Stop smoking with hypnotherapy on world no tobacco day

On 31st May every year, the world observes World No Tobacco Day which is promoted by the World Health Organization. The objective of observing World No Tobacco Day is to reduce tobacco consumption which can lead to deadly diseases like cancer and early death.

If you are thinking about quitting smoking, then the World No Tobacco day 2012 is a great time to break the chain and get healthy.

There are many ways of stopping smoking; you only have to watch the adverts on the TV to see all the different patches, gum, and inhalers available which help to curb the cravings when giving up smoking. However, this only addresses the physical nature of the addiction. Researchers have shown that 90% of the addiction to smoking is psychological and so it is important to address this aspect to ensure you give up for good. This is why Hypnotherapy can be so effective at helping you quit smoking.

The habit of smoking is a subconscious response and many people find it a difficult habit to kick. You may consciously want to give up smoking but unless your subconscious mind is onboard then this is unlikely to happen. This is where Hypnotherapy comes in!

During hypnosis, your subconscious listens to and takes onboard the suggestions being made about giving up the smoking habit, the dangers of smoking, and how much better your life and health will be once you give up. Once your subconscious is aware of what you want at a conscious level it goes "all in" helping you to achieve your goal of quitting smoking. Hypnosis also helps to break the associations that you may have with smoking, such as having a cigarette with a cup of coffee, after a meal, with a pint etc, as well as helping to reduce your stress and anxiety levels which can often be a trigger for lighting up a cigarette!

Hypnosis is the most effective way of giving up smoking, according to the largest ever scientific comparison of ways of breaking the habit. (1) The research, carried out at the University of Iowa, was a meta-analysis which combined the results of more than 600 studies, with a total of nearly 72,000 people. The results included 48 studies of hypnosis covering 6000 smokers, and was published in the Journal of Applied Psychology. The study clearly showed that people were six times more likely to quit smoking with a single session of hypnotherapy and remain non-smokers over 12 months after the session, compared to those who used nicotine replacement therapy.

"Your desire to change must be greater than your desire to stay the same!"

It is worth bearing in mind though that your subsconscious cannot be told to do something it doesn't want to do, so it's important that you do REALLY want to give up when you seek hypnotherapy for stopping smoking.

A typical hypnotherapy session for smoking cessation lasts between 90 minutes and 2 hours. During this time a consultation is carried out detailing your smoking and general lifestyle habits. How we create anxiety and stress will also be covered as well as a recap on the dangers of smoking and the health improvements which you will benefit from once you've stopped smoking. The consultation is followed by hypnosis which will firstly get you in a nice relaxed state using guided visualisation, metaphors and stories followed by clear language about stopping smoking which will help you kick the habit for good. 

Reference:

(1) Schmidt, F.L. & Viswesvaran, C. (1992). A Meta-Analytic Comparison of the Effectiveness of Smoking-Cessation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 77 (4), 554-561.

Find out more about Hypnotherapy for Stopping Smoking