Friday, August 1st, 2014 and actually recording this session today on a brand new piece of equipment I picked up, uh, a couple of weeks ago.

Actually. It’s a Zoom H six handheld recorder. It’s an amazing. Piece of technology with interchangeable microphones, and I can plug in microphones into it as well. It runs off of batteries. So again, the reason I’m gonna be releasing the podcast now twice a week is I’ve got so much content ready to share.

Let’s just speed it up to give you a little bit more value. A little faster. Why do I reference that? Because I’ve been actually recording this here at my office in a very dark. For some reason today as I walked into my office, this is gonna all come full circle in a moment. As I walked into my office, I flipped the lights on and nothing happens.

I call the power company. I log into the account on mys smartphone and okay, good, everything’s paid. So that’s not the issue. But then when I finally call the power company and the office, uh, park management turns out that, uh, about two thirds of the entire office park here is without power, and it makes you feel good when you ask the, uh, the power guy out there working on the box.

Hey, and he luck and he just looks at you just so distraught and goes, I have no idea what’s going on here. So, needless to say, I’ve been doing hypnosis by candlelight today, just like the settlers did it, as I’d like to say. You know, it’s kind of nice that, um, over the years I know many people that I highly respect who do hypnosis sessions with, uh, headphones on and microphones, and it’s a really cool setup and I love it.

And as a real tech guy myself. I’ve almost been swayed in that direction several times. Yet the fact that, uh, I’ve been able to keep up business as usual today without power at all at my office, it’s been kind of relaxing cuz I’ve returned more calls. I’ve, uh, not been distracted by the internet and emails and several projects I wanna work on.

How does that relate to the topic? Well, remember back a few moments ago, the bit about the big jar full of cigarettes. I have to admit that in my office here, I’ve got a couple of dozen candles, and I’m not a candle guy at all. I mean, when my wife lights them at home, I get headaches. Just the smells affect me somehow.

So I’ve owned these candles at various offices over the years just for decoration. They match the lamp. You know, you, you go to Ikea and it’s easy to buy the fake plant and the lamp, and then here’s a candle, the same color. Okay, I’ll just put it on top of a bookcase just for, just for dressing. Um, so finally, for the first time ever, I found the need to light candles, and sure enough, I spent 10 minutes digging through my desk drawers using my iPhone as a flashlight.

Cannot find a lighter. I’m thinking there’s a seven 11, uh, block down the road. I can walk there or get in my car and go there. And finally, I think back to the fact that I recorded this podcast session earlier this morning. And there’s my glass jar, and sure enough, there’s about seven or eight different lighters scattered through that.

So plunging my hand into the, uh, gooey mess of shredded cigarettes and crushed up packs to finally found the little piece of plastic that I can grab a hold of with a lighter. And there we are, hypnosis by candlelight. So again, if you want even more benefit to having that glass yard, is that sometimes well, you can dig through the trash your clients have left behind to benefit your business in wonderful ways.

Hope you find some value in that. I’m Jason Lynette. I’ll see you next time.