Quitting smoking is always a good idea, especially now when we are still navigating the challenges brought on by emerging variants of Covid-19. There’s no denying the benefits of quitting smoking, from improved heart and lung health to lower stress and living longer, not to mention that the average smoker spends between $2500 and $4000 on tobacco alone every year. That cost doesn’t include the additional toll of medical fees and missed work due to smoking related illnesses.

If you, or someone you know, are ready to quit smoking, you may be feeling a little apprehensive. After all, almost everyone has heard at some point how difficult it is to quit smoking. This message comes not only from people who have tried to quit and returned to smoking, but from the organizations that promote smoking cessation, like the American Heart Association and the CDC as well. The reality is, with the right tools in place - quitting smoking can be easy.

What Makes Quitting Easy?

The Right Mindset -

You already know how to be a successful nonsmoker. As I tell my clients, you already have a history of being a nonsmoker. So when you quit, you aren’t attempting something unknown - you’re just going back to something familiar. As the saying goes, it’s like riding a bike.

Understand why quitting is important to you. Ask yourself how you’ll benefit from quitting smoking. Make a list of at least seven ways you’ll benefit from making this change. Get your own buy-in on quitting, so you understand why it’s important to you.

Make a decision and encourage accountability. Decide on a day that you want to resume your nonsmoking habit and write it on your calendar. Tell people around you and make it a big deal - because it is!

The Right Tools -

Take a few minutes and think about what you liked about smoking. If you believe that smoking calms you down, then it’s important for you to learn new coping skills that are healthy and easy to use to relieve stress and anxiety. If you used cigarettes in the past to curb your appetite, then you’ll benefit from reframing your relationship with food.

If you are someone who is just smoking out of the habit of smoking, then you can easily build new strategies that change up your routine without replacing the smoking habit with another unhealthy option. One great way to do this is to make some rules around when and where smoking can take place. Decide that you won’t allow smoking in your car (because you hate the way it smells) and you’ll find it easier to break that habit of smoking in the car. When you make smoking more difficult, it becomes less attractive.

Managing Cravings -

Cravings are, essentially, your subconscious mind’s way of trying to maintain the nicotine levels in your bloodstream. Generally, nicotine leaves your blood within 1 to 3 days after you stop using tobacco, so the drive to maintain the nicotine levels in your body will fade after 3 to 5 days.

If you used smoking as a coping mechanism in the past, your subconscious will continue to produce cravings or thoughts of cigarettes in times of distress. Having reliable tools to combat cravings is a powerful aid in your success.

The Abdominal Breathing Guide (in the links below) is an easy to use breathing tool that lowers stress and relieves cravings almost instantly. You can also redirect your mind by immediately doing something else if you start to experience a craving, stand if you’re sitting, walk to another room, recite the alphabet - doing anything else will derail the train of thought away from your former habit.

Drink water. Water helps to wash away the toxins from your body, serves as a distraction, and helps to calm your mind and heal your body.

The Role of Hypnosis

Hypnosis is a specific set of tools and language skills designed to help people use their own skills, abilities, and resources more effectively to take back control of the parts of their lives that they felt were out of control before. Hypnosis breaks down the barriers that have held you stuck in unwanted behaviors and habits, and empowers you to create new healthier behaviors in their place. 

Over the years there have been numerous studies that show that quitting smoking with hypnosis is effective, safe, and easy. The reason why hypnosis works so well is because it helps you to build up these essential tools for success and removes the automatic behaviors and triggers that made smoking a part of your life. 

You still have to want to quit, and you still have to make the decision to not smoke. Hypnosis takes the hard work out of it, so that quitting can be the easiest thing you’ve ever done.🍥