Stop smoking script

My darling daughter has managed to stop smoking after something like 35 years. She is now well past the detoxification stage, and doing well.

If you go to my stop smoking page at anxietyanddepression-help.com, you will find that hypnosis is one of the ten steps.

She wrote her own script, and I talked her through it. The script is so beautiful that it’s worth sharing.

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We started with the standard induction from my CD Healing Scripts, then continued with her work script:

Close your eyes and make yourself comfortable. You are always in control, so if you want to change your position, you can wriggle around; if say your nose itches, scratch it; if you have to cough, cough — and you can still stay in a wonderful, deep state of relaxation.

And, for the moment, any sounds we hear have nothing to do with us. Traffic noises… people talking… birds outside… even if a phone should ring… Oh you’ll hear these things, but you can just let them pass by. For now, they have nothing to do with us.

Now, concentrate on your breath. As you breathe in, it’s a beautiful glowing cloud. You can choose the colour; at different times you can choose different colours, or even make each breath different. Just choose a colour you find soothing and relaxing.

Now, allow the next breath to settle in your feet. See your feet glow inside with the beautiful colour.

Have the next breath settle on top of it. Let the inner glow flood upward, slowly filling your leg. It’s dissolving all the knots, washes away the tension, making the muscles of your calves smooth, heavy, relaxed.

You can choose to go an inch at a time, or when you are practiced at this you can fill up your whole body with the inner glow in a few breaths. But for now, allow me to set the pace.

The glow could by now be up to your knees. Let the next breath relax and soothe your thighs. And the next breath on top of it.
Now, both your legs are relaxed, smooth, feeling good, glowing within.

Allow the next breath to relax your buttocks; dissolving all the knots, washing away all tension. And the next breath relaxes your tummy, making it soft, smooth, relaxed, glowing.

The next breath can go up your back, those strong muscles each side of your spine. Feel all those tension kinks go, everything relaxing. Feel the glow soothing, smoothing.

Now the muscles of your chest… and the breathing muscles between your ribs… both front and back…

And the deep muscles beneath your shoulder blades. People store so much tension there! Feel it all washed away by the beautiful glow.

And now the shoulders. Feel them relax, smooth out, feel your arms become heavy. And allow the next breath to flow down into your upper arms… to the elbows… and into the lower arms to the wrists… and all those clever little muscles of the hands and fingers. Feel them glow.

Allow the next breath to go up your neck, all those strong muscles that carry the head.

And your jaw… your nose and cheeks… your eyes, eyelids, the muscles around them… your forehead and temples… and even your scalp.

From top to toe, glowing, beautiful within, resting, at peace.

Now, see yourself on top of a mountain, looking at the far view. It’s ranges upon ranges of mountains, stretching to the horizon. The furthest are a mere blue haze. You can see the bumps of individual trees on the closest one, and everything in between.

Take in this view. It is full of power, majesty, peace. Where you are standing, it’s long soft grass, with little flowers: red, white, yellow blue flowers. And there are birds: crimson rosellas flit around, and a magpie or two. A little blue wren is hopping at your feet. A kookaburra lands on a branch, and sits there like a stuffed toy. And way up high, an eagle is circling around.

It’s a soft blue summer sky, with little fluffy white clouds moving in the gentle breeze. The breeze is blowing in your face, pleasant, cooling. It brings you the scent of eucalypt — the breath of the forest.

Turn around, and there the tall trees are. Their tops are gently moving in the breeze. There is a path between the trees. Take that path.

Good, firm, safe footing for you to walk on. Stroll along, always down… down… down off the mountain.

You can hear the breeze in the treetops, but it’s quiet down here, and safe. The path is always winding among the trees, always down. The great trunks rise all around, nature’s cathedral. And there are tall treeferns. It must have taken them hundreds of years to grow this tall. That’s how long this place has been at peace.

As you are walking down this peaceful track, you know that down the bottom, when you get there, will be the perfect place for you, at this time. It may be a real place, where you have been happy, or it can be somewhere you construct specially for yourself. It will be just as real. It could be indoors in a house, or out in nature. You choose. It will be perfect for you.

You can choose to be by yourself in this place, or you can have with you any people or animals you want, even people or animals long dead.
All right, walk into your special place.

Look around, and see what it is like to be there. Hear it’s sounds, smell its special scents. Feel on your skin what it’s like to be there. But above all, take in the emotional feel of this place. This is where you are perfectly safe, content, powerful, happy.

This special place is a clearing in the forest. In the clearing there is a bench, hewn out of beautiful timber. The sun glistens off its polished seat. Attached to the back of the bench is a gigantic bunch of balloons, shimmering in the sunlight. On the bench is a tightly woven basket with a lid in the shape of a dome.

Walk over to the bench and gently place inside the basket your packet of cigarettes, you ashtray tin and cigarette lighter. You stand and look at the cigarettes and you hear yourself say the following:

“Thank you for your protection and armour against the world and for always being there for me. I am now strong enough to protect myself without your help, but I truly appreciate what you have given me over the years. I will be sending you to the light and with you will go the consequences of our relationship — physical, emotional and spiritual.”

Then you feel within yourself that a cloud of blackness starts swirling out of the top of your head, coming from within your entire body, swirling like a cloud of many little particles… up and up and then it launches itself for the basket, where it coils up in the bottom like a snake.

You then feel a wave of anger, sadness, depression doing the same, coming out of your body (particularly the liver), moving up to your heart where it flies out and heads for the basket, coiling up on top of the black snake in the bottom.

Stand in the sunlight and ask that any spiritual consequences or causes of your addiction also leave your body. A silvery wave of light swirls around you, cleaning your aura and removing any last remaining traces. It too heads for the basket and settles gently over the top of the contents, shielding them from view.

Walk to the basket and put on the lid. Tie it with pink ribbons, and wrap a silver chain around it. Tie the bunch of balloons to the basket. They are tugging in the breeze — they want to be free to fly and dance in the wind. Close your eyes and ask that the universe takes this basket and its contents and transforms it into light. Take a pair of silver scissors that are sitting on the bench and cut the basket free from the bench.

The balloons sense their freedom and take off into the wind. Swirling and gaining altitude quickly, the basket follows them on its final adventure. It goes up and up, until soon it is just a speck in the distance.

Wait in the sunshine, close your eyes and feel the sunlight entering your third eye. The light flows in and fills up your body from the toes to the top of your head. It then flows over the top of you and fills your aura. You are surrounded by and filled with the beautiful golden light. It warms you, heals you and gives you a sense of peace and wellbeing. You sit on the bench and absorb the light, soothing the ragged edges of your past within its golden light. After a while you feel ready to return to the world. You stand up and, stretch, and start the walk through the bush to your new life, filled with radiant light, health and above all, freedom.

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Then I gently and gradually talked her back to alertness. This is important when using guided imagery, whether with the help of another person or by yourself.

The induction is specifically Australian, but all details are easy to adapt.