You Can Stop Smoking NOW!
Hypnosis Makes It Easy to Take Back Control
MINDSET, NOT WILLPOWER
For most people, the absolute worst way to attempt to deal with a smoking habit is through the use of willpower. Like moods and emotions, willpower fluctuates. One day it is strong. The next day you may be having a down day, and willpower fades. It is usually neither consistent nor effective.
Among stop-smoking procedures, there are countless methods, programs, substitute products, chewing gums and patches, prescriptions, books, self-help audios and videos, etc. Many are designed to help build up the personal power to resist or overcome the addiction. Hypnosis is different. Hypnosis does not work at achieving the strength to resist. It is designed to eliminate the desire. Instead of giving up something that a person enjoys (a sacrifice), the individual's goal is to be rid of something that isn't wanted -- a much more agreeable position psychologically.
REASONS FOR SMOKING
There are two principle reasons for smoking: Identification and Replacement. Identification is the situation in which the smoker indulges in the habit because others, whom he admires, do so ? family members, friends, peers, colleagues, movie & celebrity figures, etc. Identification smoking is the most common and the easiest to eliminate.
Replacement smoking occurs when smoking is used to replace some deficit in life ? lack of self-esteem, companionship, love, acceptance, security, independence, etc ? or as a means to curb some coexisting habit such as overeating, or reaction to anxiety, anger, stress or boredom.
People who engage in replacement smoking often derive sensual gratification from smoking ? they enjoy touching or feeling the cigarettes, tapping the pack, seeing the flame of a lighter or curling of smoke as it rises, or the smell of tobacco burning. Often the lighting of the cigarette (or cigar or pipe) becomes in itself a ritual. Replacement smoking quite often is a true and severe compulsion, stronger than merely identifying with others to fit in.
THE NATURE OF SMOKING
Smoking is both a physical and mental activity. Therefore, to achieve success in a stop-smoking effort, you must change not only the physical experience, but the mental attitude around it. Through hypnosis it is possible to change both your perception of the habit, as well as the taste of a cigarette from pleasurable to unpleasurable. The aversion techniques of psychotherapy, when utilized in hypnotherapeutic applications, can produce dramatic results. When this is accomplished, problems often associated with the cessation of smoking tend to be avoided.
An example that may serve to illustrate this is castor oil (or any other bad tasting medicine). When a person gives up the ingestion of castor oil, there are no withdrawal symptoms. There are no cravings or dependency upon it which cause the person to compensate for the lack of the medicine through other actions like overeating, sucking hard candies, or whatever. They are just relieved to be done with it!
Sure, one could argue that nicotine is a drug, a substance that is physically addictive to the body. But those who have successfully stepped away from their smoking habit recognize that their problem ? and the solution to it ? actually resided in their mindset. To whatever degree nicotine might have a hold on you, your mind by far is so much more powerful.
It is important to determine just what personal need is being satisfied by smoking. Data on why, when, and where smoking is indulged can reveal information helpful in planning your stop smoking program. Some smokers seek to fill a need to nurture themselves ? to lessen loneliness, or get a "pickup" at the start of or during the day. Others feel smoking will relieve stress, help with focus, or provide moments of relaxation. Still more feel cigarette smoking makes social connections more comfortable. The reality is that a bad habit adopted for the purpose of resolving other problems often proves to be destructive ? and in the end, smoking truly does eliminate the problem by destroying the smoker.
VISUALIZATION
One of the most powerful attributes of the human psyche is the ability to use one?s imagination. For many types of problems, a professional hypnotist will program the client?s mind to accept the belief that, ?What the mind can conceive, you can achieve!" This is also a common concept in fields of positive thinking, spiritual faith, meditation and others ? and for good reason.
The ability to creatively visualize is frequently under-developed in many people, having been associated with childhood playtime and thus abandoned ages ago. However, it happens to be your secret superpower, and you can learn how to tap into and harness it for achieving any goal. Imagination is the key to facilitating change, and hypnosis can help develop and focus your powers of visualization.
In stop-smoking programs, the ability to visualize one's self as a non-smoker, free from past effects of the habit, filled with new health, energy and vitality, is a major asset. Visualization enables the client to picture in their mind, cigarettes as unappealing, bad tasting, foul smelling and otherwise revolting. Likewise, it is possible to picture and otherwise sense the opposite: fresh breath and sensitive tastes, a healthy body breathing clean air, and enjoying freedom.
HOW FAST DOES HYPNOSIS WORK?
The risks entailed by continuing to smoke have been analyzed and stressed for decades now, but this has not made it any easier for smokers like you to ditch those cigarettes in the nearest trash can. Even though people who smoke do have a lot of common around the reasons for their habit, not everyone responds to hypnosis in exactly the same way. Of the many hypnotic procedures available for helping someone become a non-smoker, permanently for life, the professional hypnotist is going to consider each client individually and select an approach which is most appropriate for them. Depending on several factors, it may be that three, four or even five sessions will be required.
Make Saying NO to Smoking EASY!
For many individuals, just quitting outright is easiest and thus they achieve the cessation of their smoking habit in just a single session, with additional sessions used for reinforcement to ensure permanence of change. In other cases, it may be a gradual reduction in the number of cigarettes smoked that proves to be their path to success. With either approach, it is important you learn effective strategies for dealing with stressful events ? a common reason cited by those who had failed to stay quit on previous attempts. Individual private sessions have the advantage of being adjustable to match the needs and personality of each client, as well as to identify and deal with specific factors driving their habit, and to address setbacks, challenges, and other similar matters not fitting to group work.
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