Do It for Yourself Now! - Quitting Smoking

Written by Ilan Shalif, Ph.D.

Vicarious focusing on smoking

During the development and examination of the General Sensate Focusing Technique, many smokers focused on sensations and feelings related to smoking as part of the wide pool of sensations to be focused on. Most of them kept on smoking without intending to give it up or even reduce the number of cigarettes smoked. They focused on these sensations and feelings "just in order to catch trash-programs" that use smoking as a behavioral cover-program ("defense").

Actually, nearly each cigarette smoked is a kind of a cover-program. It is used as a means of preventing the subjective experience components included in an emotional or other supra-program, from entering the awareness or to weaken and remove it after entering there.

Following now are the main results of the systematic focusing on the subjective experience of smoking for those in training in the new technique:

• The focusing enhances the pleasure derived from each cigarette one focuses on.
• It decreases the daily amount of cigarettes smoked even if this is not intended.
• When there are environmental obstacles (mostly when social pressure or laws forbid it) the focusing helps to delay the smoking of a cigarette.
• It helps those who have decided to stop smoking "cold turkey" to pass the first few days, which are the hardest.

(These observations contributed to the idea that a suitable focusing schedule can enable one to undermine the habit of smoking. This was found to be true by a few of my trainees, who used it successfully to rid themselves of this habit.)

Here's a form for marking the time of cigarettes lighted, or other bad habits.

3) Regulating the sexual functioning and reducing disturbances in it

The trash-programs involved with sexual behavior react positively and relatively quickly to focusing on the sensations and feelings related to erotic activity. The focusing on these sensations is the core of an ingenious approach to sexual therapy developed by Masters and Johnson. They were the ones who introduced the concept of "Sensate-Focus" for a wider use. Readers who are interested in this area are advised to read their books about their technique.

The application of sensate focusing to erotic feelings and behavior stresses another aspect of the new technique: contrary to what appears to be the superficial impression, the technique is not a tool for achieving a quick relief*. It is not only a treatment for stopping unpleasant emotions, feelings or sensations, and the activation programs that create them but also a means to increase pleasant ones and improve the supra-programs that create them.

*Usually, when the targets of focusing are in the range of neutral to mildly unpleasant, the immediate aim of the focuser is to sustain them as long as possible in order to derive the greatest benefit possible. Many times the focuser even initiates the unpleasant felt sensations in order to work on a specific topic.

In the erotic field, as well as in other aspects of our life, the immediate aim of focusing is to improve the use of the natural biofeedback as a means for the updating and ameliorating of the emotional supra-programs involved.

4) "Cultivating the voice" and the reduction of tension

During the development and examination of the general sensate focusing technique, a strong connection was detected between the reduction of the "trashiness" of the emotional supra-programs contributing to the general (free floating) tension, and the quality of the voice i.e. its deepening and softening. The factor most contributing to that was the repeated focusing on the tension of the facial muscles and the vocal cords. Observations also revealed a strong tie between the above and the enhancement of the natural biofeedback embedded in the quality of one's voice, occurring when trainees paid attention to it.

Very often, especially when the novice focuser is initially under a lot of pressure, the focusing effects on the qualities of the voice are already discernible during the first few weeks of training. Many times, the "chronic" deepening and softening of the voice is already consolidated after the first few weeks of focusing.

The focusing on the general tension of oneself brings about very fast and impressive changes in the quality of one's voice. Actually, the changes in the qualities of the voice are a kind of "side effect" of the decline in the general tension of the individual.

Often, when a proficient focuser detects the signs of tension in his voice, he can "drive away" part of the trash-programs involved, by merely focusing on their vocal expression. It was found that the natural biofeedback derived from listening to one's voice whiles peaking or singing, has an immediate effect on the quality of the voice.

The effect is usually so dramatic and swift that it is discernible even when one is in the middle of the a sentence. Likewise, the focusing on other sensations and feelings during conversation, unintentionally and indirectly influences the quality of the voice so much that one becomes aware of it as it happens. It seems that any shift in the felt sensations brings about a corresponding observable change in the quality of the voice.