Kick Butt With Hypnosis

by Debi Livingston-Boushey, BCH, CI

"Ok, I'm really going to do it this time. I'm NOT going to smoke another cigarette starting tomorrow, or maybe the day after. Well, one of these days I really am going to quit!"

Sound familiar? Smoking is the most addictive and hardest to quit substance there is on the planet today, more so than crack, meth or heroin. Tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 different chemicals. Listed at the end of this article is a small sample of these known chemicals, and what they are found in.

Smoking is the most accepted habit/dependency substance there is in today's modern societies and cultures. Think about it. It is illegal to smoke crack while you're walking down the street, or after a nice meal in a restaurant. You can't shoot up heroin outside your office on a coffee break. But, it's perfectly acceptable to light-up every time you get into the car, take a coffee break, finish a meal, have sex, argue, gamble, watch TV, read a book, fold the laundry, and the list goes on and on. This is why many smokers unconsciously smoke; they don't even realize they're lighting-up because the habit has been so engrained into their subconscious mind. At the end of one year, a smoker has reinforced this habit approximately 100,000 times! For most people, quitting cold turkey doesn't work.

The smoker is dealing with a multi-layered dependency. There's the chemical dependency to the nicotine and additives, there's the physical habit of bringing the hand to mouth and inhaling over and over again, and there is the emotional attachments to smoking, both positive and negative. Trying to quit cold turkey is like trying to hold a 500 lb. weight in your hand for an hour; your muscles will get tired and you'll drop the weight.

Trying not to light that cigarette is the same as the 500 lb. weight; your new 'non-smoking' muscles are not as developed as the habit of smoking, so after a short period of time, it gets too hard not to smoke - and you revert back to the old habit.

There is a much higher success rate for people who use hypnosis to quit smoking. When in hypnosis, the individual is in their subconscious mind. This is where all habits and patterns are created and stored. 

A scientific fact of hypnosis is, every time an idea is accepted into the subconscious mind, it has to come true. This is why hypnosis is so powerful to kick butt! Using hypnosis, an individual can actually release the 'smoking program' from their subconscious mind, and create new imprints as a successful, healthy non-smoker. From trance, they are readily accepting all the positive suggestions for change they yearn to have in their life. And, with hypnosis, there is a marked decrease in withdrawal symptoms, or switching one bad habit for another.

In the year 2000, I watched my mom die of emphysema. She had been a life long smoker, never able to kick the habit. Since that time I have worked with thousands of people to help set them free from smoking. It is my passion.

To be a non-smoker you need a plan. To be a non-smoker you need to choose a quit date. I invite you to participate in the ISHI School of Hypnosis Training's Hypnosis Clinic to quit smoking. This Smoking Cessation Clinic meets the first Monday of each month at 7:30 pm. Let this be your plan. Let the first Monday of the month be your quit day, and give yourself permission to be a successful non-smoker with hypnosis!