Cigarette smoking can be a nasty habit. Every year more facts are unearthed about the destructive effects of smoking. Smokers show much higher rates of many kinds of cancer, as well as increased risk of heart disease, strokes, emphysema, asthma, kidney failure, osteoporosis, diabetes, and a host of other conditions. It is estimated that smokers live at least 7 years less than the rest of us. What is worse is the loss of their quality of life. Chronic coughing, wrinkled grey skin, chronic tiredness, and loss of sexual desire and potency all make the smoker look and feel much older than their biological age. If you are finally ready to give up this destructive habit, this article can help give you the tools you need to quit.
Cigarettes are a very difficult habit to quit. Nicotine is a dangerous and addictive drug. But cigarettes are also filled with hundreds of other chemicals, including radioactive polonium (present in pesticides) refined sugar, (highly addictive when inhaled) and various additives that are both dangerous and addictive. The oxidation products of cigarettes, which are produced by burning, are also dangerous and addictive. They include benzene, tar, and numerous other chemicals. In addition, the act of holding, lighting, and inhaling a cigarette is a soothing ritual that is quite psychologically habituating. I’ve been told by many clients that cigarettes are more addictive than heroine, marijuana, and many other drugs.
Fortunately, hypnotherapy offers a broad range of techniques that can help you to quit more easily than you can imagine. And here’s some more good news. Researchers have found that even heavy smokers can recover their full lung functions and restore their health within a few years of quitting. Some research indicates that if you quit by age 45 you can completely recover within 5 years. Even people who quit in their sixties can restore a great deal of their body’s health within a few years. If you are a smoker who has been longing to restore your health, youthfulness and vitality, don’t wait until you are crippled by disease. Quit now. This article will show you how. If you are not a smoker, but know someone who needs to quit, download this article and its sequel to give to that smoker in your life. Now a message for that smoker:
First, sit down and evaluate all the reasons you have for quitting. Do some research on the costs of smoking to yourself and those you care about. Take an inventory of your health. Notice how many of your health conditions are connected to smoking. Notice your wrinkled pale skin, for example. This is the result of cigarette smoke closing off your circulation. This same destruction is going on beneath the surface of your skin as well, slowly choking the life out of every organ in your body. Notice your low energy, chronic cough, difficulty breathing, sinus congestion, aching muscles or joints. All of these are caused or aggravated by cigarettes. These are the health consequences of smoking. Write down this inventory and share it with your closest friends and family.
There are also social and aesthetic consequences to smoking. Did you know that second hand smoke kills over 10,000 people a year? You could be killing the people you love most. Plus, the smell of stale cigarette smoke is not very attractive to most people. Are you tired of being surrounded by that stale odor? Maybe your family is tired of it too. One friend told me she stopped kissing her husband of twenty years because she hated kissing an ashtray. If you want more friendship, affection, romance, or sex in your life, consider quitting now. And what kind of lessons are you teaching your children when you smoke around them? That they should kill themselves slowly like you? Smoking also destroys taste buds and the sense of smell. Are you ready to enjoy the taste of food again? When was the last time you enjoyed the smell of flowers, or the delicate aroma of a woman’s perfume, or fields after a rain? When was the last time you enjoyed swimming, or running with sheer pleasure, or playing tennis with a friend? You can have it all back by quitting now.
Using some of the information I’ve provided, imagine yourself now free of cigarettes, and your health restored. Picture yourself every day enjoying the pleasures of health, vitality, pleasurable physical activities, affection and play with family and friends. Enjoy in your imagination the delights of tastes and smells again. Spend a few minutes every day and every night visualizing this new life, and say to yourself: “I deserve these things! I will have these things!” Write down these visions also and share them with friends and family.
Now we have built the motivation to quit smoking. The next step is to remember if you have quit before, even for a few days. Most smokers have quit at least a few times before. Stop thinking “That failed” and start thinking “That worked…for awhile.” Now remember, WHAT worked? Nicotine gum? A hypnotic tape? Acupuncture? Whatever methods worked before, however temporarily, can work again, and be even more successful today! Commit yourself now to using those methods to quit again.
Now its time to recognize that you need help. Ask friends to support you in quitting. Find a support group of ex-smokers perhaps. And most important, I recommend that you contact a certified hypnotherapist to help. Hypnotherapy is the only form of therapy that addresses the habit of smoking and its causes in the subconscious mind. While a hypnotherapist may charge $200 or more to help you quit, this represents a tiny fraction of what cigarettes are costing you in one year, and an even smaller fraction of the costs to your body, your health, and your happiness. It’s important to find a hypnotist who is familiar with smoking cessation and feels warm and trustworthy to you. Don’t worry about whether they are a “licensed” psychologist or physician. Most have little training or experience with smoking cessation. More important is their years of training and experience with addictions in general and smoking in particular. Don’t hesitate to shop around. You are worth it.
The next article in our series will examine 8 hypnotic strategies that specially trained hypnotherapists use that can help you quit. These include:
Addictive Personality Technique to address the unresolved and unconscious emotional needs behind the habit of smoking
Healing the inner teenager who began smoking as a kind of initiation into adulthood and continues to keep you addicted because of unresolved adolescent issues
Seeing your future self as a diseased smoker, then restoring her to health by promising to quit now
Saying goodbye to your old friend cigarettes
Learning to breathe properly to reduce cravings
Alternative ways to use mouth and hands, new soothing rituals for your nerves
Learn to experience relapses as keys to success rather than proof of failure
Discover a hypnotic tape that really works
If the hypnotherapist you choose is familiar with these advanced techniques, and if you feel good about their energy, then you are finally equipped to quit smoking easily, comfortably, and permanently. For a trained hypnotist in your area, call us at 800-950-4984.
David Quigley is the founder of Alchemical Hypnotherapy and author of the popular textbook "Alchemical Hypnotherapy". He is a graduate of Duke University in comparative religion and transpersonal psychology, and of the Hypnotherapy Training Institute in Corte Madeira, California. David has extensive training in Gestalt, primal therapy, group process and Jungian psychology, as well as courses in Ericksonian and clinical hypnosis and NLP. David teaches throughout the United States and Europe, including speaking at the United Nations Enlightenment Society and numerous hypnotherapy conferences. As the Director of the Alchemy Institute of Hypnosis in Santa Rosa, CA David has trained and certified well over 2,000 professional hypnotherapists since 1983. In addition to teaching workshops, intensives, retreats and weekend training, David maintains a busy private practice in Santa Rosa.
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