How smoking hypnotherapy can help you quit for good

The benefits of hypnotherapy are widely recognised, however, for a long time people thought hypnotherapists help people quit smoking- and that’s about it. Truthfully, I rarely have people come to see me to quit smoking.

Perhaps because fewer people smoke these days, maybe people have found different ways to stop smoking that achieve better results. The research shows that hypnotherapy isn’t a hugely successful method to stop smoking. This is why in my smoking cessation sessions, I do more than try to rewire your brain, using hypnotic suggestions.

Stop smoking

Stopping smoking is a crucial step towards a healthier life. As you know, smoking is responsible for many diseases, including lung cancer, heart disease, and respiratory problems. Quitting smoking can improve your overall health, reduce the risk of these diseases, and increase your life expectancy.

Nicotine addiction and habitual smoking make quitting smoking a challenging task, but there are many resources available to help you stop. It is not one size fits all, and you might benefit from a combination of methods as you journey down your path as a non-smoker. It's important to take the first step towards quitting smoking, as the benefits of a smoke-free life are invaluable.

Benefits of stopping smoking

When you stop smoking, you reap many rewards. Although you have a secret pass to the smoker’s club, you’ll gain access to the golden ticket, which means you can stay inside a public building without the continual buzz of the voice in your head debating when it’s acceptable to go outside for your first cigarette. You’ll no longer feel anti-social, worry about the smell of smoke on your clothes and body, feel forced to stand outside in the wind, rain and cold, or hang out of a window on worse days.

We all know that these things aren’t really a problem though, it’s nothing compared to how you feel trying to stop yourself from lighting up. The health benefits of stopping smoking are the thing that makes the difference. Most smokers shove the health risks to the depths of their minds. It won’t happen to you, those things only happen to other people. Except they might, and there’s a pretty high risk they will. So, let’s consider the benefits to your health by stopping smoking.

Within twenty minutes of your last cigarette, your blood pressure and pulse drop to normal levels, and the temperature of your hands and feet return to normal. Within eight hours, the level of carbon monoxide in your blood drops back to normal, and the level of oxygen increases to normal. Within just twenty-four hours, your risk of a heart attack drops. Although it takes one to one and a half years for your excess risk of heart disease to halve, within ten to fifteen years your risk of heart disease is the same as a non-smoker. After ten years, your risk of lung cancer is the same as a non-smoker, and within just a few months, your circulation improves, exercise becomes easier, and your lung function increases by up to a third!

The benefits go on and on. Stopping smoking is without a doubt a great step for your health, but how?

Stop smoking with hypnotherapy

As previously mentioned, hypnotherapy to stop smoking requires a more substantial programme than a little suggestion. However, with this recognition, hypnotherapy for smoking cessation works well. There are three things, taken from a quit smoking with hypnotherapy programme, you can do at home to help you quit the smoking habit for good.

Take a break

Smokers get an automatic benefit that no one else does. The right to take a break. Whether this is officially granted in policies or you give yourself permission in your own mind. For almost every smoker, stopping for a smoke is acceptable in almost every circumstance. Many non-smokers feel guilty about taking a break. Work says they’re only entitled to an hour for lunch, so they wait for lunchtime to take a break. In the middle of a task at home? No, you can’t stop until it’s finished. Smartphones have started to create the same excuse for many people, however, taking a break by scrolling is unhealthy too!

If you want to stop smoking, you need to continue to give yourself a break with the same regularity you would smoke. Set yourself an alarm to remind you of your break times, and always have something planned for the break. Five minutes isn’t a long time, but it is long enough to read a chapter of a book, do a quick meditation or complete one yoga pose. If you have the space, there are many five-minute workout videos online. These things are healthy additions to your day that will bring you benefits and help you stick to your quit-smoking plan.

Practice mindfulness

Mindfulness is a lifestyle practice in which you use techniques to help you keep your mind in the present moment with no judgement of your feelings. People who live mindfully feel in control of their choices and behaviours. Rather than reacting to situations, they take carefully considered approaches. By learning and practising some mindfulness techniques, you can live mindfully. You’ll gain the control to sit with any feelings of desire for a cigarette without rushing out to smoke.

Change your habits

A large part of feeling addicted to smoking is the habits you’ve created. Most smokers stand in the same spot to smoke and have regular smoking patterns, for example before you enter a building and before you leave one. By changing these habits, you make one part of quitting far easier. Switch the brand of cigarette you buy (I know – yuk – but you want to quit!), stand in a different place every time you smoke, smoke at different times throughout the day, and don’t accept cigarettes from other people.

With these techniques, you’ll find stopping smoking on your own a lot easier. If you still struggle, some sessions with a  hypnotherapist will make the transition smoother.