Could you Quit 4 Life on National No-Smoking Day?

Hannah Leach, Hypnotherapy in Birmingham March 14, 2012

14th March is National No-Smoking Day. You can join thousands of others in marking the occasion, whether it’s by taking the plunge yourself, or supporting someone else who has decided to become a non-smoker.

I’m a Clinical Hypnotherapist, helping people in Birmingham and surrounding area to quit for life – in fact, I offer a service called Quit4Life! We use hypnotherapy with a strong cognitive behavioural element, to help unravel the unhelpful beliefs that people may have around smoking. We spend time talking about the role that smoking has played in the individual client’s life, to help them break their own personal patterns of behaviour that they now wish to change. Our clients also learn techniques they can safely use for themselves, including self-hypnosis and Emotional Freedom Technique (the tapping therapy!).

In 1992, The New Scientist found that your chances of quitting smoking increase tenfold after just one session of hypnotherapy. According to this study, only 6% of smokers succeeded in saying goodbye to cigarettes using their own willpower alone. But the number grew to 60% after a single hypnotherapy session – and even more people were able to quit after a second experience of hypnosis.

Many smokers are concerned that it will take them a long time to stop craving cigarettes, or to get back the levels of health that smoking has taken away. But, our bodies have such an extraordinary capacity for self-healing. Within 24 hours of becoming a non-smoker, your blood pressure and pulse have greatly reduced, oxygen and carbon monoxide levels in the blood are returning to normal, and your lungs have begun clearing out toxins. It takes just a couple of weeks to break all chemical dependency on tobacco , and some ex-smokers feel independent in even shorter spaces of time – could this be you after National No-Smoking Day?