Hi Soon To Be Non Smoker
How To Quit Smoking Cigarettes For Life
By Ian Newton Consulting Hypnotist & Nutritional Naturopath
The origins of smoking.
Like most smokers you may have started in your early teens, there was peer pressure, you did it in spite of the horrible taste and the hacking cough. You may have felt you looked older, or cooler, more rugged or more sophisticated, but as you got older those reason disappeared.
As a young person you may have observed older smokers who seemed to rely on cigarettes, to relax, to manage stress, solve boredom and help them to socialise, especially when alcohol was involved.
And soon under their influence and that of your friends you too became a smoker who relied on them to manage some parts of your life.
The dawning of reality-problem
You may have smoked for many years or even decades, and for a lot of that time you probably enjoyed it. You found it helped you to relax, to wake up, and to help you think.
You smoke when driving, during your breaks and when on the phone, but somewhere along the way you realised that smoking was harmful, very harmful.
Perhaps you choose to ignore this, at first or even for a long time, but the information was unavoidable.
Maybe you thought you would quit before it became a problem, or that you wouldn’t become a victim to cigarettes.
My patient John was 32 when he came in for hypnosis. He disclosed that he was coughing up a little blood. Firstly I made him promise to see a doctor the next day.
He wasn’t stupid, but he firmly believed that because his grandfather was still smoking at 78 with no apparent problems, then he would be immune to any problems himself. Unfortunately he was wrong, and he was in a world of problems.
Hopefully the seriousness of the problems do dawn very clearly on all smokers, sooner rather than later.
The problems are well known. Lung, throat and mouth cancer. Heart disease, Emphysema, diabetes, and at the very least poor breathing and low energy. Of course smoking affects every cell in your body and therefore it can make any problem worse.
The truth about nicotine.
Nicotine is a very sneaky drug, and it appears to have almost magical powers. How can one drug help you to wake up in the morning and then help relax you with a coffee at morning tea.
How can it calm you when you are relaxed, and help you have a good time when at the pub. Or how does it give a bored brain something to do and help you to think more clearly.
The answer is simple, it doesn’t. you simply do these things and associate the benefits with smoking.
When you take a break from work for a smoke, it’s the break that helps, not the cigarette.
When you light up a cigarette, sure you get a short term dose of feel good dopamine, but it is quickly followed by a release of stress hormones as the nicotine hits your adrenals causing a stress reaction.
If you ever watch an anxious person chain smoking, they do not get calmer and calmer with every smoke, they become more anxious, as more stress hormone is released.
But the brain in an attempt to prevent being poisoned, shuts down the access by nicotine, and so to the dopamine release.
In short smoking causes more stress, not less.
After two quick smokes your brain barrier stops nicotine from entering the brain. It does this because it recognises this high dose as a poison. The result is that you will stop getting your dopamine hit.
But your conditioning tells you that smoking offers a reward, so you keep smoking in a desperate attempt to feel better.
Your adrenals however have no such barrier, sure a little nicotine stimulates your stress hormones to wake you up, but in a chain smoking situation you will keep producing cortisol which will make your stress or anxiety much worse. This is really important to remember when you think you need a cigarette to reduce your stress.
If you think about it for a moment, the smoke will stress your lungs, the toxins and chemicals will stress your liver, your blood vessels and every single cell in your body! So much stress for so little reward.
Low success methods.
There are many ways that are claimed to be successful for smoking but most don’t live up to their promises.
Will power and cold turkey. This does work for some people. It is estimated that 7% of smokers quit long term this way. Many do succeed short term, but there is often quite a bit of suffering and stress along the way.
Nicotine replacement, as patches, gum or sprays.
Macquarie university showed almost zero success in the real world. Sure 20% of people quit when in a controlled study, but the study twists real results because many people simple comply, but left to their own devices there is little success.
In the United Kingdom the results showed just 2% success with nicotine, which is less than the 5% who quit without trying or effort.
Many smokers tell me that they still smoke even when wearing the patches, because they forget they are wearing them, and usually end up having headaches or nightmares from nicotine toxicity.
Advertising tells you that a nicotine spray will stop a cravings in about 2 minutes, the curious thing is that a nicotine craving will peak and wane within 2 minutes with no intervention.
Many nicotine replacement products are owned by cigarette companies, which mean they win when you smoke, they win when you try to quit and they win when you start again even if you manage to quit, for awhile.
Pharmaceutical Drugs.
In Australia Champix is the most common anti-smoking drug offered. It has different but similar names in other countries.
Champix claims about 23% success, and their marketing states that you may need to try it several times to succeed. In Australia the first time is inexpensive but if you fail and use it again in the short term it’s about $700.
I have heard hundreds of clients describe their champix experience.
Headaches, confusion, nightmares and feeling weird are common and one client hard a directly related heart attack and another had a psychotic breakdown.
Few if any would ever try it again. I have to admit that I am seeing people who it didn’t work for so they have a bias against it.
Natural supplements.
As a trained herbalist and homoeopath, I’m not convinced that the so called quit smoking remedies can work alone. At best a herbal like Avena Sativa may support other therapies to reduce the stress.
Acupuncture.
I have to admit not really knowing much about this and have not seen any data to show it’s success rate.
What does Work
Hypnosis as reported in the science journal Nature has a 66% success rate. My experience has been that by blending hypnosis with other therapies such as NLP and EFT plus ensuring that you the smoker are fully ready and committed translates to a success rate of over 80%
However if we do it over a 3 session process which gives us more time to address any background stress issues then success rises to over 90%, and this is a spectacular success rate for any therapy for any health issue.
I stopped counting formally my smoking clients at 1000, my guess would be close to 3,000. This means I have had plenty of opportunity to sort out any obstacles to your success.
Fears about quitting.
The biggest block to quitting success is fear.
Fear of failure, often comes from personal experience or that of others. Ignore others experiences, they are not you.
Not being able to handle stress, please re-read the nicotine section if still in doubt.
Not being able to relax. It’s the same story as with stress, just remind yourself that it’s the time you give yourself to relax that helps, not the tobacco stick burning in your mouth.
Gaining weight.
This is a real concern, because many people who quit smoking start eating. My process educates you about balancing your blood sugar, to avoid cravings, offers you a free supporting healthy diet, and gives to strategies to manage stress, so that you don’t turn to comfort food.
What about being around smokers? If you live with a smoker you may need to negotiate with them so that they are not in your face at least for the first week.
With others you may wish to lie low for a week again. But the goal is always for you to be able to mix with smokers and not really care. I can tell you that you won’t enjoy the smoke, but you can relax and not become the smoking police.
Fortunately these days non smokers are the majority, and you will enjoy not having to leave a café or restaurant or work place to try and find an allowed smoking space.
Not knowing what to do with your hands. Non smokers have managed perfectly well all their lives and so will you. But in the short term a water bottle, or drink will do the job.
Boredom is a common reason for smoking, once again non smokers manage their boredom just fine, you will find things to fill the time gaps just like non smokers. If you feel bored that’s a good thing to remind yourself why you have quit smoking.
The forming of a decision
This involves several steps.
- Being a smoker who is happy to smoke and enjoys
- Being pressured by others but ignoring them.
- Becoming concerned about your health but still mostly in denial.
- Recognising that others may be right, and that they are not just nagging you but they really have your best interests in mind.
- Being genuinely concerned for your own wellbeing and you future.
- Getting over smoking and feeling sick of being controlled by these sticks, and tired of the inconvenience and the financial cost.
- Taking action to book a quit smoking session.
- Building a strong commitment to yourself also committing to do any pre-session home work.
Deciding what you want and what you are worth, is a great way to boost your decision making.
You are worth more than some addictive plant.
You are worth more than some fleeting pleasure.
You are worth more than being labelled as a smoker.
You are worth more than making the big cigarette companies profitable.
Your health is worth more than any habit.
Your life is worth more than any short term pleasure.
Creating your commitment by diving into your most powerful reasons.
So what are your reasons for quitting here are the most common.
- I want to be healthy…this is common but vague, be as specific as possible.
- I don’t want to get cancer.
- I don’t want to die like my father, mother, etc
- I want to be able to breathe easier.
- I want to stop wasting my money.
- I want to be a good example for my family.
- I don’t want my children to know I smoke.
- I want to live a long health life and see my children grow to be adults.
- I want to get fit and exercise more.
- I want to feel successful.
- I want to spend more time with my family.
- I’m sick of the inconvenience.
- I don’t want to worry that people can smell cigarettes on my clothes.
What is good about smoking?
Ask yourself these questions and make a list, but start with these questions first.
Is it the thousands of dollars I’ve waisted?
Is it having my breath, clothes, hair, car or home smell like an ashtray?
Is it my shortness of breath?
Is it finding a smoking place out of the heat or cold or rain outside a restaurant or cinema?
Is it the time I spend outside away from my family?
Is it the worry about getting cancer?
Is it worrying about others discovering I’m a smoker?
Is it the fact that medically I would be pushed down a surgical list because I’m a smoker, because the surgeons know I’m a greater risk of complications.
Is it the risk of diabetes?
Is it the risk of heart disease?
Is it the pre-premature ageing?
Is it the worry I cause my loved ones?
Is it the prospect of being disabled?
Or what is the worse thing that could happen to me and how would I manage that news, and how would that affect my life and the life of my loved ones?
Only when you have asked these questions and really considered your answers, then you can include questions about the pleasure, I’m sure the pleasure is dramatically outweighed by the pain.
Designing your new future.
A good exercise, and this is often done within the hypnosis session is to design your future.
Firstly imagine what your life will be like if you keep smoking and the worse comes true.
Then shift to how it will be tomorrow as a non smoker, maybe you will be breathing easier.
How about 6 months time when you have saved enough from not smoking to go on a holiday, and you have exercising and feeling full of energy.
What about 10 or 20 years and you are at your child’s wedding and you are feeling healthy.
Or even further away when you are playing with your grand children and you feel health fit and strong.
So for a minute or two go ahead and imagine your better future and really attach yourself to the come.
Choosing a quit method.-creating belief
Lets say you have decided to quit using hypnosis. Maybe you have been referred by a friend. This instantly build confidence.
But perhaps you look online or you se a sign for a practitioner. It is important to speak with that person so that you can get a sense of who you are working with.
That person should inspire you and build your confidence in the process and the outcome. Now your belief in yourself and the practitioner can build. But if you don’t feel the person is right then make another call.
Understanding the B.L.U.R process.
My method of helping clients to quit smoking is the B.L.U.R. process. I know it’s a strange acromion, but as we all know, life can go by in a blur, and if we don’t take action then time passes by all too fast.
B is for Beliefs. We first identify the negative beliefs about quitting and your ability to be successful, and we use a number of strategies to help you to let go of these fearful beliefs.
Next together we build new positive powerful beliefs. Those strong beliefs which will help you to get past any obstacles you encounter especially in your early days.
L is for learning. This is about discovering new things about smoking, and quitting, and most importantly learning new things about yourself and your most important values.
U is for directing your unconscious mind to assist you to make the changes at a deep level to let go of smoking and to embrace your self worth and to simply become a non smoking easily and naturally. This is done through subtle hypnotic unconscious direction.
R is for building your emotional resilience, to give you the strength to remain a non smoker especially in tough times. And we all know that tough times will visit us all to many times in our lives.
Commitment to the process.-allowing it to happen
Committing to the process, is about your commitment to yourself and committing to working with, and allowing the process to occur.
It’s a matter of going with the flow and trusting your practitioner. Anyone can be hypnotised if they want to be. No one can be forced into a trance, unfortunately television has created some unreal expectations of hypnosis. Very left brained people can tend to be over analytical, and it is necessary for them, if they want to succeed is to just relax and do with the process.
This is why I prefer to discus directing the unconscious, rather than hypnosis, which as an activity carries some undeserved baggage.
Working with the process.
If you are sceptical I strongly advise you park that feeling well before your session. Instead put your focus on being successful and feeling great about in advance.
To be clear if you walk in the door as a sceptic, then you are wasting your time, and taking up valuable in the session that would be better spent in making important change.
Sticking to your follow up homework (life work)
After your quit session you should have follow up homework to do. It could be listening a short audio track, or breathing exercise, or perhaps EFT.
These are designed to take the suggestions from your session even deeper and to manage any feeling about smoking immediately as it arises.
My process involves three sessions. My goal is always to have you quit at the end of session one. Then drive it deeper in session two and then in your third session, we can handle any issues which are stressing you, which could complicate your long term success.
The second situation is where a client cuts down after the first session and then we deal with the rest of the habit in the second.
This most often happens when there is a background significant issue in the clients life which is causing them on going stress. Occasionally this process will filter over to the third session.
Handling any hic-cups.
If you do have a desire for a cigarette, then it is in your interest to immediately take action. Do your deep breathing, use your specific EFT exercise and distract yourself.
Remember a craving peaks and goes in just two minutes. If you give in at the first hurdle you will be straight back to smoking.
But if you use the techniques then each subsequent craving will be less intense, as you gain confidence in your ability to control them, and as their grip on you becomes less and less.
If a client has cut down after their first session, I always ask that they don’t smoke on the day of their second session so that they arrive wanting a cigarette.
I can then show them how quickly and easily they can take control of that craving, and gives a huge boost of confidence.
Celebrating your success.
Don’t forget to celebrate your success. I advise clients to put the money saved from smoking into a jar for at least two weeks. In Australia this would amount to about $250 for the average 20 per day smoker.
But in addition congratulate yourself and have little celebrations after a week, and a month and certainly after a year. Each time remind yourself of all the powerful reasons you had for quitting, and how good you feel now.
In conclusion I ask you this empowering question.
When will I make a solid commitment to my self to quit and how soon will I arrange an appointment to do so, and how completely will I embrace the process and follow all instructions given to me?
To quit smoking in Australia call me on 1300 203 422 for a free chat about your smoking situation and how to fix it.
