How Hypnosis Can Help Someone Stop Smoking

  

The reason it is hard to change a habit such as smoking is because your subconsious mind (which makes up 88% of your mind), likes what is known and familiar and sees change as unpleasant or painful. The conscious part of your mind which makes the decision to quit, (12% of your mind) can’t compete with the strong influence of the subconscious mind. The physically addictive part of smoking plays a part as well, however, after about three days, this usually passes. It is the mind which makes it difficult to quit.

When working with a smoker, the first question I ask, over the phone even before they come into my office, is “Why do you want to quit?” I’ll start getting them focused on freeing themselves from smoking and why that is important. My smoking cessation program involves four weekly sessions. They will quit at either the first or second session. At the beginning of each session, I will ask them “Give me the reasons why you want to free yourself from smoking.” I’ll have them write their  reasons down on a 3×5 card and carry it with them. Repitition affects the subconscious mind.

For the first 30-40 minutes of  each session, we’ll talk about when they smoke, why they smoke, what triggers them to smoke, and provide techniques for helping them deal with urges after they have quit.

The last 20 minutes of the hour session is the hypnosis part. Remember, during hypnosis the subconscious mind is much more open to suggestions. What we will do is create familiarity in the mind of the smoker to how good it will feel as a non smoker. We’ll do that partly with visualization;  imagining a healthier life without smoking. I’ll give their reasons back to them in hypnosis. I’ll help them create a strong belief that not only is it possible for them to quit, but quit they will. With enough repition and reinforcement of new ideas and habits of thinking and behaving through hypnosis, the subconscious mind begins to align itself with the conscious desire to quit.  If the motivation is there, quitting happens so easily that many ex- smokers are quite surprised. No wonder that smoking cessation is the number one reason people go to a hypnotherapist.

If you liked this post, please leave a comment and/or share it with your social networks.  

Tman

 Ted A. Moreno

Personal/Small Business Coach

Certified Hypnotherapist

Specializing in Your Success

www.TedMoreno.com                                                                       

 (626) 826-0612

How Hypnotherapy Can Help You Change (Hypnosis 101, Part 2)

“There’s a part of me that  wants to change but there’s another part of me that doesn’t, and that part always seems to win out!”

Sound familiar? There is a lot of truth to this statement. What we are talking about is a conflict between two minds: the conscious mind and the subconscious mind.

Let’s just put it in plain English: the reason it is so difficult for folks to change is because the subconscious mind makes up 88% of your mind  and it likes what is known and familiar. It does not like to change. Your conscious mind makes up 12% of your mind and oftentimes cannot overcome the power and influence that the subconscious mind has over our behavior and thinking. To make changes in our lives, we must get our subconscious minds on board so that it starts to become familiar  with the change we want to make. Hypnotherapy is a very effective way to do this.

Here’s an  illustration of how this works. Let’s say you are born into a family where both mom and dad smoke. As children, we believe everything we hear and see. You hear dad saying quite often “I need a smoke”. Dad seems pretty happy after he has a smoke. So does mom. One day you ask for a cigarette. You are told cigarettes are for “big people”. You want to be a big person too. As you grow up, the people that care for you, love you, and keep you alive, smoke. This becomes your reality. Grownups smoke and they seem to really like it.

A few years down the road, you are smoking too. Maybe you started smoking to fit in with other kids who smoke. Perhaps life got a little challenging and somehow you knew that smoking would make you feel better about these challenges (think adolescence). Maybe you were bored one day, came across your parent’s cigarettes, and stuck one in your mouth. Soon, you are acting out a “script” given to you in childhood which goes like this: to be the person you want to be (cool, tough, grownup, etc.) you must smoke.

Fast forward to 2009. No one seems to like smokers anymore. It’s getting  darn near impossible to find a place to smoke. Cigarettes are outrageously expensive. And just last year, your mom was diagnosed with emphysema. You start thinking about quitting. You try a few of times to quit but last only a couple of days. That time you quit for three days you almost strangled the kid behind the counter at Starbucks  because  the foam wasn’t right in your latte.  You try gum and decide that that really sucks. The patch helps a little but it’s just not the same as pulling that pack out, smacking it against the palm of your hand, pulling out a cigarette with your mouth and lighting it with your favorite lighter. Man! That first hit. You may wonder how you can ever quit, it’s all you’ve ever known! It’s who you are, it’s what you do, it’s what you like, why, cigarettes are almost your…..friends.

But deep down inside you are starting to suspect that these may be false friends. And that these “friends” may be  killing you, at least that’s what everyone says. Maybe you try again to quit, half heartedly. You start to become resigned that you may never quit. Then someone tells you they quit with hypnotherapy. You get the guy’s number, you give him call, you make an appointment. You wonder what’s going to happen.

What happens of course is that you come into my office and quit in one session. But how this happens, Iwill  tell you in the third and final part of Hypnosis 101.

If you liked this post, please leave a comment and/or share it with your social networks.  

Tman

 Ted A. Moreno

Personal/Small Business Coach

Certified Hypnotherapist

Specializing in Your Success

www.TedMoreno.com                                                                       

 (626) 826-0612