Stop smoking

'Time to Give-Up Smoking' you say. You want to become a healthy non-smoker for life. Tools such as NLP and Hypnosis for smoking can help. For a free consultation call Shawn Carson on 917 972 5776 or email iphnewyork@aol.com

Sometimes you're bored or feel stressed. Your friendly tobacco buddy is there for you, as always. Ready to relax you with a cocktail, keep you company. He melts away that stress and makes you feel great!

Well, here's some news: that cocktail he mixed for you is poisoned. And he's stealing from you, slipping 8, 9 10 dollars at a time from your wallet, hoping you won't notice.

Maybe it's time for you to kick this so-called friend out of your home. Who wants a 'friend' who is stealing from you? Who needs a 'friend' who is trying to poison you?

Below you will find 10 simple steps to help you to become free of this habit and become a healthy non-smoker for life.

• Tip 1: Write down why exactly you want to become a healthy non-smoker for life.
  

Just considering the health risks would make anyone want to become a healthy non-smoker for life. Lung, throat or stomach cancer, emphysema. Cigarettes can kill you in many colorful ways, and when you stop smoking right now your body begins to recover and your health riks begin to go down.

Of course it is not just your health that is at risk. If you have loved ones, especially children, or friends, where you smoke you are also putting their lives at risk. Second hand smoke kills.

Maybe you realize that your breath smells of stale cigarette smoke. Maybe you realize the effect the tobacco is having on your complexion or skin.

Cigarette smoke makes your clothes smell. Maybe you can't smell it but everyone else can.

Maybe you simply can't breathe the way you used to, or the way you would like.

You have your own reason for wanting to quit. What are they? Write them down.

• Tip 2: What is different NOW that makes this the time to quit?
  

What has changed that makes you want to quit now? Has it just become too much? Has there been some other event in your life? The more reasons you have to quit the better.

• Tip 3: Now that you are on the brink of quitting, make a decision and stick to it.
  

So now you have decided to become a healthy non-smoker for life. Now is the time.

The decision is made. You are a healthy non-smoker for life!

• Tip 4: Tell everyone!
  

Tell your family and friends about your decision to quit. Tell everyone. Let them help you stick to your decision.

And the more people you tell, the greater the support will be for your decision.

• Tip 5: Learn about the effects of cigarettes
  

The more you know about your enemy the better. Ever fact you learn will make you more convinced of your decision. Do some on-line research.

Cigarettes don't only cause cancer. Of course they do, and there is a long list of a carcinogens (cancer causing chemicals) in cigarettes. But cigarettes also contain more every-day poisons such as arsenic and cyanide. In fact, as you learn more about cigarettes you will be amazed and appalled by the long list of poisons that cigarettes contain. Did you know, for example that cigarettes contain formaldehyde? That's the stuff they keep dead bodies in, or the frogs that you may have dissected in biology class.

Just thinking about cigarettes may make you wonder how you ever brought yourself to ever put one of those things in your mouth, in fact you may become a little nauseous just thinking about them.

• Tip 6: Admit that smoking did bring you some benefits and as you recognize this find other ways of maintaining these benefits.
  

Smoking may have provided you with relaxation, or the companionship of other smokers. Maybe it made you feel "cool" like you may have felt as a kid sneaking a cigarette at school. But these things are not worth risking your life for.

There is no need to lose the benefits that cigarettes provided just because you are now a healthy non-smoker. Take a moment to identify what those benefits are. Now allow your creative mind to find some ways for you to keep those benefits. For example if smoking used to relax you, thenmaybe you can learn self-hypnosis instead.

NLP's six step reframe is a perfect tool for this step!

• Tip 7: Seek help if necessary
  

Go and get help if you need it. There are hypnotists, doctors and others who can help.

• Tip 8: Imagine your life now that you are a healthy non-smoker for life
  

Every day that passes, you are healthier. Your body is repairing itself. Your risk factors are diminishing. Your lungs are stronger. Your breathing better. Enjoy your blossoming health!

Other things are different. You can go to the grocery store and not think about cigarettes. The cravings are fading. You are beginning to forget that you were ever a smoker.

Now just imagine a friend of yours is in the process of stopping smoking. They have come to you for advice and help. what advice are you giving to them? Hear yourself speaking to them and telling them about the benefits of quitting and how good you feel now that you are a healthy non-smoker for life.

• Tip 9: Teach yourself to handle cravings
  

Even the tobacco companies admit that cigarettes are addictive. In fact they are designed that way, it makes it easier for the cigarette companies to keep you under their control. But you can control the cravings if you know how.

You can use nicotine replacement products such as the patch or gum to wean your system off cigarettes. As a hypnotist I would also suggest using techniques such as NLP, self-hypnosis or EFT to control any cravings.

In a short time the nicotine will disappear from your system and you begin to return to normal functioning, the cravings begin to reduce and eventually disappear. Staying off coffee and other acidic drinks in this time may help, as may avoiding or reducing alcohol intake. Give your body the chance to heal in these first 72 hours.

• Tip 10: So now you've quit. Thank yourself. You're saving money. What are you going to do with that money you've saved?
  

Acknowledge what you have done for yourself in quitting. You owe yourself a big thank you.

And you are saving money, so treat yourself to a nice thank you. Work out how much you are saving, and what you would like to treat yourself to. Perhaps you want to save up for a year and get something really nice. The choice is yours now.

• Final Bonus Tip: How do you deal with Mr Tobacco when he comes crawling back whispering inside your head?
  

Now your a healthy non-smoker. You understand your enemy. You now he was poisoning you and stealing your money. Your free of the chemical cravings.

Your so-called friend may well come back telling you how much you need him.

The voice may sound superior, talking down to you:

"Quit? You can't quit! You're not strong enough. You're weak! You'll be back!"

Of course, he could plead:

"Go on, smoke one. What harm is there?"

Sure, it's a pack of lies, but maybe just one...

You didn't invite this voice into your head so it is time to throw the unwelcome guest out. Notice where the voice is coming from, in front or behind, right or left. And notice the sound of the voice. Now begin to move the source of the voice downward until it is coming from the ground somewhere near your eft foot. As it moves down, notice the voice becoming higher, like the buzz of an insect.

As you listen to that whiney voice, you may begin to laugh thinking that you were ever fooled. Of course, with that whiney insect voice down by your left foot, it would be so easy to lift your left foot up and simply squash the bug...

Finally, imagine someone you respect talking to you about your decision. Imagine them praising you. Hear their voice. Hear the pride as they tell you how pleased they are that you are now a healthy non-smoker for life.

Shawn Carson is a Hypnotist and Neuro Linguistic Programming Master Practitioner and Trainer offering NLP training in New York. He is also a certified coach and offers NLP Practitioner Training for Coaches in New York. www.nlptrainingnewyork.com Tel:212-714-3574 email:iphnewyork@aol.com

In-Depth NLP Change: Is it ecological?

NLP ("neuro linguistic programming") offers effective tools for designing and implementing the changes we want in our lives. It is designed to be used by hypnotists and others who access the unconscious mind in making change with their clients.

In-Depth NLP was designed by NLP Master Practitioners and Hypnotists to allow hypnotists to use NLP principles in trance work. In-NLP can be learned by attending our New York training courses.

Here we will describe how we check for ecology in client change using NLP's ecology check. This allows us to make sure the client's goals and values are fully aligned. Let's take an example: suppose our client tells us they want to continue with their existing job for financial reasons, and at the same time build a successful consulting business on the side. By exploring the consequences of these goals we may find that they would have insufficient time to spend with their family. As a result their goals may need to be rebalanced to allow for this.

In NLP we use the ecology check to ensure that the client's values are fully aligned and in agreement with the changes the client desires. We may for example ask questions such as:

• When this goal is achieved, how will things be different for you?

• What will this do for you.

• When you make this change what will you no longer have? What will you have given up for this?

• What other areas of your life will be affected by this change, and how? 
  

These will provide useful future oriented data concerning the real world consequences of the changes that the client is seeking. In the above example, the client may notice his professional desires may not be fully aligned with his family goals and values.

Having said this, if we limit the ecology check to the conscious level, we may miss invaluable unconscious communication from the client.

Rather we must begin to communicate directly with the client's unconscious mind. This takes hypnosis skills or calibration skills learned on In-Depth NLP courses. Once we have these skills we will find ourselves noticing the client's unconscious communication and responses and beginning to truly communicate on the unconscious level.

In-Depth neuro linguistic programming allows us to listen and watch for unconscious response as we ask the ecology questions. The client's simple verbal (conscious) response is not taken as determinative. This does not mean that we disbelieve the client, simply that his conscious and unconscious mind may have different views of the matter. To assist with this process we may modify the questions as follows:

• Suppose you have already made these changes. Notice how your life is different. What is happening? What do you notice (see, hear and feel) that is different?

• Now as you have already made these changes in your life, notice what aspects of your life are different now? What aspects are better than they were?
• And having made these changes in your life, notice now what is worse about your life. What have you sacrificed for this? What do you notice (see, hear and feel)that lets you know?
• And as you think about these questions, hearing what you, feeling what you feel, and seeing what you see, notice what else is different now.
  

This type of questioning, when properly done, will allow the client to fully associate into the future they are seeking for themselves. By really imagining that they are in this future, their unconscious mind will be fully engaged in the process and will begin to notice all the consequences, good and bad, of the changes.

The client may still state on a conscious level that they are happy with the change, even if the change is not actually ecological for them. However, if my unconscious mind was fully engaged in the process of imagining my future life, then m unconscious will notice the adverse changes and will begin to communicate (perhaps unconsciously) that the changes are not ecological.

We have to be able to notice when the client's unconscious raises concerns via incongruity. This incongruity may show up in any number of ways. Some examples are given below:

• The client's voice tone may rise or fall from their normal level
• We may see an incongruent expression pass over their face.
• The client's posture may change
• Hand movements or other gestures may show incongruity
  

Attending to the client's unconscious communication, particularly incongruence, is the key to using the ecology check of In-Depth NLP.

Attend our New York training to learn these and other principles of deep unconscious change.

Shawn Carson is director IPH New York; NLP training in New York, hypnosis, individual coaching, www.nlptrainingnewyork.com 212-714-3574 Melissa Tiers is an NGH certified hypnotist; hypnosis training in New York, hypnosis for weight loss, hypnosis to stop smoking www.melissatiers.com 212-714-3569 In-Depth NLP Training

Having it all with Neuro Linguistic Programming

My friend Sandra sighed.

• "It's my audition on Saturday. I' wish I could just stay home!
• "So stay home, what's the problem?" I asked
• "Because I want to sing!" She laughed, "I know I'm crazy!

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) has great techniques generally called "parts integration" to help us find the perfect answer to these decisions where we want two things that appear to be mutually exclusive. We teach this pattern in our NLP Practitoner Course in New York.

The Visual Squash pattern of NLP can be used to help us help our clients get what they realy want, and make decisions which are fully aligned with their desires.

1. The first step of the visual squash is to identify two conflicting desires in ourselves.
2. Secondly we visualize images (in the visual representational system) to represent each of these parts. These are normally an image of the part of me that wants the first outcome and an image of the part of me that wants the second.
3. We place each picture in one of our hands. Allow the unconscious mind to decide which hand should hold which image. This allows us to "feel" the conflicting parts using the kinesthetic representational system. Anchor each of the states or desires using the image and the client's description of the image.
4. Ask the image or part on your right hand what it wants for you, or what its positive intention is? By speaking we bring in our self-talk or inner voice, the so-called auditory digital representational system of NLP.
5. For each positive intention that each part or image gives us, we ask "and what is the positive intention of THAT?" In this way we ultimately reach the highest positive intention.
6. Turn to the other hand and ask that part for it positive intention. Continue to ask until you find the highest positive intention.
7. During the pattern make sure that the two parts come to appreciate each other. We might ask "what can you learn from the other part?" or similar questions to build this appreciation.
8. As we continue the exercise we often see the client's hands begin to move together as the two parts become closer in intention
9. When the positive intention of each part reaches a level such that the positive intentions are the same, we can expect the parts to reintegrate and they can be brought back inside the body by moving the hands toward the heart.
   

The NLP coach requires good hypnosis skills to fully involve the client's unconscious mind in this highly symbolic process.

In our NLP training in New York, we focus on these hypnosis skills to allow the NLP practitioner to engage the client's conscious and unconscious mind.

Because we are relying on the client's unconscious mind, we want the client to be able to access their unconscious resources. We do this through trance induction.

One way of leading the client into trance which may be particularly appropriate would be the arm catalepsy induction, or arm levitation.

The NLP coach will notice from the movement of the arms when they are actually being controlled by the unconscious mind, as the movements become more jerky.

The involvement of the unconscious mind leads to more lasting and powerful change.

Take our NLP course in New York to fully learn the Visual Squash pattern.

Call Shawn Carson 212 714 3574 email iphnewyork@aol.com. www.nlptrainingnewyork.com for NLP training, hypnosis, coaching.

Kinesthetic submodalities

In NLP, submodalities are the finer distinctions of our visual, auditory and kinesthetic representational systems.

So when we refer to kinesthetic submodalities, we are referring to distinctions that can be made about our feelings.

In NLP we do not make a specific distinction between emotional "feelings" and actual feelings in our body, on our skin, etc. This is because we believe that our experience is coded in a sensory manner. What this means is that when we have an emotional feeling, we likely actually feel this somewhere in our body, perhaps in our chest, or stomach.

So what are the specific submodalities of the kinesthetic representational system? These submodalities include:

• Location. Where precisely is the feeling? Is it inside the body or outside the body? Usually we find that feelings are inside the body, perhaps not surprisingly! Assuming it is inside, where precisely is it? Perhaps it is in or around the heart, or the stomach or some other area.
• Size. Does the feeling have a particular size? Is it large or small?
• Shape. What is the shape of the feeling? Is it round? Does it have sharp edges? Does it conform to the shape of the body around it?
• Metaphor. What is the feeling like? Is it like a warm glow? Or maybe like a sharp spike inside us? Or like a heavy weight?
• Texture. Is it rough or smooth?
• Temperature. Is it warm or cool? Hot or cold?
• Color. While color is a visual submodality, sometimes feelings appear to have a certain color associated with them, so we include it here.
• Movement. Does the feeling move? Perhaps it expands or contracts, moves out or in, or spins or rotates in a certain direction?
• Direction. If the feeling moves, what is the direction of the movement?
• Weight. What is the weight of the feeling? Is it heavy or light?

Warmly 

Shawn Carson

NLP training in New York

Auditory Submodalities

The auditory representational system is the things that we hear. We may hear things inside our head, such as sounds, or voices.

The submodalities of the auditory representational system include the following:

• Location. Where is the sound? Is it coming from the left or the right? From above or below? In front or behind?
• Distance. How far away is the sound or voice? Is it close or far away?
• Volume. How load is the sound?
• Tone. Is there a particular tone associated with the sound or voice? What is that tone?  
• Identity. If the sound is a voice, whose voice is it? Is it your voice? Is it another person's? If so whose voice is it?
• Duration. How long is the duration of the sound? 
• Repetition. Does the sound or voice repeat or does it play once then stop? If it repeats, what is the cycle of repetition?

As always, identifying the key submodalities, the so called driving submodalities, allows us to make changes in our experience and the emotional content of our experiences. A key example which we hear about all the time deals with our internal voice.

Our internal voice, or critic, is the voice inside our head that tells us when we are doing the wrong thing, or when we have messed up, or when we are going to mess up in the future.

By playing with the driving submodalities of the internal critic we can change the emotional impact of the critical voice. For example we could:

• Move the location of the voice, perhaps down to the ground.
• Change the tone, say to a sexy or funny tone.
• Change the identity of the voice. Was it your mother? Make it into Donald Duck.

By changing driving submodalities we can change the associated emotional content.

Harmoniously

Shawn Carson

NLP Training in New York

Visual Submodalities

We have talked recently about submodalities and their role in NLP.

Each representational system has its own set of submodalities, and depending on the individual, its own driving submodalities.

Visual submodalities include the following:

• Location. If we see a picture in our mind, where is it? And yes, I know it is inside your head. But if it was outside your head where would it be? Would it be on the left of the right? Would it be up or down? How far away would it be?
• Size. How big is the picture? Is it large or small?
• Framing. Is the picture framed? If so, what is the frame like? Does it have a particular style or color? If it is not framed, is it wrap around? Or does it end? If it ends, how does this happen?
• 2 dimensional or 3 dimensional. Is the picture three dimensional or two dimensional like a photo?
• Movie or still. Is the picture still like a photo? Is it more like a movie? Sometimes it is in-between, it moves but only a little, essentially it stays as the same scene, but has some movement.
• Associated or dissociated. Does the client see themselves in the movie, or are they seeing out of their own eyes?
• Color or black and white. Is the picture in color or in black and white? 
• Brightness. How bright is the picture? Is it bright or dim? 
• Contrast. What other aspects of the picture are key? For example is there a particular degree of contrast between the various aspects of the picture, for example foreground and background?

Shawn Carson

NLP Training in New York

Submodalities

Representational systems is the term we use in NLP to refer to our sensory systems.

So we talk about our visual (V), auditory (A), including our self talk (Auditory digital or Ad) and kinesthetic (K), systems or VAK.

Let's take a moment and consider how we think of a happy memory. Perhaps a picture comes to mind of a favorite vacation, a dear friend, a beloved family member...

Focus on that picture for a moment: 

• Now make it brighter. How does that impact on the emotional impact of the memory?
  
• Move the picture closer. How does that change your feelings?
• Make the picture bigger. How does that affect it?

The brightness, location and size of a picture are known as the submodalities of the picture. 

Each representational system (VAK) has its own set of submodalities. 

In NLP we believe that our brains code information according to certain submodalities. For example, we may code experiences as pictures of the events. We may then keep pictures relating to memories, or past events, on one side of our body, and pictures relating to goals or other future events on the other side of our body.

The most important of these submodalities are known as the driving submodalities. Driving submodalities are the submodalities that our brain uses to code information. By changing these submodalities we can change the meaning or the intensity of the experience.

For example, if we move the picture of a memory further away, we may decrease the emotional intensity of the memory.

We will explore the submodalities of each representational system in other postings.

Shawn

NLP training in New York