Continuing to look at ways and means of dealing with unwanted habits, I am now turning to the often-maligned notion of aversion.

As a red head with very sensitive naturally pale skin, I know what it means to experience sunburn, we are going to use that experience in this process today.

Prior to starting this process, you need to have a good awareness of the exact procedure of the habit that you go through. You can do this by asking yourself the same questions we asked in my previous blog entry.

I’ll repeat them here:

Before we begin with the actual process itself then, firstly, get sat down somewhere that you’ll be undisturbed, I recommend you write down the answers to this exploration in order that you get an accurate account and it’ll help you when it comes to repeating this process. It is a process that requires plenty of repetition.

Firstly, just become aware of the habit itself. Write down and describe what it is that you actually do – what is your unwanted habit?

With that written down, now heighten your awareness of the habit even more and make a note of how you do it, by that I mean the actual physical process of doing the habit, how is it done? Think about how often it happens – you might guess or even count it by how many times you do it an hour or a day… I mean, do you spend half the day with your finger up your nose?

With that awareness of the actual habit enhanced, now we want to establish what sorts of situations the habit occurs in. So secondly, write down and describe the circumstances when the habit typically occurs. Note down any common element of the habit, such as whether there are other people with you, or if you are engaged in a particular activity or if it happens at certain events.  What situation is it that the habit typically happens in?

Now we are going to go a little bit deeper into you; the vehicle of the habit. Thirdly then, when the habit happens, how do you feel? What is the actual physical sensation you have when you do the habit? Whereabouts in your body are those feelings? Do you have an emotional feeling? Are there any accompanying emotions that go with the habit?

Write this stuff down and we carry on now to look at your cognitions. When you engage in the habit, what happens inside your head? What thoughts, ideas, or beliefs happen? What is your internal dialogue before, during and after the habit?

Armed with that information, you now proceed to step one and we’ll  get on with the process.

Step One: Induce hypnosis. You can do so by any means you desire or know of. You can use the process in my Science of self-hypnosis book, use the free audio we give away on this website to practice or have a look at the following articles as and when you need them; they are basic processes to help you simply open the door of your mind:

Heavy Arm Self-Hypnosis Induction Method
Using Eye Fixation for Self-Hypnosis
The Chiasson Self-Hypnosis Method
Hand to Face Self-Hypnosis Induction
Using Magnetic Hands for Self-Hypnosis
The Coin Drop Self-Hypnosis Induction

However, with this process, an induction is potentially too much activity, so I teach my clients how to adopt a hypnotic mindset and simply have a mindset that is positive and expectant. Again, to really understand the cognitive set of the hypnotic mindset, go grab a copy of my Science of self-hypnosis book where it is explained in simple but comprehensive terms.

Once you have induced hypnosis, or just adopted the hypnotic mindset, move on to the next step.

Step Two: Start to imagine that you have been out in the sunshine without sun cream during the day and having got home there is an area of your body that has some heat emanating from it and is coloured red and hot to the touch.

Just become aware of that sensation in that area upon your skin, imagine it. Now imagine that someone touches is by mistake and notice how that sensation crawls through the surrounding area of your body, is signaled in your brain and the level of heighten sensitivity gives you goosebumps and a slight pain and you hold your body a certain way to compensate.

Really get a real life sensation of what that is like in your mind and when you notice yourself feeling that sensitivity, then imagine the word CRINGE in a bright neon colour flashing inside your mind.

Repeat this process a couple of times; developing an acute and very real sensation of sensitivity following too much unprotected exposure to the sun, noticing the dryness, the tightness and way you breathe just thinking about someone or something touching it and when you imagine something touching that sunburn, as soon as you notice the discomfort and sensitized feeling, flash the word CRINGE inside your mind in real bright colours.

Add an alarming hooter sound or an unpleasant alarm noise of some kind to it when it flashes up and imagine the word cringe being spoken inside your head.

When you think that you have really installed the word cringe as a way of accessing that hyper sensitivity, then move on to the next step.

Step Three: Now imagine being in the place where the habit used to typically happen. See the sights, hear the sounds, notice how you feel and behave. Really take your time to create the scene and put yourself in it. Really be in that scene, a target situation where the habit used to typically occur.

Start to notice the thoughts, feelings and behaviours happening that in the past led to the habit. Walk through the old process and as soon as you notice the early signs of the habit starting, the word CRINGE flashes into your head, you feel the searing sensitivity on your skin, you hear the word loudly in your mind with the alarm and you stop with the habit and move totally differently.

Notice as soon as the habit starts, the word ‘cringe’ pops into your mind and you find yourself engulfed in that same sensitivity and slight discomfort. It consumes you and gets worse until you stop with the old habit.

When you have run through that scenario in detail, then move on to the next step.

Step Four: Repeat step three another 3-5 times and each time make sure you get the association between the old habit and the word CRINGE and that uncomfortable sensitivity all lodged in your mind. So that it starts to happen in real-life scenarios too.

When you have repeated that 3-5 times, then move on to the next step.

Step Five: Imagine a future time now, a moment in your future and see yourself in that situation and notice the scenario and circumstances that used to cause the old habit to happen, but this time you are in control and there is no sign of the habit happening.

If the thoughts start or the old habit behaviour begins at all, you notice the word ‘cringe’ springs into your mind along with its accompanying dominant feelings and sensations and you naturally stop the old behaviour and as soon as you stop, the sensitive sensation dissipates.

Run through this future scenario in detail, then move on to the final step.

Step Six: Exit hypnosis and bring this session to an end with a deep energizing breath, wiggle your fingers and toes and open your eyes.

You may even find this type of process goes perfectly well with the process in the previous blog entry here.

Anyhow, use it to let go of unwanted habits and I wish you a wonderful happy weekend.

1. Have bad habits held you back and is it still doing so now? Do you need to learn how to develop better habits?
Coaching with Adam Eason Or Hypnotherapy with Adam Eason
2. Would you like a satisfying and meaningful career as a hypnotherapist helping others overcome bad habits and establish better habits?
Adam Eason’s Anglo European training college.
3. Are you a hypnotherapist for whom bad habits are negatively effecting the success of your business? Do you need tbetter, more effective habits to fulfil your career ambitions?
Hypnotherapist Mentoring with Adam Eason.

Likewise, if you’d like to learn more about self-hypnosis, understand the evidence based principles of it from a scientific perspective and learn how to apply it to many areas of your life while having fun and in a safe environment and have the opportunity to test everything you learn, then come and join me for my one day seminar which does all that and more, have a read here: The Science of Self-Hypnosis Seminar.