Stop Smoking Tips

Does anyone have a kind word anymore for smokers? If you smoke, you are maligned by strangers, ostracized from public places and taxed beyond belief by local and state governments. Social workers accuse you of child abuse.

Environmentalists blame you for pollution. Doctors harp about your health. And the simple act of buying a pack of cigarettes can consign you to the poorhouse.

In the United States, an estimated 24 percent of men and 19 percent of women are smokers. These people are at higher risk of heart attack and stroke.

Smoking is a ball and chain, imprisoning you as surely as though you were behind bars. You are inexorably tied to your cigarette pack and lighter. You can never leave the house, the office, the car without checking to make sure your ball and chain are with you.

No wonder so many people who are addicted to smoking want to quit. Then why do so many fail in their attempt? It’s not a simple answer.

The punishment for trying to escape this addiction is intense physical discomfort and mental anxiety. Smoking involves psychological as well as physical addiction and those psychological triggers can be just as hard to defeat as the effects of the nicotine.

For many people, smoking acts as a replacement for something they feel is missing from their lives. People smoke as a substitute for companionship, love, security or self-esteem.

In addition, they actually experience sensual gratification with smoking. The gratification may come from the taste of the tobacco or from the velvety feel of the smoke or from the physical act of holding and lighting the cigarette. These are all pleasurable tactile rewards.

There is also a category of smoker whose habit may be linked to an earlier traumatic event. If you experienced a time where you almost died (or thought you would die) and had difficulty breathing during that episode, smoking may actually reinforce your sense of being alive! The act of consciously and deeply inhaling that occurs when you smoke is a way to reassure a frightened part of yourself that you are alive and breathing.

There are SO many reasons to stop smoking — the primary one being your health. If you seriously want to free yourself from the ball and chain of this addiction but were afraid that you wouldn’t succeed, then consider hypnosis.

When used in conjunction with some of the physical aids now available, hypnosis can increase significantly your chances for success. With hypnosis you can walk with confidence onto the path of physical freedom.

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