Hypnosis for Habit Change: Are you Ready?

Are you ready to give up that habit? Photo: Pietro Tebaldi

When you decide to quit a habit like smoking, overeating, biting your nails, etc. it is important to realize that your success depends more on you than on anything external on which you rely. By discovering what motivates you to change anything in your life, you're clearer about your reason for quitting. It’s not unusual to hear that somebody quit a bad habit because they were in legal trouble or because they were going to lose an important relationship if they didn’t quit.

However, once they got comfortable and they were out of trouble, they went back to their habit because it was just too easy. When we quit a habit because of external pressure, the results may not stick. I think it’s important to think about what is driving our desire to quit and using that to keep us going strong when we get tempted to relapse. Hypnosis for habit change is effective, but it’s important to do some preparation by considering these factors first.

What motivates you to change?

One factor to consider is what motivates us to change anything in our lives. Do you do research and have the latest information? Maybe knowing how smoking or drinking affects you scares you enough to stop it. Perhaps you base your decisions to change on gut feelings or what is emotionally important to you. Maybe there has to be a life-changing event like a serious illness, accident, or loss for you to pay attention to the ill effects of your habit. I hope that it doesn’t take having a stroke or heart attack to change unhealthy patterns, but sometimes that’s the only way you might listen.

Turning your attention inward and learning about what motivates you, and what the habit does for you, is important to understand. It helps me to know what’s the difference that will make the difference for you (to borrow from Dr. Carl Whitaker).

Do you rely on spiritual beliefs and strength to motivate you? Think of the change that you’ve made in your life and trace back to the moment you decided to commit your mental and physical energy to executing that. What was it that changed your mind and your behavior? What allowed you to push past your usual behavior and the status quo? Knowing this can make a huge difference in the success of your hypnosis and subsequent behavior change.

How will your life be without the habit?

What keeps your habit going? What does this habit do for you emotionally, physically, and energetically? Maybe you know that you should limit eating sugar, yet you just can’t resist having that extra lump in your coffee or tea. You might know the dangers of smoking or doing drugs, yet there is something about using those substances you’re not ready to release yet. Try to imagine your life without that substance or habit and see what it evokes in you physically and emotionally. What emotions and physical sensations arise? What would you experience without this in your life?

Where are you in readiness to change?

The trans-theoretical model for behavior change can be useful to identify what stage of readiness you are to change. At first, you might be pre-contemplative. You don’t perceive a problem with your habit, but others might confront you with the problems of your behavior. At the contemplative stage, you might think what you’re doing is not a good idea, but you haven’t yet consciously experienced enough negative consequences to even want to change.

As consequences start mounting up and life becomes more difficult, you consider the possibility of change. You might not might not be ready to commit to behavioral change yet. After a while, life might be sufficiently uncomfortable for you to enter the preparation stage. You start gathering information and planning to either cut down or stop problematic behavior altogether.

The support of others can strengthen new, healthy habits. Photo: Arthur A.

In the action stage, you’re finally brought to a point where you can no longer postpone action. You actually quit or alter the behavior, with or without support. If you’re able to maintain this behavioral change for a while, you enter the maintenance stage. In this stage you’re doing things to support this new lifestyle without the problem behavior.

Groups like NA, AA, OA and other peer support are helpful for quitting self-destructive habits. There may be groups like that for nicotine cessation, as well as other addictions, in your local area. I encourage you to make use of any and all support you can get. Changing your habit takes a lot of courage and discipline. We need each other to manage stress effectively and encourage new, healthier behavior.

Will hypnosis for habit change make the habit disappear?

You might ask, what does this have to do with hypnosis? It is crucial to go into hypnosis with realistic expectations and adequate preparation for what changing that habit requires. Hypnosis in itself is just a treatment modality. It doesn’t “make” people do anything. It can help you bypass your conscious mind’s programming that tells you that you can’t live without that habit or substance. It can also help you learn how to deal with stress better, which can make it more likely you avoid dangerous situations.

However, it’s not a magic pill that takes away your desire. That is why it’s important to do everything you can to prepare for your own success. Together, we can make it much more likely that you’ll stay sober or stop doing that habit. Like anything worth doing, you need to do your part. Together, we can come up with realistic, achievable goals for change. If you’re ready and want hypnotherapy, please call or click the button below.

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