Origin of Mental Block

[geniesong]

Soooo I have a mental block (as I’m sure some of you do as well) and I hate it, so if you have tips on how to get rid of it, I will gladly accept them! Also, I'm curious as to how you think your mental block began and if you're wanting to get rid of it. But anyway, I’m gonna tell you about the evolution of mine instead of doing my homework 👍

I’ve had the fetish since I was a kid (before I was even aware that it was a fetish), but I was okay with the idea of sneezing back then. However, sometime in middle school, I just randomly decided that I didn’t want to sneeze in front of other people (I’m pretty sure it was because I didn’t want to draw attention to it via blessing). What I did was I taught myself how to sneeze quietly (and I’d like to think I’m pretty good at it). Over time, I just didn’t end up sneezing in front of others (I've used this as one of my "quirky fun facts about me" a few times). Around late high school, I became aware of this fact about myself and decided I didn’t mind the attention (also life is hard; I need all the blessings I can get). The problem was I essentially conditioned myself to not sneeze in front of other people (aka the birth of the mental block).

Nowadays when I feel the oh-so familiar urge, it either goes away or goes away in the middle of the sneeze resulting in a half-sneeze. To me, that’s super annoying. I would much rather have the sneeze go to completion and me silence it when necessary than have it tease me. Also, I just want my friends to finally hear me sneeze (I don't know why). Recently, I’ve noticed that the mental block may be getting stronger, possibly because of me reading the forum more.

I think one of the only times I was able to overcome the mental block was when I was essentially being traumatized (I managed to sneeze four times in front of my friends that day). I've been trying to sneeze in front of family (which is already yikes for obvious reasons), but the closest I've gotten is sneezing in a room that my mom isn't in but it's within earshot.

Not only is sneezing really satisfying (especially since I don't do it that often, even when I’m by myself), I see overcoming the mental block as a way to be more comfortable with the fetish and not be so embarrassed by it (within myself, of course; there’s no way I’m telling anyone I know in real life about it).

So yeah. That's my spiel. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk 😊

[Trynasneeze]

I don't really have a mental block now but once upon I time I did - big time. 

Sneezing around people was never too bad but there was no way I would blow my nose, sniff or even want to appear sick around others, especially my family. 

[Mal]

I totally understand the block. Even though it sounds like it has become a somewhat subconscious thing, remember with your conscious mind as much as you can that sneezing is completely mundane to the rest of the world. I think even if we know that intellectually, it gets really hard to internalize since sneezing has such meaning and impact for us! To everyone else, it's like a yawn or any other mostly boring bodily function and it has definitely helped me in the past to really think about that. 

Otherwise, I wonder if there is a way for you to sort of ease yourself into sneezing in front of others. Maybe a good baby step could be exactly what you already described-- sneezing within earshot of other people but not in the same room as them. A few years ago when I was trying to get more comfortable with my boyfriend witnessing me sneeze, I actually used to induce when I was in the next room over (like if I was showering and he was in the other room or something) and it let me acclimate to knowing he knew what my sneeze sounded like and getting blessed by him (which was great, it just always made me feel exposed and vulnerable)! Anyway, if you can get your sneezes to come to fruition when you're in earshot of people but not necessarily right next to them, maybe you can slowly retrain your brain to be okay with sneezing around others. And of course always remember it means nothing to them!!