Techniques: This May Make You Feel Sick. It May Make You Feel Disgusted. It May Even Make You Want To Retch

Techniques
#1
Today I want to share with you a simple Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)
technique that proved very powerful in changing the way that I thought about
cigarettes and ultimately helped me decide that I never wanted to smoke
another one ever again.
Before I share it with you, however, there’s something you should know:
This may make you feel sick. It may make you feel disgusted. It may even
make you want to retch.
That’s a good thing.
Why?
Because for many of us, we still have positive associations with smoking.
We still think of cigarettes as being the one thing that changes the way we feel
for the better — making bad situations good and good situations even better. We
still think of cigarettes as the thing that makes us less stressed, or that makes us
feel good after a great meal or great sex.
No wonder so many of us find it so difficult to quit if we’ve become so hardwired

to associate cigarettes with such positive things.
Notice how I say we’ve become hardwired. We weren’t born this way. We

weren’t born pre-programmed to see cigarettes as a positive thing.
In fact, I distinctly remember being a child, seeing adults smoking around me

and promising them that I would never become a smoker because of how
disgusting it was. Yet I still ended up smoking and, because I eventually learned
to create positive associations with smoking, I developed a 40-a-day addiction.
Eventually, I used the NLP technique I’m about to share with you today to
unlearn those positive associations and re-programme my mind. I learned to link
smoking to negative associations, so much so that simply thinking about a
cigarette would make me quite queasy, and actually having one would make me
feel quite ill indeed!
The more ill I got, the less I wanted to smoke, or even think about smoking
because hey, why would I purposefully want to do something that makes me feel
bad?
In other words, this is a powerful technique which, used correctly, can make a
big difference in our effort to quit smoking.
I’ve shared many times that my last ever cigarette made me feel so ill that I
threw up all over my kitchen floor. Though I can’t give this technique 100% of the
credit, I will say that it played a big part in it.
How Does it Work?
Simple:
By associating cigarettes with all the horrible, nasty things you can think of.
We’ll build up lots of negative, horrible feelings and associate them with the
simple act of smoking so that when you start to smoke, you will automatically
find yourself feeling quite disgusted.
At the same time, we’re going to create another anchor — this time on your left
hand- so that whenever you squeeze your thumb and middle finger together,
you’ll find yourself feeling quite repulsed by the idea of smoking.
Ready to dive into it?
Here is the five-step technique:
THE POWER OF ASSOCIATIONS
1: Think of a smell that you find totally disgusting. You need to be able to
remember or imagine it vividly for this process to work well.
For example, you might think of a dirty diaper, rotten fish, manure, or anything
else that makes you feel completely disgusted.
2: Now, imagine or remember that awful smell — what you notice as you
breathe it in and how disgusted you feel. As you keep remembering this,
squeeze your thumb and middle finger together on your left hand. Repeat this
process as many times as you need until you feel utterly disgusted.
3: Next, think of a taste that you find utterly disgusting — it can be a food, drink,
or anything at all.
You need to find something that makes you feel really quite sick (for example,
imagine drinking out of a spittoon filled with big lumps of phlegm, or mixing
rotten meat with sour milk.
Remember — you need to find something that’s totally repulsive in order for this
process to work. Once again squeeze your left thumb and middle finger together
and imagine swallowing that disgusting substance. Keep doing this over and
over again until you feel ready to retch!
4: Now, as you squeeze your left thumb and middle finger together,
remembering how disgusting that smell and taste are, imagine taking a little
drag from a cigarette, then a little bit more, and a little bit more, gradually
increasing the amount of cigarette smoke.
Imagine that each time you inhale from a cigarette, a little bit more of that
disgusting taste and smell gets mixed in with it.
5: Keep repeating this process until you can no longer find anything but
repulsion in the idea of smoking a cigarette.
If you practice this over and over, you’ll start to find that even just thinking about
a cigarette makes you feel quite uncomfortable, if not outright sick.
That’s good news! It means it’s working. You’re reprogramming your mind to
associate cigarettes with negative things that ultimately make you not want to
smoke them.
Finally, I should say that I originally learned this technique from Paul McKenna’s
wonderful book Quit Smoking Today Without Gaining Weight.
In the following video, you can hear me guiding you through the exercise as he
originally outlined it. This video also contains some quite strong visuals that
might help you in associating cigarettes with disgusting things.
#2
Quit Smoking Step One: Set an NLP negative Anchor
Think about all the times you've wanted to quit smoking. In this case, take three
specific instances that you've strongly wished you didn't smoke. It could be
social occasions, parents or loved ones, times you've felt sick or unhealthy due
to cigarette use, the smell of your breath the morning after a night of smoking?
Take three specific instances and play them in your mind over and over again.
Overlap them into a rolling, loud and vivid highlight reel of times you've wanted
to quit.
ACTION: Press and rub your left thumb knuckle into a hard surface, such as
your desk or your knee. This feeling should be associated with the following
paragraph.
Do you know the cigarette tar that forms in your lungs that you try to cough up?
Imagine coughing up all that tar and spitting it into a bucket over the course of
several days. Vividly picture that bucket of regurgitated tar and phlegm gooping
around in the bucket. How does that cigarette tar smell? What sound does it
make if you stir the bucket with a large wooden spoon? Unpleasant? Well how
about this - take a mouthful of that thick, hot, sticky, smelly tar, and chew it. Feel
the tar sticking to the roof of your mouth as the bitter taste fills your mouth. The
smell will be overwhelming, but keep chewing it anyway. Hear the "splatch
splatch" sound of the vile tar squeltching in your mouth. Take a big drag on a
cigarette at the same time, with the taste of the smoke interwining with the tar.
See the disappointment in the eyes of your loved ones as you take a step closer
to an early grave. As you inhale the smoke, feel and visualise the smoke
carrying all that disgusting tar down into your lungs. Picture the tar sticking to
the tissue of your lungs and burning away chunks of your lung tissue. Hear the
hissing sound of the boiling tar corroding through your lungs and making them
bleed. Exhale and truly feel the pain of the specks of smokey tar searing its way
through your throat, infecting your mouth and poisoning the delicate tissues in
your nose. Try to cough up all that dried tar stuck to your lungs. Feel the burning
pain of the fermented smoke scabs peeling off your insides and retching their
way up your throat.
Quit Smoking Step Two: Reinforce the NLP Anchor
Now it's time to reinforce that anchor. Read the above paragraph again but read
it as if it was ALL IN CAPS. Pause slightly between each word. Continue
reinforcing the anchor by pressing your left thumb knuckle into the hard surface.
Concentrate! Focus on the worst things about smoking. Feel free to repeat this a
third time, or fourth time. The stronger your reinforce this anchor, the more easily
you'll quit smoking.
Quit Smoking Step Three: Frame the Anchor
As you complete the first two steps, you're left with a fairly negative group of
images and emotions related to smoking. Some of these ugly smoking visions
will stick in your mind as particularly nasty. Especially the ones that are
significant to you personally, in that they are especially close to the heart of why
you want to stop smoking. Perhaps it's the thought of your loved ones watching
your lifespan decrease by 5 minutes per cigarette? Or the thought of not being
able to watch your grandchildren grow up? Whatever the reasons, use them and
focus on them.
As in step one for quitting smoking, roll the reasons into an overlapping highlight
video. Make the video bold and vivid. Make them loud, louder, almost
uncomfortably loud. Sense the associated smells, physical feelings and
emotiong feelings that go with them. Step into the video and increase the
intensity further. Reinforce the anchor of pressing the thumb into the hard
surface, and play this video over and over, at least five times. Each time the
video plays, increase the size of the video, as if it's on a giant Imax screen.
Keep increasing the intensity of the colours, raising the volume, making the
picture bigger, brighter and closer and play it again. Continuously reinforce the
anchor. Do it now! Make it a real, painful event.
Quit Smoking Step Four: Break the Cycle
What is that little alarm in your head that tells you that you feel like a cigarette?
What happens? Do you picture a cigarette and think "ah, that would feel good
right now"? Or do you crave the taste? Whatever your call to smoking may be,
every time it rings, remind yourself of the negative anchor by pressing your left
thumb into a hard surface. Do it so it hurts.
If you have a cigarette anyway, think about your negative video about smoking
from step three. Press your thumb into a hard surface and really concentrate on
the worst things about smoking. Picture the ghosts of your ancestors looking at
you and asking why you're doing this, if it helps! Focus on all the negatives of
smoking.
If you resist having a cigarette, take a huge, deep breath of fresh air. Breathe in
through your nose slowly, and out through your mouth. Do this very slowly and
deeply, five times.
On the first breath pretend that you're smoking a pure cigarette of oxygen. Suck
it all in and enjoy it, as if it was the first drag of the last cigarette on earth. Feel
the temperature of the cool, pure air soothe your lungs. As you breathe out,
visualize all the toxins from your old smoking days being released and flowing
out of your body.
On the second breath imagine the pleasure of watching your grandchildren or
children celebrate their birthday with delicious cake.
On the third breath pick one special reason that is the most significant reason
for you to stop smoking. It should be a positive reinforcement, ie a reward that
you will get for stopping smoking. Focus on that reason as you breathe in, and
feel your reward come to life as you breathe out.
On your fourth breath do the same, but make it more vivid and more real.
Increase the size of the picture of your reward, and make the associated senses
more intense.
On your fifth breath focus on how strong you feel for being able to withstand just
one cigarette. The most deadly drug on the planet is powerless against you.
Appreciate your own strength and consider this one small battle a win for you,
and a step closer to the end of the war.
NLP techniques to quit smoking take time and concentration, but it is worth the
time spent practicing. If you are still struggling to stop smoking, or you want to
be certain you'll never start again, you can use subliminal messaging MP3s.
You just listen to what sounds like calm music for a few minutes each night
before you go to sleep. The music contains subliminal messages that rewire
your brain to stop craving cigarettes.
Subliminals are a powerful way to tap into the unconscious mind and change
your bad mental habits. The word subliminal itself comes from the Latin
words sub (meaning below) and limen (meaning threshold), so it literally
translates as below threshold. All this means is that a subliminal message is any
piece of information which is received beyond your conscious awareness.
In everyday life, you are constantly filtering billions of pieces of information taken
in by the five senses. Only a very tiny fraction of this information is processed by
the conscious brain. The rest is filtered by the unconscious. For instance, when
crossing the street you notice the traffic around you because it's crucial if you
don't want to get run over. But when walking on the path you barely notice the
cars whizzing past just a few feet away.
Therefore, you are very good at taking in subliminal information already - and
the purpose of subliminal technology like the Subliminal Stop Smoking MP3 is
to give you specific information to achieve your goal of never craving another
cigarette again. I highly recommend the instant downloads over at Subliminal
MP3s to begin your neuro linguistic programming.
#3
Quit Smoking in ten minutes with NLP
The NLP swish pattern is one of my favourite NLP interventions and it works

brilliantly. You can use the swish pattern for any time that you get in a state of
mind that you are not happy with, or for any behaviour that you wish that you
didn’t have. It works with minor unwanted behaviours and sometimes minor
addictions although Timeline techniques may work better in some cases.
I used the NLP swish pattern recently with a client who wished to quit smoking
and it worked really well for her. Here is how we did it.
First of all, it is important that we get the trigger for the unwanted behaviour. By
trigger, I mean the thing that sets the behaviour off.
In her case, my client said initially that “I just get one out of the packet and light
it up.” I asked her what she was doing before that and she said “thinking about
lighting one up.” So, the act of getting one out of the packet is not the trigger
here.
I kept asking what she did before that until we discovered that in fact she got a
picture of relaxing and having a cigarette. It was this picture that set off a chain
of events that led to her getting the cigarette out of the packet and lighting up.
The chain of events included getting a certain taste in her mouth, and getting the
feeling of needing a cigarette, but it
was the initial picture that set the
process off.
This is what we want, we want a

picture that the client gets, and that
we can delete from their imagination
and replace with a more
empowering picture for them.
If she had said that the feeling came first, and that was the trigger, I would have
asked her if she had a picture associated with that feeling. So, you can do that if
you get a feeling or a sound as the trigger.
I then asked her if she had a picture in mind of something empowering for her
that she would rather have instead, and that would encourage her not to smoke.
She said that she had a picture of her holding her grandchildren in older age,
and she was in really good health.
NB It is important that the picture that is going to replace the current picture is
dissociated i.e. they see themselves in the picture. This makes the picture more
compelling to them.
Next I asked my client to get both pictures in her mind’s eye at the same time. I
asked her to get the current picture of her enjoying a cigarette right in front of
her face in her mind’s eye big and bright. At the same time I asked her to get the
new picture of her with her grandchildren and put that in the bottom left hand
corner of her mind’s eye small and dark.
I then said that when I gave her instruction she should swap the pictures over
making the new picture big and bright and right in front of her whilst shrinking
the old picture down to her left.
Her instruction would be when I said “Swwwiiiiiiish. ” Whilst saying “swish” I

would move my hand from the bottom left corner of her vision to the front of her
vision, thereby encouraging her to do the picture swap in her mind’s eye.
“Swwwiiiiiiish. ” I said and moved my hand up.
After a short break of a few seconds I asked her to get the pictures back up on
her screen (mind’s eye). We replaced the pictures to their original positions and
we repeated the process.
We repeated the process about 30 times! She could no longer get her old
picture back, and she had quit smoking. It took about ten minutes!
#4
NLP Stop Smoking Techniques - NLP for Smoking Cessation
Is NLP an effective way to stop smoking?

Most people consider hypnosis to be their first approach to smoking cessation,
and in many ways hypnosis is a good approach. Smoking cessation can be a
complex issue, and while NLP may provide a quick and effective solution, for
some people the slow more considered approach of hypnosis may be a better
one. It's also worth bearing in mind the value of someone whom you pay every
week until you quit!
Compared to Hypnosis, NLP is better suited to dealing with very specific issues,
but this doesn't mean that there are no good NLP stop smoking techniques.
So which NLP techniques are appropriate to quitting smoking?
In the companion article Stop Smoking with NLP, various NLP techniques are
used to cover the different areas that need addressing. These cover belief
changing, changing habits using the swish pattern, and destroying the smoking
compulsion with the compulsion blowout as expanded upon below.
Any well trained NLP Practitioner should be knowledgeable of these techniques
and able to help if you wish to work with someone else, but there is no reason
not to use these techniques yourself in the first instance and see how you get on
with them.
How should I use the various NLP stop smoking techniques?
Beliefs are a good place to start - it's amazing how often someone is willing to
pay someone to help them, but doesn't actually believe they can achieve the
change necessary.
Without the client believing that they will be successful there is a good chance
that they will undo any change performed by an NLP practitioner. A client must
believe that they can give up smoking for good.
It also helps to believe that they can change quickly and easily.
The NLP belief creator and NLP belief disintegrator should be used to destroy
negative beliefs and generate positive ones.
Once your beliefs have been dealt with, then it's a good idea to break those little
smoking habits such as the usual times that someone lights up, or that habitual
first cigarette of the day.
The NLP Whiteout Technique and NLP Swish Pattern are both good approaches
to changing such behaviors. You may also want to work on motivation to keep
away from smoking. The article on using NLP for Motivation and related articles
are worth checking out for information on this subject.
Finally it's worth using the NLP compulsion blowout to break the smoking habit
completely.
For more information on using these techniques specifically for smoking refer to
the article Stop Smoking with NLP.
As someone trained in hypnosis, I also usually use a hypnosis session in
addition to the usual NLP stop smoking techniques, to plant a few hypnotic
suggestions and ensure I cover all the bases as comprehensively as possible.
It's also a nice way to give a client a convincer (if the practitioner can hypnotize
the client then surely they can fix them), and ensure that the NLP work done is
supported unconsciously going forward.
If you're interested in using hypnosis yourself then there are a couple of
recommended hypnosis downloads listed below which may be of interest.
There are a couple of relevant hypnosis articles related to smoking - these
are: Hypnosis to quit smoking, and quit smoking through hypnosis, along with
a hypnosis script to stop smoking.
NLP Exercise - The NLP Belief Creator

The purpose of this NLP exercise is to enable you to create new beliefs to
generate more options and greater flexibility in your life.
For instance, believing that you can learn new skills easily and effortlessly, is a
useful belief to create.
Even if it's untrue, holding the belief will still make it easier to learn than having
the opposite belief.
This is the kind of belief to create with this NLP exercise.
Before attempting this exercise, it is important to understand the steps so that
you can perform this NLP exercise without any doubt as to what you are doing
and why.
A new belief doesn't need any doubt associated with it, so as well as reading the
exercise several times, it is a good idea to try the exercise out a few times with a
minor belief before attempting with anything life changing.
It is also a good idea to read the NLP Submodalities and NLP Memory
Manipulation lessons before attempting this NLP exercise.
Step 1:
Think of something that you sincerely believe. This does not need to be
something important, in fact something trivial such as the belief that you can
breathe, or some other trivial but undeniable belief is best.
Now think of that belief and notice that when you think of the belief you visualize
something related to that belief.
Notice where in space that image is positioned.
Is it to the right? to the left? And how far away?
Do you say anything in your head, or hear any sounds that tell you that this is a
belief?
If so make a note of them.
Now think about something completely different for a moment, maybe the
weather, your last bank statement...
Anything really.
Perhaps you could just let your mind go blank.
Step 2:
Now think of something that you are unsure as to whether it's true or false.
In fact pick something that you don't really care about either way.
For instance, I don't know if gold is denser than silver, and it certainly doesn't
have a particularly major effect on my life either way. Perhaps you don't know
whether big foot exists or not.
Now think of this idea and as before notice that when you think of it you
visualize something related to that idea.
Is it to the right? to the left? And how far away?
Step 3:
So now that you have two image positions, think of the belief you wish to create,
and notice where that image is.
Now you need to move the image firstly into the same position as the 'don't care'
belief, and then into the 'belief' position.
If there were any internal sounds connected to the belief, repeat them in your
head when you position the image into the 'belief' position.
There are a couple of things that may make this difficult and these are as
follows:
1) The image will not move from the left to the right or visa versa. In other
words the image won't move across your mid line.
This seems to be a general problem.
The way around this is to move the image into the center, way off in the distance
so it almost vanishes and then pull it towards you and into the second position.
Do this as fast as possible.
2) The image moves back to it's original position.
There are a number of ways to solve this.
•When you move the image make a sound in your head to swish the image into
the new position
•Imagine a sucker on the back of the image and stick it in place
•Nail it in place
•Imagine a series of locks to hold it in place
•Think of any way you could hold the image in place in the real world and
imagine it
Once you have the image in the correct place, make sure that it is the same size
as the original.
Test it:
Think of something completely different.
Let your mind go blank again, and then think of the new belief.
How do you feel about it now?
Does it have the correct position and size?
Did you hear the internal dialogue that tells you that it's true?
If not, go back and run through the steps again.
This is one of the more complex NLP exercises on PlanetNLP, so once you've
got the hang of this one then the others should be simple
NLP Exercise - The NLP Belief Disintegrator

The purpose of this NLP exercise is to enable you to take a negative belief
you hold about yourself such as a belief that limits you, and to destroy it,
thus giving you more flexibility and more options in your life.
It is important to understand the steps so that you can perform this NLP exercise
without any doubt as to what you are doing and why.
A belief change doesn't need any doubt associated with it, so as well as reading
the exercise several times, it is a good idea to try the NLP exercise out a few
times with a minor belief before attempting with anything life changing.
Step 1:
Think of something that you do not believe.
This does not need to be something important, in fact something trivial such as
the belief that the sky is green, or some other minor nonsensical belief is best.
something related to it.
Is it to the right? to the left?
And how far away?
Do you say anything in your head, or hear any sounds in your head that tell you
that this is a belief.
weather, your last bank statement.
Anything really.
Step 2:
Now think of something that you are not sure whether it's true or not.
have a particularly major effect on my life either way.
Is it to the right? to the left? And how far away.
Step 3:
So now that you have two positions, think of the original belief you wish to
destroy, and notice where that image is.
position, and then into the 'don't believe' position. If there were any internal
sounds connected to the belief, repeat them in your head when you position the
image into the 'don't believe' position.
follows:
1) The image will not move from the left to the right or visa versa.
and then pull it forward into the second position from that point.
2) The image moves back to it's original position. There are a number of ways to
solve this.
•When you move the image make a sound in your head to swish the image into
the new position.
•Imagine a sucker on the back of the image and stick it in place.
•Nail it in place.
•Imagine a series of locks to hold it in place.
•Think of any way you could hold the image in place in the real world and
imagine it.
as the original.
Test it:
Think of something completely different, and then think of the new belief.
Did you hear the internal dialogue that tells you that you don't belief it?
If not, go back over the steps again.
got the hang of this one then the others should be simple!
NLP Memory Manipulation - Change the Content of your

Memories
We’re going to begin with something so obvious that once you get it, you'll be
shocked at how many people don’t seem to be in control of it.
I have a friend who had a phobia of worms, not a very common phobia, and one
that doesn't really make much sense.
I can’t remember anyone being attacked by a worm; I can’t remember reading
stories in the newspapers about deaths caused by worms, and I've personally
never had an unfortunate experience with a worm, but well - she was afraid of
worms.
So when I managed to pick myself up off the floor and stop laughing, I had to
ask her what was it that made her scared of worms because when I think about
a worm, or see a worm, my response is, well, somewhat under-whelming.
So, this is what she told me:
Whenever I'm gardening, if I put a trowel in the ground and begin to pull it back,
I visualize in my mind, a worm coming up with the trowel.
Its a really big fat worm, much larger than a usual worm, more like a fair sized
snake.
I can see the slime all over it.
Then as I lift the trowel up, the worm is flicked upwards, really quickly and
comes flying up towards my face, covering me in slime.
Sometimes it even ends up in my mouth.
Yuck. Now I understand why she doesn't like worms!
So even though this actual event never happened to her, and was ‘all in the
mind’ the idea of it was so horrible that unconsciously she believed this was
going to happen if she dug the garden.
One of the keys here is that your brain is not quite as clever as you think it is,
and for some people it's not even that clever!
In fact your brain cannot really tell the difference between what happens on the
outside and what happens on the inside.
My friend's brain reacted to the idea of a worm flying into her face in exactly the
same way it would have reacted if it was a common event, and was really likely
to happen when she dug the garden.
But don’t worry, because there is one important difference between the inside
and the outside - You can change the things on the inside.
What if instead of visualizing a worm flying into her mouth every time she picked
up a shovel, my friend saw a worm emerge from the earth, smile at her, thank
her for helping him to the surface, and then crawl off on his way.
Would she still be scared?
And would that image be any less valid than the image of the worm flying
through the air?
Definitely not – on both counts, though if she makes the image too 'cutesy' she
may start gardening just for the sake of digging up worms – especially if she’s a
bit on the lonely side.
Now before we turn this into a technique we need to cover a couple of simple
NLP elements.
Firstly, whenever you remember a memory, you remember the event using
representations of your senses (well what else is there?).
You remember what you saw, what you heard, what you felt (internally and
externally), what you smelt, and what you tasted.
For most purposes, we’re only interested in the three of the five senses.
These are referred to in NLP speak as modalities, and the three we’re interested
in are the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic (feeling/body sensations) modalities.
Also, whenever you remember a memory, you are only remembering a
representation of the memory; You are not remembering what actually
happened.
You are remembering what you remember happening but through the filters of
your beliefs.
In a sense you are remembering what happened in a manner that allows you to
not have to question what you think about yourself. In other words, if you believe
you have no confidence and you remember someone talking to you strangely
before rudely walking away at a social event, then you probably reach the
conclusion that it was your fault because you were boring, not because you
were so loud you intimidated them - you reached the conclusion that matched
your beliefs about yourself.
So, back to the technique.
I'll describe it in a simplified form and give a few examples and ideas, and then
it’s up to you to take it as far as you wish.
Exercise 1:
Imagine someone who makes you feel uncomfortable; Someone who makes
you feel small and insignificant; Someone who you have trouble dealing with;
Someone who you find difficult to communicate with, or someone who always
seems to hold the upper hand, and restricts the ways in which you can respond.
I think you get the idea.
Now think about dealing with them at some point in the future.
Right, now in your mind you’re probably making a picture of that person.
If not, or if you have trouble creating an image in your mind, then just imagine a
picture of them instead.
So what kind of image do you make?
Think for a moment, if this image was real what element of it would make you
feel uncomfortable?
If the person in the image is much larger than you, then that would be scary for
instance.
If they are very loud, that would also be scary.
If they have a nasty facial expression then that would be scary too.
Imagine if a boxer, prior to a fight, imagined himself fighting his opponent, but
imagined his opponent as being twelve feet tall.
I guess his confidence wouldn't be very strong and his chance of winning the
fight quite slim.
Usually there is something unrealistic in the image you make - something that in
real life would be scary.
There are a number of ways to change the way this representation makes us
feel, and we will be coming to many of them later on in the lesson NLP
Submodalities - Change your Reality, but for now we’re going to concentrate on
the 'content' of the memory.
So as a first step, think about some time you are going to be dealing with that
person who bothers you, and notice what is unrealistic about the picture and
make it realistic.
For example, if you imagine them as being unreasonably tall, shrink them down.
One by one, change all the unrealistic elements in the image to make the picture
more normal.
And for step two, we’re going to take it a little further, and make some things
unrealistic.
Concentrate on their face for a moment, and give them a big red clown's nose.
How does that make the person seem?
How about adding a clowns suit and hat?
How about giving them really big flat shoes?
Do they seem quite so difficult now?
So what is happening?
It's simple really.
If you see someone with a clown’s nose, you tend to not take them very
seriously, and this is exactly what you did in your head.
This is a perfect example of a generalization.
We generalize that a clown's nose always imply's someone not to be taken
seriously.
For anyone who's parents were killed in a freak accident crushed by a crowd of
clowns, then please accept my condolences, and find another character you can
chose to not take seriously; Cartoon characters, minor celebrities, and WWE
Wrestlers are good examples.
Now many readers may have come across similar ideas before such as the
exercise nervous speakers use where they imagine the audience naked to make
it easier to give a presentation.
Changing the content, especially in humorous ways, can make a massive
difference to the state of mind a memory creates.
This technique also works in all other modalities - auditory (hearing), Kinesthetic
(feeling), Gustatory (taste), olfactory(smell) - though I'm struggling to come up
with an example based around the sense of taste.
So lets try the same exercise using the auditory modality.
Exercise 2:
Go through the people who bother you, until you find one, who you remember
as having a really uncomfortable voice; A voice that makes you cringe, an
overpowering voice, or one that sounds like a dental drill.
So what happens if you change their voice?
If you remember someone who has a deep and authoritative voice, what
happens when you imagine them giving you a hard time while sounding like
Donald Duck?
Just speeding someone up until they sound like one of the munchkins is also
quite fun.
If there is someone who tires you out because there voice just seems to bash
you over and over, then try slowing them right down.
Think of other ways you can change someone's voice and try them out to work
out which changes effect you the most.
Exercise 3:
So, now lets put it all together.
Remember five people who you have trouble dealing with.
Think about the next time you are likely to have to deal with them.
Using Visual and Auditory hallucinations, make them easier to deal with.
Just to give you a start, here are some ideas of changes that may make people
easier to deal with.
Visual Changes
• Clown Nose, Clown Clothes, Clown Shoes
• Dress them like Shirley Temple - if you don’t remember you're lucky
• Make them wobbly
• Change their hair - badly
• Bloke in a dress - if you're British - think 'Little Britain'
• Big flat feet
• how about a big perm
• Handlebar moustache – great, especially on women
And now for the auditory changes:

Auditory Changes
• Make them sound like Donald Duck
• One word – Helium
• Add a soundtrack to the memory –
Benny Hill is always good especially if you speed up their movements too
Or Monty Python's 'Always look on the bright side of life'
• Give them a stutter or make them hesitant
So far we have dealt with changing the content via changing the visual, and
auditory elements.
So can we perform a similar exercise in the kinesthetic modality?
Exercise 4:
Remember someone who has bothered you, and imagine them stood before
you.
Now, rather than changing details about your ‘opponent’ you’re going to change
your own kinesthetics.
As you see your 'opponent' through your own eyes, imagine yourself getting
taller and taller. Imagine your shoulders broadening.
What would it feel like if you were the incredible hulk and were beginning to
stretch your clothes and expand your muscles out in all directions?
Then when you’re towering over them, notice them shrink down, and then flare
your nostrils and snarl at them.
Make them shrink down until they are so small you can step forward and crush
them with a thunderous stamp.
Open you mouth and feel the force of your voice flatten them.
Does that feel good?
Conclusion
The more you work with these techniques, the easier they will become.
You will also become more aware of what your brain is doing that makes these
people so difficult to deal with.
And don’t be surprised if you find one specific change that really does it for you.
Some people find that changes in one specific modality work best for them.
And does this only apply to people?
Of course not!
Try applying the same techniques to other things that make you uncomfortable.
I'm thinking spiders in striped leggings and giving presentations in front of an
audience who all look like mice!
Just use your imagination!
NLP Whiteout Technique

The purpose of the NLP Whiteout Technique is to enable you to stop
thinking about negative memories that keep forcing themselves into your
consciousness, and makes you feel uncomfortable.
We all have bad or embarrassing memories that prevent us from performing at
our best. This exercise is designed to push them out of your awareness for
good.
It is important to understand the steps so that you can perform this exercise
without any doubt or confusion as to what you are doing and why.
It is helpful to read the NLP Memory Manipulation and NLP
Submodalities lessons before attempting this exercise to reduce the chance of
any confusion.
So here goes:
If, like most people, you discovered during the lesson NLP Submodalities -
Change your Reality that increasing the brightness of an image increased the
intensity, then this exercise may seem at somewhat at odds with what you've
learnt so far, but it works surprisingly well.
So think of something that, when you think of it, makes you feel uncomfortable.
Maybe there is something that you can't get out of your mind at the moment,
that produces a negative feeling, such as a time when you embarrassed
yourself or a memory that tends to remind you how rubbish you are at a
particular skill specifically when you are trying to perform at your best, or a time
when you got particularly angry or reacted in a bad way. Often these memories
are the kind of things that you keep going over and over, replaying them as if by
doing so you might learn or act differently next time.
Now in a normal submodality
intervention you would reduce the
“Nothing has any power over me intensity by changing the submodalities.
Changing the image location and size,
and turning the brightness down would
be a useful start.
other than that which I give it In the whiteout exercise, rather than turn
the brightness down, which is the usual
NLP approach to lower the intensity,
you're going to do the opposite and turn
through my conscious thoughts.” it right up. Before doing this there are a
couple of important points:
Firstly, the brightness must be increased
very quickly. And secondly, the
Tony Robbins brightness should be increased until the
image goes completely white.
So remember that uncomfortable
memory.
Turn the brightness up very quickly all the way to white.
Pause for a moment and think of something completely different (break your
state).
Think of the memory again and immediately brighten it right up until it goes
white.
Once you have done this 5 times, take a break for a minute and then think of the
memory again and see what happens.
Hopefully it does one of two things, either it whites out all by itself (spooky), or
you can’t visualize the image clearly at all.
By repeating this process over and over you are telling your brain what you want
it to do, and by finishing each attempt with a completely white image, you are
making it very difficult from your brain to reverse the process.
The pause between each attempt is important to ensure that you’re not creating
a loop where your brain just keeps creating the image and brightening it, over
and over.
What if the Whiteout doesn't seem to stick?

So what do you do if you can still feel bad about the image?
Well, firstly try repeating the process a few more times.
Try performing the whiteout quicker.
Try adding a sound effect - watching your image whoosh into white can help
enormously.
You may be tempted to try a different
submodality, but that isn't really likely to
work because we’re increasing the “We need to learn to treat our own
submodality effect, not diminishing it,
and we’re taking advantage of the fact
that changing brightness in either
extreme makes the image impossible to brain better – understanding how
see.
If you've already worked with
submodalities then this is a somewhat it works will help us do that.”
different way of using NLP to change
your internal representations, but it's
effective. Another similar exercise
is Mommy make it go away. It's worth
experimenting to find which exercise Richard Bandler
suits you the best.
As to whether you change memories
using submodalities or the NLP Whiteout Technique really comes down to
personal preference.
NLP Swish Pattern

Imagine you want to exercise, but whenever you think of going to the gym
you think about huffing and puffing for what feels like hours on the
treadmill while people laugh at you until you fall to the floor covered in
your own smelly sweat.
One thing is certain, you wouldn't be spending much time at the gym.
The NLP swish pattern is a very good way of replacing an unresourceful
representation such as this one, that gets in they way of you achieving what you
want, with a more resourceful one.
It's a great way of dealing with issues that make us feel uncomfortable such as
public speaking, where we imagine ourselves failing and performing badly, and
issues such as motivation, where we can think about what it will be like to live in
a clean and tidy house rather than think about the hours of work we don't enjoy
that are required to get there.
It's a way of telling the brain, not this - this.
Before using this NLP technique, it is important to understand the individual
steps so that you can perform the exercise without any doubt as to what you are
doing and why. It is also useful to read the NLP Submodalities and NLP Memory
Manipulation lessons to get a general feel of how NLP is performed and to gain
some experience uncovering your own mental processes.
The NLP swish pattern is usually one of the first patterns that people learn. It's
an easy exercise, a good introduction to submodalities, and a very good way to
understand the effectiveness of NLP. It's best to perform this exercise with your
eyes closed, so read the description below a couple of times so you can
remember the process.
NLP Swish Pattern - step by step

Now, think of the aspect of your life
where you are not as resourceful as you
“Most people plan by disaster. would like to be. Notice the mental
representation you make. Perhaps
whenever you think about going out for
a run you imagine feeling out of breath
They think of what can go wrong and not enjoying the experience, or
when you think about giving a
presentation at work you imagine
stuttering and people laughing at you.
and then they master it.” Pick something that generates within
your mind a mental picture of things
going badly or things being difficult or
hard work. The swish pattern is a good
pattern for both confidence in our
Richard Bandler abilities and issues of motivation.
Once it is clear to you what image you make that prevents you doing what you
want, make an image of how you would like to experience that event.
So in the example of running on a treadmill, perhaps you would make a picture
of you striding out on the treadmill full of energy, with immaculate posture, while
all around people were sweating and struggling. For going a speech, perhaps
you would visualize people clapping or laughing at one of your jokes. For
cleaning the house, perhaps an image of sitting in your clean house admiring
your work.
This is your representation, so make it as motivating as possible. Remember
back to the NLP Submodalities exercise and work on those submodalites - make
the image large, make it close to you and add some brightness and color. When
you are happy with this representation, take a break for a moment.
Now its time for the swish. Remember the original unresourceful image and
place a small dot in either the center or one of it's corners.
This small dot is a very small, barely visible copy of the resourceful image.
Now, very quickly, and with a nice whooshing noise, expand the dot until it fills
the whole original image replacing the image with the new resourceful one - it
can be larger and closer if you wish. The positive image should now be the only
image you can see. You should overwhelm the original image with it.
Pause for a moment, clear your mind, then return to the first image and perform
the swish again. Keep clearing your mind and performing this shift until you can
perform it effortlessly taking care to first imagine the dot then expand it quickly.
Once you have performed the shift five
or six times, taking a moments break
“The easier you can make it inside
between each attempt, take another
break, then think of performing the task
that you struggled to be resourceful for.
What image pops into your mind? your head, the easier it will make
Hopefully at this point something new
happens.
Some people find that they need to things outside your head.”
practice the swish several times for it to
stick, and as with many NLP
techniques the key is in the speed that
you make the change.
Richard Bandler
Supercharge your Swish Pattern
There is another way to make the swish more effective and that is through the
use of submodalities. Basically, through knowing which submodalities have a
positive effect for you, the key is to use those as part of the swish. So if like most
people, color, brightness, size and closeness make an image more motivating
then try making the new image more colorful, brighter, larger and closer than the
one it's replacing and shift each of these submodalities as you do the swish.
The more you practice this technique the easier it becomes - often to the point
where you perform it almost automatically whenever you become aware of a
mental representation that is holding you back.
Spend a few days watching out for issues that suit the swish pattern and either
use the pattern straight away or make a list and work through them later. Over
time you should find that the swish becomes something you need less and less
because as soon as you become aware of a problem, you've swished it!
NLP for Motivation

NLP is well known for dealing with issues such as phobias and
compulsions, but it also provides many techniques that are useful for
generative changes such as confidence building, or motivation. In fact
motivation and NLP have been closely linked since the early days of NLP.
There are two elements of NLP that allow it to be used for generative change in
this way - to use NLP for motivation.
One is the process of NLP modeling, whereby as long as one person has the
ability to be motivated, we can find out how they do it, and 'program' someone
else with the same ability. My article on NLP modeling specifically walks through
modeling and installing a motivation strategy.
The second is a process that is used much more regularly by NLP practitioners,
and is based on taking a resource that a person has, and just using it for
something else.
For instance, most people can think of something that motivates them, even if its
something like 'going to the bathroom rather than wet themselves!
The motivation strategy used in this instance is 'copied' to the activity where the
motivation is required. This is one way to build a really powerful motivation
strategy, and as it uses a motivation strategy that the client already has. the
submodalities shifts will match perfectly. Its a common problem that people have
multiple motivation strategies for different activities and really you only need one
- the one which is most effective for you.
One of my favorite examples of this kind of change is one that Richard Bandler
uses where he links a clients motivation for sex to motivation to read. He
finishes with a line something like 'if you liked reading as much as sex, then
you'd have a big pile of books by the side of your bed'.
So basically can we use NLP for Motivation? Yes.
To use NLP for motivation to develop an NLP motivation strategy yourself, try
the exercise Get Motivated with NLP! or learn more about NLP Strategy
Installation with the article NLP Motivation Strategy Installation.
NLP Motivation Strategy Installation

When it comes to installing an NLP motivation strategy, it's important to
remember that not every NLP motivation strategy is equally good for
everyone.
When it comes to installing one in someone, there are three options. These are:
•Use Strategy Elicitation to extract a strategy from someone who is known for
being motivated and install it in yourself or someone else.
•Find a motivation strategy you (or your client) already uses and reuse it for the
new goal/task.
•Make one up.
For most people, the easiest option is the second option. This is covered in
the Get Motivated with NLP! exercise.
Option one can be covered in the same way as option two, just with two people.
Remember to make sure you use someone who gets things DONE!
Option three is the one that I find the most interesting, so I'll go into detail on
how we might make up a strategy right 'out of thin air'.
This is the way things are done in DHE.
Firstly, you need a good understanding of the clients submodalities.

Which submodalities make something compelling - use the NLP submodality
worksheet to find out?
Which submodalities raise the emotional attachment to something?
For instance, if you know that making an image of a cake dull or black/white
helps to prevent someone eating a cake then the opposite will most likely
motivate them.
In general you can almost guess which submodalities you need to use with a
client, but its really best to test them.
Also, what kind of voices does the client like? I remember several years ago
working with the NLP coach Julie Starr. Julie has such a wonderful and 'sexy'
voice that as a full blooded male I would have been motivated to do pretty much
anything she asked! That is the kind of voice I want in my head motivating me to
achieve my goals!
If the person has a particular voice they like then get them to come up with
something that voice could say to them in their head that would motivate them. If
you have some spare people around then you could use them to actually say
the words 'go for it' or whatever during the installation. When using voices in this
way its important to find out what position works best. Many people seem to be
motivated better by voices that come at them from behind.
What other elements can we throw at our NLP motivation strategy?
Does the client achieve more if they visualize the completed goal, or if they
visualize themselves working at achieving the goal while enjoying it?
An element that you may or may not want to add is a feeling. Often if the other
elements are right then the motivated feeling will come about automatically,
otherwise the best thing is to 'borrow'; the feeling from another motivation the
client has and use that.
The following example assumes we've collated all the required information prior
to installation.
NLP Motivation Strategy Installation

A standard NLP motivation strategy installation is simple. Once you know what
submodalities, internal voices, and feelings you want you simply ask the client to
remember what it is they want to be motivated to do, and then add the
'ingredients' and change the submodalities. If you're working with a feeling then
there are two ways. The first is to build up the feeling and then bring the image
in while maintaining the feeling and adjust the submodalities at that point.
Another option, if you're using a pre-existing feeling or working with external
voices is to build up the feeling and anchor it, then during the installation fire the
anchor while the client imagines their goal with any submodality changes
already done. If you're going to work in this way then at the moment you fire the
anchor bring any auditory elements in to the mix.
An interesting element I have seen used during motivation strategy installation is
physical movement. With the client sat in a chair, just as the anchor is fired and
the sexy or gospel voices are blasting out 'go for it', the back of the chair is
pushed forward forcing the client to lose balance slightly and stand up to prevent
themselves falling on the floor. This has the bizarre effect of making the client
tilt/move forward when they think of their goal.
I remember the first time I ever attempt a NLP motivation strategy installation
being surprised at how simple it was. Is that it? I was thinking. Considering the
effort we have to go through to elicit the strategy, installations seem surprisingly
simple!
NLP Compulsion Blowout

The NLP Compulsion Blowout is the compulsives best friend. Whether you
are a compulsive eater, smoker, or just someone who wants to control a
habit, then the NLP Compulsion Blowout is the exercise for you.
It is important to read the NLP Memory Manipulation and NLP
Submodalities lessons before attempting this exercise.
So here goes:
Imagine in your mind the thing you have the most difficulty avoiding.
Be that a cigarette, cream cake, bar of chocolate or whatever?
Notice where in space the image is.
Is it in front of you, or to the side?
How far away is it?
How big is the picture?
Now I want you to think of something that you are not compulsive about, and
using the following grids, compare their submodalities.
If you would like to print out the grids used in this exercise then refer to
the Submodality Worksheet.
Firstly list the Visual differences:
Submodality Motivated Image Not Motivated Image
Brightness
Position
Color
Focus
Size
Distance
Movement
Border
Associated
Now the Auditory differences:

Submodality Motivated Image Not Motivated Image
Volume
Tone
Tempo
Pitch
Direction
So now you should have a list of the differences between the two
representations.
Notice the submodalities that are different between the two, and play with the
submodalities of the compulsive representation, increasing and decreasing them
until you work out which submodality has the strongest effect on the
compulsiveness.
Now in most NLP techniques and in the submodalities lesson mentioned above
you would want to lower the impact of the image. You would normally make the
picture smaller, or move it away, but the NLP compulsion blowout doesn't work
that way. Surprisingly it works in exactly the opposite way.
So if you discovered that the size of the image is the compulsive element, in the
sense that a larger image is more compulsive for you, then in the NLP
compulsion blowout you want to make the image larger and larger, very quickly
until the image becomes so large that the compulsion just doesn't work any
more.
In the NLP compulsion blowout, you're aiming to make the representation
completely ridiculous, to the point where a threshold is reached and the
compulsion disintegrates. In other words, the image becomes so extreme that it
becomes unrealistic and cannot have the same pull that it had on you before. It's
like imagining a cake you fancy then making the cake so large that you feel full
already.
Obviously if you found a different submodality to size made the most difference,
then you must work with that submodality, but size, nearness, and brightness of
image are the most likely submodalities.
As with all submodality shifts, repeat the shift several times taking a break in
between, and perform the shift as quickly as possible then test your work.
Eventually you will think of the compulsion and it will automatically shift and you
won't fell compulsive any more.
Stop Smoking with NLP

Smoking is usually a fairly simple issue to deal with. I am not suggesting
that it is easy to give up, but unlike an issue such as confidence or weight
loss, there is usually only a few aspects to deal with.
It is usually quite straightforward to stop smoking with NLP.
Firstly, as is common in many interventions of this type, it's important to get your
beliefs sorted, so:
•Do you believe you can stop smoking?

•Do you believe it will be easy to quit smoking?
•Do you believe you are an addict?
If you have any negative beliefs such as those listed above that are going to get
in the way of you quitting smoking then use the NLP belief disintegrator to
destroy them.
Having done that, you should create some new beliefs to support you going
forward, and make it easier to stop smoking with NLP.
So, how about creating the following beliefs:
•I can give up smoking easily

•I have complete control over my habits
•I feel completely comfortable around people who smoke even though I don't
smoke.
Use the NLP belief creator to give yourself a strong base of beliefs which will
help to motivate you going forward.
Now to the basic technique that will prevent you from actually wanting to smoke.
This is the key element to help you stop smoking with NLP.
I want you to think of the image you make in your mind that leads you to
reaching for a cigarette and to run through the NLP Compulsion Blowout using
that representation. This is a key exercise to stop you constantly thinking about
cigarettes. Another exercise that you may like to try that has a similar effect is
the NLP Whiteout Technique.
And finally:
Smoking is a very social habit, and also one that many people turn to when they
are in a stressful situation.
What I want you to do is to make a list of all the times when you know you will
want a cigarette. Common events may include the following:
•first cigarette of the morning

•before a job interview
•after a meal
•socializing with friends who smoke
•during work breaks
Once you have this list, run through the NLP Swish Pattern with each one.
Imagine that moment when you light up for the first image, and make sure you
use a strong resourceful image of you not just not smoking but of doing
something more productive for the second image in the exercise.
I'm not suggesting that every time you want a cigarette you should instead write
a novel or help a stranger, but think of something simple to replace the smoking
action. Maybe you could simply think of the people who love you and are glad
you don't smoke. In this instance, the second image may simply be of your
smiling happy family.
This process will take some time to complete.
Chances are, that when you first run through this process you will not have a
complete list of these events when you want to smoke, and any time you
discover another activity where you struggle, simply run it through the NLP
Swish Pattern.
As you use these exercises more and more, you will begin to notice your own
thinking processes - This is one of the side effects of trying to stop smoking with
NLP.
Once you understand these exercises, you can return to them whenever you
feel you need a booster.
It may take several attempts to completely destroy the need for a cigarette, but
with a bit of effort, and mental self-examination, these exercises will make it
much easier for you to stop smoking now.
Eventually you will find that you can automatically fix any smoking urges as
soon as they arise as your unconscious mind knows what is expected.
If you interested in using Hypnosis to help you quit smoking then the following
articles I have written on Hypnosis may be of interest:
•Stop Smoking CDs, Tapes and MP3s - Do they work and where can you get
them?
•Hypnosis to Quit Smoking
•Quit Smoking through Hypnosis - Advantages and Disadvantages

There is also a related article NLP Stop Smoking Techniques - NLP for Smoking
Cessation that may be of interest. I have also listed a couple of hypnosis
recordings below which may help you achieve your goals and supercharge your
ability to stop smoking with NLP.
NLP Exercise - The NLP Belief Disintegrator
The purpose of this NLP exercise is to enable you to take a negative belief you
hold about yourself such as a belief that limits you, and to destroy it, thus giving
you more flexibility and more options in your life.
It is important to understand the steps so that you can perform this NLP exercise
without any doubt as to what you are doing and why.
A belief change doesn't need any doubt associated with it, so as well as reading
the exercise several times, it is a good idea to try the NLP exercise out a few
times with a minor belief before attempting with anything life changing.
Step 1:
Think of something that you do not believe.
This does not need to be something important, in fact something trivial such as
the belief that the sky is green, or some other minor nonsensical belief is best.
something related to it.
Is it to the right? to the left?
And how far away?
Do you say anything in your head, or hear any sounds in your head that tell you
that this is a belief.
weather, your last bank statement.
Anything really.
Step 2:
Now think of something that you are not sure whether it's true or not.
have a particularly major effect on my life either way.
Is it to the right? to the left? And how far away.
Step 3:
So now that you have two positions, think of the original belief you wish to
destroy, and notice where that image is.
position, and then into the 'don't believe' position. If there were any internal
sounds connected to the belief, repeat them in your head when you position the
image into the 'don't believe' position.
follows:
1) The image will not move from the left to the right or visa versa.
and then pull it forward into the second position from that point.
2) The image moves back to it's original position. There are a number of ways to
solve this.
• When you move the image make a sound in your head to swish the image
into the new position.
• Imagine a sucker on the back of the image and stick it in place.
• Nail it in place.
• Imagine a series of locks to hold it in place.
• Think of any way you could hold the image in place in the real world and
imagine it.
as the original.
Test it:
Think of something completely different, and then think of the new belief.
Did you hear the internal dialogue that tells you that you don't belief it?
If not, go back over the steps again.
got the hang of this one then the others should be simple!
Hypnosis Script to Stop Smoking

The following hypnosis script to stop smoking gives an example of the kind of
process I would use during a hypnosis session for smoking cessation. This
script uses elements of NLP and is based heavily on milton model patterns,
rather than the old-style suggestion based scripts that still seem very prevalent
online. By suggestion based scripts I mean scripts that consist almost solely of
statements such as:
You will feel very pleased with yourself and you will be proud that you have
become a more positive person
These kinds of statements may work well with people that are very suggestible,
but using the milton model is much more elegant, flexible and subtle. Also from
a hypnotists point of view, it is much more interesting.
The induction and wake up sections are missing, as they are covered elsewhere
on the site. The following sections can be used individually, but it is important to
perform the ecology section at the end.
When planning to stop smoking it is important to consult with your doctor. The
following script is to help you achieve your goals safely and in good health, but
cannot replace the advice of a health professional.
Section Description Spoken Words
How you've come to me today because you
want to stop smoking. But if it had been that
easy for you then you would have simply
stopped. I want you to think for a moment
and search out the part of you that doesn't
want to stop smoking. Do you have a part
Intro/Reframe - The like that? And I want you to do a deal with
reframe is an NLP that part of you. I want you to ask them
technique to identify any “What is the positive aspect of smoking that
positive intentions of a you wish to keep?” Do you have an answer?
behavior and find a And I want you to ask that part of your
preferable behavior to unconscious now, to search your mind for
provide the same outcome. another way to achieve that aspect of your
For instance, smoking to life that is important. For instance, if you
relax could be replaced with smoke because it relaxes you, then I want
exercising to relax. you to think of three new ways to relax. And
when you have finished, when you have
found those three ways, I want your
unconscious to arrange to use those new
behaviors in the future to enable you to
begin to create change in your life. Can you
do that now?
Now I want you in your mind to imagine the
Revulsion - Now this worst taste you can. Is there something you
section is a bit mean. But have tasted that is so horrible it almost
then smoking is a very made you sick? Or perhaps you once ate
destructive habit. If you something and didn't know it was off. Or
know how to use anchoring, perhaps there is something that just the
then here is a good thought of placing in your mouth makes you
opportunity to use it. If not feel ill. And I want you now to remember or
then learn about anchoring on imagine that revolting taste as vividly as
PlanetNLP possible and remember now that would
make you feel if you ate it right now. Notice
how your body reacts to the revolting taste
and texture. Notice how your body wants to
convulse to eject the revolting material.
And now I want you to imagine lighting a
cigarette as you did the last time you wanted
one, and raising it to your lips, only instead
of the usual taste when you put it to your
mouth, the revolting taste seeps out of the
cigarette into your mouth. In fact, maybe
now you can imagine a liquid form of the
horrible food with that revolting taste
squirting from the end of the cigarette into
the back of your mouth. That’s right. Notice
that as you squeeze the cigarette between
your fingers the flavor just oozes out of it
and drips to the back of your throat.
Propulsion - The aim of
these two sections is to
provide a push-pull effect.
Push the client using the
negative aspects of their
habit and pull them using
the positive aspects of
changing their habit. The
two aspects work together
to create a propulsion
system. Before this session
the hypnotist should find out
a little about the clients
family so relevant
individuals can be named to
personalize and improve the
effectiveness of this section.
Now I want you to think for a moment of all
the people who care for you. And I want you
to imagine how they will feel if they lose you.
See them standing at your graveside. See
the tears in your daughter’s eyes. Feel how
sad she will be knowing that you didn't stop
smoking. Now imagine in your mind all the
Propulsion - Part 1 -
people, one by one, who will be affected if
Repulsion
you don’t stop smoking. Your daughter, your
wife …. Imagine them speaking to you,
pleading with you to stop smoking now.
How does that feel? Imagine feeling that
every time you go to put a cigarette to your
lips. Would that be a change you can make
now that will stop you from smoking?
Propulsion - Part 2 - Now I want you in your mind to imagine a
time in the near future. A time after you have
had your final cigarette. How far ahead in
the future is that? Is it near enough? Is it a
comfortable distance ahead. Does it feel
achievable now? See how you will look? Do
you appear healthier. Imagine people
responding to you now that you are free
from the smell of cigarettes. Notice how you
can breathe easily and how your voice is
clear and commands attention. Notice you
family and how they look at you with a
Attraction renewed respect and affection.
Imagine yourself standing directly in front of
you now. Notice how different you appear.
Notice your new found confidence and
health. Now walk around in your mind and
stand behind the new you. Then when you
are ready step forward into the new you.
Notice how different it feels. Notice how
wonderful it feels. Now look out through your
eyes and see your family smiling at you.
See them rush over to you. Imagine hugging
them and feeling their warmth.
#5
How To Stop Smoking In 5 Seconds
I ran into a guy in the Jacuzzi the other day. He’d stopped
smoking 40 years ago and hadn’t had a cigarette since.
Want to know his secret? Want to know how his secret can
help you with your smoking cessation clients?
Make An Irrevocable Decision
The first thing he talked about was how he made a decision and he wasn’t going
to take that back–no matter what! He decided to stop smoking. He made it a
promise to himself. Too many people put responsibility for their actions
somewhere else. If you smoke (or don’t exercise, or do something else you’ve
decided you’re not going to do), the responsibility is yours.
Yes, we’ve all done it. Me too. But for the future, accepting responsibility means
that you accept responsibility for what is in your control. If you decide not to
smoke and then you smoke, you are responsible. No one or nothing else. Who
controls the arm that lifts the cigarette to your lips? You control your arm, do you
not? Did the cigarette lift your arm up? No. Did the nicotine life your arm up? No.
Did genetics, or your uncle stressing you out? No.
But this guy made a decision. His decision was that no matter what, he would
not smoke again–ever. His decision was not that he wouldn’t smoke unless it
was really tough. His decision wasn’t that he wouldn’t smoke unless he really
wanted a cigarette. His decisions was that no matter what, he would not smoke
again–ever. And he took responsibility that it was up to him.
Did it happen in 5 seconds? No. I lied. It was faster. It happened in an instant.

Everything that follows was secondary to that decision. I’ll discuss how we can
help our clients bring about that kind of commitment a bit later.
Anchor Bad Feelings To The Thought Of Smoking
Immediately before he’d stopped smoking, the gentleman in the Jacuzzi tried a
technique he’d heard about. There was a program where people were forced to
smoke multiple cigarettes in a row. He tried it and got through a couple of
cigarettes before he realized how badly it sucked to be forced to smoke.
Every time he wanted a cigarette, he remembered that feeling!
In other words, he anchored (attached) that bad feeling to the idea of smoking.
After a while, the though of having a smoke automatically resulted in a bad
feeling.
How Do We Use This Information To Help Folks Stop Smoking?
Let’s follow his example, shall we?
1) Have your clients make an irrevocable decision to stop smoking.
We’ve all had times where we’ve made an irrevocable decision. Find those
times where your clients have experienced this and attach that same feeling to
the thought of stopping smoking. If you know submodalities and mapping
across, you can do it that way. You can do it with anchoring. You can do it by
suggesting it directly in hypnosis. However you do it, do it!
2) Attach bad feelings to the thought of smoking.
Now, as masters of NLP & hypnosis, we should be able to do a little better than
he did. From what I can tell, his strategy was to go through all of the mental
steps he used to go through to create desire for a cigarette and then do the
negative feeling. It would be more helpful to attach that feeling a little earlier in
the process so he didn’t have to want a cigarette first. So, if you know strategy
elicitation and installation, figure out the smoker’s strategy and screw it up that
way.
It’s also a good idea to have that bad feeling immediately switch to a positive
feeling attached to the thought of doing something else. Something healthier.
#6
Use NLP to Stop Smoking
The first steps...
If only my parents had used NLP to stop smoking

I wish my dad had used NLP to stop smoking. He used to say that he would
give up smoking the day it made him cough.
As a teenager I remember him getting out of bed in the morning and I could
hear him coughing through the walls of the bedroom.
This went on for years. Somehow he managed to ignore the fact that he
coughed every morning when he roused himself or, if he did not entirely ignore
it, he certainly didn’t associate it with his 40-a-day habit.
I remember when I and my brothers were children our sitting room had to be
redecorated annually not only to renew the smoked stained wallpaper but
also to make the yellow ceilings white again.
When I was a young man smoking was fashionable, considered to be sexy
even (even my first used car came complete with nicotine stained interior), but I
am glad to say that attitudes have since changed certainly in the United
Kingdom where we live and smoking is banned by law in public enclosed
places.
I lost both my parents to smoking related diseases when they were
comparatively young. They were raised in times when smoking was popular and
encouraged, but we now know better – or we should.
Use NLP to stop smoking and avoid illness

We know now that even passive smoking is dangerous and predisposes
smokers to the risk of certain cancers, and is a cause of heart disease,
serious lung illness and a host of other ailments too diverse to mention.
So why do so many people take up smoking and continue to smoke in
spite of the hazards?
Perhaps they take it up because they considered it cool at the time, they wanted
to fit in with friends or it was an experiment, but then it just became a habit or
type of dependency to be replaced by something else – like eating – when they
give it up for periods.
Use NLP to stop smoking and craving cigarettes

The first thing the smoker needs to do is keep making pictures – run the film on
to the end.
What would they see if they did? They would see themselves finishing the
cigarette and a short while later feeling agitated and gasping for another – and
another – and another – and another.
They would see the weeks and months go by and hear a hacking
cough developing, see the yellow nicotine stains on their fingers and on their
teeth, see the faces of others as they experience the foul smell of their breath,
see themselves breathing badly, coughing, feeling chest pain, seeing the cancer
spreading through their bodies and dying at an age too young to contemplate.
Use anchoring and NLP to stop smoking - Quitting smoking timeline

You really can use NLP for smoking cessation. You don't need to take an NLP
course to do so. If you are a smoker, start by making the pictures in your
head but run the film right the way to the end until you can see the undertaker
looming large.
As you run the film on, make the pictures larger and larger, brighter in colour.
Hear the sounds you would hear: the wheezing and coughing. Feel your
suffering as you get weaker and feel physically repulsed at the sick at the sight
of yourself.
As the feeling of revulsion reaches a peak, press the thumb and forefinger of
your left hand together and anchor that bad feeling. Repeat the exercise several
times.
The next time you feel like a cigarette, press that thumb and forefinger
together. It will revive that feeling of revulsion.
Keep running the film and practising the exercise and repeat it every time you
fancy taking another one from the packet. Every time you resist you win and
instead of the future contracting, it starts to draw out in front of you beyond the
distant horizon.
#7
The Art of Stopping Smoking – Richard Bandler

NLP Life: You were once a smoker and then became a non-smoker in a very
short time. How did you do it?

Richard Bandler:I stopped smoking cigarettes. If you don’t put them in your
mouth and you don’t like them then you’re not a smoker!

What I did is I just made a decision that I would stop smoking. It was probably
25 years ago and somebody explained to me in a way I understood that it wasn’t
good for me. I made a decision that no matter how unpleasant the feelings
came, it just meant I was doing the right thing. So, then if I felt bad for three
weeks, I would be free for the rest of my life and I’d be healthier and I could
taste food better and I would piss off all the people that said it was hard to quit
smoking. That was motivation enough for me.

Certainly, that first couple of days I would really crave cigarettes and I kept
saying to myself, this means I’m doing exactly the right thing. You go three
weeks. Hmm, I’ve only got two weeks now and five days, two weeks and four
days and so on.

Three weeks later I barely thought about it and six months after that I couldn't
even conceive of smoking a cigarette.

I think most people make these things harder than they are. They diet and
expect not be hungry. If you’re dieting you’re supposed to be hungry, you’re
dieting! Every time you feel hungry, you should go I’m really dieting, aren’t I
doing great, I’m starving I must be doing the right thing and smoking is like that.

I know they’ve got patches and all that stuff. I never use any of it. If somebody
comes into me I tell them you have to learn to enjoy that you’re suffering
because it means you’re doing the right thing and then you notice three days
later you’re not quite suffering as much; that means you’re really doing the right
thing, you’re getting it and you start looking forward to diminishing.

You count the number of times that you crave a cigarette during a day. First it
was every minute of every day and a week later it’s a few times during the day
and then it’s twice a day and then you don’t think about it for two days and every
time you notice that you feel better.

That’s the magic formula - to lock your mind, make those big decisions.
Everybody’s made big decisions. They made a decision they were going to
move, they made a decision they’d go to college and they stuck with it, they
made a decision they were never going to talk to some guy ever again and stuck
to it. We’ve all made those kind of decisions, they have a certain location in our
mind, big pictures to go with it. They need to see themselves not smoking and
everybody around them smoking and want to be that person more than they
want a cigarette.
#8
QUIT SMOKING THE NLP WAY
If you have tried to quit smoking the ‘conventional’ way and are looking for a
method that can help you succeed, why not try to quit smoking the NLP way?
Although most smokers say that they want to quit, nicotine is a powerful
chemical and the effects of nicotine withdrawal can be very unpleasant. Nicotine
replacement aids such as patches, gum and inhalers can reduce the effects of
withdrawal. NLP, hypnotherapy or hypnosis are alternatives many people
choose to quit smoking.
Experts say that most smokers will make many attempts before they finally
succeed. Those who quit smoking the NLP way learn to use NLP
techniques such as anchoring to succeed.
In this article Vikram Karve shares his experience as a smoker and how he quit
smoking the NLP way by using the technique of anchoring.
Quit Smoking the NLP Way
Whenever I undergo any training or course, I try and apply the concepts and
skills I learn during the program upon myself in order to ascertain efficacy of the
training for I firmly believe in the time-tested adage that “The Proof of the
Pudding is in the Eating”. Thus, the first thing I decided after completing NLP
Practitioner Training was to try and apply the concepts I had learnt and imbibed
on myself.
NLP stands for neuro-linguistic programming. Sounds complicated and high
falutin’, isn’t it? Actually NLP is quite simple – let’s see how I applied it in my
daily life. At that point in time, I was a smoker. I had tried to quit smoking many
times with little success. Now I’d try a simple concept from NLP to give up
smoking. I succeeded beyond my expectations and gave up smoking in a day. I
conquered the craving, the urge, for smoking and never suffered any
“withdrawal symptoms”. I quit smoking forever in one go.
Let me describe to you, Dear Reader, that red letter day of my life. I woke up
early in the morning, as usual, made a cup of tea, and the moment I took a sip
of the piping hot delicious tea, I felt the familiar crave for my first cigarette of the
day. I had identified my first “Smoking – Anchor” – Tea. I kept down the tempting
cup of tea, made a note of the craving [anchor] in my diary, quickly heated a
glass of water in the microwave oven, completed my ablutions, stepped out of
my house, and embarked upon my customary morning constitutional brisk walk-
cum-jog deeply rinsing and cleansing my lungs with pure refreshing morning air,
which made me feel on top of the world.
I felt invigorated and happy. I had overcome my craving and not smoked my first
cigarette of the day. Returning refreshed from my brisk bracing morning walk, I
stopped to pick up the newspaper, and spotted my friends ‘N’ and ‘S’ across the
road beckoning me for our customary post-walk tête-à-tête with tea and
cigarettes at our favorite the tea-stall.
Here lurked my second “Smoking – Anchor” – my smoker friends. I felt tempted,
but I steeled my resolve. I waved out to my smoker friends, turned away and
briskly headed home. They must have thought I’d gone crazy, but it didn’t matter
– I had avoided my second cigarette of the day. That’s what I was going to do
the entire day. Be aware, look inwards, fully cognizant and mindful in order to
ensure that I identify all the stimuli that triggered in me the urge to smoke – my
“smoking anchors” which could be anything, conscious and unconscious,
internal and external, tangible or intangible – people, situations, events, feelings,
smells, emotions, tendencies, moods, foods, social or organizational trends,
practices, norms, peer-pressure.
Then I would conquer and triumph over these stimuli, demolish these negative
“smoking-anchors” and establish and reinforce new positive “healthy” non-
smoking anchors using a Technique called Force Field Analysis. I’ll tell you more
about Force Field Analysis later. Dear Reader, read on and see how my first
non-smoking day progressed.
After breakfast, I didn’t drink my usual cup of coffee – a strong “smoking anchor”
which triggered in me a strong irresistible craving and desperate desire to
smoke. I drank a glass of cold bland milk instead, and thereby averted my third
cigarette of the day. It was nine as I reached my workplace and I had not
smoked a single cigarette. Rather I had not smoked my customary three
cigarettes! It was a long day ahead and I had to be cognizant, observe myself
inwardly and devise strategies to tackle situations that elicited craving for
smoking – recognize and conquer my “smoking anchors”.
Anchoring is a naturally occurring phenomenon, a natural process that usually
occurs without our awareness. An anchor is any representation in the human
nervous system that triggers any other representation. Anchors can operate in
any representational system (sight, sound, feeling, sensation, smell, taste). You
create an anchor when you unconsciously set up a stimulus-response pattern.
Response [smoking] becomes associated with [anchored to] some stimulus; in
such a way that perception of the stimulus [the anchor] leads by reflex to the
anchored response [smoking] occurring. Repeated Stimulus-Response [SR]
action reinforces anchors and this is a vicious circle, especially in the context of
“smoking anchors”.
The trick is to identify your “smoking anchors”, become conscious of these
anchors and ensure you do not activate them. And then transcend from the SR
Paradigm to the SHOR Paradigm to set and fire new positive anchors. What’s
SHOR?
SHOR stands for Stimulus-Hypothesis-Options-Response – I will tell about this
management model soon too. The moment I reached office I saw my colleague
‘B’ eagerly waiting for me, as he did every day. Actually the freeloader was
eagerly waiting to bum a cigarette off me for his first smoke of the day. “I only
smoke other’s cigarettes” was his motto!
I politely told him I had quit smoking and told him to look for a cigarette
elsewhere. He looked at me in disbelief; taunted, jeered and badgered me a bit,
but when I stood firm, he disappeared. I had not smoked my fourth cigarette of
the day! I removed from my office my ashtray, my lighter, all vestiges of
smoking, declared the entire place a no-smoking zone and put up signs to that
effect. The working day began. It was a tough and stressful working day. I was
tired and suddenly my boss called me across to his office and offered me a
cigarette.
I looked at the cigarette pack yearningly, tempted, overcome by a strong
craving, desperate to have just that “one” cigarette. Nothing like a “refreshing”
smoke to drive my blues away and revitalize me – the “panacea” to my
“stressed-out” state! It was now or never! I politely excused myself on the
pretext of going to the toilet, but rushed out onto the terrace and took a brisk
walk rinsing my lungs with fresh air, and by the time I returned I had lost the
craving to smoke and realized that physical exercise is probably the best
antidote – a positive “non-smoking” anchor – and, of course, I had not smoked
my fifth cigarette of the day!
It was the famous Stoic philosopher Epictetus who said: “Happiness and
freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle: Some things are
within our control, and some things are not. It is only after you have faced up to
this fundamental rule and learned to distinguish between what you can and
cannot control that inner tranquility and outer effectiveness become possible.”
We often let our feelings set our anchors, govern our lives. We let feelings drive
our thoughts, not realizing that thoughts drive actions, actions produce results,
and results in turn produce more feelings, reinforce anchors, causing a vicious
circle which may ultimately lead to loss of self-control. Such “feeling-anchors”
not totally controllable, as many times feelings are produced by external
circumstances beyond your control, and if negative feelings are allowed to drive
our thoughts and actions, then undesirable results emanate.
The best solution is to establish “thought-anchors” as drivers of your actions. It
is well within your control to think positive, good and interesting thoughts. In fact,
the happiest person is the one who thinks the most interesting and good
thoughts, isn’t it? That’s the essence of NLP. Reprogram your anchors,
recondition your mind, control your own life, change for the better and enhance
your plane of living. This technique works for me, and I’m sure it’ll work for you
too. Maybe it is so effective because it is so breathtaking in its simplicity.

Techniques: This May Make You Feel Sick. It May Make You Feel Disgusted. It May Even Make You Want To Retch

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Techniques

That’s a good thing.

No wonder so many of us find it so difficult to quit if we’ve become so hardwired

Notice how I say we’ve become hardwired. We weren’t born this way. We

In fact, I distinctly remember being a child, seeing adults smoking around me

How Does it Work?

Here is the five-step technique:

THE POWER OF ASSOCIATIONS

Quit Smoking Step One: Set an NLP negative Anchor

Quit Smoking Step Two: Reinforce the NLP Anchor

Quit Smoking Step Three: Frame the Anchor

The NLP swish pattern is one of my favourite NLP interventions and it works

This is what we want, we want a

Her instruction would be when I said “Swwwiiiiiiish. ” Whilst saying “swish” I

“Swwwiiiiiiish. ” I said and moved my hand up.

NLP Stop Smoking Techniques - NLP for Smoking Cessation

Is NLP an effective way to stop smoking?

How should I use the various NLP stop smoking techniques?

NLP Exercise - The NLP Belief Creator

NLP Exercise - The NLP Belief Disintegrator

NLP Memory Manipulation - Change the Content of your

And now for the auditory changes:

NLP Whiteout Technique

What if the Whiteout doesn't seem to stick?

NLP Swish Pattern

NLP Swish Pattern - step by step

NLP for Motivation

NLP Motivation Strategy Installation

Firstly, you need a good understanding of the clients submodalities.

NLP Motivation Strategy Installation

NLP Compulsion Blowout

Now the Auditory differences:

Stop Smoking with NLP

•Do you believe you can stop smoking?

•I can give up smoking easily

•first cigarette of the morning

•Quit Smoking through Hypnosis - Advantages and Disadvantages

NLP Exercise - The NLP Belief Disintegrator

Hypnosis Script to Stop Smoking

How To Stop Smoking In 5 Seconds

Make An Irrevocable Decision

Did it happen in 5 seconds? No. I lied. It was faster. It happened in an instant.

How Do We Use This Information To Help Folks Stop Smoking?

Let’s follow his example, shall we?

1) Have your clients make an irrevocable decision to stop smoking.

2) Attach bad feelings to the thought of smoking.

Use NLP to Stop Smoking

The first steps...

If only my parents had used NLP to stop smoking

Use NLP to stop smoking and avoid illness

Use NLP to stop smoking and craving cigarettes

Use anchoring and NLP to stop smoking - Quitting smoking timeline

The Art of Stopping Smoking – Richard Bandler

QUIT SMOKING THE NLP WAY

Quit Smoking the NLP Way

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