Hypnosis to Quit Smoking

The decision to quit smoking is not taken lightly. The fact that you are reading this indicates that you are looking for a solution. It is important that it is your decision and you make it willingly and are completely committed to doing what needs to be done to get a positive outcome. This is not about preaching to you to stop smoking or telling you things you as a person already know. It is more about presenting some useful tips and ideas to help you quit smoking in a practical way to meet your to become a permanent non-smoker.

The obvious and immediate answer to this question is going to be a resounding “yes!” – otherwise why would you be doing it? But let’s pause for a minute and think about this in a bit more detail. What exactly is it that you are enjoying about smoking? Can you put your finger on it?

Is it the taste of cigarettes that you enjoy? If so, then why do you inhale when you smoke rather than leave it in your mouth?

You really should think long and hard about this. If smoking is enjoyable, do you believe that you could explain this to a non-smoker who hasn’t experienced it before? You need to be able to persuade a non-smoker about what it is that he or she is going to enjoy so much. And then when they start to cough and splutter, you need to be able to explain why they’re not doing it properly. It sounds ridiculous doesn’t it? But if smoking is enjoyable, then shouldn’t it be enjoyable to someone who hasn’t done it before?

Or, you can enjoy quitting smoking instead! It makes more sense, doesn’t it?

Nicotine is generally thought of as an addictive substance. But think about drugs that we know to be highly addictive. If the addict can’t get hold of them, they experience all kinds of serious, physical withdrawal symptoms which may require medical intervention.

Ask yourself the following question; if you were living on a remote mountaintop for a few days and couldn’t get hold of any cigarettes, would you suffer from such severe withdrawal symptoms such as vomiting and seizures? No, probably not.

You will hear continued arguing that smoking is not about addiction, it’s about habit. Nicotine leaves your system after a few days of stopping smoking. Once it’s gone what you are left with is a strong habit and cravings that you probably associate with other experiences – socialising, drinking coffee, driving etc. Habits can be very strong, but they don’t take long to form. We believe that you can develop new and healthy habits very quickly too.

Hypnotherapy is one of the best interventions when it comes to breaking habits like quitting smoking. With smoking, we are going to help to break the mental loops that keep you from smoking each day. You’ll feel less stress and more free. The fear you have about quitting smoking and how you will handle it will be gone.

Make no mistake, nicotine is a very powerful substance and the first few days can be uncomfortable because your body is losing the nicotine. It is important to understand this and be prepared for it. Perhaps pamper yourself a little, to begin with.

But always look for the positive angle to quit smoking. See the slight discomfort of the first few days not as your body withdraws, but as your body sheds the harmful toxins and poisons and starts to repair itself. Once those first two or three days are over you are dealing with a habit, albeit a strong one, but something that you can easily handle.

Find someone who has successfully become a non smoker and ask them how the first few days were. They’ll probably tell you they were fine. It is all part of the very positive process of becoming a non smoker.

Dr Alfred A. Barrios (PhD) conducted a study for the Psychotherapy Magazine (Volume 7, Issue 1) to investigate the effectiveness of Hypnotherapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Psychoanalysis (Psychology) on mental health disorders.

The results he uncovered astonished the clinical community…

• After 60 sessions of Psychotherapy without hypnosis, there was a mere 38% success rate.

• After only 22 sessions of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, there was a 72% success rate.

• However, after just 6 sessions of Hypnotherapy, there was a whopping 93% success rate!

Using willpower to quit involves giving up smoking even though deep down you don’t really want to. Think about that. We have an inbuilt resistance to being told to do things that we don’t want to do, or don’t think we should do – it’s a basic survival instinct. The majority of people who try to quit smoking, particularly on their first attempt, are pulled into the myth that it will be unpleasant and difficult, and it will be if you use willpower. You are fighting your own instincts and creating an internal battle with yourself as the (formidable) opponent. So forget willpower and start thinking about what you really want in life.

Choice means you quit smoking because you want to give up. And when you reach the point when you stop because you want to, you’ll find that there’s no resistance left – nothing to fight against. This is the critical point when it becomes easy to quit smoking. Stop making yourself do it and start wanting to do it.

You don’t have to wait years to see all the positive effects of a quit smoking success. Your health will start to improve within minutes of stopping smoking as you rid yourself of harmful toxins. Again, according to medical experts, within 20 minutes of smoking cessation, your blood pressure and pulse rate return to normal. After eight hours, nicotine and carbon monoxide levels in the blood reduce by half, and your oxygen levels return to normal. Over the next few hours and days, you will see other beneficial changes, such as your lungs clearing themselves out and becoming strong again, your sense of smell and taste improving, and your breathing becoming clearer.

You will start to notice even more positive changes within the next few weeks and months after stopping. Imagine how you will feel after a year of being a permanent non smoker! Eventually, you can be as healthy as if you never smoked, as your body heals itself. This is amazing – but true. Think fresh air and health rather than a risk of lung cancer.

For many smokers, quitting is simply to do with the issue of how much money they spend on cigarettes. Of course, compared to your health, money absolutely is not an important issue, but perhaps you might like to spend a few minutes considering exactly how much money you spend on smoking, and what you could do with it if you stopped.

Use the calculator here to figure out how much you’re spending on cigarettes a year, and we think you’ll find that investing in quitting is a great long-term strategy.

The best time to stop smoking is when it feels right for you. Don’t let anyone tell you it can’t be done, including yourself. The problem with setting a date for the future is that it stops you from dealing with it now. It also doesn’t allow for the possibility that maybe you won’t want to stop that day. Forget significant dates like birthdays, New Year’s Eve, Christmas etc and stop when it’s right for you. That’s not to say that those dates aren’t OK to stop on, they may be right for you. Ideally, make that today, you’re obviously already thinking about it.

Every year, thousands of people stop smoking on a certain, pre-planned day and only manage to stay stopped for a few days. But don’t worry if this happens to you. Don’t beat yourself up or see it as a failure. You may have to try two or three times before you stop smoking permanently. View it as a platform for future success.

There are many natural ways to quit smoking that don’t involve drugs or nicotine replacement therapies. Hypnotherapy is one such natural method of stopping smoking that we would recommend. Hypnotherapy has helped a great many people stop smoking and its major benefits are that it’s natural, relatively cheap and doesn’t involve pumping nicotine into your body.

You’ll read or hear in some places that there is no clinical evidence for hypnotherapy’s effectiveness. Don’t believe a word of it. The problem is that the kind of research methods used to investigate pills and patches is not appropriate for assessing hypnosis.