Following a Rolfing session in New Paltz, New York today, I stopped for a bento box at one of the few authentic Japanese restaurants around, also in New Paltz. In their entryway were an assortment of brochures from local intrepeneurs, charities, arts orgs and schools. One was the informational brochure of a hypnotist.
I made an appointment with him for Wednesday the 10th.
Volume two of Mesmerized will follow…
Boadicea's Chariot 
What are you being hypnotized for?
Smoking. 😦
For starters.
#!&#* yellow heads. They mock me!
Marinaid,
You don’t need hypnotherapy for smoking.
It’s a piece of piss. Buy 20 of your favourite brand, put one between the lips, light it, inhale. Stop before hot bit reaches fingers.
Seemples.
I used to be a tobacco farmer and even studied it at college in Zimbabwe. And yet, I have never been a smoker myself. Tried it as a child and thought it was most unpleasant. As I got older, I realised that most of my contemporaries started smoking because they thought it was cool. I took the view that if you were trying to be cool, then you were not. I am very anti smoking today and I suppose that I should feel guilty about selling the weed, but I don’t. Its the smoker’s choice. Well done for trying to give up, I hope you succeed.
Ferret,
I am slapping my forehead with the palm of my hand saying, “Doh!”.
This is not hypnotherapy…just plain old hypnotism. I saw a hypnotist in Maine once – an amusing story that will have to wait. I will only say now that he weighed about 400 pounds.
A tobacco farmer in Zimbabwe!
This hypnotist claims that I will be a non-smoker following our first (of two) sessions.
I have a holiday in England/Wales/France/Italy coming up and I want to be a non-smoker again before departure. This is not as easy to arrange as a wardrobe.
By the way, Ferret…I watched an interesting and enlightening program(me) about skunks in the wee hours of this morning. You will be happy to know that they are not mustalids as once assumed.
Good Luck Marinaid…
Thank you Boa. I shall report back.
Hee Hee Marinaid,
Good luck with it anyhoo.
2 months ago I gave up a 30 year habit. I simply said to myself no more smoking. I haven’t touched one since.
Did you really!? You are a better man than I. Which is really no contest, however.
Return when you’ve managed 6 months Ferret with the secret. I’m struggling – again. 🙂
Self Delusion works for me.
That and the rancid stink whenever I go near a smoker. Yikes to think that was me too. Yeeeuuch!
Couple that with the price over here. Nearly 6 GBP a pack of 20 and it soon adds up.
I guess everyone knows the origin of the word ‘mesmerized’, but…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Mesmer
Marinaid, I realise we are two nations separated by a common language but please advise what are 1. a Rolfing session and 2. a bento box. I have never been rolfed (as far as I can remember); nor have I worn a bento.
I visited an acupuncturist in Germany some years ago. Two weeks of grief and strife and then no problem thereafter. Some three years later on a delayed long haul flight, I was offered a cigarette. I accepted and unfortunately never looked back. Still smoking like a chimney.
😦
Janus, easy peasy: Rolfing*, aka ‘structural re-integration’, is a form of massage devised by Ida Rolf and bento box* is a traditional Japanese lunch format that consists of a variety of foodthingys often served in a segmented rectangular ‘bowl’. While ‘easy peasy’ and ‘thingy’ can be blamed on Americanisms, I don’t think rolfing nor bento box can be. You can probably find a Rolfer in Denmark. It would be worth your time if you were to do that, I promise.
*rolf:
http://www.rolf.org/about/index.htm
*bento box (I had shrimp tempura, mm mm mm.)
http://www.airandangels.com/bentobox/intro.html
Tocino, if this hypnosis doesn’t do it I’ll try the accupuncture. Anything but self-discipline works for me.
Marinaid and Ferret – Giving up is easy. I’ve done it lots of times and the more often you do it the easier it gets. Smiley thing.
OZ
OZ,
Please don’t say that. I was kind of hoping I was through the worst by now.
After 30 years of being a slave to the weed, I am determined not to lapse.
Ferret – You’ll succeed only when you’re ready. I exopect there will be a lot of very intense communication from oop t’North in coming weeks. 🙂
OZ
Make that …”expect”…
OZ
Boadicea – One guaranteed method, apparently, is to put an inch or two of water in a small jam jar and add twenty or so ciggy butts. Every time you want a gasper, open the jar and take a sniff. They say it will make you sick to your stomach. So far, with my delicately tuned nose, I have resisted indulging in this particular perversion.
OZ
OZ – it may come to that! I’ve tried every nicotine replacement thingy on the market – I’m sucking a lozenge as I type. I’ve tried acupuncture, hypnosis, all the new ‘aversion’ pills as they get released… But, I’m going to see my mother in May – and I daren’t smoke near her!
Seriously Ferret, the easy bit has always been congratulating myself that I’ve finally done it. The hard bit has been when it hit me that the last cigarette really was the last one. That’s when the self-discipline really has to kick in. And as Tocino said, have just one and you’re sunk.
The docs here are incredibly understanding. Far more than I gather they are in the UK. They do not make light of the fact that nicotine is the one of the most addictive substances around.
Boa,
I used the chewing gum stuff at one time. Tasted like shoite but I managed to live with it and the cigarettes as well.
🙂
Hello, Marinaid
Rolfing sounds rather like the Alexandra Technique … have you heard of it?
I hope you are successfully mesmerized. Good luck.
I was a 15 a day girl for a while in France, then I ‘didn’t smoke’ for most of my twenties – but still kept pinching crafty ciggies from my very disgruntled mates in pubs and clubs…Then I was sort of ‘forced’ into going cold turkey a few years ago by my then boyfriend, after a ‘if you don’t ditch it I’m ditching you’ conversation. But it was relatively easy to give up, because I’d graduated from serious smoker to social smoker, to non smoker. So that’s my tip; a gentle uphill curve, rather than a huge heave-ho.
I would never go back to it because my skin looks a damn sight better now. Ridiculous isn’t it? Cue L’Oreal music….; )
I too am an ex-smoker. Started with the usual social route and then got the habit. At one time I smoked quite heavily, but gradually I sort of lost interest in it. No more than that, I wondered why I was doing something to myself that harmed me. It was all too masochistic, something I didn’t want to do anymore and I stopped. I think it’s the moment when you really don’t want to smoke anymore that you can stop. If you only stop because you think you should, the craving goes on. Or maybe that’s just me.
Oh and I lost weight because I became more active.
Hi there, Bilby. I have heard of the Alexander technique…that is newer than Ida’s program and differs somewhat…but complementary, perhaps.
Rolfing is a series of 10 planned sessions and once done, you’re done. The effects are remarkable. For example, most people wear the soles of their shoes out unevenly which is testament to the imbalance they’ve accrued over time. After Rolfing, your shoes will wear out evenly, walking is a joy, you are breathing from your diaphragm, you are taller and look younger. 🙂 Really. Everyone should be Rolfed. That website I posted should have a international rolfer locator. There’s a Rolfing school in Sweden, unless my memory is failing.
I’m back after a long time for advanced Rolfing. Perhaps I’ll turn into Superwoman. A non-smoking Superwoman. ~:-o
#!%&*!!% yellow head…
Marinaid, in fact ‘easy peasy’ comes from a 1970’s British TV commercial for Lemon Squeezy detergent. They were with a little girl who points out dirty greasy dishes to an adult (mom or relative) and then this adult produces Lemon Squeezy and they clean the dishes quickly. At the end of the commercial the girl says “Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy”.
‘Thingy’ on the other hand is as old as the (English) hills, used originally to refer to a person whose name escaped one, as in ‘Old Thingy’. Later it was popularised by Monty Python.
‘Easy Peasy’ goes back a lot further than that. Us kids were saying it in the 1950s. (I know that ‘we kids’ is better grammatically, but I’ve used the version that sounds comfortable).
Janus, thank you for that info. How could I have thought for even a moment that the US might be responsible for easy peasy and thingy.
There are four Rolfers in Denmark and if you want to stand two inches taller and look ten years younger, you should seek them out. :^)
Not that I want to start an internecine war over the origins of the expression, but I suspect it goes back at least to the 19th century. However, the name Wendy, as in Wendy Darling of Peter Pan fame, was coined by JM Barrie as result of children talking about having a ‘friendy wendy’. There, you learn something every day.
I recently learned that ‘walking the plank’ was a seafaring tradition invented by JM Barrie, too. Doh.
Mar, I already stand two inches taller and look ten years younger! No psycho-babblers are getting within yards of me, with their Aussie names and aromapathetic ideas.
I knew you would say that, Janus.