How to Use Hypnosis for Smoking Cessation

Smoking can be one of the hardest habits to break and people will pay thousands of dollars for every kind of smoking cessation technique available. Many people have chosen hypnosis as a route to quit smoking because it is able to relieve the cravings in one session, but it is never as easy as it seems. In order to quit smoking through hypnosis, you have to be aware of how hypnosis works and what needs to be done.

Instructions

• 1

  Find someone you trust. When it comes to being hypnotized, the key element is that you trust the person hypnotizing you. Whether it is a friend or professional hypnotist, if you are worried about what might happen or what you might do, then your mind will be more difficult to hypnotize and may be unable to reach a hypnotic state all together. If you trust the person, you are more open to giving your subconscious over to her. You can also purchase self-hypnosis programs that will teach you how to put yourself into a hypnotic state.

• 2

  Relax. You should begin the hypnosis by doing some relaxation exercises such as controlled breathing and tensing and un-tensing your muscles, starting at the top and going down. While this is going on, the person doing the hypnosis should be guiding you in a calm and soft voice. Once he feels you have relaxed enough, he will begin inducing the hypnotic state.

• 3

  Induce the hypnotic state. With your body and mind relaxed, the hypnotist will begin inducing the hypnotic state most likely through visualization. As you listen and focus on his voice, he will ask you to visualize certain objects or places as a way to deepen your relaxation and let you slip into a hypnotic state. For example, he might ask you to visualize a ball and have it drop. As the ball falls, you fall deeper into a relaxed and hypnotic state. When done, you will be completely open to suggestion but will not do anything against your moral code.

• 4

  Start the script. The key to hypnosis is planting a suggestion or command into the subconscious that the brain uses as a blueprint for behavior. These commands are created most commonly for beginners through the use of a hypnotic script. These scripts can be found on the Internet or you can create your own. When used in hypnosis, the scripts not only take away the cravings, but can also be used to boost your self-esteem, which can be a factor in wanting to smoke. Once the script has been read and the command implanted into your subconscious, the hypnotist will bring you out of the trance in the exact opposite way you came in. For example, you can see the ball fly up and up until you are at your regular conscious state.

• 5

  Reinforce the commands. The session may help you quit smoking for a while, but in order to make it for good, it must be reinforced on a regular basis. Reinforcement entails going back into a hypnotic state and repeating the process over again to reinforce the commands already in place. Without such reinforcement, the hypnotic suggestions pertaining to smoking cessation would begin to weaken and eventually you will once again begin having cravings for cigarettes, cigars or whatever nicotine-infused product you were smoking. At first, it should be reinforced about once a week, but you can begin tapering off the reinforcements until they are no longer needed. How long this takes depends on the person.