The Excel Center - Non-smoker Forever
Alan R. Eastman, DCH |
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The Excel Center - Non-smoker Forever
Alan R. Eastman, DCH |
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How hypnotherapy is used to help you stop smoking:
Hypnosis is used to facilitate an individuals concentration and focus. Hypnosis is really a state of increased mental alertness. During a hypnotherapy session, relaxation and guided imagery is used to reach the subconscious mind.The subconscious mind accepts and understands information literally; this means that you can give your subconscious mind instructions as to how it should help you reach your goals. The power of the mind is used to easily and effortlessly achieve positive change.
Changes in an individual are achieved by three main communication styles:
There are many myths surrounding your ability to become a non-smoker. At the Excel Center we start from a positive point of view. At the Excel Center we don't use scare tactics because you already know the serious consequences to your smoking behavior, or else you would not need to become a non-smoker.
We view becoming a non-smoker as an easy process, and we have hundreds of satisfied clients to prove our positive results. There is a myth that becoming a non-smoker is hard. The reason becoming a non-smoker may seem hard is because it is a great marketing tool for the cigarette companies. The cigarette companies have orchestrated a great myth and everybody has fallen into ‘their' line of thinking. At the Excel Center we have another way of thinking that makes it easy for our clients to stop smoking when they are ready. The cigarette companies would have you believe that "ONCE YOU START SMOKING YOU CAN'T STOP". This belief is a joke, a myth, and not true. First of all many people simply stop smoking just by making their mind up to stop, they don't need to be confined, given medication, or anything. The belief above is a great marketing tool, and I will explain why that statement is a myth if you will let me use an analogy. Let's us the analogy of potato chips as an example. Most people would say that once you start eating potato chips they are addictive. Lays brand of potato chips even has the slogan "Bet you can't eat just one." Imagine if the cigarette companies used this slogan on their packages! "Bet you can't smoke just one." If the cigarette companies used the slogan: ‘Once you start you can't stop' there would be a national outcry, but in essence this is the belief which exists. The belief is that the product is so enjoyable you want to consume as much of it as humanly possible.
There is a lot of negative advertising and aversion awareness which tries to get people to stop smoking by using scare tactics. What about the warning on the packages? Has any of these negative advertising effected your smoking behavior? No. It may of increased your awareness about the dangers; however there is research to show that smoking actually increases after these negative awareness campaigns. If negative advertising causes people to smoke more, who are most negative stop smoking advertising campaigns directed to? Teens and pre-teens. You see, smoking is seen as a dangerous activity, and kids like to rebel, to be cool, and to fit in with their peers. Another reason cigarette manufacturers market their products to the young crowd is that all their older clients are dying early, painful, and cruel deaths, because of smoking.
Actually Becoming a non-smoker is easy. I have to share with you that thousands of people stop smoking every day. The number one way people stop smoking, is simply by stopping, and not picking up another cigarette. Hypnosis is the number 2 natural method to help people achieve the status of a non-smoker. Hypnosis can help you reinforce all the positive reasons you want to become a non-smoker. Also in hypnosis you can imagine new and healthy behaviours. By using hypnosis you can eliminate any cravings you once had for cigarettes. Most people who utilize hypnosis find that they simply don't have the desire to smoke ever again. Those people who I have worked with usually only report feelings somewhat similar to the "loss of a friend". A sort of an empty feeling may pervade after becoming a non-smoker. These feelings of loss are natural and will soon be replaced by the new healthy behaviors when you use the hypnotic process. Through hypnosis you replace your smoking behaviors with the values and beliefs of a non-smoker.
I believe that most people are not physically addicted to cigarettes, they are mentally addicted to the habit of smoking. Most of my clients who have become non-smokers can attest to the fact that they were not physically addicted to the cigarette. Of course, there are varying degrees of addictive personalities, that is, some people are more likely to be addicted to the physical, or mental aspects of the habit of smoking than are others. There are three aspects to the habit of smoking which I will set out to explain below:
The chemical component of cigarettes can affect a persons susceptibility to become addicted, the so-called addictive personalities. There are upwards of 400 + components, chemicals, and by products in a cigarette. Depending on your susceptibility you may or may not be hooked on any number of chemicals in a cigarette. Hypnosis can help a person with this part of the habit of smoking. Hypnosis can help by inducing feelings of relaxation, peace, and inducing a natural state of euphoria. You can naturally make yourself feel better and deal with stress by utilizing hypnosis and positive suggestions.
The next aspect of the smoking habit is just how smoking is linked to everyday behaviors. Linking is a term I have used to describe the phenomena of one event occurring immediately after another event or because of another event. For smokers there are a number of actions which are linked to the smoking behavior. For most present smokers some of these events may be:
Usually one of the above actions will trigger the smoking behavior because these behaviors have been repeated so many times, one action must and certainly will follow the other. To become a non-smoker these links must be broken. In my experience by utilizing hypnosis these old links can be replaced with new healthy behaviors. Through hypnosis you give yourself positive suggestions to change your behaviors, to help you change your behaviors. In essence, hypnosis can be utilized to help you eliminate the need to smoke after one of these triggers. Hypnosis in the hands of a capable hypnotist will help you substitute behaviors by using the power of your own mind.
In my experience, more likely than not smokers are mentally addicted to cigarettes. This means that smokers utilize the habit of smoking to achieve another benefit. Basically, smokers receive certain benefit by continuing to smoke. You, if you are a smoker, are addicted to the stress relief, deep breathing, and mental break that cigarettes give you. Long term health hazards not withstanding, cigarettes provide a comfort zone which distances you from other people and your problems. Smoking is like a tried, true, and trusted old friend. Like an old friend you are addicted to the familiar relaxation response. There is another way to find the same pleasures that smoking once brought you without the health hazards attached to smoking, and even the health hazards of other stop smoking therapies. The answer to the mental addiction is then to use your own mind through hypnosis, and to trigger the relaxation response.
When you become a non-smoker you will learn to breath deeply and relax without having to hold a cigarette in your hand. You never see smokers inhaling in short rapid puffs of smoke do you? No, you always see smokers inhaling in long, deep drags. What the smoking habit is giving you is the ability to breath deeply and relax for a short time. Because you are mentally addicted to smoking you should consider using hypnosis to become a non-smoker. While in the hypnotic state you can teach your body to eliminate the need for cigarettes by replacing relaxation, deep breathing, and guided imagery as a replacement for cigarettes.
There are a number of things that occur when you stop smoking, I would not describe any of the events as negative. When you stop smoking the only thing that happens is that your body begins to heal itself. Sometimes people worry about withdrawal symptoms. Most of my clients experience very few or very mild withdrawal symptoms. The worst of the symptoms that my clients have reported is mild coughing, which is simply the body beginning to heal itself, to clean it self out of noxious toxins. Because you smoke tars build up in the lungs and must be eliminated. Another symptom is the loss of the habit and the feeling like you need to do something with your hands to keep occupied. Again at the Excel Center we have solutions for these symptoms, we have found that hypnosis works wonders to help with most if not all of the symptoms. Some new non-smokers may experience mild irritability. These feelings of irritability can and is easily handled by the use of hypnosis and self-hypnosis during your transition to becoming a non-smoker.
Most people will worry that they will have cravings, or report that they have had strong cravings when they have tried to stop smoking in the past. It is my experience that we are mixing up the feelings of cravings for the cigarette for the feelings of loss which you feel when the habit is eliminated. If you believe that you are addicted to nicotine you should know that nicotine is eliminated from the blood stream in a matter of minutes after smoking the last cigarette. Because nicotine is eliminated so fast is the reason you always need another cigarette to replace the chemicals you just lost. That is why I feel it is a very odd idea to substitute smoking for other delivery methods of nicotine, you will receive a constant stream of nicotine in your blood if you use patches, or pills. The other artificial way to stop smoking is through a pill format, these pills are nothing but antidepressants, selective seritonin reuptake inhibitors. They have found that people who take these pills sometimes stop smoking. Again the pills are antidepressants unless your smoking is caused by depression I see no need to risk the side effects of antidepressants. This is simply my personal opinions and not meant to dissuade you from any treatment which may work, I am all for success, and different treatments work for different people. So, if you become a non-smoker, very quickly you will have overcome the cravings in a matter of minutes for the chemicals in the cigarette. The trick is simply not pick up another cigarette after your last one. Again I have found time after time that hypnosis can help you overcome any uncomfortable feelings. For most people approx. 85% of my clients, the uncomfortable feelings are simply not an issue because they replace any cravings or desires for cigarettes with the relaxation and natural euphoria that reaching their goals can bring them. After the sessions my client simply go on with their new healthy life.
Some people think that they are going to gain weight after becoming a non-smoker. I is my knowledge that you will only gain weight if you substitute food for cigarettes when you become a non-smoker. Most hypnosis programs and especially the programs at the Excel Center are designed so that you adopt a healthy life style. With a proper hypnosis program you will only substitute healthy foods such as fruits and vegetable sticks.
Did you know that smoking causes cellular dehydration? Well, when you become a non-smoker your body will begin to re-hydrate. When you become a non-smoker you will probably become more and more thirsty. That is why we suggest drinking more and more water. Water will help clean and energize your body. Most people who I have worked with never gain a significant amount of weight when they become a non-smoker, sometimes a person may only gain a couple of pounds which may be attributable to the body re-hydrating or some other factor not attributable to the therapy or becoming a non-smoker.
At the Excel Center we offer a three session stop smoking program. This program is offered in individual and group sessions, as well as audio cassettes. Please contact The Excel Center for more information.
Session 1: Becoming a Non-Smoker
As our client you are taken through a short information session dealing with the aspects of physical and mental addictions. Also covered in the information session is how hypnotherapy can help you overcome any desire you once had for cigarettes. This process ensures that you don't become an irritable ex-smoker, but instead you become a pleasant and delightful non-smoker. All sessions include a full hypnotherapy session to ensure the process is further reinforced.
Session 2: Reinforcer Session
This session checks your results and the progress you have made so far. You should understand at this point that any changes you are making are really coming from you, because you want to live life as a healthy non-smoker. We proceed with another reinforcement hypnosis session.
Session 3: A Review and Self-hypnosis discussion
Now that you have made some significant changes in your life we further reinforce your results through another hypnosis session. In this session we also teach you how to practice self-hypnosis to reinforce the concepts on your own.
After you have completed your three session stop smoking program most if not all our clients (around 85%) will have become non-smokers for life. At the excel center we provide all the information and tools for your success, and we empower you to do the reinforcing for yourself through our at-home audio programs.
We have also developed a ONE SESSION stop smoking program. To be eligible for the one session program you must first go through the hypnosis readiness evaluation and be recommended for the program. This program is designed for those clients who don't need to go through an extensive reinforcement program, it will save you time and money if you are qualified.
All we ask is that when you have truly made the decision to become a non-smoker, give us a call to see if this audio program is right for you. If you are in the Central Alberta area please call The Excel Center at 1 (403) 347 - 9019, to find out about our no-obligation hypnosis readiness evaluation and our 'in-house' stop smoking program.
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