Your subconscious mind & your smoking habit
Your subconscious mind is the part of you that controls everything you do that you don't consciously think about- things like your heart-beat, your metabolism, the way your body works.
It is also the part of you that controls your smoking habit. It is the part of you that has become sensitive to nicotine addiction- and the effects of withdrawal. It has been fooled into thinking you need the cigarettes to get the feel-good effects nicotine has on the brain. It has also been conditioned into a habit- because you've been smoking over and over again, probably in the same situations, many times over and over- it expects you to smoke in those situations, and so you get both a physical and a psychological craving at these times. The physical craving is your bodies desire for the nicotine which it has been tricked into thinking it needs it to feel good. The psychological craving is the desire to smoke in the situations you usually smoke in- simply because you always do and so it's become familiar to you.
There are also other psychological (or subconscious) reasons for keeping the smoking habit going- such as the mistaken belief that it relaxes you, or because you just 'feel bad' if you don't give in to the urge.
The subconscious smoker
This is the part of you that mistakenly thinks you need to smoke. It has come to believe that smoking is good for you.
The reason for this is that when you first started to smoke, you ignored your body's horrible reaction to it. Most people do not like smoking when they first begin- if you think back to that first cigarette, it was probably a horrible experience. This is because your body knew it was bad for you, so it was rejecting the toxins you inhaled. Perhaps you coughed a lot, or felt really sick. Perhaps it tasted foul. But you made the choice to keep doing it. What happened then was your body got used
to the temporary 'feel-good' effect nicotine has on the brain. It came to believe that you cannot feel good without it. So it began to think you needed to carry on smoking in order to feel good. You may have even over the years needed to smoke more cigarettes to get that same feel-good effect.
Once fooled in this way, your subconscious smoker begins to do everything in its power to keep that habit going. So you get cravings. You want to smoke in certain situations when you always smoke. If you don't, you get the craving- your body and your mind think they need that cigarette. This is why knowing consciously that smoking is bad for you isn't enough to make you stop- otherwise, in this day and age with all the info. that's out there about the dangers of smoking, everyone would stop. But your subconscious smoker is in serious denial. It ignores the dangers, it talks you round, it tells you 'that won't happen to me' or it says 'smoking relaxes me, I need it' or it says 'I'm young, I don't want to live forever anyway, I'll stop when I'm older'. It makes all kinds of excuses to keep you smoking. Because it has been fooled into thinking you need it.
If your conscious, mind was in control then you would read the health warnings and make an instant, logical decision to give up.
So why don't you?
It's because your subconscious smoker has been fooled into thinking that cigarettes make you feel better. It thinks you need them. You can exert all the will-power in the world to give up, or talk to yourself over and over about all the dangers, but it won't affect your subconscious smoker, because you can't access it.
Hypnosis is the easiest way to pain-free smoking cessation- because it accesses the subconscious smoker.
Your subconscious mind is the part of you that controls everything you do that you don't consciously think about- things like your heart-beat, your metabolism, the way your body works.
It is also the part of you that controls your smoking habit. It is the part of you that has become sensitive to nicotine addiction- and the effects of withdrawal. It has been fooled into thinking you need the cigarettes to get the feel-good effects nicotine has on the brain. It has also been conditioned into a habit- because you've been smoking over and over again, probably in the same situations, many times over and over- it expects you to smoke in those situations, and so you get both a physical and a psychological craving at these times. The physical craving is your bodies desire for the nicotine which it has been tricked into thinking it needs it to feel good. The psychological craving is the desire to smoke in the situations you usually smoke in- simply because you always do and so it's become familiar to you.
There are also other psychological (or subconscious) reasons for keeping the smoking habit going- such as the mistaken belief that it relaxes you, or because you just 'feel bad' if you don't give in to the urge.
The subconscious smoker
This is the part of you that mistakenly thinks you need to smoke. It has come to believe that smoking is good for you.
The reason for this is that when you first started to smoke, you ignored your body's horrible reaction to it. Most people do not like smoking when they first begin- if you think back to that first cigarette, it was probably a horrible experience. This is because your body knew it was bad for you, so it was rejecting the toxins you inhaled. Perhaps you coughed a lot, or felt really sick. Perhaps it tasted foul. But you made the choice to keep doing it. What happened then was your body got used
to the temporary 'feel-good' effect nicotine has on the brain. It came to believe that you cannot feel good without it. So it began to think you needed to carry on smoking in order to feel good. You may have even over the years needed to smoke more cigarettes to get that same feel-good effect.
Once fooled in this way, your subconscious smoker begins to do everything in its power to keep that habit going. So you get cravings. You want to smoke in certain situations when you always smoke. If you don't, you get the craving- your body and your mind think they need that cigarette. This is why knowing consciously that smoking is bad for you isn't enough to make you stop- otherwise, in this day and age with all the info. that's out there about the dangers of smoking, everyone would stop. But your subconscious smoker is in serious denial. It ignores the dangers, it talks you round, it tells you 'that won't happen to me' or it says 'smoking relaxes me, I need it' or it says 'I'm young, I don't want to live forever anyway, I'll stop when I'm older'. It makes all kinds of excuses to keep you smoking. Because it has been fooled into thinking you need it.
If your conscious, mind was in control then you would read the health warnings and make an instant, logical decision to give up.
So why don't you?
It's because your subconscious smoker has been fooled into thinking that cigarettes make you feel better. It thinks you need them. You can exert all the will-power in the world to give up, or talk to yourself over and over about all the dangers, but it won't affect your subconscious smoker, because you can't access it.
Hypnosis is the easiest way to pain-free smoking cessation- because it accesses the subconscious smoker.
Hypnosis helps the subconscious smoker to come to realise that it was
right in the first place, that day long ago when you had your first
cigarette and you choked and coughed and it tasted foul and maybe even
made you feel sick. It helps the subconscious smoker to realise that
actually, it would be stupid to carry on smoking. It helps you to
actually want to do it so much that you find your desire for cigarettes
weakening, you find it easy to say no, you break the habit and you
become- and remain- a non-smoker. It stops the subconscious smoker
thinking you need cigarettes to feel good. It allows you to realise you
can feel good without them- and this feels wonderful!
Using will-power alone
Have you ever felt 'in two minds' about quitting? Like there's part of you that really wants to stop, but for some reason it's not that easy, there's another part of you that keeps you smoking, perhaps for reasons you don't truly understand? You get cravings, you get desires, you feel the need to smoke- and even though part of you doesn't want to obey, you still light up. You may even think "Why am I still doing this?" and yet you carry on. Or you stop for a while and get drawn back.
This all happens because consciously you may want to stop and have many reasons for doing so, but subconsciously, your subconscious smoker is still hanging on to that old habit for dear life!
The subconscious mind works by holding on to things it thinks are good for us. So the subconscious smoker will hold on to smoking with the mistaken belief that it benefits you in some way. Perhaps it is the only time you feel you can relax. Or maybe you use it as an appetite suppressant to stay slimmer. Maybe it's an excuse for a break at work, or maybe you have an inner rebel that feels tough and powerful being a smoker- like you're sticking your middle finger up at authority. It could even be simply that your subconscious is afraid of the nicotine withdrawal, afraid that you will not be able to 'feel-good' (or relaxed, or whatever) again without the action of smoking the cigarette.
With hypnosis, we actually change the programming of the subconscious smoker. The subconscious smoker will have many reasons for thinking smoking is 'good' (otherwise you just wouldn't keep doing it). What hypnosis does is helps your subconscious smoker to realise what you yourself consciously know- that smoking is bad for you and that you don't actually need it. Once it realises this, it will want you to be a non-smoker too.
Both your conscious and your subconscious need to be convinced that they will benefit from you being a permanent non-smoker- and hypnosis is the way this can be done.
Using will-power alone
Have you ever felt 'in two minds' about quitting? Like there's part of you that really wants to stop, but for some reason it's not that easy, there's another part of you that keeps you smoking, perhaps for reasons you don't truly understand? You get cravings, you get desires, you feel the need to smoke- and even though part of you doesn't want to obey, you still light up. You may even think "Why am I still doing this?" and yet you carry on. Or you stop for a while and get drawn back.
This all happens because consciously you may want to stop and have many reasons for doing so, but subconsciously, your subconscious smoker is still hanging on to that old habit for dear life!
The subconscious mind works by holding on to things it thinks are good for us. So the subconscious smoker will hold on to smoking with the mistaken belief that it benefits you in some way. Perhaps it is the only time you feel you can relax. Or maybe you use it as an appetite suppressant to stay slimmer. Maybe it's an excuse for a break at work, or maybe you have an inner rebel that feels tough and powerful being a smoker- like you're sticking your middle finger up at authority. It could even be simply that your subconscious is afraid of the nicotine withdrawal, afraid that you will not be able to 'feel-good' (or relaxed, or whatever) again without the action of smoking the cigarette.
With hypnosis, we actually change the programming of the subconscious smoker. The subconscious smoker will have many reasons for thinking smoking is 'good' (otherwise you just wouldn't keep doing it). What hypnosis does is helps your subconscious smoker to realise what you yourself consciously know- that smoking is bad for you and that you don't actually need it. Once it realises this, it will want you to be a non-smoker too.
Both your conscious and your subconscious need to be convinced that they will benefit from you being a permanent non-smoker- and hypnosis is the way this can be done.
What about the addiction to nicotine?
Although nicotine is a highly addictive drug, its effects are relatively short lived. The withdrawal from it takes time to build up, which is why some people can go all day without smoking if they work in a non-smoking environment.
The truth is that the withdrawal effects disappear as soon as you light up again, which tricks your subconscious mind into thinking you got that relief from the cigarette. So it begins to see cigarettes as necessary for your survival. Consciously, you think that the cigarette made you feel better. Subconsciously, your body thinks you need cigarettes to 'survive'. This is how you get tricked into becoming addicted.
Each cigarette makes you (and your subconscious smoker) think you are getting some benefit, when in fact you are just keeping the dependency going. Staying a slave to the habit. Making yourself increasingly unhealthy.
Nicotine has an effect on the brain. It makes you feel calm and satisfied. It can also make you feel alert and focused.
But these effects run out, and soon you need another cigarette to get these same feelings. After a while, you no longer feel 'normal' without having a cigarette, because you experience withdrawal effects. So you keep smoking.
Getting the subconscious smoker on your side- turning it into your subconscious non-smoker.
Before your hypnotherapy session, you identify what your reasons for smoking are. What you 'get' from doing it. It is harder to quit a habit if you think you're going to lose out on something you enjoy. If, for example, you feel relaxed when you smoke, your subconscious smoker isn't going to want to give smoking up because it won't want to give up relaxation. So what hypnosis does is help you find ways to get the feelings (or things) you want, without having to depend on smoking to give you them.
Identifying ways you can still have the things you want to keep, and feeding back to the subconscious mind that you can still have these things- but in healthier ways- makes it so much easier for the subconscious mind to willingly decide that smoking is not for you anymore. Once your subconscious smoker realises- that is, really feels and believes, that smoking is not for you- that there's no good reason at all to continue smoking- it will willingly relinquish the habit and take on board the new way of life of non-smoking. It will become your subconscioud non-smoker- that is, it will be working at keeping you a non-smoker.
At first you may find you still have to be aware of trigger situations, (those situations in which you always used to smoke) and you may get cravings (but these should subside relatively quickly as the nicotine leaves your body) but unlike other methods, after your hypnotherapy session you will be able to manage these much better. You will be taught a quick, simple tapping technique that can reduce cravings in minutes- so they don't need to be a problem to you. As for triggers, well the desire to be a non-smoker that has been instilled in you during your hypnosis session will help you to manage those situations much more effectively- because it will have been instilled both consciously and subconsciously.
With hypnosis, the part of you that kept you smoking- your subconscious smoker- is turned into your subconscious non-smoker. So you will much more strongly feel good about being a non-smoker, and more easily be able to say no to any thought of smoking again- in fact, it can be so easy with hypnosis for some people that you will never even desire it again.
In stressful times, you can reach for your hypnosis recording, not a fag!
A lot of people who've tried to quit using other methods find that as soon as they get stressed, upset, depressed, overworked etc, they begin smoking again! The reason this happens is because there was a subconscious belief there- that smoking 'helps' in difficult times. There is a memory there- smoking made me feel good- therefore, I need smoking again.
What hypnosis does is removes these false beliefs- they are false because the 'feel-good' factor of smoking is false. It is a temporary effect of nicotine on the brain, and the other effects of nicotine (not to mention all the other poisons and compounds in cigarettes) are not worth that temporary false 'boost'.
With these false beliefs removed, you will truly see what a horrifying thing smoking is to do to yourself, and you are highly unlikely to ever want to put yourself through that again! If you are one of the very few who do (there are some people who have a really strong subconscious smoking program- it's nothing to be ashamed of and doesn't mean you've failed), in times of stress, you might find yourself thinking you'd like to smoke again. If you'd used another method to quit you could very well end up smoking again. But after having hypnosis, you will have your downloads of 2 non-smoking sessions. These sessions flood your subconscious with the feel-good effects of being a non-smoker. By listening to your recordings in stressful times, you are much less likely to have a re-lapse. You feel once again, very strongly, all the wonderful benefits of being a non-smoker... and you want to stay this way.
Some people do re-lapse- BUT...
Thankfully it is very few. The success rate of stop smoking hypnotherapy is around 60- 95%. You will get a handout on what to do if you relapse, to make sure it isn't permanent, but just a temporary 'slip-up'. Thankfully, it's not very likely to happen, but it doesn't mean the end of the world if it does- with your hypnosis recordings that you get at the end and the tools and techniques you will have been taught, you can get back to being a non-smoker and look at the relapse as a temporary moment of insanity!
In summary, how hypnosis works to turn you into a non-smoker
Our minds work on two levels- consciously, and subconsciously. The smoking habit is controlled and kept in place by the subconscious mind- because it mistakenly has come to believe you benefit from smoking.
In hypnotherapy, in which the subconscious can be directly reached, the subconscious is taught that there are no real benefits to smoking, and those that it thinks it gets (such as relaxation) it can still have, in healthier ways that don't damage the body.
Once the false beliefs that smoking benefits you are removed, your subconscious works in alignment with your conscious- the part of you that wants to quit- and it becomes much easier.
Your own personal reasons and motivations for wanting to quit will be reinforced in such a way as to make you feel really good about doing so- so that you walk away confident and ready to begin your happy, healthy life as a non-smoker.
Can I be hypnotised?
Many people worry they won't be able to be hypnotised- but hypnosis is a very natural state we go into frequently without even realising it's 'hypnosis.' There is no real name for this natural state, hypnosis is just a word coined to describe using it as a way to access the subconscious mind for positive changes. Have you ever driven home and you can't remember the details of the journey? That's 'hypnosis'. It is simply a state in which your subconscious mind takes control. Your subconscious mind knows how to drive, and so it can get you home safely without you being consciously aware of the journey you just took. Another example, have you ever cried at a movie? (Or jumped when watching a horror because something scared you). Why did you cry or get scared when you know it's not real? You do know it's not real... but your subconscious mind still reacts. Again, that's hypnosis- a state in which your subconscious takes control.
Now, in hypnosis with a therapist, you experience bodily relaxation and the focusing of your mind on what you want to achieve. Most people can't tell the difference between hypnosis and the waking state. It doesn't feel alien or different, you don't feel 'out of it' or 'in a trance' and you certainly won't feel 'asleep'! Most often people feel relaxed and a little lethargic, but that's about it. You cannot get 'stuck' in hypnosis, it is a perfectly safe state to be in- because it is controlled by your subconscious mind. The therapist acts only as a guide, to utilise this state to your advantage in creating what you want to create. So you will be guided to imagine certain things, and in doing so, the messages will be going directly into the subconscious mind, where they will be acted upon in ways to make the changes you want to make.
So what's the next step? If you really want to be a non-smoker, you are more likely to achieve this with hypnosis. If you choose to ring and book in with me, here's how it works:
Consultation: (Approx 45 minutes): £20
Involves identifying the subconscious smoker's reasons that have been keeping you smoking, so they can be eliminated in the cessation session.
Teaches you a tapping technique to reduce cravings.
You will get a booklet to take away with you with advice on what to do before you quit, and powerful 'stop-smoking' hints to keep you a non-smoker.
Double cessation session: (Approx 2 hours): £80
Involves hypnotherapy session to re-program the subconscious smoker so that it lets go of the smoking habit and allows you to more easily become- and remain- a non-smoker.
You will get the link to 2 downloadable hypnosis sessions I recorded to reinforce the new non-smoking program. You might not even need to listen to them!
If you had a strong subconscious smoker, (that is, a subconscious smoker with many beliefs, or a particularly strong belief, that smoking benefits you) you might find it helps to listen to the recordings every day for the first critical 4 months, and then again at any particularly stressful time.
I want to be a non-smoker, and I've decided to try hypnosis.
Great! All you have to do now is book your consultation.
07811 333 557
Although nicotine is a highly addictive drug, its effects are relatively short lived. The withdrawal from it takes time to build up, which is why some people can go all day without smoking if they work in a non-smoking environment.
The truth is that the withdrawal effects disappear as soon as you light up again, which tricks your subconscious mind into thinking you got that relief from the cigarette. So it begins to see cigarettes as necessary for your survival. Consciously, you think that the cigarette made you feel better. Subconsciously, your body thinks you need cigarettes to 'survive'. This is how you get tricked into becoming addicted.
Each cigarette makes you (and your subconscious smoker) think you are getting some benefit, when in fact you are just keeping the dependency going. Staying a slave to the habit. Making yourself increasingly unhealthy.
Nicotine has an effect on the brain. It makes you feel calm and satisfied. It can also make you feel alert and focused.
But these effects run out, and soon you need another cigarette to get these same feelings. After a while, you no longer feel 'normal' without having a cigarette, because you experience withdrawal effects. So you keep smoking.
Getting the subconscious smoker on your side- turning it into your subconscious non-smoker.
Before your hypnotherapy session, you identify what your reasons for smoking are. What you 'get' from doing it. It is harder to quit a habit if you think you're going to lose out on something you enjoy. If, for example, you feel relaxed when you smoke, your subconscious smoker isn't going to want to give smoking up because it won't want to give up relaxation. So what hypnosis does is help you find ways to get the feelings (or things) you want, without having to depend on smoking to give you them.
Identifying ways you can still have the things you want to keep, and feeding back to the subconscious mind that you can still have these things- but in healthier ways- makes it so much easier for the subconscious mind to willingly decide that smoking is not for you anymore. Once your subconscious smoker realises- that is, really feels and believes, that smoking is not for you- that there's no good reason at all to continue smoking- it will willingly relinquish the habit and take on board the new way of life of non-smoking. It will become your subconscioud non-smoker- that is, it will be working at keeping you a non-smoker.
At first you may find you still have to be aware of trigger situations, (those situations in which you always used to smoke) and you may get cravings (but these should subside relatively quickly as the nicotine leaves your body) but unlike other methods, after your hypnotherapy session you will be able to manage these much better. You will be taught a quick, simple tapping technique that can reduce cravings in minutes- so they don't need to be a problem to you. As for triggers, well the desire to be a non-smoker that has been instilled in you during your hypnosis session will help you to manage those situations much more effectively- because it will have been instilled both consciously and subconsciously.
With hypnosis, the part of you that kept you smoking- your subconscious smoker- is turned into your subconscious non-smoker. So you will much more strongly feel good about being a non-smoker, and more easily be able to say no to any thought of smoking again- in fact, it can be so easy with hypnosis for some people that you will never even desire it again.
In stressful times, you can reach for your hypnosis recording, not a fag!
A lot of people who've tried to quit using other methods find that as soon as they get stressed, upset, depressed, overworked etc, they begin smoking again! The reason this happens is because there was a subconscious belief there- that smoking 'helps' in difficult times. There is a memory there- smoking made me feel good- therefore, I need smoking again.
What hypnosis does is removes these false beliefs- they are false because the 'feel-good' factor of smoking is false. It is a temporary effect of nicotine on the brain, and the other effects of nicotine (not to mention all the other poisons and compounds in cigarettes) are not worth that temporary false 'boost'.
With these false beliefs removed, you will truly see what a horrifying thing smoking is to do to yourself, and you are highly unlikely to ever want to put yourself through that again! If you are one of the very few who do (there are some people who have a really strong subconscious smoking program- it's nothing to be ashamed of and doesn't mean you've failed), in times of stress, you might find yourself thinking you'd like to smoke again. If you'd used another method to quit you could very well end up smoking again. But after having hypnosis, you will have your downloads of 2 non-smoking sessions. These sessions flood your subconscious with the feel-good effects of being a non-smoker. By listening to your recordings in stressful times, you are much less likely to have a re-lapse. You feel once again, very strongly, all the wonderful benefits of being a non-smoker... and you want to stay this way.
Some people do re-lapse- BUT...
Thankfully it is very few. The success rate of stop smoking hypnotherapy is around 60- 95%. You will get a handout on what to do if you relapse, to make sure it isn't permanent, but just a temporary 'slip-up'. Thankfully, it's not very likely to happen, but it doesn't mean the end of the world if it does- with your hypnosis recordings that you get at the end and the tools and techniques you will have been taught, you can get back to being a non-smoker and look at the relapse as a temporary moment of insanity!
In summary, how hypnosis works to turn you into a non-smoker
Our minds work on two levels- consciously, and subconsciously. The smoking habit is controlled and kept in place by the subconscious mind- because it mistakenly has come to believe you benefit from smoking.
In hypnotherapy, in which the subconscious can be directly reached, the subconscious is taught that there are no real benefits to smoking, and those that it thinks it gets (such as relaxation) it can still have, in healthier ways that don't damage the body.
Once the false beliefs that smoking benefits you are removed, your subconscious works in alignment with your conscious- the part of you that wants to quit- and it becomes much easier.
Your own personal reasons and motivations for wanting to quit will be reinforced in such a way as to make you feel really good about doing so- so that you walk away confident and ready to begin your happy, healthy life as a non-smoker.
Can I be hypnotised?
Many people worry they won't be able to be hypnotised- but hypnosis is a very natural state we go into frequently without even realising it's 'hypnosis.' There is no real name for this natural state, hypnosis is just a word coined to describe using it as a way to access the subconscious mind for positive changes. Have you ever driven home and you can't remember the details of the journey? That's 'hypnosis'. It is simply a state in which your subconscious mind takes control. Your subconscious mind knows how to drive, and so it can get you home safely without you being consciously aware of the journey you just took. Another example, have you ever cried at a movie? (Or jumped when watching a horror because something scared you). Why did you cry or get scared when you know it's not real? You do know it's not real... but your subconscious mind still reacts. Again, that's hypnosis- a state in which your subconscious takes control.
Now, in hypnosis with a therapist, you experience bodily relaxation and the focusing of your mind on what you want to achieve. Most people can't tell the difference between hypnosis and the waking state. It doesn't feel alien or different, you don't feel 'out of it' or 'in a trance' and you certainly won't feel 'asleep'! Most often people feel relaxed and a little lethargic, but that's about it. You cannot get 'stuck' in hypnosis, it is a perfectly safe state to be in- because it is controlled by your subconscious mind. The therapist acts only as a guide, to utilise this state to your advantage in creating what you want to create. So you will be guided to imagine certain things, and in doing so, the messages will be going directly into the subconscious mind, where they will be acted upon in ways to make the changes you want to make.
So what's the next step? If you really want to be a non-smoker, you are more likely to achieve this with hypnosis. If you choose to ring and book in with me, here's how it works:
Consultation: (Approx 45 minutes): £20
Involves identifying the subconscious smoker's reasons that have been keeping you smoking, so they can be eliminated in the cessation session.
Teaches you a tapping technique to reduce cravings.
You will get a booklet to take away with you with advice on what to do before you quit, and powerful 'stop-smoking' hints to keep you a non-smoker.
Double cessation session: (Approx 2 hours): £80
Involves hypnotherapy session to re-program the subconscious smoker so that it lets go of the smoking habit and allows you to more easily become- and remain- a non-smoker.
You will get the link to 2 downloadable hypnosis sessions I recorded to reinforce the new non-smoking program. You might not even need to listen to them!
If you had a strong subconscious smoker, (that is, a subconscious smoker with many beliefs, or a particularly strong belief, that smoking benefits you) you might find it helps to listen to the recordings every day for the first critical 4 months, and then again at any particularly stressful time.
I want to be a non-smoker, and I've decided to try hypnosis.
Great! All you have to do now is book your consultation.
07811 333 557