STRATEGIES FOR SMOKING CESSATION INCLUDING SELF-HYPNOSIS
Four critical points:
- *For my body smoking is a poison.
- And I need my body to live.
- To the extent that I want to live, I owe my body respect and protection.
- The urge to live is stronger than the urge to smoke.
There is a relationship between you and your body: You need your body to live but your body needs you to protect it.
Your body is like a little child or pet...it is basically helpless and it needs you to protect it. Would you give your pet any product in which you found the following on the label… "Warning: The Surgeon General has determined that consuming this product will be dangerous to your pet's health." ??
Smoking is a habit. Habits are not eliminated or changed through will power or "fighting the urge." Telling yourself not to smoke only makes you want to smoke even more." If you try to stop smoking using will power it will only put you in a state of deprivation in which you will become irritable, eat more, and exhibit other symptoms of psychological withdrawal. It then is only a matter of time until you reach your "tolerance for deprivation" and find an excuse to start smoking again. WILL POWER DOES NOT WORK!
You can eliminate this habit by accepting that the urge, desire or thought of smoking is simply an old habit. Just like any other habit it will be eliminated when you choose something to replace it. In the beginning you will have urges to smoke which are triggered by all the associations you have made over the years, For example; with coffee, after meals, with a drink, when stressed, taking a break, trying to concentrate, etc. And the list is endless. Simply making the decision to quit smoking does not immediately end these triggers. They end when you have made a choice to do something other than smoke when those triggers cause you to want a cigarette. What you choose to do is extremely important. Doing something which is equally damaging to your body, like overeating, will simply become an excuse to resume smoking for fear of gaining weight.
This is where self-hypnosis can make the difference between success and failure in eliminating this destructive habit from your life.
Self-hypnosis is a simple technique you can use while fully awake, at work, driving a car, or in any other situation in which you find yourself thinking about a cigarette (urge to smoke). As was stated above, urges are perfectly normal because of all the triggers that you have developed over the years and thousands of cigarettes you have smoked. (One pack per day for one year equals 7000 cigarettes).
You can use self-hypnosis to redirect your thoughts at the moment you are having an urge to smoke. You will redirect your thoughts to something I call the "urge to live." The urge to live is everything that is positive in your life...your family, spouse, children, grandchildren, leisure activities, plans for the future, etc. The urge to live is everything that is positive in your life. The urge to live is the real reason you want to stop smoking. It is the other side of the coin to all the negatives of smoking that you have told yourself is the reason why you want to quit...shortness of breath, lack of stamina, lung cancer, emphysema, heart disease, throat cancer, etc. If thinking about the reasons why smoking is harmful were enough to stop you, you would have done it long ago.
You will use self-hypnosis to help you concentrate on the urge to live rather than the urge to smoke. Here are some simple methods of self-hypnosis that you can use:
The basic principle is to momentarily refocus your attention. You can do this by taking a deep breath or two and slowly exhaling. If you are in a position to close your eyes, do so while taking those deep breaths. Bring one or two hands to your face, neck, head or any other part of your body that is convenient for you to touch for a few moments. I recommend your face, head or neck. If there are people around, you will appear to be rubbing your eyes or neck. While doing this refocus your mind to the urge to live which should be a specific thought or image as stated in the next paragraph. Hold that thought for as long as you wish. Normally, a few seconds is enough. Then simply open your eyes and resume what you were doing. When driving a car you keep your eyes open and mindful of the road. Bring one hand to your face for a few moments and do the same thing as described above.
When shifting your focus to any aspect of your urge to live at the moment you feel the urge to smoke a cigarette, you are choosing a positive behavior to replace smoking. When you concentrate on the urge to live, the urge to smoke diminishes or disappears altogether, replaced by the good feeling of what is truly important in your life, for example, seeing your kids grow up, playing with your grandkids, enjoying your favorite hobby or sport, doing a good job at work, even feeling good about choosing the urge to live, is part of the urge to live. You can also repeat the four points listed above but be sure to change the first one from "For my body smoking IS a poison" to "For my body smoking WAS a poison".
In the first few hours of using this approach you will notice all the triggers that have caused this habit to continue over the years. Each time you think about smoking you do the self-hypnosis for a few seconds. What happens after the first few hours, or in some cases a day or two, is that you stop worrying about the urge to smoke because you know you can make it disappear by doing the self-hypnosis. In a very short while you will also notice that most, if not all, of the triggers no longer cause you to think about smoking. At this point you have truly become a non-smoker in the sense that you have changed your habit from the urge to smoke to the URGE TO LIVE. Soon, you will no longer need to use the self-hypnosis because the habit of smoking is gone.
WHY DOES IT WORK?
There is no deprivation because you have not told yourself you cannot smoke. You have simply made a choice to do something else...something that is critical to your reason for becoming a non-smoker. You have chosen to focus on all the good in your life that you wish to continue for as long as you can. You are focusing on this at exactly the same time you would otherwise be smoking or thinking about smoking.
This is the key to habit change. Choosing another behavior at the moment you feel the urge to do the old, unwanted, behavior. Your brain receives two messages. First, smoking does not have to follow the urge (or thought). And, second, the urge to live is far more powerful and important than the urge to smoke...which was simply an old habit. So you are unlearning urge to smoke and learning urge to live. In other words, the urge to live is the new habit that has replaced the urge to smoke.
COMING IN FOR AN IN-PERSON INDIVIDUAL OR GROUP HYPNOSIS SESSION
If you like what you've read above but feel that coming in for a two hour individual (or three hour group) session would be helpful please feel free to call me at any time. I will answer all your questions and, if you desire it, schedule an appointment. When you come in you will be tested for hypnotizability before the program begins and if you cannot be hypnotized or wish to stop for any reason after testing there is no charge or fee.
*Aspects of this strategy have been adapted from Herbert Spiegel’s Trance and Treatment.