Stop Smoking
We all know that smoking is bad for us. We've seen the statistics. So why do we continue smoking knowing that at the very least it will give us wrinkles and bad breath, and at worst give us a 50/50 chance of premature death? Why is it that so many of us find that when we want to stop we can't? As if something else is controlling our behaviour? It is. And it's called our unconscious.
We all know that smoking is more than just the physical addiction to nicotine, which is why many people fail to quit using nicotine replacement therapy such as gum, patches, etc. There are often two other elements associated with smoking in addition to the nicotine addiction - the strong behavioural pattern and the psychological reason for smoking. Both of these elements are driven by the unconscious mind. In other words, we do it automatically without even thinking. That is what makes it so difficult to break the habit.
When we learn to do something new, we have to learn it consciously. In other words we have to be consciously aware of what we are doing and how we are doing it. Like learning to ride a bike, drive a car or speak a different language. If we continue doing these things for long enough, they become automatic, second-nature. In other words, we do it 'unconsciously'. It's the same with the behavioural pattern of smoking. After smoking regularly, it becomes an unconscious action; we do it without even thinking. How many of us have reached for the cigarette box, taken out a cigarette, and lit it without even being aware we were doing it? Changing a behaviour or a habit that has been formed over many years is extremely difficult because it has become so automatic. That is why, although consciously and logically we all want to give up, when we try, our unconscious takes over like it always does. This leaves us feeling like we're battling with ourselves - our conscious on one side and our unconscious on the other.
Research has shown that the unconscious is responsible for about 90% of our daily behaviour. It can sometimes be a mystery to us why we get locked into patterns of behaviours or habits that we know are bad for us. It is because our unconscious minds tend to do these things without us being aware of them, without needing to think. However, the unconscious mind usually has a 'positive' intention for these behaviours even if we are unaware of them. Most people have a reason why they started smoking - to fit in with their friends, to look or feel cool, to control their weight, for stress release, to rebel. This leads the unconscious mind to form an emotional or psychological attachment to smoking such as feeling like you belong, feeling popular, feeling attractive or slim, feeling calm or comfortable or in control, feeling part of a gang. And it is this unconscious association of smoking with these positive psychological qualities that continues to motivate us to crave cigarettes regardless of the physical nicotine addiction. And this is why methods such as NRT or willpower are frequently unsuccessful because they do not deal with the behavioural and psychological attachments to smoking.
Cognitive Hypnotherapy has been shown to be very successful at helping people give up smoking because it uses techniques that can break the behavioural pattern and the psychological motivation for smoking, as well as the physical cravings. Recent research has demonstrated that smokers using hypnotherapy to quit are more successful than those just relying on willpower or even nicotine replacement therapy. One of the reasons I became interested in hypnotherapy was after my cousin, who was a very heavy smoker, told me that after having a 2-hour session with a hypnotherapist (having failed to quit using other methods), he walked out of the consulting room feeling like a non-smoker, and never smoked or wanted to smoke again. Using hypnotherapy, he was able to undo his psychological motivation for smoking and break his smoking behaviour pattern within two hours.
My cousin, like many other people, was very sceptical about hypnotherapy. Many people associate hypnotherapy with what they've seen from stage hypnotist acts and believe that being in a trance equates to not being in control, not knowing what they're doing, saying or doing things that they don't want to, and not remembering anything about it afterwards. Cognitive Hypnotherapy is nothing like this. In Cognitive Hypnotherapy we believe that trance states are a part of the normal experience of being human. Think of when we're lost in our thoughts whilst driving a car - that is a trance state. It's basically narrowing your focus of attention onto something specific, so we 'tune-out' of the immediate environment around us. In a trance state, we are still fully conscious and in control. Think again of being lost in thought whilst driving your car - you are still conscious and aware enough to stop at a red light!
In a nutshell, Cognitive Hypnotherapy uses our natural trance states (like we experience when driving) to assist in identifying and disrupting the psychological associations and behavioural patterns that keep us smoking. Cognitive Hypnotherapy is not magic. It is a way of helping you take control of your own behaviour, rather than your behaviour taking control of you.
If you would like help to stop smoking, please call us on: 01932 354994 or email
Testimonials
Don't take our word for it - click here to read some of our testimonials.
