Piper Niemann, hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner based in Franklin, Tenn.

This is a transcript of the conversation between myself, Brandi Fleck, Host of the Human Amplified podcast, and Piper Niemann, a hypnotherapist who’s helping people kick their smoking habit.

If you’d rather listen than read, you can do that here, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Piper Niemann's Story

Brandi Fleck:

What does being human mean to you?

Piper Niemann:

It's this dense experience of the soul. And so for me, It's not an easy thing to be human, but it's where all the lessons happen for this soul journey experience that we're on.

And that's why we volunteer to come and do this, because this is where the expansion is. This is where we get this tactile experience that we couldn't otherwise have. And that probably sounds like super esoteric, but when you're aware of why, like, because I think we all have had that existential question, like, why, why the heck are we doing this? And why are we having to walk through this? It is all about the lesson. I think once I realized that, everything shifted and changed for me because otherwise you're, at least me, I was caught up in this question that could really cause a lot of dissonance mentally. But then once you get into—and this is interesting because we're going to talk about hypnotherapy and the mind and how we think and what we believe.

Once something becomes a truth, it changes everything. Right. And so really figuring out this question has changed the way I look at life. And even all the current circumstances, personally, nationally, globally, you create like a new understanding. And then you're like, oh, okay, this is a different way of approaching this question.

Brandi Fleck:

Yeah. Everybody, today I'm so excited to welcome Piper Niemann to the show. She is a certified hypnotherapist, a neuro-linguistic programming practitioner, and she also recently got into quantum healing as a modality. Piper, I think you're here in Nashville, Tennessee. Is that correct? I am. I'm in Nashville. Okay. So great. And in Nashville, she focuses her work right now on smoking cessation. So Piper, welcome to the show.

Piper Niemann:

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Brandi Fleck:

Let me ask you, what else do you want our listeners to know about who you are and what you do?

Piper Niemann:

I've always cared about the mind, where our thoughts come from, our beliefs. I've been a student of that for a very long time. I am just now getting into the phase where I feel like I'm putting things out to the world as a facilitator, a teacher, bringing that all together. So historically, I've studied holistic nutrition, the mind-body connection, and a lot of this, I haven't monetized over the years. I've mostly sold real estate.

But now I feel like I'm embracing this part of it, and I feel like to the Universe is calling me. Like you have the skill, you have this talent, you need to put it out into the world and participate with it. And getting out of this student phase more into the teacher phase. And I don't love the word, but more into my crone years of, you know, like you've done the learning, so now let's share it back.

Brand Fleck:

Yeah. Spread that wisdom, that beautiful wisdom. Okay. Well, so since I know we're going to be talking a lot about smoking cessation today.

Piper Niemann:

Yeah, that's a hard word.

Brandi Fleck:

It is.

Quitting smoking. That's it. I would love to know, are you an ex-smoker yourself?

Piper Niemann:

I was never a smoker. So my grandfather was a heavy smoker and he did die of a cancer-related, to smoking illness. But interestingly, my father was just so adamantly against smoking. And I don't know where this came from with him, but the entire family was just so against smoking.

If you ever wanted to be cut out of the family, it would become a chain smoker, right? But I think for me with studying holistic nutrition, I saw just all the things that it created that the body had to defend against, right?

And not that it's low-hanging fruit for a smoker, but it's low-hanging fruit for health and wellness to get rid of the smoking to really get on the path of wellness. But I would see smokers who, you know, they go get their wheatgrass shot, but they keep smoking. And it was like, wait a minute, this isn't making any sense. Because anything the body's defending against, you're putting in, then that's not going towards, you know, the betterment of the cells and your health.

So I think it's just been a, I don't know, it's a bit of a campaign on my part that I just really care about. That is like the least that someone can do to get on the path of wellness.

More People Are Quitting Smoking Than Ever: A Societal Shift

Brandi Fleck:

Well, and I know you might have seen in the questions I sent you before this interview that I am an ex-smoker. I started smoking when I was 12 years old. And that was something that I never told people until recently. And I have not smoked since 2012. I have a grandmother who passed away of a lung-related disease. She had cancer. She was able to get rid of that. We supported her through it. But then COPD was sped up by the radiation. And it was a pretty quick process in a matter of two years. You know, she passed away at what seems like a really young age. She was in her 60s. And so I just think what you're doing is fantastic. And I hope everybody can quit smoking. So...

Piper Niemann:

Right.

Brandi Fleck:

So as I was looking at your website and all these things, I got really curious. I started thinking about, I feel like a lot of people, not as many people smoke now as they used to. So it prompted me to look up some statistics. And the American Lung Association reports that long-term smoking rates in adults have fallen 73% from 42.6% in 1965 to 11.6% in 2022, which is huge.

And so where do you think that societal shift came from?

Piper Niemann:

Well, I think there's enough of us generationally that watched our grandparents or parents go through their health issues, right? Because there was that time where the doctors were all smoking and prescribing smoking. It was sort of ridiculous, right? Because it was the tobacco industry had so much power back then. And then of course we had the big lawsuit with the tobacco companies happen.

And I think people just realized like, there's just no way around this, you know, creating a problem down the road. So I think there's that.

And Then There’s Vaping

And then, you know, vaping is still an issue that came in. There were, there's a whole generation that never smoked, but started vaping, which, you know, the vaping creates popcorn lung. It can create all kinds of lung issues. And what I do also works for vaping. So I have helped some people that, you know, went from cigarettes to vaping, but couldn't get off the vape. And we helped, you know, I helped them do that.

Pregnant Smokers Too

[10:32] You're right. It's lower numbers, but still too many, too many people. I recently had And the Department of Health here in Davidson County reach out to help pregnant women who were smoking. And, of course, being a government entity, they wanted me to have credentials I didn't have as a social worker or licensed counselor that I didn't have. So I couldn't help them. But my heart was like, oh, definitely we have to get these women away from these cigarettes with, you know, them having this little gestation going on that it's going to affect the entire life of that baby.

Brandi Fleck:

Yeah.

Piper Niemann:

To answer your question, I just, I think it's still, the numbers are just too high. We need to, we need to make it to where it's, it's just not a good option for anyone.

Is Medical Marijuana Repeating the Mistakes of the Past?

Brandi Fleck:

This brings up some follow-up questions. So I had no idea that doctors used to prescribe smoking, which reminds me of what's happening now with medical marijuana in some cases. And whether you're for or against it, does prescribing that as, I don't know, a medication, is it similar or is it different? Or do you know about that?

Piper Niemann:

I think it depends how they're taking it in. So one of the reasons that herbalism historically, you know you would smoke a plant like mullein and tobacco is because the greatest and fastest way to get it into the body was through the lungs because of the blood vessel structures you just get it in there really quickly, so in historic herbalism practices, it would not be uncommon to smoke an herb because that was just the quickest way to get it through the body. Now of course, you know, you can take it in a hundred different ways, right? It doesn't have to be through smoking.

And what we see too with other countries that have heavy smokers, where it's just pure tobacco and maybe some other herbs in there, An American cigarette has like 200 things in it. It's insane. Right. So it's not just like smoking a plant. So that's the bigger issue.

Brandi Fleck:

I think I heard it has formaldehyde in it and things like that. That's embalming.

Piper Niemann:

It's wild. What's in that. Yeah. What's in that cigarette, you know, to make them so you don't smoke them as fast—so if you put it down, like, so it doesn’t go out, all these different things, right?

So if it were just tobacco, I don't know if we would be having the same conversation.

Brandi Fleck:

Gotcha. Okay. That makes a lot of sense. And another thing that is sort of a follow-up question is when you were talking about what it means to be human, you were talking about when you sort of figured that out, that it was about the learning and the lessons, that your whole life shifted. Does that shift parallel the shift in society from smoking to non-smoking or even addiction to less addiction, if that makes sense?

Piper Niemann:

Potentially. I mean, I suppose, so I feel like we are going through some type of greater awakening. I mean, we're always evolving, right? Individually as a society, we're evolving and things that were acceptable decades ago are no longer acceptable, right? It's interesting. I've kind of been on this bandwagon. At the age of 25, I became vegetarian and I didn't want to be a junk food vegetarian. I wanted to be like a healthy vegetarian.

So I took up a course of holistic nutrition and really wanted to understand how food related to the body. And in that journey, anything that you are putting into your body matters, right? Is your body defending it against this food or is it actually doing good to the body?

So I love that more people—I don't sound like the crazy person anymore when I talk about these things because people are much more aware of them, right?

I would look forward to the day where it would just be absurd for a teenager to pick up the cigarette, right? Because the rest of the teenagers are going, what are you doing? Why are you like, that's nuts. Don't do that.

Brandi Fleck:

An interesting side note too, is that you see less smoking in movies nowadays than you used to as well, which I think helps make it less acceptable. So just throwing that out there.

Piper Niemann:

Yeah. And I think that was actually part of this big tobacco lawsuit of what they could show and not show, right? Okay. Gotcha. The advertising had a big part of that.

Brandi Fleck:

That's true. Yeah. I had forgotten all about that. Okay.

Piper Nieman:

And we're not selling matches and lighters everywhere like we did before.

The Real Barriers to Quitting: Beliefs, Identity, and Ritual

Brandi Fleck:

I know that removing those things, advertising, lighters, matches, remove some of the barriers to quitting because you're not constantly bombarded with it. But what are some of the most surprising barriers to quitting?

Piper Niemann:

Well, I think the biggest one is, and this is just true for most habits, right? Whatever our belief systems are. So people do believe that it's very, very difficult to quit smoking, right? That some people say, oh, it's harder than quitting cigarettes than it is heroin or something like that, right? So that's a belief.

So part of that is breaking down that belief because actually nicotine is out of the body within three days. So if you did just like a cleansing detox, the nicotine would no longer be in the body after three days. But all of these associations with the cigarette is a big challenge because you get your coffee, you go sit on the front porch and you have your morning cigarette, right? Or you sit on your back porch at a certain of day, or you get in your car, whatever the thing is you do when you do the smoking is part of this memory because it's become part of a muscle memory.

And you probably, I can associate this with, you know, back when we had real phones and you couldn't remember somebody's phone number, you could literally look at the dial pad and your finger would know how to push the number, right? So that's muscle memory.

So we have to change those associations. So one thing, I do in this process that is not necessarily even part of the trance work is talking to them about, okay, you're not going to have your morning coffee. You're going to drink this breathe easy tea and you're going to go somewhere else. You're going to sit in a different part of your house, right? You're going to create an environment that's different because we've got to teach your body and the muscles in your body that this isn't what we do anymore.

And also that is part of laying the pavement of, am I a smoker or am I a non-smoker, right? Because that talk to yourself is super important.

I'm not a smoker. I'm a non-smoker. So I don't do that. I don't go to these corners of the building where I work to meet the other smokers anymore because that's not what I do. That's not part of my life now.

So a lot of it is talking to ourselves and any kind of habit. So I encourage people, and this is any habit, if you've gone on vacation, you've been gone for seven days or, whatever, five days, when you come back, that is the very best time to address some habit you're trying to get rid of. Right?

So you got yourself, I don't know, addicted to some kind of snack, Funyuns, whatever it is. And you really don't want to consume these anymore. Then you haven't had them for the past seven days because you're on vacation or what have you. And so then when you get back into your house, you're like, okay, we don't do that anymore. That's not part of my habit or my process or my—so part of that is just having that conversation with self.

Brandi Fleck:

Yeah. So it sounds pretty complex because you mentioned muscle memory and you mentioned, I feel like, identity. like their identity has to change in some way if they're going to quit.

Piper Niemann:

Yeah. That is huge. Yeah. We talk a lot about being a non-smoker. Okay. You know, now and for the rest of your life.

I've worked with people who've smoked 20 cigarettes a day for 20 years. So one thing we talk about a lot is time. So think about the time. So it takes about eight minutes to smoke a cigarette. But you're going to the place to smoke it, coming back from the place, washing your hands, you know, so that 10 minutes times however many cigarettes you might have been smoking, that's a lot of time. So one thing that you're getting back, what are you going to do with that time? Where do you want that time to go?

So, and I know there's a monetary thing to it as well, but that's not as big of a deal sometimes to people. But also, I mean, it could be a vacation, a weekend away somewhere. But at the end of the day, I think more than the currency for all of us, no matter what our habits are, is time. What are we doing with that?

How Hypnotherapy Works for Quitting Smoking

Brandi Fleck:

Yeah. So how does hypnotherapy work for quitting smoking?

And I know that you sort of touched on it a little bit, like some of the things you talk about, but what are the mechanics of it?

Piper Niemann:

Yeah. So what we are doing is by being in trance, and I want people to understand that you're not out of control. So there is stage hypnotherapy where people do this in entertainment venues, Right. So what they do—just to debunk this type of hypnotherapy to start—they screen these folks that are coming in and they find the most suggestible person that they can possibly find. Right. And this person is kind of signing up for what may happen on that stage.

When I do hypnotherapy or any other practitioner who's doing it for this type of work, you are not out of control. Okay. You're still there. Right. All we're doing is we're asking the critical mind to like go sit down and have a cup of tea and step aside. Because what we want to do is we want to talk to the unconscious mind. And that part of you, that critical mind piece, is what we're operating on most of the time.

And it's hard to set it aside because I think we're always asking like, okay, what part of me is having this conversation? What part of me creates this change? And when we can really get into this subconscious mind, it is literally the race car versus the tricycle as far as what you're capable of doing.

So yes, can you willpower yourself into a new habit or away from an old habit? Yes, you can. It takes more time. It's more arduous and difficult.

But if you can really get into that subconscious mind and get it on board and get its assistance, then that's why you have such a great result and you get there faster. So all we're doing in trance is we're quieting the critical mind. We're having the conversation with the unconscious mind and asking for its assistance in all of this.

That is what makes this so powerful. And typically you're asking statistically, I mean, about an 80% success rate, which is really high, way higher than like the medications that have so many side effects. If you talk about any kind of drawbacks, maybe financially, but at the same time, you're going to get that back, right? Because you're going to get it in health and wellness and what you didn't spend on and your time. What's your time worth?

Brandi Fleck:

Okay. So if I came in as a client to you and I was like, I've been smoking since I was 12 years old. I smoke a pack a day. Like it's really ingrained in my life. Please help. What would you do?

Piper Niemann:

Well, the first thing we're going to do is talk. So we're going to talk before we go into trance because I need to know, I need to know what matters to Brandi. You have children, you want to be around for those children.

You know, you also want them to see you. You know, cause what they, they just mirror what you do. And so that's often how smokers become smokers is because their parents were smokers, right? So conversation is a big part of it. And there's this, you know, conscious conversation that we're going to have, and I'm going to find out why it matters to you. And it really, you have to be on board. This is probably the biggest obstacle. When someone comes to me, they have got to be 100% ready to be a non-smoker.

So there is a lot of work to do before people get to me.

Brandi Fleck:

Gotcha.

Piper Niemann:

And I do encourage them. There are some books out there that are almost like the whole book is like a little bit like hypnotherapy, but using some things before you get to the hypnotherapy so the hypnotherapy actually works better because you are so ready to stop.

Like, I don't want people to wait until they get a diagnosis, right. Or til, you know, they're like, okay, my wife said that I had to quit or she's leaving or something, you know, like desperate. Like, I don't necessarily want them to wait to that point, but more than anything, it has to come from them. They have to be a hundred percent ready to go. And in you telling me your story, how you got to this and your journey, I am then going to use those prompts and cues and things that I've heard in the trance work. Because those players, your children, your spouse, the people you love, um, they're affected by smoking. And the, When you're in trance in the conversation we have, it's not an easy conversation, but it's one you're going to remember and it sticks.

Because I have had people that I talk to after the work because we do…I will do follow-ups. Not, you know, if I get someone from 20 down to two, we'll do another session to get rid of those two. We'll find out why those two didn't fall away. Right. But I have conversations, like I check on my people, like, how's it going? Did you feel like smoking? And I have people who are just like, man, I didn't feel like ever picking up another cigarette. Or they would be like, I was walking to the porch, or I thought about buying a pack, but something stopped them, right? I love to know what happens after. And I usually check on people two, three times to make sure that we got the job done.

Brandi Fleck:

Yeah. How many sessions normally does it take?

Piper Niemann:

Well, that's just it. Sometimes it can be one, but usually no more than two. Okay. Wow. I thought it was going to be like, oh, you have to come for like eight to 12 weeks or just keep coming. This is really, really interesting.

Piper Niemann:

Right. Well, it's not great for business because it would be great if I had to, you know, if I always, I knew I had six sessions with you or something, but typically we can knock it out. So habits are not really the most—there's all different kinds of hypnotherapy, right? And different levels of trance. But habits, you know, you can work pretty easily with the subconscious mind on habits.

Non-Smoking Hypnotherapy Sessions Versus Quantum Healing Trance Work

Brandi Fleck:

Yeah. Can you tell us a little bit more about what the trance work is and what it's like?

Piper Niemann:

Your ego or your critical mind, it's always there. It doesn't. And what we're just asking it to do, like I said, we're asking it to step aside.

So some of the work that I'm doing now with the quantum healing, which that's more about working on things that you want to sort through. It could be something that you just want to know about why do I have this issue?

Or it could be like, where's this coming from? How do I fix it? All of that. That work is a little bit deeper trance and that's a long, that's a pretty long session.

So the smoking sessions are a couple hours.

The quantum healing sessions can be four hours, but a lot of that is conversation prior to the actual trance work, because I need to know, you know, what are all the things that you would like to know about and work on? Because we're going to have a conversation in that work where you…

In the smoking, stop smoking work, you're not doing a lot of talking. You're nodding your head when I ask you to, but you're not speaking. Whereas in the quantum healing work, you're speaking the entire time. But what is speaking is coming through the subconscious. And in that work, I can take you back in time. I can take you back into the life that you're in or even into other lives that may have answers for you for this life.

And that work is super fascinating because there may be karmic things that you're working on through this life that had to do with past lives. And often like things on the left side of your body, that could very well be a past life event. Right side typically is in this life.

And I realize not everyone is going to be on board with that we have more than one life. So our soul, our inner being, it is here for just the duration of this particular apparatus that we were given. And it's super fascinating to know, like, why did we come into this family in this time, in this place? And what am I here for? Like, that is the really big question, right? Like, what did I come to do?

And believe it or not, you chose it. And some lessons are karmic. And karma sometimes gets a misunderstanding, but there are things that you're here to rectify from previous lives. There are things here you were…you were sent you brought yourself here to sort it through because of something that you very much misunderstood in another life.

Brandi Fleck:

Yeah. I'm really excited that you brought this up. Last season on Human Amplified, I had a hypnotherapist as a guest and I ended up doing a past life regression with her. And it was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had. So it's really cool.

Could smoking or quitting smoking be a karmic lesson?

Piper Niemann:

I suppose potentially, yes. The thing about karma is that I can't really fix karma for you in hypnotherapy, you know? So if you're meant to do the lesson, you're meant to do the lesson, right? Whatever that may be. To an extreme, let's say in a previous life, your job was to punish people for something they did and you took their sight. So in this life, you have no sight. That's a karmic lesson. Okay. Right. So, I mean, that's like pretty extreme, but you see what I'm saying. So I can't fix, and really it's not me fixing it.

It's you and your subconscious going through that, you know, doing the past life. And it would be interesting for you to tell us there's a reason why your subconscious took you to that scene and that time and that place and understanding what was the lesson you were supposed to know that relates to what you're going through today.

Right? Did you find that out?

Brandi Fleck:

I think I did, actually. And I just have, I got full body chills as you were talking because it helped me remember. Yeah. So in that past life regression, I was this shamanistic type woman in a desert and I had taken a vow of silence as part of my spiritual work for the community. And I did that because we all believed it would bring me closer to the divine and closer to God, and therefore I would be of more service. But by the end of that life, I was so disconnected from everyone and everything around me that it took me further away from the divine.

And so in this life it reminded me that it's okay to take up space and to tell my story and to talk. I have this show and using my voice in this show has been something that I've worked on since I've had it. It's been an interesting evolution, I will say. And so I don't know if I fully know everything about that lesson yet, but I think the lesson is, is that it's okay to not be isolated. You can depend on other people. You can interact with other people and that we are God.

And I know we're sort of getting off the topic of smoking cessation, but...

Piper Niemann:

Yeah. But not at all, really. I mean, like it's all tied together.

Brandi Fleck:

How's it tied together? What do you see there?

Piper Niemann:

You know, I think so often we're like, why am I like this? You know, like we ask ourselves that question. You know, why can't I do this thing that I want? My mind wants me to do this thing, but I can't do it. Right. What's stopping me? And the work is really in the alignment. Right. So we are always asked by our inner being to be in more alignment because that's where the answers are to all these questions.

It can be a habit like smoking. It could be a, why am I choosing the people I'm choosing to be in relationship with? It can be related to what we do for work. I mean, we're all looking for our meaning and we all want everything to have meaning. So we're getting into more of a, yeah, we are, we are so powerful beyond our imagination, what we're capable of and what is meant for us.

It's, it really is so big. So when you talk about like, we are God, absolutely.

That is part of this story and embracing that like our stories matter. Our voice matters. The world demanded us to be here in this time. In fact, there's 8 billion of us who want to be here right now because it is a very profound time. We're going into this age of Aquarius. We're going into this time where it's more about the greater good. It may not seem that way, if you read the headlines, but that headline is the grasping of power that is being lost. And so everything is a mirror. Everything's a reflection. And having that understanding, I think helps us in the micro with these habits and in the macro with what are we here for and where are we going?

Why People Choose to Smoke

Brandi Fleck:

Okay. That makes a lot of sense to me. These are pretty big topics. So I would invite our listeners, if you have questions, pop them in the comments. Let us know so that we can help you grapple with these issues.

And I want to ask you too, if we are God, why do we hurt ourselves with things like smoking?

Piper Niemann:

So again this human experience is really dense right I mean if we were light beings and not and we didn't have this heaviness of this physicality, it'd be a different experience. So we are dealing with being human right and to be human means that we have free will, we get to choose, and we don't always make the best choices for ourselves. And some of those things happen on a really subconscious level where, because it would make no sense for like a three-year-old to give themselves eczema because they have a newborn baby brother that's getting all the attention.

Right. Like that doesn't…like the critical mind shouldn't be making that decision, but it is serving the purpose of that three-year-old getting more attention from mommy. Because now she's got to put cream on him and she's got to pay attention because he's manifested this condition because the attention had been lost to this newborn little brother. Right. So things don't always serve us our choices don't always—I mean, they do in some kind of strange way they're serving a purpose but they're not…and a lot of times we hold on to things. So from zero to seven your parents were the greatest hypnotist of all time okay because you were literally taught to believe whatever was in your environment because from zero to seven you were super malleable and so a lot of what happens after that you may be trying to undo because it didn't serve you well.

So yes it's it doesn't make a lot of sense that we, we don't always do the best for ourselves, but we have to also ask ourselves, was this a protective mechanism? Like, what did it do for me? You know, for some people, it became like a social thing, right? I did it because I was part of this group or I made these friends, or I think we talked about this.

Like if you, if we had a vitamin D club, we would all go outside for 10 minutes at work and hang out in the sun together. Well, that would be different than going outside and smoking the cigarette, but it's the same thing.

Like in that time, we're creating a community.

So it could have been that it was chosen because of that. And also, yeah, because I feel included. I feel part of this because of, you know, the cigarette in my hand. So everything has like two ends of the stick, right?

Brandi Fleck:

Yeah. I'm glad you brought that up. I really am. I do some coaching with clients too in trauma recovery. And so there's always any kind of coping mechanism. We talk about that too. There's a benefit to it. It serves you until it doesn't. And then when the scale tips and it becomes more harmful than not, it's time to do something about it.

In the case of smoking, I'm thinking sometimes it's too late. Like the scale tips and then you end up with a diagnosis or something else that you have to deal with. And we don't want that to happen.

Piper Niemann:

Right. No. And that's what's so amazing about the body. It will regenerate itself, right? You know, in three years time, you have an entirely different set of cells than you had three years ago, right? So I don't know about never too late, but always there is an opportunity to 100% regenerate what you may have lost.

Side Effects of Hypnotherapy

Brandi Fleck:

Yeah, that's a really good point.

And so are there any downsides of hypnotherapy for quitting smoking or hypnotherapy in general?

Piper Niemann:

Well, the greatest thing is there's really no side effects. Like if you were to take a medication to quit, there's definitely side effects. But I mean, other than your time and what you paid for the session, I don't think so. I mean, something's going to happen in that session.

Even if you went from 20 cigarettes to two, something happened, right? You made a shift and and then we can work on that next step of what's you know how do i get to the next layer of this if needed but a lot of times you can get there in that one session so habits are not the the hardest thing to fix in hypnotherapy that's probably one of the easier ones okay the the bigger stuff is where you get into more of the quantum healing and the, why are you here? What are you meant to do? You know, that bigger story.

Tackling Other Addictions in Hypnotherapy

Brandi Fleck:

Yeah. Okay. So then do you ever use hypnotherapy to help with other types of addictions?

Piper Niemann:

We certainly can. Yeah. I mean, like I said, I've worked with folks who do vaping, but, I think one of the biggest things, and I would encourage people to look for this, is getting rid of the limiting beliefs.

Because that is really potentially what's holding us back from where we want to go, right?

So why do I have this limiting belief about whatever it is? So eradicating those limiting beliefs. And more than, you know, we've talked a lot about like getting rid of something, but you have to put something in its place, right?

So even with the smokers, walking around the block is you're walking around the block instead of sitting on the porch with a cigarette. You have to substitute.

This is true of any kind of addiction. I think anyone who's ever dealt with alcohol or any kind of food addiction, you've got to put something there, right? Because you've taken something away. You've got to put something back. And with the limiting belief, that's the same kind of thing. You know, asking yourself, why do I think this? Is it my belief? Where did it come from? Am I keeping it? And am I going to focus on it? Right? Because what we focus on is what we get. Ultimately, I think all of us kind of know at least that much about quantum physics that, and I think this is where my fascination came in at a very early age, was like, oh, I can make things happen just by thinking about them.

Right? Yeah. And it was fascinating to me, like, oh, I've been seeing or talking to this person, but if I think about them enough, the phone's going to ring. Or something like that, right? So that is where the work is, truly where the work is, is where are we going to put our thoughts? What are we going to let come in? Right. Because, and it's not Pollyanna kind of stuff. It is, it is truly where, where the work happens is training the brain on how and where you're going to focus.

Brandi Fleck:

So when I have talked to people about addiction and experienced my own addictions, a lot of times it's about numbing too. Like you don't want to feel the emotions. So you avoid them by using a substance or something like that.

What are you working on there with the numbing and the avoidance tendency?

Piper Niemann:

Well, yeah, we're all looking for the escape hatch, right? You know, like this is not where I want to be right now. This is not what I want to be experiencing. This is not what I want to do. How do I get myself out of this? Right. And the answer is where the work is, is doing the thing that your future self is going to thank you for in that moment. Right. So, yeah, I can take this thing that's going to zone me out, alcohol, whatever it is. I can do this thing that takes me away from this problem, but does that thing create another problem? Or do I do this other thing that my future self is going to be thankful for? Meaning, do I do the work? And what is the work? And the work is, I'm going to go find three things, paragraphs to read out of a book that I know that'll be helpful for me. I'm going to go for this walk around the block and I'm going to listen to some podcasts. It's going to make me feel a little bit more inspired or better, or I'm going to go to the juice bar and get this really good juice for myself. And I'm going to take really good care of myself. I'm going to soak in the tub. Those things, like what is my future self going to be grateful I did? And some of that work is just raising your vibration. Like how am I going to get from this low vibe that I, and acknowledging I'm in this low vibe place that I don't want to be in? How am I going to get into this higher realm where I know the answers are going to exist for me? Because that's where the synchronicities happen. And that's where the things show up to solve the issue.

Brandi Fleck:

And a lot of times getting to that higher vibe involves working on those limiting beliefs. Correct?

Piper Niemann:

Yeah. And maybe it's, you know, listening to your podcast, listening to any kind of information that you're like, oh, okay, that makes sense to me. I can do this. So it's not feeling like you're in this alone. Right. And maybe having, you know, a community or people to reach out to say, you know, like I am not in the greatest of place. I could totally use like a friend to talk to or a hangout or whatever it is.

And that seems silly that that sounds like the work, but right now, like in the world we live in and to these generations that we're in, we're not doing the community that we need to do, right? Creating the communities, putting our…it's so easy to isolate.

Brandi Fleck:

Absolutely.

Piper Niemann:

Right. And, and now they're saying like lack of friendship is like as bad as smoking, right?

Which is interesting. So we've got to create these remedies of, you know, making sure that we have an open platform where people are like, you know, please call me because if you want to go have a coffee or get people together. Like I'm, I'm all for it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Brandi Fleck:

And that reminds me of the vow of silence in the past life. Like it's so easy…isolation is not healthy.

Piper Niemann:

We're designed. We're designed for community.

Piper's Giveaway: FREE Quantum Healing Sessions

Brandi Fleck:

Absolutely. And is there anything that I have not asked you that you think is important to share?

Piper Niemann:

Well, I could do a little shameless plug, but I would like, so I am giving away five of these quantum healing sessions. I mean, there's somewhat of a commitment for time. You need about four hours. We can do it on the weekend. They are in person. So that's the other thing. You got to make yourself leave your house.

But and it's not just out of a curiosity of like where have I been to what helps me now but there's some real healing work that can happen in these sessions often after this session after these sessions people will have almost like a cleansing experience in their bodies because we've gotten rid of stuff and the body has to let that go. I am looking for people who are interested in that.

And so let's put that out there. But I think we've covered a lot of ground. We went from cigarettes to quantum healing. So yeah.

Brandi Fleck:

Okay. And how can people find you and your work?

Piper Niemann:

So my website is Emerge Wellness Hypnotherapy, I know that's a really long.com, but you can also google Piper Niemann hypnotherapist or hypnotherapy and I should pop up and I'm in nashville so on the website you have a way of contacting me there.

It doesn't cost anything to do a session where we just talk about what's potential, right? What are you trying to figure out? So absolutely, would love for people to reach out there.

Brandi Fleck:

Okay. And if they want to take advantage of your quantum healing sessions that you're giving away, do they just contact you through the website?

Piper Niemann:

Yes. Yeah. Do an inquiry on the website and then I'll reach out.

Brandi Fleck:

Perfect. Okay. Well, guys, all of these links and how to get to Piper will be included in the show notes or the description on YouTube. So check those out. Go see what she's got going on. And Piper, thank you so much for coming on the show.

Piper Niemann:

Thank you for having me, Brandi.