Can You Rid Yourself of Bad Habits and Thoughts Like Smoking and Strong Dislike With BWRT? It Worked So Far for Bobbie!

Hypnotist and Bobbie

As a stroke survivor, I once considered hypnotism as a way to walk fast again. The doctor said hypnotism doesn't cure weak, atrophic body parts. But then there's Bobbie.  

First, a little background. Bobbie is my caregiver, a word I hate except when Bobbie says it. She is a "real" caregiver, state-licensed, not somebody who goes into caregiving as a hobby or, worse yet, a past-time to get money for alcohol or drugs. I  had a few caregivers like that. (https://stroketales.blogspot.com/2020/12/being-comfortable-in-mind-and-spirit.html)

Anyway, Bobbie goes through, at least, a half of a pack of cigarettes daily. She smokes in the car with the window rolled all the way down and it doesn't bother me except for the fact that she has COPD, high blood pressure, and one heart attack around five years ago, and I don't want to lose her. Bottom line: Cigarettes aren't good for anybody, especially with her medical history. 

Since the day she arrived, she always said she wished she could stop smoking cigarettes, but she never did until now. She hired a hypnotist at $100 per session who uses Brain Working Recursive Therapy, or BWRT, as a method. She had her first session last Wednesday, and hasn't had a cigarette since. Two more sessions to go to reinforce.

Oh, she still has urges. She just squeezes her thumb in the fold when she feels that longing, most likely learned when she was "under." She takes care of her 80-year-old mom who lives 110 miles away on the weekends. That long drive is tough on Bobbie because automatically, she'd reach for that cigarette. But since Wednesday, she hasn't touched one. 

Bobbie will continue with BWRT because that method also aligns with getting rid of bad thoughts. Her sister and brother tried to pry guardianship of mom away from Bobbie in a couple of court cases, citing phony physical, emotional, and financial abuse. Her sister and brother lost every time. I know her mom and met her on many occasions. A more loving duo between Bobbie and her mother does not exist!

But Bobbie wants to be done with the hate and repulsion she has for her sister and brother. BWRT to the rescue! Her hypnotist says BWRT will work for that loathing, too.

As Mark Twain said, "The secret of getting ahead is getting started." And you got started, Bobbie! Woo-hoo! 

And if you have bad habits and/or thoughts, and who doesn't, find a hypnotist and ask about BWRT first before you spend your money. You'll eventually find one. It's worth the wait.  

Pen Pals: The Destined Duo of Me and Sara

The trend of Pen Pals started during the 1930s. But the second World War came in 1939, and many of those Pen Pals disappeared--moved or died, never to be active again. Once it ended in 1945, life settled down at last.

This story caught my eye about Pen Pals. Carole Lechan of Massachusetts and Jane Anderson of New Zealand have been pen pals since they were nine years old. Last week, after 56 years of writing, they finally met.

 RACHEL MARTIN, HOST, as printed in NPR (National Public Radio):

Back in 1959, a little girl from Queens, N.Y, sent an airmail letter to another little girl in Sefton, New Zealand. The New Zealander wrote back. And the two began a correspondence that has lasted for 56 years. The two lifelong pen pals never met until last week. When Carole Lechan and Jane Anderson spotted each other at Logan Airport in Boston, they each smiled and locked arms in a huge embrace. Five decades after they first began writing, Anderson had finally come to find Lechan, who now lives in Massachusetts.

The old friends told The Boston Globe that they wrote each other five or six times a year, sending letters written in longhand that could take weeks to reach their destination. Carole Lechan said, quote, "when someone writes you a letter, you are bound by responsibility and courtesy to respond. So we just kept writing."

The two had updated their correspondence to email in recent years. But as strange as it may seem, they had never even spoken on the phone. I was just really surprised she would make this investment to come see me, Lechan says. But we're not getting any younger. And this is the time to do it.

I read those words and they seemed unlikely to happen to me. One in 100 million, I thought. But I have a Pen Pal now, too.

I never met her. We never talked on the phone. But in late Spring of this year, she inquired where she can find a copy of my book, The Tales of a Stroke Patient. Or she read my blog, The Tales of a Stroke Patient and More. I can't remember. It's as if she has always been here. Her name is Sara.

And so it began. I worry about Sara. She worries about me. I get her misery; she gets mine. We email or text, sometimes both, almost every day. She knows my children's names; I know hers. I know her husband's name; and I am happily divorced. I know her favorite things; she knows mine. But at the crux of it, why are we so connected? We are both stroke survivors. 

There was something about Sara that charmed me. So I sent her my book after she gave me her address. She has favorable qualities--smart, friendly, attentive. I convinced her to join my Zoom support group so we could look at each other.

She was thinking of writing a book and her stroke misadventures. When I wrote my book, in the dusty back room of my ex-partner's house, he was always upstairs, I later knew, partly to escape me. I believe I repulsed him because the roles were reversed, much to his disdain, and I couldn't do the things I once did like go market shopping, help with the gardening, prepare meals. The only positive thing was I had no problem finishing the book which took two years. There wasn't a week that passed when I didn't say to myself, I wish I had an editor to help me with wording choice, chapter order options, proofreading.

So it was natural that I came to assume editorship at no charge of Sara's book. In Google docs which are shared between the two of us, I read all of her chapters to date--she has six--and I plan to stay with her not only until the book is published but for the long haul.  

I feel a kinship and I'm inspired to starting a Pen Pal program among brain injury survivors--someone who understands, someone who gets you. Me and Sara--I think that's reason enough to get the ball rolling.