Who is in the driver seat right now? As this is determined by Ego States. Understanding this will show how the success of hypnosis is determined by Ego States. Because the success of hypnosis is determined by Ego State. Here’s why. Lately I have been getting a lot of people wanting to quit smoking or some kind of habit. So, they get on a call to determine what changes they want to make, and if our program is the right fit for them. They make the appointment to use hypnosis to quit smoking.

Once we get on that call, it becomes very clear what the next step is. It’s either no this is not for me, or yes, I need to make that first step. Many times with quitting smoking, we do about three to four sessions. Usually quitting smoking happens within the first session. Then we will do follow-up visits because smoking isn’t just about smoking for a lot of people. It’s usually a replacement for some kind of stress reliever, or a distraction, or using it as an escape rather than dealing with their issues. So, for most people, we tend to do the quit smoking part in one session.

The person who sets up the appointment is not the one who shows up

What has come out a lot lately is that people will be animated saying yes am ready to quit smoking right now 1000 percent, let’s make the appointment, let’s do it – they pay for it then they show up for their first session. The person who shows up for the session is not the person who made the appointment for the session and was eager to quit.

So, in the work that I do, we go through and figure out your ego states. Everybody has these architypes or ego states within them. And there has been a lot of science and research about it, but from a spiritual perspective these are seen as parts.

Ego states and Archetypes share a lot in common

Ego states are parts, and they are usually within the unconscious. So, some of these ego states we can compare them to architypes. These are personalities within us who have a certain function. We find architypes everywhere. I love to look at the bible, in its entirety, as an architype because every personality in the bible has the possibility of being within me. When I come from that perspective I realized the person that showed up to quit smoking and to start the session is not the one who wants to quit smoking. As a matter of fact, this is the one who wants to sabotage, to later say, see, the hypnosis did not work.

To succeed, the Ego state has to be in charge

Before doing the change work, what I do is make sure that the person before me is the person, ego state, who is in charge and is able to make these decisions. Because some of these parts within may be wounded parts, suppressed emotions or trauma. These parts may wake up with the intention of protecting you, keeping you from going in that direction because there is some uncomfortableness that comes up.

We evaluate these things, and part of the work we do even before we get to the point of quitting smoking is integrating a lot of these parts. This is done by first setting up your healing team. I came from the perspective that there is nothing outside of you that you need, and I show you how to set up your healing team, which is made up of three things – what your focus, awareness and attention.

When somebody shows up in my office saying they are ready to quit smoking yet their focus is on something else, we have to get them back. We have to get the person who is there to quit smoking and is ready to do what is best for themselves. We have to have that ego state in the control chair.

You have to be the one who shows up for the session, not something else

Sometimes people will show up, and it’s something else is showing up for quit smoking session. Often I recognize this right away, because there’s only one who is able to sit in the command center. This is what we call the executive ego state. This is the one who wants what is best for you, and is there to protect you so that nothing hurts you. It knows that smoking might in fact be something that is hurting you. Of course the executive ego state is the one that made the appointment. However, there are other personalities within you that show and some us know these personalities types. You know your inner self saboteur – one who says it’s not that bad, maybe you should have one more cigarette.

Recognizing your parts

These are parts within us that we begin to recognize. Who are aware of each other and the parts that are not aware of each other. As we go through we incorporate these techniques of clearing out some of these parts and integrating them. Each part must be integrated willingly. We do this work on a multi-dimensional level. As these parts wake up, first we have to get the executive in the command chair, and then have the executive take a look at how much pain smoking is causing in their life.

Let’s say it’s an 8 on the pain scale. That 8 is costing a lot of money, causing a lot of pain, you don’t feel good, smoking is not a thing any more, and you really want control back. We get into the why. Why is it? If somebody comes to me and says my wife or husband want me to quit and that is the driving reason, we will hold off on the session. Because you must come from the point of the self. Then you are ready to make this shift! Because cigarettes in themselves are only addictive when you use them as an escape rather than addressing what is happening. For most people, this is true.

Remember, the parts that wake up are not who you are

Focus Awareness and Attention

Begin to understand how your healing team works. The first part is your focus, awareness and attention, the second are these parts that wake up in the unconscious. These parts will influence you – just have one more cigarette, it not going to do anything and so forth. All these thoughts waking up, you realize they are not you. They are parts that wake up. They are routine, and they will be like, hey you are breaking our routine. The Mind will insist, “We are supposed to be having a cigarette right now”. When they wake up in the unconscious, and bleed into your right now.

It affects how you see the world. It muddies up your lenses to have you only look forward to that habit that you want to quit. So, you are looking and reaching that thing through an automatic response. What hypnosis does is that it breaks up this response and puts you in a space of awareness. The third part of your healing is the larger unseen part of you. Imagine this part being the genie and your body is the bottle.

The Genie and the Bottle

The Genie is the metaphysical and it sees both. It sees that you focused on, how much pain you are in and it can see all of the parts waking up in the unconscious in perfect order and sequence. We begin to integrate these parts, but here’s the thing, it does not matter if you are quitting smoking or you want to improve your athletic performance, lose weight of get past self-sabotage. Here’s the thing with the unconscious, you can’t fool, coarse, or trick it.

Parts that wake up have to willingly integrate

All these parts that wake up must willingly integrate their knowledge wisdom and understanding into the wholeness of the healing team. While allowing this larger unseen part to reprogram the parts that wake up as they are being integrated and releasing what no longer serves. The automatic reaction that causes you to reach for cigarettes.

This is when you become aware of these thoughts that come as you are going through your cleansing and detoxing. You become aware of these thoughts as they come. Here’s the best part. Once the larger unseen part of you is shown how to do the reprograming, all of the integration work happens automatically. What you notice is that as you go through your day, you are not thinking about those old habits. It’s almost like they are washed away.

Take Aways

When you decide it’s time for this change, it does not matter what it is, when you move forward and ask for help, my job is to make sure the one who is asking for help shows up for the appointment.