Hypnosis to quit smoking

Smoking is reported as one of the most difficult vices to give up. Because it is such a difficult habit to drop, all those quit smoking aids came onto the market.  Things like nicotine patches, artificial cigarettes, and nicotine gums were produced to help smokers get through nicotine cravings while they gave up smoking. 

Relaxation exercises, deep-breathing, and yoga have also been used to calm people down while they are trying to quit, and some people find it easy to simply be hypnotized to stop smoking.

Hypnosis is more than just relaxing in a comfy chair and listening to someone tell you what to do, or waking up and magically being a non-smoker. You need the appropriate positive suggestions and also some homework to act as a foundation on which to successfully quit. 

But how does hypnosis help in the fight to quit cigarettes?

Hypnotherapy does have a high success rate in getting smokers to completely quit, and it often focuses on the positive benefits of having clean breath, taste buds that come alive, feeling more energetic and being healthier, having more money, and managing stress, boredom or rebelliousness in healthy ways.

Usually people who decide to quit smoking on their own, without any help such as hypnosis, find that craving and withdrawals are hard to handle.  Symptoms might include stress, fidgeting, dry mouth, nicotine craving, quitter’s flu, irritability, impatience, anxiety, anger, tiredness, sweet craving, and a feeling of tightness in the chest. 

Smokers have been conditioned to respond to non-availability of cigarettes with those automatic behaviours.  When being hypnotized to quit smoking and become a clean air breather, withdrawals and cravings and stress and tension seem to disappear, as if by magic.  It’s not of course, it’s just the new conditioned responses occur and they cancel out the old patterns of behaviour.

To get you started in the right direction, why not begin to explore all your options that you could choose instead of a cigarette.  Write them down and have them on a card nearby to remind you.

First on the list should be deep breathing, so take three slow deep breaths, imagining that you are breathing in calm and letting everything else go when you breathe out.  Hold each breath for at least 7 counts, and then exhale fully. Really focus on your lungs, noticing the movement of your ribs, the feel of winding down inside yourself.

Find something to laugh about.  Laughter increases endorphins, the happy hormones and that reduces stress and agitation.  Maybe imagine telling friends about something funny, even if it is the funny sight of you giving up smoking. 

Also, I read that oranges have bioflavinoids and bioflavinoids help to combat cravings.  Plus, peeling the orange keeps your hands busy, and the smell of the orange is a lot better than a cigarette and will taste better too.

Also get up and have a glass of water, and go outside and do some stretches, while you take in long slow deep breaths.

You’ve probably seen a hypnotist on television or in a movie, and it is so much more than what is usually portrayed.  You cannot make someone do something that they don’t want to do, so in fact if you aren’t ready or committed to being a clean air breather, then hypnosis will confirm that even further.  It could stiffen the resolve to resist quitting. 

If you have decided to quit smoking then hypnosis may very well be a clean, habit-free way to go (after all chewing nicotine gum is just another habit!) without craving or withdrawals.