Stop Smoking

Stop Smoking... Quit Smoking... How???

“I've tried and I can't kick the habit.”

“I have quit 15 times and it never works.”

“It is too hard.”

“I am not sure I am ready to quit.”

“I need to quit. It bothers my daughters asthma.”

“Nicotine withdraw is too much.”

“I need to quit but I can't.”

“I want to quit but nothing works.”

“I don't have enough will power.”

“I can quit because all of my friends smoke.”

“I have to smoke after every meal.”

“The cost of smoking is driving me broke. I need to quit, I can't afford it any more.”

“Smoking is the only thing that calms me down.”

“I quit smoking but when I get stressed I start again.”

“I want to quit but I enjoy it too much.”

“I need to stop smoking. I have COPD and I don't want to die.”

“My doctor told me I have to quit, but it is too hard.”

“Can you hypnotize me to not want to smoke?”

“Can you make it easy to stop smoking?”

“Can you please help me?”

     These are just a few of the things that have been said by smokers. Some of them may sound all to strangely familiar as personal inner dialogue. It is no secret that smoking is one of the most difficult habits to put down. We are taught to smoke at a very young age, many years before our first cigarette is put to our lips. How is that possible? Simple, how do we learn most of our habits and behaviors?

     First, our parents role model behaviors for us. How many people have had parents, grand parents, aunts, uncles, family friends or role models that were smokers while they were growing up?

     Second, what does every child spend way too much time doing while growing up? Playing video games and watching TV is the most popular answer. Games and TV and all the other media portray smoking as cool. Yes the occasional PSA sending the message to quit smoking may appear. However that few seconds of stop smoking does not out weight hours, days or even years of imagery and associations to the opposite. Especially when the smoking is “cool” message has a positive emotional experience or response connected to it. The media has an enormous influence on every single man, woman and child within their reach. Americans simply don't realize or even think about the subconscious power the television screen has on our brain.

     Third, a persons friends, neighbors or coworkers may be smokers. Don't dismiss the natural human desire to belong. Despite the fact people consider themselves to be highly evolved and sophisticated human beings, the brain still has and uses basic primal instincts. One of which is a basic need belong to a group. The concept of safety in numbers is a primitive response mechanism that works very powerfully on the subconscious mind. Now think about the term “peer pressure”. That should now invoke a new way of seeing a child's need to belong. Their clothes, hair and other annoyances the child may bring home with an “Everybody at school is doing it” attitude starts to make a little more sense. As silly as it may seem the child's desperate attempt to be different is actually and attempt to identify and belong to a desired group.

     Fourth, we go to a restaurant, bar, club or to a friends home and people have previously been smoking. It does not take but a few people smoking and a central air conditioning system working together to fill a venue with the smell of cigarette smoke. Over time the smoke particles and chemicals will accumulate and the smell will intensify. Now you go to these places and will smell this on an unconscious or even a conscious level. If you are there creating positive memories that smell will be associated as part of that memory. When we create memories all of our senses are incorporated into that memory to one degree or an other. Although one may not have the full awareness of the added senses as part of the memory today, they were none the less part of the memory at the time the memory was formed. As with all learning and experience the knowledge or experience of the events are incorporated into a persons subconscious associations also know as their filters.

     Fifth, we may be trying to please another person. “Trying to make someone happy” how does that work? Think about how we build relationships with other people. We naturally try to behave in a manner that is familiar and comfortable for the other person. This is an attempt to get them to accept us. We are naturally attracted to people whom display similar traits to our own. These include physical, psychological, behavioral as well as social traits. In that, comes a natural behavior of adopting traits others have to please them and to show them we are just like they are. Who could these outside people be in our lives? They may be our boss, neighbor, girl next door, cute guy from the bookstore, actor/actress that we admire or it could be someone successful we want to emulate. The list goes on and on. There could easily be a combination of two or more these people that will exert a strong influence upon an individual.

     Sixth, smoking is legal. In the U.S. anyone 18 or older can walk into just about any establishment and cigarettes are for sale behind the counter or in a vending machine. The very same locations that sell food and medicine sell cigarettes. The subconscious association of nourishment or health is inadvertently linked to cigarettes.

     Seventh, smoking is older that written history. Smoking is a behavior that can be found as part of human history longer than we have had written history. And the efforts of a few organizations attempting to rewrite history are not going to change the facts.

     One could easily spend days writing books about the psychological and cultural influences of smoking. Volumes can even be written on the physical effects of smoking. With the ability of modern medicine to carefully examine and begin to understand the human body, we have been able to start making associations to the affects different compounds may be having on the body. Modern medicine has presented evidence that smoking may have deleterious effects upon our health.

      Everybody is subject to these influences constantly every day of their lives. A few important things to consider are how suggestible is a person to these and other influences. How much of their programing is influencing their behavioral responses. Is it possible the programing may be altered to reduce someone's suggestibility levels or even change associated beliefs that have been held since childhood. How does a person overcome emotional and physical addictions.

     The short answer truly is ”your brain got you there, so use your brain to get you out”. A person's mind controls their body in every way imaginable. Every function of the body including every breath taken is entirely controlled by the brain. Some of these functions are able to have conscious control exerted upon them. Other functions are automatically controlled by our subconscious mind without ever a conscious thought about them.

     Subconsciously controlled functions are things such as your digestive system and your motor skills. One does not need to consciously think about squeezing the food from the stomach into the small intestine and beyond. Just as adults conscious thought is not needed for moving one foot in front of the other to walk for run. These action simply happen automatically without active conscious thought.

     There are a number of subconscious functions where anyone is able to exert conscious control upon. Breathing and blinking are just two things we can think about controlling and then exert conscious control over. Try this exercise one time. Take a deep breath hold it for two seconds. Blink the eyes three times. Then slowly exhale that breath while simultaneously blinking the eyes three more times. Virtually everyone is able to do this successfully the first time they attempt the exercise. A few people may have to practice once or twice in order to accomplish the task. Now bring to the conscious awareness back to the breathing and the blinking. Notice that neither of these functions have stopped now that conscious control is no longer being exerted over them. These functions have seamlessly returned back to the subconscious control of the brain. The brain keeps plugging along doing everything it has to do to keep the body functioning 24 hours a day. Whether one is asleep or awake the brain never stops.

     The human brain is an amazingly powerful biochemical machine. It needs fuel and creates waste byproducts and it controls the body to keep everything functioning ones entire life. Some researchers even go so far as to say the only reason the human body exists is that it is here to support the brain. To think about every function that the brain does is truly a massive endeavor. It is a common cultural concept that as humans only 12 percent of the brain is used. That is in part correct, however the remainder of that statement is seldom known. We use our entire brain all the time, we use an estimated 12 percent of our brains “computing” capacity as our conscious mind.. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) has been able to show us changes in activity levels in specific areas of the brain in real time. FMRI has been able to show us how the brain functions in the presence and absence of specific stimuli. It also has the ability to show how the brain is functioning while the person is under hypnosis. The results of the testing have be truly amazing and it is helping to further the knowledge of how the brain works and how hypnotherapy works within the brain.

     How does this get us to the point of “your brain got you there, so use your brain to get you out”. As people take in information , it is the conscious mind that that puts this information through through the filters. The critical thought process of the conscious mind with the use of the filters interpolates the persons perception of the experience. These filters are completely governed by the subconscious mind. These filters are like little computer programs. These programs are governed and operate based on the positive and negative associations one has established over the course of their lives. These associations are commonly known as a persons scripts or limiting beliefs. Here is an example of a filter and how it works within the mind. Take the word “shark” as an example. One person may take the word shark and after running it through their personal filters come to the mental and emotional representation of the shark we know from the movie “Jaws”. They may even be able to illicit a powerful physiological fear response associated to the word. The second person may think shark and come to the mental image a harmless fish that is fun to swim with. Whether the first or the second is right or wrong this is purely base on the combinations of an individuals own filters. These filters are the positive and negative associations we have anchored into our subconscious mind. These associations are not permanently set. They can be modified by an experience significant enough to invoke change.

     All of a persons experience and learning is passed through the filters they have established up to that moment of their lives. As they grow and learn their filters are adjusted, subtracted or added to. This process can operate in either positive or negative ways. The use of hypnotherapy effectively bypasses the filtering processes of the conscious mind. This bypass function effectively allows the therapist to aid in establishing new subconscious associations. That very same bypass function also allow a skilled therapist the ability to modify old subconscious associations, in a sense reprogramming the computer.

     Truth be told there is no one specific way that this has to be done. There are many ways available to a skilled hypnotherapist. It is important to understand that during a hypnotherapy session the client is in total control of their mind. They are in a very relaxed state and fully aware of what is happening around them. A skilled therapist will always work with their client to cognitively assess the positive and negative associations and other factors associated to the clients therapy goals. A hypnotherapist can not make a person do something that is in violation of their moral code (the sense of right and wrong). Committing a crime would violate ones moral code and they will automatically dismiss what the therapist is saying. There by completely disregarding the suggestions and dismissing the attempted programing. However the act of modifying or eliminating and unneeded or unwanted behavior does not violate moral codes. Essentially making it possible for those suggestions to be easily incorporated into their lives. So within the practice of hypnotherapy the client with the aide of the therapist are then able to make small positive changes all the way up to profound positive changes in the clients life.

Some questions that hypnotherapists commonly hear are:

“Can hypnotherapy be used to help someone to quit smoking and become an ex-smoker for life?”

“Can hypnotherapy be used to help quit smoking without withdraw symptoms?”

“Can hypnotherapy be used to help have more will power over smoking?”

“Can hypnotherapy be used to make it easier to stop smoking?”

“Can hypnotherapy be used to help me to not want to smoke?”

“Can hypnotherapy help me finally kick the habit?”

“Can hypnotherapy help me not need to smoke after every meal?”

“Can hypnotherapy help me not desire cigarettes when others are smoking around me?”

“Can hypnotherapy help me choose a new way to feel relaxed?”

     Astoundingly the answer is yes to all of these questions. If a person desires to quit smoking hypnotherapy is a very safe drug free way to accomplish that goal. The only common reported side effects in association to hypnotherapy are relaxation and success. Those appear to be side effects that everyone can all live with.

     If you would like to learn more about how hypnotherapy can help make positive changes in your life or for more information on my hypnotherapy programs visit my website www.CenterForBodyAndMind.com. If you would like to book your appointment or to recieve a free consultation you may contact me at (775) 391-3241.

Scott Bauer, C.Ht

Certified Hypnotherapist.