Are you desperate to give up smoking but nothing has helped? Perhaps you have tried many times only to start up again after a few weeks? Or perhaps you have replaced cigarettes with e-cigarettes or nicotine patches/gum and now these have become the problem? There are many reasons why we choose to give up smoking and often these reasons outweigh the justification for continuing to smoke. Even when this is the case, we still struggle to kick the habit once and for all.

The health benefits associated with giving up smoking are numerous. Evidence suggests that within 24 hours of quitting the risk of having a heart attack decreases; within two weeks circulation improves and exercise becomes easier. Within the same length of time lung function can increase by up to one third. Within six to nine months overall energy levels will increase and coughing, sinus problems, tiredness and shortness of breath will all decrease. And perhaps most significantly, within a year the excess risk of heart disease will decrease by half.

There has been a significant amount of research into the effectiveness of hypnosis for smoking cessation. It has been found that hypnosis is more effective than nicotine replacement or will-power alone. During the talking part of the smoking cessation session, we will look at the reasons why you want to quit and focus on these as positives. During the hypnosis, it is possible to access the unconscious mind to alter the emotional attachment to cigarettes that currently exists. Our emotional unconscious mind encourages us to continue to smoke by sending our conscious mind messages which prevent us from stopping. These messages might be along the lines of ‘I need to smoke to be happy’; I need to smoke to relax’; I need to smoke when I drink; or ‘I need a cigarette when I am stressed’. If these statements sound familiar, you can rest assured that, through hypnosis, our sensible, intellectual mind, the part that tells us that we want to quit, gains control. The unconscious area of our emotional mind is accessed and these templates for continuing to smoke are removed and replaced with new ones.

Hypnosis is a very relaxing experience in which nothing can happen that you don’t want to happen. It is therefore necessary to be motivated to stop smoking when you come to Bridge Hypnotherapy. As with everything, there are no magic wands and hypnotherapy will not be successful for everybody. However, if you are reading this, and you take the next step to making an appointment, chances are in your mind, you have already given up smoking!

I’ll look forward to hearing from you very soon.