M.’S EXPERIENCE

I learned about the Milton Erickson institute of Turin because I read about one of their activities, I knew that they worked with hypnosis and, to tell the truth, back then I didn’t know the difference between Ericksonian and traditional hypnosis. I have always been fascinated by the potential of human mind and I wanted to learn more. After having heard and read about the life of Milton Erickson I was really amazed! Can a man and, before him, a boy, be able to use his mind to change his life that much? Was it really possible? Since many years I was fighting the thing that at that time I considered the habit of smoking. Usually ten a day, but if I went out with friends or if I had a late night, or if I was at a party, or if I was feeling nervous, or… I could go on forever. Every excuse was good for me to smoke more that I would have wanted. During the evening especially. The morning after I used to wake up with that taste in my mouth and I used to tell myself: “That’s enough!” But after a couple of hours I had already smoked the first one and so on. With the passing of time every cigarette become a moment of relaxation or “I really deserved this one!” and then it transformed itself into another small personal failure. Nothing terrible, I told myself, there were worse problems. But still that internal voice kept telling me “You just can’t quit”. I hated it then, now I am grateful to it. Without it I would still be a smoker. Even if I knew perfectly what the consequences of smoking on health were, such information have never been a sufficient reason to kick that awful habit. In other words: I knew that smoking is bad for health, but I just couldn’t stop. At one point, after a very significant personal experience, I decided to make myself a present: I would have tried hypnosis to quit smoking. Obviously I thought that I would have had to take part in a predefined number of sessions, to listen to who would have hypnotized me, - I also asked myself if I would have remained conscious – and consequently I would have quit. But things went differently! The institute staff asked me to talk about myself, about the things that I liked or that I disliked, about very personal things… in other words: everything has been completely different than I expected! Sessions were quite distant one from the other, they explained to me that during the sessions the work begins and then it is carried on autonomously by the unconscious. I understood that I didn’t just want to quit smoking, but instead I wanted to change some things in me that didn’t make me feel well. I had to work on them. It has been a path, not a short one for me, but it helped me. I worked actively with hypnosis to quit smoking and today I thank that voice that helped me to find a useful way to change not only that bad habit (I QUITTED!) but many other aspects of my life. Furthermore, at the present day – and many years have passed - I never felt the need to smoke again. That was the past me.
M.’S EXPERIENCE