When it comes to quitting cigarettes, we can feel incredibly overwhelmed and pessimistic. I know from experience that the many failed attempts to stop left me feeling hopeless.
Every smoker can identify with that old scenario where they decide ‘That’s it, tomorrow I am done. These things are killing me’ and when tomorrow comes it is so difficult to not light up and every thought is about cigarettes.
Before long, we give in and smoke and wonder ‘How the hell will I ever be smoke free if I can’t manage a few hours (maybe days if we are very strong willed) without caving in?’
I was stuck in this cycle for years and I see it over and over again with my clients. Thankfully, there is a path out of this miserable pattern, and I find the fastest way to get there is through the use of hypnotherapy.
Hypnotherapy is nothing spooky or magical (although sometimes the outcome can feel that way). It is simply a form of therapy that involves bringing the client into a pleasant state of relaxation that leaves the mind peaceful.
In this quiet space it is far easier to make changes to old and damaging thought patterns and introduce new and positive ones that result in a beneficial change in behaviour.
This why hypnotherapy is so successful when it comes to smoke cessation.
If a smoker attempts to stop without preparation that involves changing how they see, think and feel about smoking they are highly unlikely to quit. Even if they do succeed, they are always in danger of returning to them at a time of stress because they are still carrying damaging beliefs that can lead them astray.
Smokers are carrying a perceived (false) need in their mind. When we ‘need’ something our body and mind work hard together to remind us to get it (think of how we need to eat and how we feel if we don’t for many hours).
I love to see people finally break free from that miserable cycle.
It really is a wonderful feeling to be no longer controlled by cigarettes and to feel, look and smell better.
Living a life of longing for a cigarette is miserable, but with a bit of work we can instead thoroughly enjoy all the wonderful benefits of being smoke-free and wonder why we every did that to ourselves in the first place.
Smoking doesn’t have to be a life sentence.
Author: Teresa Bolger, Clinical Hypnotherapist
Tel: 087 6614394
Email: teresa@teresabolger.com
Web: https://teresabolger.com