Stop Smoking with London Hypnosis - I Will Stop After...

So you have decided that you do want to stop smoking but not until after....

a) That wedding
b) The Stag/Hen night
c) Our Holiday
d) The World Cup
e) Christmas
f) The New Year
g) The funeral
h) The exams
i) The interview
j) I have moved house
k) When I have settled in
l) My operation
m) The divorce
n) I am dead

Do you see how many excuses there are to not stop yet. The only sure time that you will stop smoking is n) above. That's right when you are dead.

Yet, there will always be up and coming events in our life. As soon as one is over there will be another on the horizon.

If you always wait for the next one to be over with before you stop smoking, you will always be waiting to stop.

You know that you can't keep putting it off. If you need extra help or support to stop smoking then seek that help out. What ever you do don't wait because you will get the place very soon where you will wish you had done it.

If you would like the help of an experienced stop smoking hypnotherapist which is a great way of stopping smoking then look no further.

Quit Smoking - Only When You Are Ready !

As has been suggested in previous articles, the number one asset and resource that anyone has, is their decision to do something. Certainly this is very true of successfully stopping smoking.

Attempting to stop smoking for the wrong reason as virtually always doomed to fail. One of the wrong reasons might be convenience. What I mean by this is that you decide to stop but not because you are necessarily ready or committed to stopping it is just that a convenient situation as occurred for you. Let me explain...

A friend or partner husband or wife who is a smoker makes the suggestion that it would be a good idea to stop together. On the face of it this seems to be a great idea because you can support each other in remaining stopped and there is this nice feeling of doing something together... camaraderie or team spirit you might call it.

Unfortunately, in reality although both participants know they ought to stop smoking at some point in time, usually on this occasion it usually means that one person is really ready to stop but the other is going along with it because it is convenient or they have got caught up in this being a good idea without giving it too much thought.

Then what happens is that the person who hasn't really made up their mind to stop, will at some point try and persuades or cajoles the other into just having that one. If they succeed in persuading the other to have one, they will both fail. It is a kind of collusion to smoke, just as those of us colluded to smoke the very first time when we were young. In fact we did it because our peers did it and we wanted to be part of that crowd... accepted. Here is an example of the same influences happening again.

That is why it is vital to stop smoking for your own good reasons and not to do it out of convenience. The convenience aspect will often come into the equation when someone decides to stop smoking with the help of a hypnotherapist. Let us say the wife has decided to do this. But the wife, although motivated to stop smoking now, will not have had hypnotherapy before and may have some anxiety about it. A way of overcoming that anxiety is to encourage the husband to quit with the aid of hypnosis too. Here again one person is persuading the other to quit and with a particular method, when they haven't really reached their time and decision to quit.

Any hypnotherapist who naturally wants his or her clients to succeed will need to ensure that both husband and wife really do want to stop and have made up their minds that they want to do it right now. This being the case, then doing it together can be a real asset as the sense of doing it with others can strengthen their resolve to stick to their decision.

I certainly emphasise to people who come along in pairs for quit smoking hypnosis sessions, whether mates, husband and wife, or partners, that they should be there for each other to keep to their decision to quit smoking for good and not to collude together to smoke.

Quitting Smoking - Ways to Stop

There are numerous ways that people use to stop smoking. People do actually succeed in stopping smoking but the same method of stopping does not work for everyone and sometimes the same method may finally work only after a second or third attempt at it is tried.

The most popular methods used to quit smoking and not in any particular order are: -

1) Willpower
2) Cutting down
3) Hypnosis
4) Patches, Gum, Lozenges
5) False Cigarette
6) Zyban
7) Acupuncture
8) Shock event

There is no doubt that each of these methods have been successful in helping someone to stop smoking. They work in slightly different ways to each other and I will attempt to describe each method and in my opinion the pros and cons of each


1) Willpower
This is probably the most used method for stopping smoking and one that does work. Actually a certain amount of willpower will be required no matter what method of quitting smoking you use. Unfortunately willpower kind of suggests a fight and suggests that if you are strong minded you will succeed and that if you fail you are weak minded. The description willpower is not helpful as far as stopping smoking is concerned because of the perceived battle that the word suggests. A better word would be 'decision'. Just make your decision and then that can be that. But make it a final decision and not some half-hearted attempt and then you can quit successfully.

2) Cutting down
This involves willpower with the idea of feedback that you are succeeding plus knowing that you are gradually weaning yourself off any perceived chemical dependency of cigarettes. In theory it sounds great because if each day you smoke one less cigarette you know you are getting closer to stopping. Unfortunately in order to know how many cigarettes you are smoking you have to count them and then know at any particular moment of the day how many you have had and how many more you can have. This method means that you have to think about smoking much more than if you were smoking freely. If something is on your mind more often, then it can make it harder to stop it. If you really want to succeed with using the cutting down method, don't get into counting each cigarette.

A better tactic is to decide to leave out certain cigarettes such as the one at 10:30 or the one after lunch. This way you don’t have to count how many you are smoking and yet you know you are cutting down.

3) Hypnosis
This method still requires 'willpower' or even better the 'decision' from the smoker that they want to stop. Hypnosis does not take away the choice of the person to smoke but rather it supports the decision to stop. It is like getting some extra help to support your decision to stop. Importantly it uses suggestions that are aimed at the stronger part of the mind, the subconscious mind, to let get of this old outdate and no longer useful response to life.

4) Patches, Gum and Lozenges
These methods still give you nicotine. The idea is that it helps with any withdrawal symptoms you may ordinarily put down to stopping smoking. It is an odd sort of logic in that patches, gum and lozenges still give you nicotine as a way of helping you to stop taking nicotine via cigarettes. Also as long as you chew gum, suck lozenges or have to wear a patch it constantly reminds you of smoking. A constant reminder is not a useful method to use to help stop doing something.

5) False Cigarette
This is a substitute for the action and behaviour of smoking but without the intake of all the chemicals involved. It helps those who would ordinarily miss doing something with the hands, or those who would feel less confident with having nothing in their hands. The down side is that although you are no longer inhaling all those poisons you are still keeping the habit and behaviour of smoking going.

6) Zyban
This is a prescribed drug that was found to help smokers deal with any perceived chemical withdrawal symptoms. The idea is that if the physical side of smoking is being aided by zyban than all you have to do is to deal with the action or routine of smoking. As soon as you have stopped the routine and discovered you are okay and life can carry on then you can, under your doctor's direction, come off zyban. Once again a method that may work for some but there may be side effects of using zyban which need consideration before using this method.

7) Acupuncture
This is the ancient Chinese treatment that inserts needles in certain acupuncture points on the body. The acupuncture points are not random but are definite and accurate places on the body. The idea with acupuncture is to enable the free flow of energy known as chi (pronounced 'chee') to flow along the meridian lines in the body. Blocks in the energy flow can cause or relate to issues whether physical, mental or emotional. For some people, acupuncture treatment has succeeded in helping them to stop smoking.

8) Shock event
For many people a shock of some sort will cause them to finally quit smoking. The shock may be the discovery of some smoking related illness such as cancer or it may be the loss of a friend or relative. Either way it brings home to the smoker their own mortality and what part they play in staying well and healthy. No one really chooses to be unhealthy. The shock event can work for many people and help them to stop smoking. Where the shock event fails is when, over time, the shock fades and feels more distant and the ex-smoker once again feels comfortable with smoking.

The overriding asset and best resource in using any of the above methods is the decision to stop smoking. So just make your decision to stop smoking and then stick to it.

Stop Smoking - Women Who Want to Quit Smoking

Ordinarily you would think that quitting smoking is the same for both sexes. Whether you are a man or woman there can be a variety of common reasons for starting smoking in the first place and another range of common reasons for quitting smoking across the sexes. Whilst on the surface this may appear true, there are important differences to understand which can definately aid quitting smoking for women.

According to research women start smoking and quit smoking for different reasons to men. For instance weight control is seen as a perceived benefit of smoking. Although smoking can help with weight control it does not help as much as it is perceived to help. As a clinical hypnotherapist I invariably ask my female clients who want to stop smoking this question "What would you rather deal with, a few extra pounds of weight or cancer?". Often the response will be that they fear the extra weight. Of course this can be because the weight gain can seem more immediate and possible, whereas cancer seems more distant and less likely to happen.

Another reason why women may smoke is because of their closer emotional bonding to other women. Women are natural empathisers and in empathising with a close friend, if that friend is a smoker, by also smoking themselves they may perceive or feel that they understand their friend's issue. To a lesser degree this response is true during a work break when a number of female colleague's will smoke together and is another way of keeping strong bonds intact.

Stopping smoking, when female friends are continuing to smoke, can make the new quitter feel isolated and distant from formerly close friends and colleagues.

Yet a third influence on women quitting smoking is their cycle. For those women who suffer irritability or worse during their cycle, it would not be a good idea to add to this by quitting smoking at the same time.

In order to make your chances of success in quitting smoking increase following these tips to deal with the above issues can help tremendously :-

Weight Fears
If you worry that you may put on weight when you stop smoking, make a plan to deal with this possibility before it happens such as :-
1) Increase the exercise you currently undertake such as
a) If you go to the gym, do a few more repititions or push yourself a bit harder
b) Introduce a form or exercise that is fun and social such as line dancing,
salsa dancing or even a social game of barminton, table tennis etc
c) Instead of riding up escalators, get into the habit of walking up them
d) Instead of taling the lift, walk up those flights of stairs
2) Reduce the amount you eat. Cut out something like an unncessary snack. May be that biscuit with a cup of coffee
3) Substitute ehealthier foods for fattening ones. Instead of that bag ofd crisps have an apple or better still a citrus fruit such as an orange
4) Introduce more water into your daily lifestyle even if it is just a couple of glasses of water a day. A glass of water that is taken 10 minutes before a meal will take the edge of your appetite.

Empathising With Friends
1) Find a more supportive way of helpibng your friend other that jointly poisoning yourselves. This can be by :-
a) Making yourself available at anytime on the telephone to give your friend
support
b) Being a non-judgemental and solution orientated listener
c) Letting them know you are there for them
d) Suggesting forms of help or available support


Timing
Choose a time in the month when you know you are at your peak physically, emotionally and mentally and not when you are about to enter your cycle. Quitting smoking just after your menstrual cycle and when you are feeling good and on the up can be great timing.

We are all different whether men or women and ultimately knowing yourself, what makes you tick and when the best time is here for you to stop smoking, is the biggest asset to your success.

Smoking - An Addiction or Habit ? (Part 2)

If smoking is not a 100% physical addiction what is it? Well, you would be more accurate in descrobing it as a psychological addiction.

What is a psychological addiction? It is a mental urge or reminder to do something because of a particular trigger or stimulus. Let me explain. If you ask a smoker the times they normally reach for a cigarette they will list somthing very similar to the following :-

1) With a coffee first thing in the morning
2) Before breakfast
3) After breakfast
4) In the car on the way to work
5) Whilst walking from home to the bus / tube / train
6) From the bus / tube / train to work
7) During regular wok breaks ( every hour or 90 minutes or ?)
8) Around meals
9) With an alcoholic drink
10) When I am on the telephone
11) When I feel stressed
12) when I am bored

These times or events and many more trigger a response in the smoker to smoke. It's a bit like when you think of salt you think of pepper. In other words the smoker has made an association between these times and events. An association is something you have just gotten used to being there or happening. In other words it has become habitual. You do one thing and the other comes with it. You eat a meal and then you light up.

Habits are automatic responses that we have to many events and/or stimuli. They are also learnt responses. we are not born with them... they are acquired via repitition.

If you think about aboutit, one of the reasons humans are successful is their ability to learn something new and rapidly make it into a habit, second nature, something that can be done without thinking about it. This is really what a habit is. The marvellous thing about smoking mainly being a habit is that you. the smoker are in control and can change it.

Everytime we change jobs because of a promotion or jump to a new organisation we are dropping old habits and picking up new habits. The new organisation will do things differnetly from the old one. New procedures, new systems and new personnel all have to be gotten used to. So as the new employee for a little while it feels all new but quite soon we get to know where things are, how this organisation likes things to be done and we develop new habits and we feel secure and confident.

The same is true when we move home. A new home in a different location brings with it different neighbours, shopping habits, and new routes and travelling arrangements. It seems strange to start off with but very soon we get used to it and it becomes second nature. It becomes a habit.

This is the same for stopping smoking. We survived perfectly well before we started smoking and we can survive just as well as a non-smoker again. It really is about just dropping an old outdated habit.

One of the best forms of support for dropping any habit is hypnotherapy. Hypnosis enables positive suggestions for change to be absorbed, accepted and understood by the powerful part of the mind, the subconscious.

Smoking - An Addiction or Habit ? (Part 1)

When smokers think about quitting smoking they will consider what it is they are trying to stop. Part of that thinking, (depending on how easy or hard they find it to stop) may be whether smoking is a habit or an addiction.

If you were to ask the person in the street this question "What is more difficult to stop - a habit or an addiction?", you would no doubt get a majority saying that an addiction is far harder to stop. In fact calling something that we get an urge to do, an addiction, can rob us of our power. It is almost like saying 'I can't stop because I am addicted' or 'I can't stop because I am not in control'. An addiction has many people perceiving that they have little or no control. This is part of the issue with stopping smoking. If you view it as a total addiction, and have accepted the above perception of an addiction, then you have now made quitting smoking much harder in your mind.

Of course an addiction is quite a general term. There can be different types of addiction such as a physical or a psychological addiction. A physical addiction is when the body craves for something and a psychological addiction is when the mind believes it wants or needs something.

Now, coming back to stopping smoking, is it a physical or psychological addiction, both or something else? This area has many differing opinions. After all with over 4,500 chemicals entering the body with any single puff it would seem logical to assume that there must be some physical addiction. Yet when sleeping for 6, 7 or 8 hours and then waking up in the morning the vast majority of smokers will NOT smoke immediately upon waking. They may have breakfast, or wash, or have a cup of coffee first before lighting up. If smoking really was a 100% physical addiction then surely the body having been without those 4,500 chemicals during sleep would be craving for a cigarette so much that the smoker would have to light up immediately. However in many cases this does not happen.

The majority of airlines have a non-smoking policy. Some of the long haul fights might last for 12-14 hours. This policy would be impossible to keep if smoking tobacco was a 100% physical addiction would it not? The vast majority of smokers find coping with a long haul flight no problem at all.

So can smoking really be an physical addiction? Answering that question might just be enough to help you quit smoking for good.

Smoking - What is it ?

Smoking tobacco has been something that people do for numerous reasons for centuries. It is the inhalation of smoke from the burning of tobacco. Originally at least that is what it was. The tobacco leaf was shredded and rolled up or stuffed in a pipe and lit. The fumes or smoke were then inhaled. Why was this started - who knows - maybe it was seen as a cure for some breathing complaint. However it started though, most people who smoke will want to quit smoking .... eventually.

Today many more chemicals are inhaled into the smoker's lungs than when the practise first started. In fact there are more than 4,500 chemicals in every drag that a smoker takes. Some of these chemicals are in their naturally, others are added as part of the manufacturing process. The majority of these chemicals which include hydrogen cyanide, methane, acetone and countless others would harm you in isolation... so just imagine what those chemicals do in combination.

I believe that in today's faster society our food intake does not contain the goodness (vitamins, minerals, nutrients etc) in the same quantities that the previous generation enjoyed. Foods are processed quickly for economical reasons and many additives good and bad are included. So our bodies do not get as much goodness from the food we ingest. This may be a contributory factor in why people can contract illnesses, allergies, sensitivities to many things and can result in conditions such as eczema, psoriasis and IBS to name a few. It also means that our bodies are not so capable of dealing with all those 4,500 chemicals from tobacco smoke. It is a wonder we survive the first puff !

The sooner we decide to stop smoking the better. Believing that the decision to quit smoking can be left until we are in our forties, fifties, sixties or later is a bit like playing russian roulette with your life. Just because you might be able to say that no one has contracted any of the horrible illnessness from smoking in your family so far, does not mean that you won't. After all someone has to be the first.

Why not make sure that it isn't you. Quit smoking today because tomorrow...