Today I’d like to take a break from long articles and just focus on one practical tip you can use right now or whenever you need it.
A few years ago – well, probably 10 years ago by now – I discovered a really good way to get rid of hiccups.
It has worked every time I have used it. In the following years I have told family and friends about it and as far as I can remember it has worked as well for them as it has for me.
You need to focus
Here’s what you do. When you have the hiccups just focus your eyes and attention on something in front of you.
Maybe it’s a road sign, a painting or some other object. Focus on just that thing.
Don’t let anything or anyone else enter your field of focus. Just focus 100% of your attention on that object. Do so for a minute or two and you should have stopped hiccupping.
Why does it work?
My theory, and it’s just a theory, is that hiccups continue because the person having them focuses too much on wanting them to stop.
Just like in the case of much of the mind made suffering in our lives it is fed by you focusing on it and giving it more mental energy. If you shift your focus totally away from thinking about it and just stare at that object in front of you then you stop feeding the hiccups with mental energy.
And so they vanish.
This explanation may of course be totally wrong. :)
But the trick still puts a stop to those annoying hiccups.
What is your best tip for getting rid of the hiccups?
Henrik Edberg is the creator of the Positivity Blog and has written weekly articles here since 2006. He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Gothenburg and has been featured on Lifehacker, HuffPost and Paulo Coelho’s blog.
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Heey, Im breanne and Im 12 years old and this “Method” Worked for me :) Thank god because I had the Hiccups for 3 hours and I could get rid of them! and it only took 1 minute to get Rid of them :)
Thanks
works great to focus on something Thanks!!!!!!
I read through a few of these cures, but none of them worked for me. I eventually gave up and laid down. After lying down for about 10 minutes i realised i had stopped hiccuping.
So, if none of these cures work for you, just lie down!
Wow it worked – i just stared at a word on this page and they were gone in seconds – had them all day before that and tried everything. thanks
Holy hell, it worked. Thanks, I had them for half an hour and couldn’t get any work done. Try focusing on a circle, or black and white colours. Amazing.
amazing — I did a search on this and came across this. Apparently, we discovered the same thing before trying to look it up. Accidentally, we found that by tracing letters very slowly in the air to our 4 month old, he nearly instantly stopped having the hiccups!
Lick the fluffy tail of a cat to instantly get rid of hiccups
What i do is pull my tongue. Hard but not out of your head LOL!!:)))
Then swallow and voila! Gone Works like a charm. Thanks for all the help on comments but they didn’t work i tried mine gone byby
Thanks a million, I Googled the solution this morning, found your blog. Found something to focus on and in it stopped instantly. Amazing…..
og’s solution – i.e taking a sip of water, holding it in your mouth and then bending down the waist on one leg…while you are concentrating on the balance…just gulp the water in….that has worked for me and whoever I tell it to for past 8 years. And yes, ppl make fun of me when I tell them…but it is a party favorite when ppl are drunk and are hiccuping. They always gawk at me when the trick works 9/10 times!
Funny that I found this because what I found that has worked for me is staring at the center of my palm at one spot. The key is to keep focused on one point and to not let your eyes move from that point.
It was so weird the first time that I discovered this method. Works for me everytime.