Free from smoking…

The big irony

During my years of practice, I have met many smokers, telling me many different stories about breaking free from smoking. I have experienced contrasting statements such as:

• quit smoking is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, and I crave a cigarette every day;
• quit smoking was the easiest thing ever. I just never picked up a cigarette again, and it didn’t bother me in the slightest.

The difference this program offers

Most stop-smoking programs use logical, conscious, and rational approaches. The process differs from most stop-smoking programs in the sense that a powerful program of hypnosis is used.

You can break free without:

• any withdrawal;
• irritation;
• hunger.

In Britain, the use of hypnosis in stopping smoking is recognised by the British Medical Association as the most effective tool.

Motivation is the most important motivator for success

You may want to consider the following:

• a 65-year-old man came to see me for help to break free from smoking. He smoked more than 60 cigarettes a day, and could feel the negative effects of smoking;
• a younger lady came to see me for help to quit smoking. She smoked only during social gatherings and didn’t feel that smoking affected her negatively at all;
• a man in his mid-50s suffered a heart attack and had heart surgery with four heart bypasses. After being discharged from the hospital, he never smoked again, nor desired a cigarette in the least;
• a group of young people at university decided to break free from smoking. None of them were successful since they were young, since they were young and vibrant and did not experience the negative effects of smoking.

The above-mentioned suggests possible motivations for success:

The failure motivation

You have tried on several occasions to break away from smoking. Every time without success. It might have convinced you that you are a victim and that it is difficult, even impossible to break free. The average smoker tries between five to seven times to quit smoking. This sounds extremely discouraging. You will however be unsuccessful if you try the same mindset every time.  With a shift in mindset, you can effortlessly and completely quit smoking on your first attempt.

So-called addictions may become very interesting here as research proves that people with an addiction to gambling, shopping, social media, or any other addictions, even where there are no substances present, experience the same effect as where a substance was present. Any so-called addiction is the result of the release of endorphins in the brain, especially the release of dopamine but it is never enough and repetition is required.

If you try any of the ideas as discussed below, you may find it difficult to break free from smoking as these ideas suggests failure:

• smoking is an addiction

You are conditioned to believe that you are an addict, a victim without any choice. Your caring government and tobacco companies have already succeeded into conditioning you to believe that you are an addict. Pharmaceutical companies have also jumped on the bandwagon to make you believe that you are trapped and that you need their magical drugs.

Nicotine has been described as the fastest-releasing, most addictive drug in the world. However, this research does not tell us exactly what an addiction is and how it works.

We are not being told how much of the so-called addiction is psychological or physiological of nature. Dr. Hans Eysenck (1916-97) famous German psychologist, like many other researchers, insisted that smoking is not an addiction since this term has no scientific meaning. The addiction symptoms are the same, whether there are chemical substances or no substances involved, like gambling etc.

Yet we can spend hours in a smoke-free restaurant, have eight hours of uninterrupted sleep not having to get up every 40 minutes to replenish our nicotine levels.  We can endure a sixteen-hour flight without a cigarette or go nine months without smoking during pregnancy, just to light up a cigarette once the plane has landed or the baby is delivered.

Your body will never allow you to become addicted to something toxic and bad for you. Your body is always on the quest to help you, to repair and to keep your equilibrium and endorphins to flow automatically.

There is no proof that a cigarette is mind-altering. On the contrary, I know a drug addict who will take any drug he can smoke, inject, sniff, or swallow. He does, however, not smoke cigarettes at all. In his words: when I take a drug, it must do something for me. A cigarette does absolutely nothing for me.

These withdrawal symptoms are nothing but symptoms of anxiety.

• Smoking is a habit

The above may cause us to assume that if smoking is not an addiction, it must be a habit. Smoking can never be a habit. A so-called habit means that you repeat certain behaviour over and over, despite the negative consequences. However, it remains your choice each time you light up a cigarette. This becomes an unconscious choice when you light up for the umpteenth time. It remains a choice, however, even if it becomes an unconscious choice.

You are always in control. You always have a choice to smoke or not.

• smoking is an addiction

Most smokers believe that a cigarette relaxes them. A cigarette does not relax you. On the contrary, it actually causes more stress.

When you light up a cigarette your primitive brain registers smoke. When you smoke a cigarette, your system responds in the same way as it would respond when you are exposed to inhaling smoke, which is unnatural to humans and animals and can lead to death. The automatic defence system that we know as the fight-or-flight response, is activated. Your body is instantly ready to use maximum force and effort in order to get away (flight) from possible danger or to fight it.

Your body remains in a heightened state of awareness and your immune system becomes suppressed.

It might just be worth your while to check your pulse before and after a smoke break.

You may ironically believe it is the cigarette that is relaxing you. Relaxation occurs when you take a deep breath, just as you do when you mistakenly believe smoking is relaxing you; it’s the deep breath itself, not the smoking, that provides the relaxation.

• Smoking enhances my concentration

Smokers believe that smoking improves their concentration and focus. The focus of a smoker, on the contrary, is weaker compared to that of a non-smoker. The progressive blockage of your arteries deprives your brain of oxygen.

You may think that smoking is relaxing and that you may feel more relaxed and concentrate better.  Lack of concentration is a well-known symptom of anxiety. It is mistakenly believed that it is the cigarette causing better concentration.

• Smoking improves self-confidence

The older generation may still remember smoking advertisements. Heroic figures who enjoy all the pleasures of the rich and famous. They portray self-confidence and success. Always surrounded by attractive men and beautiful women. Smokers were portrayed as glamorous, sophisticated, and elegant. They symbolised everything that everyone else desired: confident, alluring, and irresistible… with a touch of danger.

However, in reality, smoking offers you no self-confidence. It causes you to be a dependent and weak person held hostage by a cigarette.

• Smoking helps with boredom

You continued to smoke because you were bored. How much more productive could you have occupied your time by wasting it with smoke breaks?

Allen Carr rightfully states that nothing is interesting about a cigarette.

• It takes willpower

There is no need to change your life.

Willpower is never everlasting.  It’s like hanging onto a branch. Eventually, your arms will become exhausted and your body will give in. Your body is simply not designed for this. Your body is programmed to react spontaneously, not having to focus on breathing, digestion, etc. It simply needs reprogramming.

You will break free from smoking without any effort or willpower. Nothing will change, except for having a more joyful life.

• You have to quit

Smoking is neither illegal nor forbidden. There is no reason why you should quit. Ultimately it remains your choice. Smoking has killed or contributed to the deaths of many, but it is also true that many have succumbed to it. Many smokers die young and others live long lives.

Nobody likes to be told what to do. Especially not if you are dictating to yourself. How many times have you been told what you should not do, just to realise that you did the exact opposite purely out of principle or spite? It makes you rebellious and encourages you to smoke.

The harder you try not to think about that cigarette, the more you do and the more desirable that cigarette becomes.

Rather think of the joy of kicking that cigarette’s butt and focus on the absolute liberation you will experience. Breaking away from smoking doesn’t mean giving up your right to smoke.  It’s rather the feeling that I have to, but I can’t that creates feelings of deprivation. These feelings cause feelings of anger, resentment, loss, frustration, and self-pity because you may feel that you have something that you want, and you are not entitled to.

• It is a big deal

Some authors emphasise that quitting smoking is a life-altering day. You have to shout it out to the world. However, it will only cause you more stress and make you feel that you need to meet expectations, which is causing anxiety.

There is no such thing as the perfect day to quit. That day might be tomorrow… who knows?

At the same token, your last cigarette is not a big ordeal. It is merely another cigarette. Every time you put out a cigarette, you have actually stopped smoking. It is not so much about putting out the last cigarette, as much as it is about lighting up one ever again.

• You will crave cigarettes

Have you ever heard stories such as nicotine takes seven years to leave your system. Or: I quit smoking 30 years ago and I still crave a cigarette every day. Statements like these will cause any ex-smoker to grab the first cigarette at hand. Confirming the misconception that smoking is addictive.

Cravings last only about one to three minutes. After that, it only exists in your mind. There is no such thing as a physical craving.

Allen Carr calls a craving nothing but an empty insecure feeling. Carr was spot-on in using the word insecure. The so-called deprivation is not so much a craving, as it is a feeling of anxiety, stress, or even a form of depression.

The truth is that after you put out your last cigarette, your body begins to heal itself.

• You have to change your life

The bad news is that you will not feel like your life is going to be changed radically as the great gurus love to tell you. You will indeed be healthier, breathe easier, have more energy etc., etc., etc., without even noticing it.

The good news is that your life does not have to change. You simply quit smoking – it’s not like you are turning your life inside out. You do not have to avoid the bar around the corner and you don’t have to avoid the wild parties and smoking friends. You can’t avoid these situations, and as always, resisting them only makes them persist. That is hopelessly too much effort!

• You will gain weight after quitting smoking

If it is left up to willpower you will replace smoking with other substances like food which will cause you to pick up weight. Assuming that food is fattening you. This is not the case. It is rather negative emotions such as stress and depression that cause you to gain weight. See my article on Lose Weight on my website.

It is however true that your taste sensations will be restored after breaking free from smoking. Everything will smell and taste different, better. You do not have to limit your intake but actually enjoy it even more.

• you have to avoid alcohol

You don’t have to quit drinking or start counting your drinks.

Your taste sensation is now returning, making every drink more pleasant, and every bite more tasteful without the numbing effect that cigarettes have on your taste buds.

• you need artificial help

There are many nicotine replacement therapies including medications, patches, gums, nasal sprays, tablets, e-cigarettes, inhalers, etc. to aid you in the process of breaking free from smoking.

However, research has shown that there is only a ten percent success rate with these therapies. You do not need nicotine. You do not have to replace it. You are not addicted to nicotine. Ultimately you are not the victim of nicotine. The solution is simple. Many authors have disagreed with these methods of quitting since it’s been proven that it increases your heartbeat and adrenaline levels. You might experience symptoms of nausea and anxiety, whilst costing you a lot of money. Even so, it is a hell of a lot better than smoking (the ten percent of the time these methods actually work)!

You know by now that nicotine is not addictive.

• It is complicated

Some people make it so much harder for themselves, especially when they make themselves believe that they are sacrificing something.

They may try unsuccessfully to cut down on smoking.

Cutting down causes you to anticipate the next cigarette, which will feel more pleasant and irresistible, causing you to want to continue smoking.

Smoking lighter cigarettes will only cause you to want to inhale deeper every time you smoke a lighter cigarette to get the same effect.

• the longer you smoke, the harder it becomes

The opposite is indeed true: the longer you smoke, the easier it becomes to break away from it. The longer you smoke, the more you become aware of the effects and consequences thereof. Younger people may find it harder to break free since they are not as aware of the harmful effects of their smoking as older people;

• the more expensive it becomes, the greater the chance that you will quit

The irrational belief is that the more expensive smoking becomes, the easier it will be to break free.

People would rather cut back on other expenses than on their cigarettes. The need for food is trumped by the need for a cigarette. It is part of fixed expenses.

It has been proven in England that more and more people started making use of other substances, e.g. to roll cigarettes, merely to save money.

• What about withdrawal symptoms?

Those so-called withdrawal symptoms are merely symptoms of anxiety.

          You may experience some of these anxiety symptoms when withdrawing:

• anger;
• irritability;
• fatigue;
• mood swings;
• hyperactivity;
• anxiety;
• restlessness;
• problems with concentration;
• depression;
• excessive eating;
• lack of sleep;
• obsession with smoking.

Your body is not going through a process of withdrawal but is rather in a state of anxiety which is the beginning of your healing process. As soon as the healing starts, the symptoms will dissipate.

The success motivation

People who break free from smoking will immediately start to:

–  inhale clean, fresh air;

–  become more relaxed;

–  feel more energetic;

–  be and feel healthier;

–  concentrate better;

–  enjoy going to public places;

–  experience an improved memory;

–  feel and smell fresh;

–  look better;

–  have healthier teeth;

–  feel less anxious and generally feel better about themselves;

–  feel more in control of their life;

–  have more money for something special;

–  have a happier and healthier family.

Do you spot the difference between the failure motivation and the success motivation?

The failure motivation focuses on what you don’t want, as seen above. The success motivation focuses on what you do want.

This is the difference that makes the difference. This is the difference that makes hypnosis as a stop-smoking technique successful.

It is so much easier to move towards what you want than away from what you don’t want.  To illustrate this:  try not to think of a cigarette… try really hard.  What are you constantly keep thinking about?

The success motivation is what we are focusing on with hypnotherapy – to help you think differently about smoking.  Once you’ve embraced the success motivation, quitting smoking will become effortless.

Great things may happen from the first moments when you have liberated yourself from smoking. These great things will continue for years to follow, as the body rapidly repairs itself.

What you can do

Not only will hypnosis help you to be free from smoking, but you will also learn to do self-hypnosis for further assistance during this process. The essence of hypnosis is relaxation and the essence thereof is teaching yourself to breathe. While you are relaxed, you can alter your thoughts. This is what hypnotherapy offers you.