Odd though it may sound, it was hypnosis that got you smoking in the first place!
It's highly unlikely that you decided one day that you'd like to start breathing over 4,500 toxic fumes into your lungs so you could knock at least 10 years off your life, particularly when the first drag on a cigarette is usually very unpleasant. It is more likely that you persevered because you wanted to look cool, tough, sexy, sophisticated (take your pick, cigarettes can do all those things) or because you wanted to be part of a group or to rebel against parents, teachers, society. Lucky for the tobacco companies that you didn't think about rebelling against them. They're quids in because of all those rebels out there (teenage smokers are the biggest growth area for them right now). A client who used to be a Punk and who used cigarettes and booze to rebel, recently reflected on the irony: "We all wanted to be anarchists and to be different. So we all wore the same clothes and listened to the same music, got drunk and smoked....."
Getting back to the point, you bought into an image, an identity. You chose to believe that cigarettes could make you all those things, so they did. If you tell someone something often enough, they'll start to believe it. It's a bit like the story of The Emperor's New Clothes. So if you have come to believe that cigarettes are part of your identity ("I'm a smoker"), that it's difficult to quit, that they relax you or invigorate you (the only drug that can do both? In fact nicotine is a strong stimulant so cannot actually relax you), then that belief lodges itself in your subconscious, automatic thinking. You've been hypnotised!
Hypnosis is a way of communicating ideas to your subconscious mind so that your deeper beliefs can start to change. And our beliefs govern our actions.
So if your beliefs about smoking started to change, just imagine how that might change your actions. If you could start to believe that you'd rather be a non-smoker than someone who's scared to "give them up"; if you started to believe that you could cope with stress, social situations, boredom without a cigarette; if you started to believe that life could be better as a non-smoker, what could happen and how could that be different to the usual half-hearted, fearful efforts to quit?
Speaking of beliefs. Most of us believe what the men in white coats tell us - that nicotine is the most addictive drug out there. Yes, smoking gets the drug into the bloodstream very quickly and effectively. But what they omit to tell us is that nicotine is metabolised and excreted by the body within three days. So after three days you are no longer physically addicted. You may miss the habit. How many habits have you grown out of in your time because they no longer appealed to you or you grew out of them?
It really IS possible to quit the smoking habit in the time it takes to make a decision. To draw a line under it and say enough is enough. To get your life, your health and your self respect back.
Hypnosis helps you to get your mind on your side!
Don't delay any longer.
Contact me for further information. You are most welcome to come along for a free, no obligation 30 minute chat to find out more.
CALL COLCHESTER 01206 548175 / 07947 817464 NOW TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT QUITTING CIGARETTES WITH HYPNOSIS
Hypnotherapy can help with: weight loss, quit smoking, IBS, HypnoBirthing ante-natal classes, stress, phobias, unwanted habits, eating disorders, and most mind-related matters - no matter how odd they may seem. Just ask.
Copyright Alison Bird Clinical Hypnotherapy Colchester Essex 2008. Alison Bird Clinical Hypnotherapy Colchester, Suite 30 The Colchester Business Centre, 1 George Williams Way, Colchester, Essex, CO1 2JS. Tel: 01206 548175 / 07947 817464. Email: abird073@aol.com
Alison Bird DHP MAPHP(Reg) HBCE is a member of the Association for Professional Hypnosis and Psychotherapy, and affiliated to the National Centre for Eating Disorders, Hypno-Band Weight Loss System, and the HypnoBirthing Institute.