Have you ever said or heard others say that smoking relaxes them? You probably know that smoking cessation hypnosis uses relaxation to help you change. It is hard to believe with all that’s known about cigarettes these days smokers still claim that they get relaxed when smoking. The drug in tobacco, nicotine, is a stimulant not a relaxant. So is it true that smoking relaxes smokers?
Let’s step back for a moment and see what’s going on with a smoker that makes them feel relaxed when they light up. We live in a pretty stressful time so we are all subject to levels of stress. Stress is a fear based response that triggers off the fight or flight response. That’s the response that’s hot wired right into our nervous system as an instinctual response. Hypnosis to quit smoking works in conjunction with the instinctual responses. Making connections between behaviors and feelings quickly.
This fight or flight instinctual response is meant to keep us alive, so it’s a really important response. But it’s meant to keep us alive in a really dangerous pre historic environment. Even though we don’t live in that type of danger, our response is the same as if we did.
What is the fight of flight response?
You probably know that’s where we are programmed to run away or take a stand and fight any dangerous opponent or situation. If common stress in our every day lives creates this fight or flight response, what happens when we don’t run or fight? A whole lot of chemicals rush into our bodies that are not going to be used the way they were intended. And if we don’t have a method to shut off the fight or flight response it will keep the chemicals flowing. A method to use to shut off that response is hypnosis to quit smoking. It can short circuit that connection before it even gets started and immediately puts in a better response.
What can we do to stop the fight or flight response?
One of the ways to shut off that protective response is by taking a deep breath. Here’s what happens. Physically during “fight or flight” our muscles tense in preparation for running and fighting, our digestion slows down, again in preparation for running and fighting, and our breathing becomes very shallow. When we take a deep breath our breathing returns to normal, our digestion begins again, and muscles return to their normal flexibility. So just by breathing we can stop that stress response. Using mental rehearsal while in hypnosis to practice this new response is one of the tools used in hypnosis to quit smoking.
The only time smokers take deep breaths is when they’re smoking cigarettes. And so they created a connection between smoking and relaxation that’s really a connection between deep breathing and relaxation.
By starting to focus on your breathing and relaxation you can start to program your mind to feel relaxed when deep breathing instead of when you are smoking. Using hypnosis to quit smoking allows you to practice and make that connection very quickly and avoid the added stress from quitting smoking.
Hypnosis is also effective for weight loss and has had great results with virtual gastric band groups.
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