10 Ways That Hypnosis Stops Smoking

Hypnosis is said to be about 93 percent effective for stopping smoking and the safest natural method that smokers can use to kick the habit. Drugs for curbing cigarette addiction cost money and harm the body and the mind, but hypnosis is believed to stop the addiction, cravings and desire to smoke. With hypnosis, the appeal of smoking is lost.

Explore the Unconscious State

The American Mental Health Association uses the study of psychology to understand and help heal certain needs, and endorses the application of hypnotherapy to help reduce neurotic and self-destructive behaviors. Hypno-analysis is a method used to explore the unconscious state and find out the root cause, or internal causes, of behaviors that lead to addictions and other self-destructive behaviors such as smoking.

Anxiety, like stress, is caused by negative moods and by fears, whether they are real or imagined. Hypnosis helps with worry and emotional control by using deep relaxation techniques to help overcome anxieties and phobias.

Hypnosis is a state of focused attention. The subject to be hypnotized focuses on a mental image and uses a deep relaxed state to train the mind and body to work together to make a desired change, like smoking cessation. You will remember the post-hypnotic suggestion and will use it to reinforce the suggestion at will.

Because habits over time become subconscious behavior, they need to be broken at a subconscious level, and this is where hypnosis helps. In a trancelike state the subconscious mind is very open to useful suggestion and can often be retrained to find more creative and less harmful ways of achieving habit changes, without additional stress or anxiety.

The hypnotherapist is a trained specialist in behavior modification. Hypnosis can help relieve fears, phobias, negative thoughts and emotional baggage and replace them with more positive mindsets and ways of living. Deep breathing and visualization bring on a light dream state that can be beneficial in controlling the kinds of impulses that bring on a desire to smoke.

Behavior modification is a way of replacing old behaviors with new ones by the use of subliminal suggestion and/or auto-suggestion. Behavior is changed through re-programming the mind with the use of statements, positive affirmations or suggestions which are formulated to induce a different (or better) way of thinking or looking at life.

Often, we reinforce the smoking habit by continuing to do it or by convincing ourselves of a need for it that supposedly "can't be helped." Hypnosis helps by swapping the reinforcement of negative behavior (smoking) with the reinforcement of good behavior (not smoking). Reinforcement can take place, for example, by the use of the power of imagination and reward. We visualize other behaviors and then reward ourselves for the new action or by waiting until the negative behavior is actually changed.

Stress can be both positive and negative. Stress can make habitual smokers crave a cigarette when they feel bad or are in a negative mood. Nicotine releases chemicals in the brain that "pick up" the mood, or cause the smoker's pulse to race. Hypnosis helps these cravings through and by using deep relaxation techniques, which counteract the feeling of being stressed and nervous that leads to the urge to light up.

Hypnosis stops cravings and addictions by changing the thought processes through a trancelike state. Just like the mind goes through a process of subconscious auto-suggestion when something is wanted badly enough, the same trancelike state can be used to change the desire. Subconscious suggestion is what causes us to stare at a commercial with a juicy fresh hamburger and desire it. We don't stop thinking about the hamburger until we get it and eat it. Hypnosis works the same way, by causing an equal and opposite reaction using the same trancelike state.

Light hypnosis is a kind of "reverse psychology" method used to help stop bad habits. It is a state of mind in which an unconscious wish is satisfied (gratified) through the use of transference. The transference moves the mind from one state to another, thus helping smoker get to the root of the problem causing the need to indulge. This method does not call for the deeper hypnotic trances used in other cases.