An increasing number of my clients want to talk to me about quitting smoking.
 
Only some are motivated.
 
How do I know which is which?
 
I pose one question:
 
 “If you lived above a smoke shop, would you quit smoking?”
 
Generally, everyone answers no.
 
I expand the distance. 
 
“If the only smoke shop were X miles away and the only way to get there is to walk, would you quit smoking?”
 
The motivated person says he would quit at the two-mile mark. (Once I had an American Idol contestant who pledged he would not quit smoking if he had to walk 40 miles.)
 
So why was he here? He wanted me to make him quit smoking.
 
I told him I could not make anyone do anything, let alone something he did not want to do.
 
You Work. I Will Watch.
 
A woman who wanted to quit expected me to do the work while she sat in a chair and had me hypnotize her.
Quitting smoking harder than almost anything I know about. Hypnosis only has a 75 percent success rate, which, perhaps surprisingly, is among the best methods.
 
Each hypnotist helps in his or her own way. I know the program I have developed is effective.
 
 
Recently, a motivated man who had smoked for 35 years and was up to three packs a day came to see me.
 
He did not think hypnosis would work but he was willing to try. Over a five- week period, he reduced his daily cigarettes from 60 to 8. He would not go to zero and has not increased his smoking since he stopped at 8.
 
Taking Small Steps 
 
He has changed his brand from pre-made to a healthier roll-your-own tobacco. Initially, at my request, he changed to a brand called American Sprit. Most pre-made cigarettes have over 150 chemicals to help them to taste better, including sugar, which shoots straight to your brain within seven seconds of inhaling.
That is why, when people quit, they find themselves eating lots of sweets and sugar to make up for the sugar intake they have lost.
 
My program insists on a low carbohydrate diet ­­– with little or no sugar – so that the body becomes used to e more protein, which breaks down to sugar more slowly and stays in the system longer to create an even blood sugar level.  This creates more even moods. It helps a person think from his higher functioning faculties.
 
I ask clients to write down the time of day they smoke and the reason for smoking ­ anger, sadness, boredom. Most people do not know when and why they smoke or how frequently. They just smoke in a habitual way.
 
Having them maintain a record increases their self-awareness.
 
I ask them to stay with a reduced number of cigarettes, to write down times that they may smoke and to only smoke at those times.
 
Who Is in Charge?
 
This helps a client exercise a measure of control over his habit. Smokers are accustomed to giving in whenever the urge strikes.
 
By having clients stick to a schedule, they may smoke when they do not want to and may not be smoking when they want to. This plan ensures that they have a gradually decreasing amount of nicotine in their system and it changes their perspective from caving in to only smoking to the schedule allows.
 
This way a client realizes how strong the habit is, and that it only is a habit.
 
The subconscious knows what you want because you have trained it to give you what you want, I tell clients. To change your habit means to change your subconscious. Once the subconscious has gotten your message, that you want to quit, you will receive supportive signals from your subconscious.
 
The urge will diminish. Nicotine levels will drop dramatically, and quitting will be within reach of any client.
 
Consider the following amazing effects of quitting smoking:

• 20 minutes after quitting, your heart rate will drop.
• 12 hours after quitting, the carbon monoxide level in your blood returns to normal.
• Three or four days after quitting, the nicotine is out of your system.
• After 60 to 90 days, circulation improves, lung function increases.
• Coughing and shortness of breath decrease after six to nine months.
• One year later, excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker's.
• Five years later, stroke risk is reduced to that of a non-smoker.
• Ten years later, the lung cancer death rate is half that of a smoker.
• Fifteen years later, the risk of coronary heart disease is that of a non-smoker.

I know quitting is possible. I smoked for 45 years. Yes, 45 years. I have not smoked since September 2011.  I doubt I will smoke again.
 
I wonder what I saw in it in the first place. I do not miss it.
 
Once a client’s wife posted a sticker on his car dashboard:
 
“Smoking is something that leads you to believe you are doing something, when in fact you are not doing anything.”
 
 
How true.

Do not hesitate to contact me by telephone, 310.204.3321, or by email at nickpollak@hypnotherapy4you.net. See my website at www.hypnotherapy4you.net