The single thing that has the biggest influence in addiction.

I am generally in my office by about 8 am. Vancouver Hypnotherapy’s main office overlooks False Creek and the sight of the North shore mountains in the mornings is always inspiring. It’s likely I’ve already covered my first round of email replies and a few other tasks before I get to the Broadway office, as I like to get a jump on the days events as early as possible.

Each day we see a selection of enquiries, particularly in the realm of addictions. I phone the clients and start assigning them to each of our therapists according to their requirements and the therapists skills, and before long we have things in a pretty organised shape.

By the time clients are walking through the door each of the team has likely been at work an hour or two. Time is at a premium. And that’s really what this is all about. By the time I am sitting opposite a client, and I know this to be true of Angie, Kary and Aigin, we’re already several hours into our day.

We’re busy partly because we love our work, but also because we’re filling our days with a multitude of things to do. Angie’s traveling all over North America to conferences, Aigin is a powerhouse of academic achievement and Kary is either riding horses or running around after her amazing 9 year old daughter — that girl needs an entire support team of her own. No one is getting bored.

When talking to our clients about addiction, or many other issues, the single thing that comes across consistently and inescapably is the way they have allowed themselves to misuse time. After working with over 6000 clients, and often asking the same questions, you’d have to be seriously uninformed to miss the fact that most start their addiction out of boredom.

When asked why they chose to continue damaging themselves the same answers often come up. “I had too much time on my hands,” is a common phrase that comes up. “I was bored,” is another.

While different narcotics have very different profiles, generally what comes through is the idea that the drug ‘fills the space’, when there’s nothing better to do. The biggest irony of all in this equation is that what is often missing is precisely what will help the client escape the addiction, or avoid it in the first place.

Few of our addictions clients make time in their day for exercise. And yet, we see repeatedly that the use of an exercise regime massively increases their chance of success in treatment of the addiction. This has become so glaringly apparent that we now include an appropriate exercise regime in every single treatment plan for an addictions client that comes through Vancouver Hypnotherapy.

The use of exercise obviously has health benefits. However, beyond that, it fills the space with something fun, social and often sadly lacking from the clients life. I could rattle on for hours about how I love cycling or yoga, but you get the picture.

Most of our clients are pretty affluent. Vancouver is a very wealthy city. However all the money in the world may not resolve an addiction. It’s the use of that other commodity, time, that really dictates what’s going to happen.

As I continually point out, “You can always earn more money. You never get to earn more time. Better look out how you spend it!”

Rob Hadley

Vancouver Hypnotherapy Inc.

Http://VancouverHypnotherapy.Org

Rob Hadley is a keynote speaker at The Canadian Hypnosis Conference 2016.www.canadianhypnosisconference.com