| Quitting Smoking and Staying Quit - A Matter of Subconscious Persuasion |  |
By Derek Ayre
You may have heard that Mark Twain humorously said, "Quitting
smoking is easy, I've done it a thousand times!"
Well there is some truth in that statement. It is easy to stop
smoking, but staying quit is where it tends to get harder. Some
people will quit for ten minutes, others for an hour, others for
a day, others for a week, month, year or decade and then go back
to it. It is that strong an addiction.
Myself, I quit smoking 25 years ago and even now, I recognise
that I could become hooked again if I lit a cigarette. How I've
managed to stay off the dreaded weed is by persuading myself to
do so at a subconscious level with self-hypnosis.
I have persuaded myself that the benefits of non-smoking far
out-way the small pleasures I may get from smoking. I say small
pleasures, because when I did smoke all the enjoyment I got was
(at the most) from the first few draws on about two cigarettes a
day. Small pleasures indeed! The rest of my smoking was pure
habit that left me with a bitter taste in my mouth and other
obnoxious and dangerous symptoms.
Once I got this positive persuasion into my subconscious mind, it
became automatic and relatively easy to recognise the dangers of
smoking whenever I was tempted.
The problem is that once a person is addicted to nicotine, he/she
is always an addict, and one cigarette, or even one draw on a
cigarette, can re-establish the habit of regular smoking almost
immediately. Oh, an addict may say to him/herself, "I'll give it
up again tomorrow!" "I've done it once so I'll do it again!" and
many other excuses.
So when I am tempted to smoke (and it's not so often these days
at all), I just remind myself of...
... how I used to feel most of the time (wheezing chest, bad
taste in my mouth etc.)
... how the ceilings in my house seemed to be permanently stained
brown
... how my car had a permanent smell of stale tobacco in it, the
same with my clothing
... the way a lot of my money used to literally go up in smoke!
I ask myself, do I really want to go back to all that? The
answer's just got to be no! And here's a just few benefits I
focus on...
... the extra things I can buy for myself and family now I no
longer smoke
... the fact that it is no longer a waste of time getting fit now
that I'm no longer a smoker
... I'm not so worried when I learn of price rises in other
products
... the holidays I have treated myself and my family to as a
non-smoker that I couldn't afford when I did smoke
Quitting smoking was relatively easy for me, but I am a
hypnotherapist and I can recognise that for some it may not be so
easy. From my experience of helping clients to quit, the habit
appears to be around 90% psychological. I reach this conclusion
because of the reports I've had from clients who have quit
(before consulting with me). After about a week or month they had
started again without even being able to explain why... saying
something like, "I wasn't even craving for one!" "I didn't even
want to smoke! I don't understand why I did it!"
I believe that this is the subtle, yet powerful force of
psychological addiction at work, more than a physical craving.
And where there is such psychological addiction, it needs to be
handled with "psychological remedies". In other words, an addict
needs to feel totally persuaded and convinced at a subconscious
level, of the benefits he/she will receive as a non-smoker.
If you are trying to quit smoking, some of the above techniques
(bullet pointed above) may help you. However, if you still feel
overwhelmed by the addiction, you may want to enlist the support
of a competent registered therapist.
A good therapist would explain that he cannot make you stop
smoking. What he/she can do is help you build confidence in your
own creative abilities to persuade yourself at a subconscious
level, of the benefits of a new, healthier and wealthier way of
life as a non-smoker.
Thanks for reading.
Derek
http://www.ayrehypnotherapy.co.uk
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