Many of us have bad habits, ranging from smoking to biting our nails and over-eating to grinding our teeth. All of these we know are bad yet we seem compelled to carry on with them, even though we know that smoking, for instance, can kill us.
Why are these things habits? What makes us keep on doing them?
A habit is a form of behaviour that affects people’s lives, makes them unhappy or causes a risk to their health and the health of those around them.
An unwanted habit or behaviour can make someone feel as if they are out of control, that there is someone else or something inside of you that is making you do this. It’s like there is this ‘little inner voice’ that makes them do something when they don’t want to – like eating another piece of chocolate or having that ‘one for the road’.
For those of us who don’t smoke, for instance, it might seem a total wonder that a smoker won’t quit after hearing that puffing away is a leading cause of death. It might also be baffling, if our diet is good, to fathom why an obese person can’t shed a few pounds after learning that lethal ailments loom for the overweight.
But scientists have come up with a host of reasons why humans stick to bad habits, according to the website LiveScience.
These include our innate human defiance; a need for social acceptance; the inability to truly understand the nature of risk; and our individualistic view of the world and the ability to rationalise unhealthy habits.
According to the National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH), we have evolved as a species to ‘survive and thrive so our subconscious, the heart of our being, is always creating mechanisms that support this’.
But, the NCH warns, sometimes things get distorted and what the subconscious thinks is a protection mechanism becomes an unwanted habit that causes upset rather than kicking in the ‘survive and thrive’ concept.
Hypnotherapy has a proven record in breaking bad habits like smoking, over-eating and even recreational drug use.
It stands to reason, then, that a hypnotherapist can help overcome nail-biting, knuckle- cracking and throat-clearing – things some of us do without thinking but things that are annoying to others.
The reason why hypnotherapy works so rapidly with bad habits and behaviours is because it works directly with the subconscious, bypassing the critical mind and getting to the root of the issue so that changes can be made.
Breaking a bad habit with hypnotherapy can be easy. Depending on what you are seeing the therapist for, they will assess your habit and write a treatment plan for you based on a range of different techniques.
Each hypnotherapist will work with you differently. Your hypnotherapist will then assess your commitment to the treatment, as the desire to stop the behaviour or change the behaviour must come from you. If you want to give up smoking for someone else, it is unlikely to work.
If you are ready to kick your bad habit, look for an NCH hypnotherapist near you by using their directory; it can be life-changing.
