You have landed on this page because you want to stop smoking using NLP and hypnotherapy...

Stop smoking fast with NLP and Hypnotherapy.

No willpower required to stop smoking when you use NLP with hypnosis - no withdrawal symptoms with NLP hypnotherapy - ecological NLP and hypnotherapy - no aversion therapy - no symptom substitution - no weight gain - no feelings of deprivation - no internal conflict - no anxiety - the smoking is replaced with feelings of confidence, love and happiness.

QUIT SMOKING IN ONE SESSION?

• Quiting smoking may be easier than you think -- you just have to know how!
• If the smoking is just a bad habit then in most cases it will only take one session for you to stop smoking using NLP and hypnotherapy. But in some cases one or more sessions of NLP Coaching may be required to deal with underlying issues.
• As added value you also get a free pendulum, hypnosis mat and a script which you can use to help your friends banish food items, alcohol and marijuana.

Is a cigarette habit an addiction to nicotine?

The addiction model posits that we can become chemically habituated to a chemical yet fails to acknowledge (well at least in the same breath) that the reason why we repeat enjoyable behaviours is because we are addicted to our own neurotransmitters. You could say that surfing, tennis, dancing, a game of football, watching television, checking your email or Facebook account, having sex or being in love are all addictions, in that there may be good feelings associated with the activity which motivate us to repeat it, and when the activity is denied, feelings of restlessness, listlessness, irritability, anger, anxiety, loss, grief or sadness.

Hard drugs like opium, morphine and heroin present a different class of addiction in that the withdrawal symptoms can be so painful that the addict will do almost anything not to experience them, but nicotine does not fit into that class of drugs. The cravings that smokers experience are more a psychological reminder that indicates that, ‘it is now time to have a cigarette’ rather than the sensations of a physical addiction.

Using pharmaceutical drugs to stop smoking fails to acknowledge the part that the smoker plays in the process of doing the smoking behaviour. Treating the difficulty in stopping smoking as a psychological challenge rather than a chemical addiction puts the locus of control back into the hands of the smoker.

Is smoking a bad habit?

Some smokers consider that they just have a bad habit yet if this was true then once they have made a decision to stop smoking it should take at the most seven days to change the smoking habit and start something that is more healthy. For example, if you want to change what you eat for breakfast then all you have to do is think about what else you could eat, make a decision, commit to that decision and take action. After a week or so you should find that the new behaviour is installed. Yet the reason people continue to smoke even though they want to stop is because the smoking serves a purpose. That is, it has a positive intention at the level of the unconscious mind, such as being used to suppress negative emotions and bring in a positive state like confidence and relaxation.

Why you should avoid aversion therapy.

Aversion therapy is a procedure in which negative feelings and thoughts are associated with the thought of something or a behaviour. For example, some hypnotherapist’s will have the client associate the taste and smell of cigarettes to burning rubber, yet some smokers continue to smoke even though they find the experience disgusting. In addition some therapists think that it is enough to inform the client about the dangers of smoking cigarettes by providing them with written information but clearly this is inadequate as most smokers are fully aware of the dangers of smoking, and many continue the habit even when suffering serious health problems that are directly related to cigarettes.

Aversion therapy fails to acknowledge that the smoker has an unconscious mind as well as a conscious mind. In the cases of aversion therapy where the clinician makes cigarettes taste like burning rubber or has the client associate massive emotional pain to the habit, the clinician fails to acknowledge that the smoker has a heart, that unconscious processes are involved, and that at the level of the unconscious mind the smoking behaviour makes perfect sense.

Moving from necessity towards possibility.

Some people are motivated by moving away from pain, others by moving towards pleasure. That is, some people are motivated out of necessity, others by possibilities. There is a common belief that when people hit rock bottom; when emotional pain becomes unbearable or when they become sick enough that they will be motivated to make positive change yet this is not necessarily the case as many smokers continue to smoke even when hospitalised for a serious smoking related problem. Until the underlying issues are dealt with a smoker will feed the need to smoke, and even in those cases where will power has been used to stop smoking, the desire to smoke may last for decades.

Comments by a Gold Coast Master NLP Hypnotherapist.

Case note: Mary visits a doctor who prescribes Champix. When she suffers a severe side effect the doctor suggests that she withdraw slowly from the drug. Even though Mary is successful in quitting the smoking habit she still craves cigarettes. So she visits a hypnotherapist who tries to make the cigarette cravings go away, that is he puts her into a hypnotic trance and tells her that from now on she will no longer want to smoke and that from now on she is a non smoker. Hearing these suggestions she feels anxious because deep within her she knows that she needs the cigarettes. She expresses her concern to the hypnotherapist but he ignores the feedback and instead tries to deepen the trance and continues with the same suggestions. As a result the cravings for the cigarettes intensify.

This is a clear example of a left brained therapist failing to acknowledge that the smoking has a positive intention. When I spoke with her I learned that she was a high achiever in business and sport, and that smoking was her only way to be a rebel. Smoking was her way to tell the world where to go. When she stopped smoking using will power six weeks earlier she immediately began over eating and then to compensate for the over eating she increased her exercise regime. Symptom substitution occurs when the positive intention of the behaviour is not acknowledged by the conscious mind.

What is ecological smoking cessation?

Ecological smoking cessation acknowledges that every behaviour has a positive intention at the level of the unconscious mind, and that the unconscious mind may use a behaviour as a way to suppress negative feelings and to bring in a positive state. Even though the behaviour may be negative the unconscious mind will continue to use it until there is a better option. In Mary’s case, in the aforementioned example, she substituted over eating for smoking and then felt compelled to exercise.

The NLP hypnotherapy method that gives me such high levels of success with smoking cessation is to deal with any underlying issues first and then ensure that the unconscious mind is willing to stop smoking. When both conscious and unconscious minds are congruent then it is a simple process to banish the smoking. The next step is to invite the unconscious mind to access feelings of confidence, love and happiness and have those feelings be available in all those situations where the smoker would ordinarily have wanted to smoke. Having feelings of confidence, love and happiness arising in the heart and spreading through the mind means that the client can totally forget that they ever used to smoke. This is a kind loving way to help a smoker become a more positive and healthful person.

This is not aversion therapy; this is not making someone stop smoking; this is not hypnotising them to stop smoking but working with and respecting all the unconscious processes that play a part in maintaining the problem; and assisting the client to bring about a reorientation in both their conscious and unconscious minds such they are congruent with the change, and they feel like they were the one who made the change by mastering their own mind and behaviour with awareness.

Read what Brett and Lauren have to say.

"We visited Abby Eagle two months ago to stop smoking. We have stopped smoking and are doing well. Now all we need is to fall pregnant and have the life we have been dreaming about... We want to thank you again for what you have helped us to achieve." Brett and Lauren Mueller, Varsity Lakes Qld Australia

How to stop smoking tips

Get leverage on yourself - how much is that cigarette habit worth?

Stop smoking cigarettes today using NLP hypnotherapy and invest $70.00 per week into an interest bearing account at 6% pa calculated monthly

Keep a record of your smoking triggers.

The first thing that you should do is to keep a record of your smoking triggers. That is, each time you feel like a cigarette make a note on a piece of paper of what you were doing, feeling and thinking. Tie the notes to the cigarette packet with an elastic band. If you should decide to book a hypnotherapy session then bring this list with you as at your stop smoking sessions we will clear the trigger emotions that were identified on the list.

Change your identity and set goals.

If smoking has become a part of your identity and lifestyle then, in the beginning, you are going to have to move out of the smoking crowd and associate with non smokers. Start thinking of 'who the new you is going to be'? Forget all about having a cigarette with your friends. Don't even think in terms of being an ex-smoker. In the future this 'new you' will look back on the past and remember that you smoked but you will have no attachment to it one way or the other. One way to begin this process is to create some goals for yourself and then create a vision board of your new lifestyle. (A vision board is a board on which you stick pictures of your goals.)

Integrate the internal conflict between the smoking part and the healthy part.

One of the most important things to understand in terms of changing a habit such as smoking is that you want to stop smoking, yet you can't - which implies that there is a part of you that controls the smoking. (Forget chemical addiction theory - it plays a much smaller role than people would have you believe.)

Most smokers have a 'part' (see the article on two minds) which wants them to smoke but also a 'part' which wants them to stop. The part which wants to stop smoking represents an aspect of the conscious mind and is usually an intellectual, serious, pragmatic, educated, knowledgeable, controlling part. This part has a conscious understanding of 'why' you smoke but is 'powerless' to stop the behaviour. With will power this part can stop smoking for a period of time but it involves using the mind and there is tension involved with being a nonsmoker, because as soon as you relax you find yourself smoking again. Am I right or am I wrong? The other part - the smoking part represents an aspect of the unconscious mind.

This part is much like a 'two year old' child. It is a kinesthetic and feeling part. It represents the heart of the person and whereas the other part has the 'job' of taking care of the pragmatic needs the smoking part has the job of meeting the emotional needs of you. The smoking part - being much like a two year old - often gets pushed around by the the older mature part which wants to stop smoking. But like all two year olds it is able to exert emotional influence and often wins out in the end. So one of the tasks in helping a smoker to stop smoking is to help them acknowledge both their parts and to integrate them into one super part which has the best attributes of each. -- Hence we resolve the internal conflict. However until the two parts are fully integrated the non smoker is likely to back-slide as soon as they feel stressed.

Break the smoking habit.

Another important aspect of stopping smoking is to deal with the habitual response. (This is what most smokers have fought with for a long time but because they don't understand how the mind works they buy the chemical addiction theory.)

So what is a habit? A habit can be thought of as a series of steps that occur out of conscious awareness. So what we do is to identify the components of the habitual 'thinking process'. The smoker is usually not aware of the images or thinking that occurs prior to needing a smoke - but an experienced NLP Hypnotherapist can identify these elements and help you to replace them with positive thinking that occurs naturally and does not require will power or conscious effort.

You can't banish the smoking until you clear the negative emotions and build in a mechanism to connect positive feelings with the smoking triggers.

Most smokers use smoking to suppress negative feelings and bring in positive feelings, such as confidence. The young salesman is a good example. He starts out in his new job full of enthusiasm but after a few knock backs he begins to associate pain with making a sales call. Thereafter when he thinks of making a sales call he may feel anxious. Being a salesperson he has to have a relaxed confident personality in order to make his customers trust him. So he learns that cigarettes provide a means to suppress negative feelings such as anxiety and nervousness and they also bring in feelings of self confidence.

Most smokers hesitate when they think of stopping smoking because they know intuitively that they need the cigarettes to suppress negative emotions and bring in good feelings. Smoking therefore has a positive intention, also known as secondary gain. When I use NLP and hypnosis to help you stop smoking I make sure that secondary gain is taken care of. In a sense I do a deal with your unconscious mind - I ask your unconscious mind to banish the cigarettes on the condition that it bring in feelings of confidence, love and happiness.

Make yourself feel good, today and everyday without a cigarette.

Most smokers at one time associated good feelings to having a cigarette. For example the first cigarette given by an adult to a teenager may have signified the end of childhood and the entry into adulthood. For other teenagers they may have associated feelings of being accepted by a group of peers. Each time thereafter when they have a cigarette it reminds them of the feeling. In NLP terminology we call that an anchored response. (Pavlovian conditioning.) Part of the stop smoking process is to help the client access other resource states that work even better than the cigarette - this is a polite way of saying that it is time to grow up.

Learn how to meditate and feel the benefits today.

Most smokers, whether they are aware of it or not suffer from stress and anxiety. Scientific research has shown that meditation can help with smoking cessation, weight loss, eating disorders, addictions, blood pressure, heart disease, anxiety, stress, negative emotions, scholastic performance and sports performance.

If you have read this far then you must be keen to stop smoking.

Read what Jill has to say about using NLP and hypnotherapy to quit smoking.

"It's been over three months since I attended the 'NLP For Personal Growth Workshop' with Abby Eagle. Before that time I used to be a social drinker and smoker, and it was not unusual for me to have a heavy night drinking and smoking. Since the workshop I have hardly touched a drop of alcohol and I've had no urge to smoke. I've also lost 5 kg in weight and 3 weeks ago I joined a gym. The only reason for these changes has been my attendance at the NLP workshop with Abby Eagle." Jill Stonnel, MacGregor, Gold Coast Qld

A few of the many issues that can successfully be addressed with NLP and Hypnotherapy:

Weight loss.
Eating disorders.
Stop smoking.
Fear of public speaking.
Anxiety and panic attacks.
Self confidence.
Stress management.
Anger management.
Marijuana, drug and alcohol abuse.
Stress related health problems.
Relationship problems.
Trauma resolution.