Hypnosis Works for Smokers Trying to Quit

I found this article posted which made for interesting reading. It seems that quitting smoking using hypnosis is more successful if your are a man. Maybe men visualise things a little differently than women - after all, men are likely to be 'visually motivated' than women (particularly by the sight of a woman!)

Men are more likely than women to have success using hypnosis to quit smoking, says an Ohio State University report. Researchers reviewed 18 studies of hypnosis-based smoking-cessation programs and found this approach was successful for about 30 percent of men, compared to 23 percent of women. But the researchers said this difference may have more to do with gender than with hypnosis itself.

"My suspicion is that the gender differences are not unique to hypnosis, but are connected to difficulties women have in trying to quit smoking in general," Joseph Green, an associate professor of psychology, said in a prepared statement. He presented the findings July 30 at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in Honolulu.

Green said none of the studies examined why hypnosis seemed more effective for men than women. He said that if a smoker -- male or female -- is strongly motivated to quit, hypnosis should be as effective for them as any other smoking-cessation method. But he said people should avoid hypnosis treatments that guarantee success with one session.

Hypnosis to quit smoking often requires multiple sessions and needs to be combined with other approaches, such as cognitive behavior strategies, proper nutrition, exercise and avoidance of smoking triggers, he said.

Source: MyHealthInsight.com

You Are Not In My Power

Fear can prevent people from taking positive action. One of the greatest difficulties in my practice is dispelling all the misconceptions they have about hypnosis. Too many people are locked into a late night movie understanding of hypnosis. They believe that a person who is hypnotized is under the power of the hypnotist and have lost their free will. Furthermore they believe they may never “wake up” from their hypnotic state. When an embarrassing question is asked, they are certain they will blurt out the truth about that weekend in Syracuse with the Tampa Bay cheerleaders. If you had these beliefs, would you allow someone to guide you into a hypnotic state? This is why the pre-talk before my inductions is so important.

For those of you who have not been hypnotized, I hope this little column will alleviate all your misgivings. For those of you who have been hypnotized by an experienced practitioner, you already know how misunderstood the trance state is. The mind model I will discuss comes from the teachings of Gerald Kein of Omni Hypnosis who is undoubtedly one of the best hypnosis instructors in the world today.

The mind is divided into three separate parts, the unconscious mind, the conscious mind and the subconscious mind. The unconscious mind takes care of your heart beating, your immune system and reflexes like blinking. You never even have to think about the unconscious mind.

The conscious mind is divided into four general parts, the rational mind, the analytical mind, the working memory and will power. The rational mind attempts to put all the events of life into an appropriate perspective. However our lives have gone forward from infancy taking all our actions and rationalizing them.

The analytical mind is used when an obstacle comes into our path. Perhaps your baby sitter will not be able to watch the children at the last moment and you have to make alternative plans. Your analytical mind goes through alternatives that will allow you to have the least difficulty. The analytical mind is great for that.

The working or short-term memory is available to you at a moment’s notice. This memory allows you to recall family names, how to get to work or the store as well as the simple everyday things that are useful to surviving every day.

The last part of the conscious mind that I want to discuss is will power. We are all familiar with this part of our being. How many times have you told yourself you were going to stop smoking or biting your fingernails only to go right back to it.

What is not clearly understood by most people is the fact that the conscious mind is merely the tip of the iceberg. It is what everyone can see from the surface, but just as the Titanic discovered it is what is below the surface that can cause the ship to sink. The iceberg has been created by collecting bits of ice and debris from its travels. The subconscious mind is similar. Every event in your life has an effect on you as a person. The effect can be momentarily profound and fade away, or it can seem incredibly incidental and have long lasting consequences. You can never know until you explore beneath the waterline and see the full scope of its structure.

Though it is not evident, the subconscious mind sculpts you into the person you become. It takes the totality of your life’s experiences and molds your destiny. The subconscious mind never forgets anything. Every sound, smell, pain, pleasure and sensation you have had is recorded deep within the subconscious mind can be extracted with the right approach.

The subconscious mind deals with emotions as well. When an emotion is brought about by an event on the conscious level, the subconscious springs into action causing you to react in ways you have no clear understanding of. We all have emotions and dealing with them is not an easy thing to do. They reside at the subconscious level.

Another element of the subconscious mind is the domain of habits. Habits can be positive, negative or neutral, but they do exist. Smoking, overeating, and reading are habits that are established over time. To this day, I habitually stop at bookstores even when I have four books I have not read. So you can see not all habits are detrimental to our lives.

An important factor of the subconscious mind is the fact that it must protect us from dangers real and imaginary. As you sleep, you may well wake up in a sweat, your heart racing and out of breath. In your dream, you may have visualized a giant cucumber that attempts to eat you. You subconscious mind cannot differentiate between real and imaginary danger and the dream supplies your body with adrenaline to fuel an escape. This protective aspect of the subconscious mind can become engaged after an event while conscious.

To prevent the repetition of psychic pain, a horrendous event in our lives can be buried in the subconscious. This sort of landmine can be devastating if it metaphorically explodes at the wrong time. Even if it never explodes, it can serve as a type of speed bump that pops up and affects the path of our life.

The subconscious mind does not accept change easily. It likes to maintain the status quo. When a suggestion for positive change is made, the suggestion must go through the conscious level. At this level it is being evaluated by what is the known as the critical factor of the conscious mind. If it fails, all we have available to make the change is our will power. We must go beneath the surface of the conscious mind and get to the subconscious. That is what hypnosis does.

Hypnosis is bypassing the critical factor of the conscious mind for the establishment of selective positive thinking. After bypassing the critical factor, the mind has to make one of four choices to determine if the suggestion will be accepted or rejected. The person who is hypnotized determines which choice is made.

Should a person say, “I love this suggestion, I know it is going to work,” the change will begin instantly and be locked in. If they have a doubt about it, the suggestion will be rejected. If they are apathetic about the suggestion, it will have no power and disappear. Should they determine, they “hope” it will work, they accept the assured failure that comes from trying or attempting something without being certain of success.

The hypnotist has no control over the choices that are made. The hypnotist is merely guiding the client on a journey, but they must go together. It can be a wonderful journey full of discovery and wonder, but the client can always leave at any point. Hypnosis is an entirely consensual act between the hypnotist and their client. The client is always in control.

Tim Horn was designated a Master Hypnotist in 1993 by the National Guild of Hypnotists, the largest hypnosis organization in the United States. Tim, a teacher, writer and consulting hypnotist, has helped people quit smoking, lose weight, deal with anxiety, and improve grades. He has a unique ability is to see each client as an individual and deal one on one with their problems. As one client said, “Tim has been a complete life saver to me.” He can be reached at Tim@Hypnoconsult.com

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Quit Smoking Hypnosis

Many people are turning to hypnosis to help them stop smoking before the July the 1st ban comes into force. It seems that more and more people are becoming aware of the role of hypnosis in smoking cessation. Furthermore, the costs of hypnosis are minimal when compared to the financial and health costs associated with a life-time of smoking.

At quit smoking sessions, Hertfordshire, people are helped to stop smoking in one session. This is possible because all your smoking issues are dealt with in this session. Support is offered for 6 months following your session, which means that you can return for top up sessions, if required. This is not usually necessary.

This is what you can expect of a smoking cessation session at Hypnotherapy, Herts:

1. A full case history is taken and the therapist will gain an understanding of your smoking habits and how motivated you are. Hypnotherapy is not a magic pill, and relies on the motivation of the person wanting to stop smoking. The hypnotherapist is able to help you build your motivation to give you the best possible chance and this is part of your session. This will include, visualising your future as a non-smoker and the good health, increased energy and freedom you will achieve.

2. You will be empowered to eliminate your excuses for smoking, so that the risk of smoking in the future can be reduced. This involves addressing any concerns you have about becoming a non-smoker e.g. worries about weight gain or how you will cope with life stressors. New coping strategies are identified.

3. The stopping smoking session will include hypnosis techniques, positive affirmations and suggestions. This works at the unconscious level, and is aimed at re-programming old smoking habits and also dealing with psychological and emotional aspects of smoking. Sometimes aversion therapy is used during hypnosis, which simply aims to associate smoking with something horrible, so that you can find it disgusting in the future!

4.Testing – The therapist will test your desire to smoke towards the end of the session so that you and the therapist can feel confident that you no longer wish to smoke.

Quit smoking sessions are available in Hertfordshire. The cost of stop smoking sessions, vary sometimes dramatically between therapists and it pays to research this to find reasonable rates.

Karen Hastings is an occupational therapist and master NLP practitioner. Karen uses hypnotic techniques alongside NLP to help people stop smoking. Karen is based in Hertfordshire and also offers home-visits in Herts and Bucks. Visit http://www.karenhastings.co.uk for more information.

Karen Hastings is a NHS experienced mental health occupational therapist, Master NLP practitioner and hypnotherapist. Karen uses hypnotherapy in Hertfordshire, along with cognitive therapy approaches. For more information about Hypnotherapy, Herts visit http://www.karenhastings.co.uk

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A Quit Smoking Hypnosis Exercise By Terje Ellingsen

Here is a quit smoking hypnosis exercise you can use to stop smoking. Try it, because it might just help you in utilizing your mind power to stop smoking like it has helped many other tobacco addicted people. Reading the text and doing the quit smoking exercise at the same time is very impractical, so I recommend that you read the text aloud while you tape it. Play the tape each time you're doing this stop smoking exercise. The exercise combines traditional self hypnosis with NPL or Neuro Linguistic Programming.

Sit or lie down, relax and close your eyes

"Now I am in a future moment when I no longer smoke. I can see my environment, I can hear the sounds, smell the smells and feel all my emotions. I have no cravings for cigarettes. This seems real, this is real.

I'm now taking a trip on my future time line to a time when I have completely forgotten about smoking, where not smoking does not bother me a at all.

I'm now looking back on the time line and I remember how easy it was for me to stop smoking, how amazed I felt when I realized that I stopped having any craving for tobacco, and after that I never gave smoking another thought.

Now, I can feel the freedom I have without tobacco, how great I feel when I am no longer owned by cigarettes. My thoughts are my own. I am free to choose what I want to do and where I want to go, without the thought of smoking cigarettes coming into my thoughts. I want to stay here in this moment of no smoking for a long time and when I go back I will let my mind take these future moments of no tobacco cravings back with me."

Now, you create the anchor for these future non-smoking resources: Press your thumb and index finger together on your right hand and hold it for a few seconds.

"Now I am even farther in the future, and now I don't even think about smoking at all. This is very real."
Anchor your good smoke-free feelings again with your thumb and index finger for a few seconds.

Now, the touch of the thumb and index finger connects the good smoke-free feeling in your brain.

Now, bring yourself back to the present moment while you are still holding your thumb and index finger together. You have now made an anchor for the state of being a non-smoker. Repeat this anti smoking hypnotic exercise until it works instantly.

Terje Brooks Ellingsen is a writer and internet publisher. He runs the website 1st-Self_Improvement.net.

Terje is a Sociologist who enjoys contributing to the personal growth and happiness of others. He tries to accomplish this by writing about self improvement issues from his own experience and knowledge. For example, using mind power to build better relationships and helping tobacco addicted people to quit smoking.

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Quit Smoking Hypnosis - Using Hypnosis To Help You Quit Smoking

Hypnosis is one of the most amazing forms of human psyche changing devices available. Allowing you mind to go into a state of hypnosis allows our subconscious to make changes to our habitual responses that are otherwise are to change in the conscious mind.

Why It's Important To Quit Smoking

Our lungs are one of the most important organs in the body as they allow our body to soak up oxygen to power the rest of our body. Without oxygen, our bodies don’t have the capacity to function. Every other organ in our body will cease to continue functioning without it therefore it's important to make sure we look after our lungs.

Cigarette smoke forces unwanted chemicals into our lungs, which block oxygen from entering into our bloodstream. Permanent damage from smoking cigarettes can also occur due to the high concentration level of tar which binds to the lungs and inevitably results in lung cancer, later in life.

It's not uncommon to see a middle age smoker contract lung cancer and die shortly after. Most of the time this form of cancer is untreatable, making it one of the most deadly forms of cancer contractible by humans.

Curing Your Smoking Habit With Hypnosis

Hypnosis has the unfathomable ability to take a person into a subconscious state. One of the amazing things about the subconscious is that it has the ability to direct the way we live. When we sleep, we dream and it is during those dreams that the subconscious is hard at work storing memories from the previous day.

Habits are also created in the subconscious. When we do something enough, our subconscious begins to create an automatic habitual response that is echoed into the conscious mind. Therefore if we are able to create a habit using our subconscious, we're sure to be able to remove it also.

That's where hypnosis comes into play. Going into a hypnotic state allows the hypnotist to directly influence the subconscious, therefore speeding up the process of removing any unwanted habitual responses.

Once the habit is broken, which may take several sessions to achieve, the hypnotist is then able to create a new habit in the place of the old one. This is the key as without creating a new habit to counter for the old one, we would surely recreate the old one within in a short amount of time.

Many people all around the world are having incredible success using hypnosis to quit smoking. It is 100% successful all the time? No of course not, but it does inevitably help you move in the right direction towards a life free from cigarettes.

If you want to learn more about hypnotism, then check out HypnotismSecrets.com for more FREE information on hypnosis!

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