The argument in one line.
Trying not to want something keeps you in constant resistance — the real shift is deciding you simply do not want it anymore, and anchoring that new identity to a physical reward ritual like the Marble Jar.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- You have cut back on alcohol or sugar before, only to pick up a different bad habit in its place.
- You rely on willpower to avoid cravings and find it exhausting.
- You are open to guided meditation or hypnosis as a tool for behavior change.
- You want a concrete behavioral reinforcement system to make healthy habits feel rewarding instead of just virtuous.
SKIP IF…
- You want a clinical explanation of hypnotherapy with peer-reviewed citations.
- You are in active addiction treatment — this is self-help audio, not a medical intervention.
The full version, fast.
Willpower-based habit change fails because it keeps you attached to the thing you are resisting. The session proposes a two-part fix: an identity reframe that converts trying not to into simply do not want, and the Marble Jar — a physical jar where each healthy choice earns a marble, creating three separate dopamine hits. The sugar section reframes refined sugar as biochemically equivalent to cocaine in its reward-pathway activation, designed to neutralize the it is harmless inner rationalization. The session closes with a 6-month future-self visualization and the central question: what do you want to be addicted to?
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00:00 – 00:39
01 · Intro and disclaimer
Legal disclaimer card, podcast jingle, show intro narration.
00:39 – 03:46
02 · Pre-session briefing
Adam explains the Whack-a-Mole replacement trap, introduces the Marble Jar physical reinforcement technique, and sets the session context: wine and sugar habits.
03:46 – 10:49
03 · Induction
Deep breathing guidance, progressive body relaxation, safe-place visualization, countdown from 10 to 1 into deep trance state.
10:49 – 17:08
04 · Alcohol identity reframe
Shifts listener identity from trying not to drink to someone who simply does not drink — modeled on the non-smoker who needs no willpower to avoid cigarettes.
17:08 – 26:14
05 · Refined sugar reframe
Frames refined sugar as a drug with cocaine-equivalent reward pathway activation, explains the spike-crash cycle, builds visceral recognition of what refined sugar does to the body.
26:14 – 31:14
06 · Choosing your addiction
Explains the brain reward-system engineering behind habit substitution; invites the listener to consciously redirect the dopamine drive toward movement, accomplishment, and real reward.
31:14 – 34:46
07 · Marble Jar visualization
Guides a vivid imagining of the physical jar filling with marbles across 6 months, future self assessment, intentional door closing and opening.
34:46 – 35:58
08 · Wake-up and return
Count 1 to 10 to return from trance, finger and toe wiggle, calibration to the present.
35:58 – 36:51
09 · Outro
Rating request, share prompt, ad-free subscription CTA for hypnosis-only version.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- Trying not to want something is not the same as not wanting it — the former is resistance, the latter is freedom.
- The Marble Jar creates three separate dopamine hits from a single healthy choice: doing the action, dropping the marble, and seeing the jar fill over time.
- The refined sugar reward pathway is chemically identical to cocaine — the craving mechanism, tolerance build, and withdrawal are the same process at a different dose.
- Breaking a habit without replacing it triggers the brain to find the nearest open dopamine door — this is engineering, not weakness.
- A non-smoker does not need willpower to avoid cigarettes because they have no desire for them — that indifference is the target identity state for any habit change.
- The food industry profits from keeping refined sugar normalized in the same way cigarette companies kept smoking normalized in the 1950s.
- Accomplishment produces the same neurochemicals as substances, but the reward and the reality are proportionate — it is earned, not borrowed.
- You do not replace a destructive habit with a healthy one by white-knuckling through cravings — you redirect the reward drive toward something with real underlying value.
- The question is not how to stop wanting dopamine, but toward what shall this drive be aimed.
- Six months of accumulated marbles in a jar is a physical record of identity — proof of who you are choosing to be, not just what you have given up.
Identity beats willpower every time.
WHAT TO LEARN
The gap between trying not to and simply do not want is the entire distance between struggle and freedom — and the Marble Jar makes the healthy replacement feel as rewarding as the habit it replaces.
- Willpower keeps you attached to the thing you are resisting; identity reframing removes the attachment entirely, the way a lifelong non-smoker has no urge to resist a cigarette.
- The brain does not tolerate a closed dopamine door — when one habit is removed, it immediately searches for the nearest replacement, which is why intentional habit substitution must be deliberate, not accidental.
- Refined sugar activates the same reward pathway as cocaine, builds the same tolerance, and produces real withdrawal symptoms — the framing matters because it defuses the just a treat rationalization.
- The Marble Jar creates three separate reward moments from a single healthy choice: the act itself, the physical drop of the marble, and the visual accumulation over time — compounding behavioral reinforcement.
- Accomplishment and movement produce the same neurochemicals as substances, but the reward is proportionate to the underlying reality — it is earned rather than borrowed against future cost.
- The question is never how to eliminate the drive for reward, but toward what to aim it — redirecting an existing drive is more sustainable than suppressing a biological system.
Terms worth knowing.
- Marble Jar technique
- A behavioral reinforcement system where a physical jar and marbles are used as rewards: each healthy choice earns a marble, creating multiple dopamine-releasing moments from a single good decision.
- Psychological Whack-a-Mole
- The pattern where removing one unhealthy habit causes the brain to immediately recruit another to fill the same dopamine role, cycling through destructive behaviors without resolving the underlying reward need.
- Identity reframe
- Shifting self-description from trying not to do X to being someone who does not do X, removing the internal resistance that keeps a person psychologically attached to what they are avoiding.
- Reward pathway
- The brain circuit centered on dopamine release that creates feelings of pleasure and reinforces repeated behavior — activated by substances like sugar and cocaine as well as by accomplishment and movement.
- Induction
- The opening phase of a hypnosis session where the practitioner guides the listener into a deeply relaxed state through breathing instructions, body scans, and countdown techniques.
Things they pointed at.
Lines you could clip.
13:43
“You are not someone who wants to drink, but is trying not to drink. You are someone who simply does not drink because you simply do not want to.”
20:16
“The reward pathway activated by refined sugar is the same reward pathway activated by cocaine. The mechanisms of craving is chemically identical.”
28:26
“What do you want to be addicted to? That drive to seek reward and pleasure is not going away. Nor would you want it to. The question is only ever — toward what shall this drive be aimed?”
30:50
“A substance gives the feeling of reward without the underlying reality. Whereas accomplishment gives the feeling of reward because of the underlying reality.”
Where the conversation goes.
00:39 – 03:46denseBriefing and technique introduction
03:46 – 10:49steadyRelaxation induction
10:49 – 17:08denseAlcohol identity reframe
17:08 – 26:14denseRefined sugar as a drug
26:14 – 31:14denseChoosing your replacement dopamine
31:14 – 34:46steadyMarble Jar future-self visualization
Word for word.
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metaphoranalogystory
00:05Welcome to the hypnotist. The show that gives you inside access to cutting edge hypnosis with real clients facing genuine issues. Brought to you by the hypnotherapist demanded by celebrities, CEOs, and even royalty, Adam Cox.
00:21These recordings took place live from Evansville in London's world famous Harley Street.
00:29So get yourself comfortable and enjoy today's episode of The Hypnotist.
00:39Hi. It's Adam here. Now I'm gonna guess.
00:42This is a guess because I don't know you personally. You've got at least one bad habit, something that isn't that healthy, and something that if you did less of that and more of something else, actually, it would improve the quality of your life, you would feel better about yourself, you might have more energy, more health, more confidence, something like that.
01:01Well, you've come to the right place because this hypnosis session is all about reducing unhealthy habits and increasing healthy habits.
01:10And there was a client that I was working with that used to drink alcohol on their own and then they stopped drinking alcohol and they started having sugary sweets and they didn't wanna replace one with the other. So you might be familiar with a game called Whack a Mole where in these kind of arcades, a little animal would pop up, you hit it with a a little hammer and then another one pops up somewhere else.
01:35That can happen with habits that actually, um, you break one habit and then another unhealthy habit just replaces it.
01:42So we don't want this psychological whack a mole taking place. What we want is to be intentional. There's one habit reduces, a healthy habit replaces it.
01:52And, um, it's good to have behavioral psychology alongside the hypnosis within this, and I make reference to a marble jar.
02:01So if you just think of a big vase, a glass vase or a big one of those big jars, the kind of mason jars.
02:10Now just imagine that you've got lots of marbles and every time you did something healthy instead of something unhealthy, you put one of those marbles and you put it in the jar and you could probably imagine what that would sound like, the rattling around, the glass on glass kind of sound.
02:25That becomes an anchor. It becomes a trigger that actually means that you get to feel good whenever you do the healthy thing.
02:32And then you get to feel good by rewarding yourself by putting the marble in the jar. And you also get to feel good whenever you see that jar filling up with marbles to say, oh, I've got lots and lots of healthy habits that I'm building in my life.
02:45So that's a it's a metaphor within the hypnosis, but I would encourage you to buy that big jar, buy the pack of marbles, and then give yourself a rule that says when you do something healthy or you do the habit that you want to cultivate more of, put a marble in the jar, uh, and then that creates a wonderful self fulfilling prophecy and positive reinforcement, which is part of behavioral psychology.
03:12Now this session is about wine and sugar. That's the habits that this client wanted to change and be more active and do things like more yoga and walking and things like that. It might be different for you.
03:25So if you like the idea of a bespoke session, something crafted specifically for you, have a look in the show notes because there's a suitability test, and there's a webinar, and there's various downloads and courses all there in the show notes. So check those out.
03:41For now though, find a quiet comfortable place where you won't be distracted or disturbed. Relax and enjoy the session.
04:06Take a deep breath in. And as you breathe in, breathe in that slow, long, relaxing breath.
04:18And as you exhale, allow your eyes to close and position your body in such a way where you can really feel comfortable and relaxed.
04:34That's it. Breathing and relaxation and exhaling tension.
04:45Each breath facilitates a release, A release of any stress and worries.
04:55A release of any frustration or annoyance. A release of anything that has been contributing to anything other than calm, peace, tranquility, and acceptance.
05:16And when you breathe in, breathe in slightly deeper than you normally would.
05:22And as you exhale, allow the outward breath to continue for longer than it normally would.
05:35And the deeper you breathe, the more relaxed you feel.
05:42And the more relaxed you feel, the deeper you breathe.
05:48And just scan your body for any clues of tension, stress, any echoes of emotions that aren't needed right now.
06:00And every exhale, allow yourself. Give permission to just let go and feel the release of that unnecessary emotion there in the outward breath.
06:23That's it.
06:27And there may be sensations, tingles, twitches, lightness or heaviness that lets you know that this release is happening.
06:45And every time you notice something, you allow your unconscious mind to facilitate more of that release.
07:01Because there is nothing that needs to be done, nothing to manage, nothing to figure out. Just this, just now.
07:15Just the simple permission to arrive somewhere quieter than outside.
07:26Noise doesn't just come from building work and the external environment.
07:36Sometimes noise happens inside your own mind.
07:42The nervous system sometimes forgets what stillness feels like until it remembers.
07:56Notice the weight of your body, the places of contact and support, the breath moving on its own without instruction, Reliable.
08:12Constant. Always there even when everything else felt uncertain.
08:25Your unconscious mind is incredibly resourceful.
08:32It's been working on your behalf even in the hardest weeks.
08:37It's been finding clarity in places you didn't expect it.
08:44And here, now, today, you get to let that clarity settle, to deepen, to become something that lives in the body and not just the mind.
09:05I want you to remember a place, a place perhaps that only you know, a place from childhood, a place in nature, Perhaps a place outside that felt yours.
09:26Maybe it was surrounded by trees or water or open sky.
09:32It doesn't even have to be a real place. It could be just within your imagination.
09:40A place the mind goes when it needs to find itself again.
09:48And in this place, there is a particular quality of light, the kind that makes everything feel truthful, the kind that doesn't allow shadows to be confused for solid things.
10:10And with each breath, you can go deeper into this place.
10:18As I count down from 10 to one, give permission to go deeper. 10.
10:27Nine. The ordinary noise of the day receding. Eight.
10:35Seven. Six.
10:40Arms and legs becoming heavier and more relaxed, more at ease. Five. Four.
10:47Three. A deep, comfortable stillness.
10:52Two and then one.
10:56And what if here, in this space of deep knowing, your unconscious is listening, ready to receive what is true, what is real, what you have already decided at a level far deeper than words.
11:27You already know that there is a particular kind of freedom that doesn't need to announce itself loudly. It arrives quietly in the gap between the old habit and the new decision, And sometimes a person doesn't fully recognize it for what it is.
11:55Think of a realization where you have arrived at something important, not through willpower and not through struggle or white knuckling your way through a craving, but through genuine clarity.
12:16The kind that comes when the body and mind and all of your history and experience all speak at once and say, no.
12:30Not this. Not anymore.
12:38I want you to think of that recent moment where it made sense.
12:46You introduced a boundary and felt no fear of loss, but a sense of liberation.
12:55You escaped the issue. You weren't running away from it.
13:04A direct message from your own intuition, your own experience saying, I don't want to drink alcohol at all.
13:19You don't want it, and that is not a limitation, not a sacrifice.
13:30That is simply a fact about who you are. You don't want it anymore.
13:39You are not someone who wants to drink, but is trying not to drink. You are someone who simply does not drink because you simply do not want to, and you can notice the difference between those two identities.
14:01The person trying not to do something is always in a mild state of resistance, still attached to the thing, a constant struggle, second guessing.
14:22But the person who simply does not want to do it and does not do it has stepped outside the equation entirely.
14:34They are not at war with alcohol. They are indifferent to it.
14:45In the same way that a nonsmoker that would never want to smoke does not need willpower to not pick up a cigarette, It's just background noise.
15:05It exists. It's there, but they do not want it.
15:14And your unconscious mind can make this shift, not as an instruction to be enforced, but as a recognition of what is already true.
15:30You've already crossed the threshold. The decision has already been made.
15:40This is just enabling all parts of your unconscious to recalibrate, to synthesize, to integrate.
15:56And whenever you think about a future where alcohol might be present, you already know in advance you don't want it.
16:10Alcohol is not in your future, but it was in your past.
16:18It belongs to a version of you that you have already outgrown.
16:27And every social situation that once felt like it required willpower or negotiation, every offer of a drink, every moment where the old habit would have reached for something in a glass, can now carry a different feeling.
16:47Not deprivation, not discipline. Simply the quiet satisfaction of someone who knows exactly who they are.
17:09You fully integrated that realization now. So let's turn your attention to something else, something that wears a more innocent disguise.
17:25Your body has been sending equally clear signals about, and there is a substance, an addictive substance, a poisonous substance responsible for killing millions each year that is added to almost everything that has been normalized so completely that the food industry has made billions ensuring people never stop to question it.
18:02It hides in birthday cakes and office biscuits and sauces and condiments, and the body experiences not as a food, but as a drug.
18:22Some people call it the most deadly of the white poisons, refined sugar.
18:31Not the natural sugars in an apple or a banana or dried fruit like a fig.
18:39These things come packaged with fiber. A grape has sugar, but has water to carry and dilute that sugar.
18:52Fruits have micronutrients. They work with the body's enzymes, but the white crystalline substance that has been stripped of everything except its hit.
19:10When refined sugar enters the bloodstream in a drink or a sweet or a piece of chocolate, it does not behave like food.
19:25It creates a spike, a rapid elevation of dopamine and blood glucose that feels briefly like relief, like reward, like pleasure, distilled crystallized gratification.
19:45And then, like all drug hits, it drops rapidly, and the drop creates the craving for the next hit.
20:00This isn't a metaphor. This is real biochemistry.
20:08The reward pathway activated by refined sugar is the same reward pathway activated by cocaine.
20:19The mechanisms of craving is chemically identical.
20:25The withdrawal is real. The tolerance builds, and the dose required to get the same effect increases over time, affecting the blood, the body, the brain.
20:43Refined sugar is not a treat even if it's hidden in colorful packaging.
20:51It is a drug. And if you see it clearly now for what it is, let me know by nodding your head. That's it.
21:04And sometimes it's sneaky.
21:09Those fruit juices that come from concentrate that has sugar, the syrups, the jams.
21:21It's obvious when it's a sugar cube. It's obvious when it's a can of fizzy drink.
21:30But I want you to imagine being able to look at something that you know contains sugar, the way you might look at a line of cocaine on a table with clear eyes.
21:47Nobody sees cocaine and think, oh, that's harmless.
21:54They know it's corrosive, addictive, but a drug user does it anyway.
22:06Once you see sugar for what it really is, you don't want it in refined form. You only want it in natural form.
22:20Something that is wonderful in nature is toxic when it's gone through that process of refinement, taking everything good, nutrients, water, fiber out.
22:41That's what makes it dangerous.
22:46You see sugar with the knowledge of what it actually is and what it actually does, not with fear or craving, but with the calm recognition of someone who has decided that this is not for me anymore.
23:06Not because I cannot, but because I know what it is, and I don't want that.
23:17Sugar withdrawal is real.
23:22It feels like it can cause tiredness, cloudiness, fatigue, irritability, But your unconscious mind is already prepared for it, considering it a tunnel short or long with a clear light at the end of that tunnel.
23:47And when you get to the other side, you're free of it.
23:53And any inner dialogue that says it's harmless is like .
24:03If you nibble at the bait, it pulls you back in.
24:09If a fish knew the bait had a hook, of course, they'd never eat it, but they don't.
24:19And that's what leads to their demise.
24:24Some people believe that when you know better, you do better.
24:32When you see refined sugar for what it really is, even a commercial of a soft drink of ice cream takes on a sinister connotation, These companies know it's addictive.
24:51It kills people. A hundred years from now, they will look at adverts, for high sugar products in the same way that we look at adverts for cigarette companies in the nineteen fifties.
25:09They knew, and yet they did them anyway.
25:18You are out or soon to be out of that tunnel, already free of it, with no desire to nibble at the bait.
25:33The food industry has little interest in you discovering an energy that is steady rather than spiked.
25:45Your unconscious will crave real, natural foods where your blood sugar levels rise slowly and fall slowly, not spike and crash.
26:05Your body runs clean. You choose food that nourishes, not substances that spike and crash.
26:23It's interesting how the mind works when a habit is removed, Something important that your unconscious can hold onto as a piece of protective wisdom.
26:37The human mind, the reward system is ancient.
26:42It is wired not for health or longevity or spiritual growth, but for immediate relief from discomfort, for the quickest available dopamine, for the nearest exit from an uncomfortable feeling.
27:06And when one door is closed, the mind, with its remarkable efficiency, immediately begins searching for the nearest open door.
27:17And this is why people stop smoking and then start snacking. Stop drinking and begin compulsive online shopping.
27:28Leave one difficult relationship and unconsciously find their way into a structurally identical one.
27:38This is not weakness. It's engineering. The internal reward system doing exactly what it was designed to do.
27:50And because you see the mechanism clearly, you can work with it rather than being worked by it.
28:01You do not replace one crutch with another, one destructive habit with another. You get to choose where your dopamine comes from consciously, deliberately, with full awareness.
28:21And the question your unconscious can sit with is, what do you want to be addicted to?
28:31That drive to seek reward and pleasure is not going away. Nor would you want it to. It's what gets you out of bed.
28:43What draws you towards beauty and connection and craft? The question is only ever toward what shall this drive be aimed?
28:58Your body has its own intelligence about this.
29:03It already knows what it means to feel genuinely well, genuinely alive, And there are activities that produce the same neurochemicals as substances, but without the consequence and the death, without the withdrawal, without the morning after.
29:26The best example is movement, exertion, the physical world meeting the body with real resistance and real reward that also produces dopamine, but also endorphins and serotonin in a form the body recognizes as earned, as real, as sustainable.
29:53An accomplishment, The particular satisfaction of making that important decision, learning that new thing, making something with your hands, getting something done that you've been putting off, all of that also releases that dopamine.
30:18What if you were addicted to movement, exercise, walking, or accomplishment?
30:31This is not a substitute for the thing you are leaving behind. It is something of an entirely different order because a .
30:48Whereas accomplishment gives the feeling of reward because of the underlying reality.
30:58The reward and the achievement are proportionate. And what if you are building a life where your dopamine is real, where the feeling of reward and the thing you have done are connected?
31:18I want you to create an image in your mind, a big jar made of glass, maybe a glass vase.
31:29Just imagine every time you do something that required effort, a difficult decision, you solved a problem.
31:44You did that thing you wanted to do. Just imagine placing a marble in a box next to it into the jar.
31:57Hear it clink.
32:01Maybe it spirals round. Maybe it has that bouncing sound of a glass marble and glass.
32:11When you do the thing, you feel good. When you put the marble in the jar, you feel good.
32:21And every time you see the marbles in the jar accumulating, you feel good.
32:36And I wonder if you could imagine six months from now, six months of being free of alcohol and refined sugar, then I want you to see that jar or that big vase filled with marbles, and then look at clues.
33:03Maybe it's a dog that's smiling and happy.
33:09Maybe it's more energy levels and better sleep. Maybe you feel better in your own body.
33:22Almost like every marble is proof, proof of who you are choosing to be. Proof that you can be addicted to things that enhance your life rather than destroy it.
33:40Choosing to do difficult things when there's every reason not to may encourage you to put two marbles in the jar for something particularly difficult.
34:01And I want you to assess how you would feel about your life six months from now. What trajectory are you on? Where is your life taking you?
34:14Is it better or worse than when evenings were filled drinking wine?
34:24If your unconscious is now willing to shut one door and be very intentional as to the new door you're opening.
34:40Let me know by nodding your head. That's it. And so it's time to return.
34:48You return with clarity.
34:52You return with synergy, alignment, an identity that feels exciting, positive.
35:06It feels like possibility. So take a deep breath in through your nose, hand out through your nose, and wiggle your fingers and wiggle your toes.
35:19Connect and calibrate into the here and the now as I now count from one to 10 to awaken you.
35:29Starting to count.
35:33One, two, three, waking up. Four, five, six. More alert.
35:39Seven, eight. Open your eyes. Open your eyes.
35:43Nine, ten. Wide awake. Wide awake.
35:47Wide awake.
35:58Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the hypnotist. If you've enjoyed this episode or got some value from it, please give it a five star rating and review. And maybe you know someone that would also benefit from this particular episode, In which case, share the episode with them so they can also get the benefit too.
36:20And if you would like to listen to this episode where it's just the hypnosis, so no intro, no outro, no explanation, just the hypnosis and completely ad free.
36:32There will be a link in the description where you can subscribe at a very low cost and only get access to the hypnosis. So if that's of interest, please check that out.
36:43Thank you again for being a regular listener of the hypnotist, and I'll see you again soon for more.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
The Hypnotist opens with a bet: you have at least one habit that is costing you something — energy, health, self-respect. The session that follows does not ask you to fight that habit. It asks you to stop wanting it.
How they asked for the click.
MENTIONED ON CAMERA
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PRIMARY CTAWhere the creator wants you to go next.
OTHER LINKSAlso linked in the description.
