Can you really “permanently” stop smoking?

There is a profound difference between a smoker who has stopped smoking and a non-smoker. The smoker courageously resists having a cigarette, but the non-smoker can’t think of anything worse than smoking.

You’ve probably heard people who have quit smoking 10 years ago still say “Every time I have a beer or coffee I still want a cigarette” – if you are trying to stop smoking those are very disheartening words to hear!

But it simply means is that they only quit smoking at a conscious level - that is, they deliberately and consciously decided to stop, and stopped, and their abstinence is sustained only through their will power. However, subconsciously, smoking is still an attractive prospect for them, and that is where smoking needs to be tackled.

If you’re going to quit smoking, do it right!

There are a million and one ways to stop smoking – from nicotine patches and chewing gum, to tablets, lozenges, inhalers and Zyban, the stop smoking drug. In addition, there are plenty of people out there willing to tell you how to stop smoking - quit tips are everywhere. But they all miss one vital component - the subconscious mind.

If you are going to make the effort to free yourself from the terrible effects of smoking, why not do it right? Use a proper smoking cessation program that will leave you free of the desire to smoke.

Smoking Cessation Program

This program will gently move your mind from its current craving state to complete freedom from cigarettes.

You will no longer be controlled by the need to smoke. No more planning your day so you can smoke, no more running outside at work or at parties, no more worrying whether you have enough cigarettes left.

Smoking-cessation methods that treat smoking as an addiction (nicotine patches, nicotine gum, and so on) have a very low success rate, acknowledged to be around 23%. The makers of the drug Zyban state that the drug is only effective if it is taken in conjunction with ‘psychological intervention’.

A smoker’s mental state must be stable and requires will power to end the dependency. I deliberately call it a dependency and not an addiction. You have seen that an addict must take the drug in just enough amounts to temporarily satisfy the craving, but a smoker doesn’t. An effective treatment of smoking dependency must take into account this fact – that the smoker is not really an addict.

Yes, you heard right!

When many smokers are told during their smoking cessation program that they can keep smoking they are quite surprised:

“You continue to smoke while you progress through the program. You only quit when you don’t want to smoke anymore.”

Now, isn’t that easier on the smoker? Definitely! Does the smoker need to have extraordinary will power to break the habit? Of course not! By connecting the smoker with her sub-conscious she can identify the source of her habit, acknowledge it and then make the choice to stop smoking.

Consult a Hypnotherapist

For effective and permanent results, it is best that you consult and work with a qualified Hypnotherapist. Such a professional is well trained in helping you with your smoking dependency. It would be fruitless to attempt self-hypnosis with a flawed understanding and cause yourself frustration, and in the end find yourself still having not kicked that smoking habit.

There is substantial evidence underlining weight gain as the main concern smokers cite as a reason for not stopping smoking. This is amongst the many other excuses smokers give for putting off stopping smoking. Other examples include the inability to cope with stress or a fear that they will not be able to enjoy an upcoming party or their life in general without their trusty cigarettes.

Smoking is an addiction to nicotine but most smokers, and non-smokers for that matter, wrongly think of it as a habit. This is not the case. The urge to smoke is so overwhelming; it simply cannot just be a habit.

The suffering that smokers must go through in order to be able to smoke, is evidence as to why smoking is not a habit, but is an addiction. Smokers cannot inhale any other form of smoke, other than tobacco smoke, without coughing and spluttering or even being sick.

Once smokers come to realise the addiction to nicotine is the reason they smoke, it becomes easier to learn how to stop smoking without weight gain.

Smokers think they enjoy smoking as much, if not more, than eating. However, there is a very subtle difference between smoking and eating and understanding this is the key to learning how to stop smoking without weight gain. Read this two statements:

“When you are hungry, your body tells you so by giving you hunger pangs. You eat and you are rewarded with the discomfort subsiding.”

“When you want a cigarette, your body tells you by giving you a craving. You smoke and you are rewarded with the discomfort subsiding.”

When you read these two statements as a smoker, you are probably in full agreement with them. But, the second one is wrong and that is the secret of how to stop smoking without weight gain.

What you think is that you ‘want a cigarette’ when in actual fact, you want some nicotine. It is simply that over the years, you have wanted nicotine, had a cigarette to get it and then been rewarded with the discomfort of the craving subsiding. What has happened is that you have subconsciously replaced the connection of getting nicotine and the craving dying and having a cigarette and the craving dying.

In your mind, you see the cigarette as the thing you desire when in actual fact it is the nicotine. The cigarette is simply the delivery system. This is why pharmaceutical companies (wrongly) think nicotine patches and gum can help smokers quit.

So how does knowing this help you learn how to stop smoking without weight gain? Well, the point is that when you stop smoking, you will find that the craving for a cigarette (well nicotine) is very similar to the craving for food. It is a hollow empty feeling. Whilst you struggle with your willpower to overcome the urge to smoke, you will try and subdue the craving for nicotine with something that ‘might work’ - eating.

Smokers often turn to food to settle the craving for nicotine. This is where you end up gaining weight because you are wrongly trying to settle your hunger for nicotine by doing what seems right when you hunger for food. Your calorie intake goes through the roof and you pile on the pounds!

When you recognise that your apparent increased appetite is just you mixing up cravings for food with cravings for nicotine, it becomes easier for you to control your response – i.e. whether you chose to eat or not. Once you have mastered this understanding, you are on the right track of how to stop smoking without weight gain.

It is a big difference between a smoker that has stopped smoking and a non smoker. Because the smoker is fighting the addiction and resists having a cigarette. The non smoker can not think of anything worse than smoking and that person is really more of a fanatic that often express his or her feelings about smoking and smokers. It is kind of aggressive behaviour and that attitude helps them to stay non-smokers. Some smokers who quit smoking years ago can still feel for having a cigarette after a meal, with the coffee. So if you are trying to quit smoking and hear people talk like that, it is scary to hear. Those persons only quit smoking at a conscious level, that is they decided to stop, but unconsciously, smoking is still an attractive prospect for them. The number of ways to quit are many now and we have got several new products during the last decade or so! Nicotine patches has been around for many years and works great. Many smokers just quit without actually thinking about it when they use these patches. The statistics tell that the ratio for persons that quit long term is rather low though. Chewing gums can take some time to get used to as the taste is not what chewing gums use to be. They work good in the sense that people do not smoke any more. The negative side-effect is that many can not stop with the gums! Good for the lungs but you still have the cost. You can also find tablets, lozenges, inhalers and Zyban which the stop smoking drug. If that is not enough you can always find plenty of people out there willing to tell you how to stop smoking, you can find tips everywhere about effective ways to quit smoking. A lot of smokers try a couple of methods at the same time and we have seen persons with nicotine patches, chewing gum and snuffing at the same time. The good thing is that they save their lungs a little. Unfortunately they are enforcing the addiction. Most smokers are unaware of the unconscious mind. You need to learn about that as it is important if you are going to make the effort to free yourself from the bad effects of smoking. If you decide to quit, you should do it the right way. Then you can start with a proper smoking cessation program that will leave you free of the desire to smoke. The right psychological methods and techniques you will help you to control the smoking addiction and become free from its grip.

How To Quit Smoking By Understanding Your Addiction

When I was a smoker, I didn’t think of myself as addicted. I just thought I was smoking, like most other people I knew. It was only when I learnt how to stop smoking, and finally stopped smoking (and was seriously trying to stay stopped for good) that I began to realize that I had, in fact, been in the grip of an addiction.Often smokers deny they are addicted even though they smoke daily for years. You hear them say: “I’m not addicted -I enjoy smoking,” as if the two were mutually exclusive. These are the smokers who claim they can stop easily any time they want to. But, you may notice, they don’t stay stopped.Other smokers are all too eager to admit to being addicted because they use that to justify their smoking. Being addicted is their way of explaining - to both themselves and others - why they continue to smoke, with the implication, of course, that there is nothing they can do about itThen there are smokers who take such a severe moral stance towards any drug addiction that they are very reluctant to think of themselves in that way. These people have a stereotyped image of the ‘drug addict’ as a deviant and dangerous character. Each drug addiction has its own unique qualities, but just because a drug is legal doesn’t mean that it isn’t just as addictive as one that is illegal.Millions of people have become dependent on relatively socially acceptable drugs such as nicotine, sugar and caffeine.So what is an addiction?Is it in your mind or in your body? And what can you do about it? Understanding addiction, and especially this one, is your first step.Nicotine in Your BodyHere is an important question to consider. If you have found stopping smoking to be intolerable, or if you find you can stop but you keep going back, is this because your body has developed a need for nicotine, a physical dependency that must be satisfied at any cost? Let’s start by looking at what happens in your body and in your mind when you smoke.First and foremost, smoking a cigarette is a way of administering the drug nicotine. Some gets absorbed slowly through the inside of your mouth but most of it is inhaled into your lungs where it is very rapidly taken into your blood stream. It is then carried in the blood all round your body, and especially to your brain.Many people think that the reason they smoke is to maintain the amount of nicotine in their blood. This, they think, is what drives them to light cigarette after cigarette. However, if you carefully examine your own experience of smoking, I think you will see there is actually something else far more important to you.Look at it this way. What if, unknown to you, somebody, somehow, put nicotine into your blood stream? Would you really have any way of knowing it was there? And, even more important, would you then lose your desire to smoke?I think you would still want to smoke, for the same reason that you sometimes still want to light up another cigarette even when you’ve just finished one. For the same reason that people still crave cigarettes while they are chewing nicotine gum. A number of scientific experiments demonstrate this point.In one, smokers who had stopped smoking overnight were given an intravenous injection. On one occasion it contained saline and on another it contained sufficient nicotine to reach concentrations in the blood stream comparable to those achieved by smoking. They were not told which was which. “Subjects were unable to discriminate between conditions. At the end of the infusion there was no difference in self-reported desire to smoke, nor in latency to lighting up a cigarette when this was permitted. Complete nicotine replacement was therefore not accompanied by complete suppression of smoking behavior”These smokers still wanted to smoke - and did smoke - regardless of whether or not they had adequate amounts of nicotine in their blood stream.So it’s not just the nicotine that we are addicted to as smokers - you also need to learn how to control and change your habits if you truly want to learn how to stop smoking.

How To Stop-smoking with Hypnosis

Want to stop-smoking? Try hypnosis. If you think of hypnosis as someone who is swinging a pendulum and telling you that your eyes are getting heavy, think again. Hypnosis is a way to give you subliminal suggestions. You will not feel anything but a state of total relaxation. Hypnosis has a very successful track record when it comes to getting people to stop-smoking. Many people feel that it works well to get rid of both the mental and physical addiction to nicotine. Cigarette smoking is the most addictive substance there is. It is no small wonder that people find it so difficult to stop-smoking - it is more addictive than heroin. When you do stop-smoking, you can celebrate each day like it is a milestone. The hypnosis will work subtly. You will not feel that you are hypnotized. The only sensation that you will understand is that you do not want to have a cigarette. This is all done with the power of suggestion and aversion therapy. After being hypnotized, you will find that you do not have the cravings for a cigarette. If, out of force of habit, you got to pick up a cigarette, you will find that you do not want to smoke. In this way, hypnotism helps you to stop-smoking. Once you finally stop-smoking, you will notice a whole new world open to you. No longer will you be relegated to the cold streets when you want to have a cigarette. No longer will you be huddled outside of doorways. You will no longer feel like a social pariah once you finally stop-smoking. Can you do it? Of course you can. You just have to have the will to stop-smoking and a little bit of help. This is where hypnosis comes in. Hypnosis gives you the mind power to stop-smoking and allows you to rid yourself of the uncomfortable cravings for a cigarette. The cigarette cravings are why many people fail when they try to stop-smoking. The cravings can be so intense that people find that they have to give in. They are likened to hunger pains in how they feel. This can be one reason why people who stop-smoking tend to gain weight. When you use hypnosis to stop-smoking, you will not feel the cravings, so not only will you stop-smoking, but you will not gain the weight that often accompanies quitting the addiction. If you truly want to stop-smoking, try hypnosis. Through the subliminal suggestions that are given during a hypnosis session, you can thus end your addiction to nicotine. Best of all, you will not feel the pangs and cravings that many others feel when the stop-smoking. Once you are smoke free, you will wonder why you ever smoked in the first place. You, too, can stop-smoking. You have to first have the mindset that you want to stop. Enlist the aid of friends and others who have also stopped smoking and avoid places or situations that will tempt you to smoke.

Get A Better Life By Stop Smoking

I know that if you are a smoker it can be hard to quite. However, if you want to stop you will. You will acquire the willpower to take control. Smoking is not good for anyone. Second hand, smoke has proven to be worse than smoking. For those around you, when you smoke you are hurting them too. Many people smoke for years, which make it difficult to quite. Nevertheless, you have help and hope, especially if you want to quite bad enough. Avoiding unhealthy living: Why do people start smoking? Some people start smoking because they think it is something cool and their friends are impressed. They believe it makes them look mature. Unfortunately, many people start smoking early in life. Many people unfortunately end up with bronchitis, breathing problems, cancer, lung disease and so on. As teenagers, we thought it was the cool thing to do, since all of our friends were doing it. We may have picked up the habit watching parents or grandparents smoke. How to stop smoking: When you want to stop smoking, there is help. You just have to want to stop. You have go to want to stop before anyone or anybody can help you. You can go to your family doctor and he/she will give you something to help you to stop. On the other hand, maybe you want to do it on your own. Everyone has there own idea for trying to quite smoking. Some think hard candy will help, while others think that chewing gum will help, then some think chewing on something will help. You have to figure out what you want to try to go from there. We all have different idea. Prayer is the ultimate answer. When you pray to improve your life, God will answer your prayers. How smoking affects you: No one knows what would happen to you if you don’t quite until the time comes for you to know. You can get cancer in your mouth, in your lungs, you could have a hard time breathing, fast heartbeat, you may have problems walking across the room. Many things could happen to you if you do not quite. Ironically, however, some people smoke for years and nothing happens to them. Yet, throughout the years these people feel sluggish, tired, and often get colds more frequently. The benefits of stopping smoking: Just think if you quite smoking you won’t have to worry about the smell in your house, in your car or on your clothes. You won’t have those nasty ash trays to empty or wash out. You won’t have to smell nothing but the air you breathe. If you quite now you will start to get back your self. You will be able to walk across the floor or be able to breathe without using oxygen to help you there are a lot of reason to quite I wish you the best. Some of the reasons people do not quite smoking are because they believe they will gain weight. Contrary to your notions, smoking will make you gain weight as you start to age. To improve personal life you must take measures to protect your overall health, which includes maintaining weight, stop smoking and so on. The steps you take will lead you to a healthier future and a successful conclusion. If you are finding it difficult to beat the habit, we encourage you to learn about the drugs inside cigarettes. If it isn’t enough to scare you into stopping now, then consider your future, living on life-support or oxygen tanks.

How to Stop Smoking Effectively

Kicking your smoking habit isn’t easy. A lot of people have tried to stop smoking several times and many have failed in it. There are some who go cold turkey and are successful, some enroll into programs and take nicotine replacements and medications but still can’t seem to quit their habit. Most quitters will tell you that it’s not only determination that will get you through the process, but also discipline, and lots of it. Especially during the withdrawal period, it is important that you learn in advance how to deal with the physical and psychological problems that may and will come with quitting.First and foremost, it’s most effective if you set a date when you will stop smoking. Tell your friends and family about this date, a support system can do miracles in keeping you from falling back into your old habit once you’ve stopped smoking. Also, stock up on gums, candies, or anything that you can munch or chew on whenever you feel the urge to light up a cigarette.Another tip is to still keep the habit of holding a cigarette in your hand even after your Quit Day. That way you can pretend that you’re smoking and still keep the habit of having a smoke in hand without actually lighting it up. Keeping this habit is a psychological trick that will make it easier for you to slowly detach yourself from the act itself. Remember, at first, it’s more important to just get rid of the habit of inhaling cigarette smoke itself, not the other habits that come with it. On the next stage of your cessation, you can start replacing the cigarette stick with cinnamon sticks, then with a pencil, and so on until you have finally gotten rid of the urge to stick a cigarette in your mouth.Stop Smoking Now programs and support groups can also be a big help when you want to stop smoking. A lot of people swear by the telephone-based program where you get to talk to a counselor. The good thing about this support hotline is that the counseling you are given is tailored to fit your needs and is based on your previous smoking pattern. An example is the American Cancer Society’s Quitline which offers counseling programs in several areas all over the country.If you consult your doctor, he or she can help you determine whether you will be needing nicotine replacements in the first stage of your program. Replacements can include patches, lozenges, herbal mixtures and such. On the other hand, you can also ask your doctor about prescription antidepressant that will help reduce the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal. The trick though is not in taking these alternatives, but in finding the right solution for you even before you stop smoking. Finally, engage in physical activities, preferably outdoors. Stress at work or elsewhere should not be an excuse that will keep you from changing your lifestyle. To stop smoking is just the same as to go on a diet. It will need your full focus, which means that you may eventually have to refrain from old habits (drinking, etc.) and adopt new ones that will help you not only keep your mind off of smoking, but also hasten your recovery from nicotine withdrawal.

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is simply the quickest and most effective way to deal with doubts, obstacles, triggers, cravings, concerns, and emotions that most people who are quitting smoking have to deal with. Not only does EFT help make the transition to non-smoker easier, it better equips ex-smokers to deal with any stressful situations that may cause a relapse. EFT was founded by Gary Craig, a Stanford Engineer, Ordained Minister and Personal Performance Coach. You can download a free how-to manual from his website (www.emofree.com). EFT is simply emotional acupuncture without the needles. Our bodies are made up of subtle energies. When negative emotions are present, it’s simply a disruption of the bodies energy system. With EFT you stimulate certain meridian points by tapping on them, and it tends to balance the energy flow in our body. EFT is simple to learn, gentle and easy to use, can be used anywhere, only take minutes, and has such great results. Here are the EFT basic steps to Stop Smoking: 1. Write down all doubts, triggers, emotions, obstacles, and concerns you have about quitting smoking? (I doubt that I can quit smoking or quitting smoking is too stressful)2. Evaluate the intensity level of each issue or emotion on a 1 to 10 scale (10 being the most). (Doubt - 8, Stress - 7)3. Set up the affirmation and reminder phrase starting with the most intense issue first.Affirmation - Even though I doubt I can quit smoking, I deeply and completely accept myself, or Even though I think quitting smoking will be too stressful, I deeply and completely accept myself. Reminder phrase - My doubts about quitting smoking and My stressful feelings about quitting smoking.4. Begin tapping lightly on the following meridian points on one side of your body using your index finger and middle finger with either hand, as you speak the phrases out loud. (To view a chart of the tapping points go to www.mindbodytapping.com) Karate Chop - “Even though I doubt I can quit smoking, I deeply and completely accept myself.” (Repeat 3 times). Eye Brow (Beginning of your eye brow near the top of your nose) - “My doubts about quitting smoking” Side of the eye - “I doubt I can quit smoking” Below the eye - “My doubts about quitting smoking” Under the nose - “Doubt I can quit smoking” Middle of the chin - “All the other things I have tried did not work” Under the collarbone - “I really just doubt I can quit smoking” Under the armpit - “My doubts about quitting smoking” Top of the head - “Doubt I can quit smoking” 5. Take a deep breath.6. Re-evaluate the intensity level of the issue using the 1 to 10 scale. 7. Tap a second round (Continue tapping as many rounds as you need to reduce the intensity level of the issue below a 3).8. Move onto the next emotion or issue startingwith the Evaluation #2.9. Once you have removed all of your doubts, fears, concerns, and obstacles, you are ready to quit smoking. 10. For the first few weeks, use EFT at least three times each day to deal with any emotions,or issues that come up. To Stop Smoking Today, I recommend you find a local Board Certified Hypnotist who uses EFT as part of their Stop Smoking Program.

Can you really “permanently” stop smoking?

There is a profound difference between a smoker who has stopped smoking and a non-smoker. The smoker courageously resists having a cigarette, but the non-smoker can’t think of anything worse than smoking.

You’ve probably heard people who have quit smoking 10 years ago still say “Every time I have a beer or coffee I still want a cigarette” – if you are trying to stop smoking those are very disheartening words to hear!

But it simply means is that they only quit smoking at a conscious level - that is, they deliberately and consciously decided to stop, and stopped, and their abstinence is sustained only through their will power. However, subconsciously, smoking is still an attractive prospect for them, and that is where smoking needs to be tackled.

If you’re going to quit smoking, do it right!

There are a million and one ways to stop smoking – from nicotine patches and chewing gum, to tablets, lozenges, inhalers and Zyban, the stop smoking drug. In addition, there are plenty of people out there willing to tell you how to stop smoking - quit tips are everywhere. But they all miss one vital component - the subconscious mind.

If you are going to make the effort to free yourself from the terrible effects of smoking, why not do it right? Use a proper smoking cessation program that will leave you free of the desire to smoke.

Smoking Cessation Program

This program will gently move your mind from its current craving state to complete freedom from cigarettes.

You will no longer be controlled by the need to smoke. No more planning your day so you can smoke, no more running outside at work or at parties, no more worrying whether you have enough cigarettes left.

Smoking-cessation methods that treat smoking as an addiction (nicotine patches, nicotine gum, and so on) have a very low success rate, acknowledged to be around 23%. The makers of the drug Zyban state that the drug is only effective if it is taken in conjunction with ‘psychological intervention’.

A smoker’s mental state must be stable and requires will power to end the dependency. I deliberately call it a dependency and not an addiction. You have seen that an addict must take the drug in just enough amounts to temporarily satisfy the craving, but a smoker doesn’t. An effective treatment of smoking dependency must take into account this fact – that the smoker is not really an addict.

Yes, you heard right!

When many smokers are told during their smoking cessation program that they can keep smoking they are quite surprised:

“You continue to smoke while you progress through the program. You only quit when you don’t want to smoke anymore.”

Now, isn’t that easier on the smoker? Definitely! Does the smoker need to have extraordinary will power to break the habit? Of course not! By connecting the smoker with her sub-conscious she can identify the source of her habit, acknowledge it and then make the choice to stop smoking.

Consult a Hypnotherapist

For effective and permanent results, it is best that you consult and work with a qualified Hypnotherapist. Such a professional is well trained in helping you with your smoking dependency. It would be fruitless to attempt self-hypnosis with a flawed understanding and cause yourself frustration, and in the end find yourself still having not kicked that smoking habit.

Kicking your smoking habit isn’t easy. A lot of people have tried to stop smoking several times and many have failed in it. There are some who go cold turkey and are successful, some enroll into programs and take nicotine replacements and medications but still can’t seem to quit their habit.

Most quitters will tell you that it’s not only determination that will get you through the process, but also discipline, and lots of it. Especially during the withdrawal period, it is important that you learn in advance how to deal with the physical and psychological problems that may and will come with quitting.

First and foremost, it’s most effective if you set a date when you will stop smoking. Tell your friends and family about this date, a support system can do miracles in keeping you from falling back into your old habit once you’ve stopped smoking. Also, stock up on gums, candies, or anything that you can munch or chew on whenever you feel the urge to light up a cigarette.

Another tip is to still keep the habit of holding a cigarette in your hand even after your Quit Day. That way you can pretend that you’re smoking and still keep the habit of having a smoke in hand without actually lighting it up. Keeping this habit is a psychological trick that will make it easier for you to slowly detach yourself from the act itself. Remember, at first, it’s more important to just get rid of the habit of inhaling cigarette smoke itself, not the other habits that come with it. On the next stage of your cessation, you can start replacing the cigarette stick with cinnamon sticks, then with a pencil, and so on until you have finally gotten rid of the urge to stick a cigarette in your mouth.

Stop Smoking Now programs and support groups can also be a big help when you want to stop smoking. A lot of people swear by the telephone-based program where you get to talk to a counselor. The good thing about this support hotline is that the counseling you are given is tailored to fit your needs and is based on your previous smoking pattern. An example is the American Cancer Society’s Quitline which offers counseling programs in several areas all over the country.

If you consult your doctor, he or she can help you determine whether you will be needing nicotine replacements in the first stage of your program. Replacements can include patches, lozenges, herbal mixtures and such. On the other hand, you can also ask your doctor about prescription antidepressant that will help reduce the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal. The trick though is not in taking these alternatives, but in finding the right solution for you even before you stop smoking.

Finally, engage in physical activities, preferably outdoors. Stress at work or elsewhere should not be an excuse that will keep you from changing your lifestyle. To stop smoking is just the same as to go on a diet. It will need your full focus, which means that you may eventually have to refrain from old habits (drinking, etc.) and adopt new ones that will help you not only keep your mind off of smoking, but also hasten your recovery from nicotine withdrawal.