29/11/2011 by Cathy.

Six years ago today… I stubbed out my last ever cigarette.  It was at 10:15 in the morning as I walked down to the tube station to go into Harley Street and see a hypnotherapist.

It was a strange feeling. I was really aware that I hadn’t noticed that cigarette quite as much as I should have. Should I have savoured it more, shouldn’t it have lasted longer? Why didn’t I notice smoking it – after all, I may never have the chance again!

Something in me was scared. I’m not sure whether I was more scared of succeeding than failing. Strange emotions indeed. I was torn. Part of me wanted to stop the disgusting habit and yet, there was still a part of me that hung onto it fondly – how would life be without my constant companion? This must sound strange to anyone who has never smoked, and probably quite familiar to everyone else.

Outside no 1, Harley Street I debated whether to have another one before going in and decided against it. I couldn’t go in stinking of cigarettes, could I?

I had been here before. Not Harley Street, but I had seen a couple of hypnotherapists in the past. Somehow I still held the belief that this was going to be the only way that I could stop for good and I had heard a few things about this ‘NLP’ stuff that this guy used too. Thankfully, my previous failed attempts had not put me off and I had been willing to put myself on a 3 month waiting list. Maybe this time… this could be it!

After winding my way through wood panelled corridors and peculiar staircases, I arrived in the room and sat down nervously behind the desk. This guy had done his homework. He had read the answers on the questionnaire that I had sent months ago, and we talked for a while about my ‘favourite’ cigarettes and various other things about my smoking. How refreshing to find someone who realised that I was an individual. Maybe this time really would be different.

I have to admit the rest of the session was a bit of a blur, from sitting in a lovely reclining chair to opening my eyes some time later, not really sure about everything that was said, but feeling that somehow, something had changed and with some excitement and a bit of trepidation I left.

I’ll never forget walking down Wigmore Street that day, as I looked around, strangely aware of everything around me, the busses, the traffic lights - somehow I just knew that the smoking was a thing of the past – I really was free of it. It was no longer part of me, just something I used to do.

That was six years ago and I can quite honestly say that from that point on I knew I would never have another one – and I haven’t. I haven’t even wanted one, not a tiny little bit. What an amazing feeling! … and what an amazing six years. Who would have known then that my curiosity about hypnosis and NLP would lead to a complete change of direction? How so much of my life has changed as a result and how great it’s been.

I look back at that day and smile… and smile some more.

http://www.hampsteadsmokingclinic.com

CLICK HERE FOR A SERIOUSLY AMAZING OFFER - SMOKING CESSATION FOR FREE  - NO CATCH

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03/10/2009 by Cathy.

This is a quite disturbing article from the BBC about how mothers who smoke whilst pregnant can put their children at greater risk of psychotic symptoms.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8283723.stm

Get help at:

http://www.hampsteadsmokingclinic.com

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22/09/2009 by Cathy.

The latest studies indicate a reduction of up to 26% per year in heart attack rates resulting in smoking bans in public places. This is much more than was anticipated.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8267523.stm

Most smokers (and I was one for a long time) don’t really want to look at articles like this and can easily feel ‘picked on’ by the rest of the world about their smoking. However most also know, really, that it is hugely damaging to smoke - quite aware of the risks they are taking with their own lives.

So why is this? How can we carry on doing something that we know is so harmful and justify it with “I enjoy it” or “it helps me relax”.?  What if you “enjoy” salmon sandwiches but have a fish allergy, would you continue to eat salmon purely because you enjoy it? Probably not. So what is different about smoking? Why can’t we easily quit smoking?

Nicotine has tricked your mind! Over time our minds have started to associate cigarettes with the relief of stress, with the relief of that feeling that we may call withdrawal, which is the feeling caused as nicotine from the previous cigarette starts to leave the body. Your mind has also generalised this feeling - and by that I mean that it starts to think that nicotine can help relieve other similar feelings like fear, anxiety, stress, etc…. This is one big con! If you are stressed by something, then all the nicotine does is temporarily relieve the part of that feeling that was caused by the cigarette in the first place! The rest of the worry is still there.

The crazy thing is that the cigarette causes stress in the first place. Every time you have one, it is like injecting pure adrenalin, the stress hormone. Your body is constantly living with higher than normal levels of the stress hormone, caused by smoking. No wonder we feel anxious and on edge so much of the time. However, in the back of our minds (the unconscious part of your mind), you only think that the cigarette relieves the stress, and therefore the unconscious part of your mind will continue to motivate you to smoke.

All we are doing when we say “I  enjoy it” or “It helps me through difficult times” is coming up with a consicous justification of our unconsciously driven behaviour  - which is entirely natural.

So, how on earth can we get out of this cycle? This is where hypnotherapy comes in. It is a way of accessing the unconscious part of your mind to re-train it, so that it no longer motivates you to smoke. Without that deep down motivation it become so easy to stop smoking. The niggling feelings you get in the couple of days afterwards will be so small that they can easily be beaten, and after that… Freedom for Good and a new life of better health!!!

http://www.hampsteadsmokingclinic.com

http://www.cathysimmons.co.uk

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22/06/2009 by Cathy.

“Many smokers are too stressed by the hard economic times to attempt to give up their habit, research suggests.”

This BBC News article caught my eye, today. Full article here.

It seems that people are putting off their plans to stop smoking because they are too stressed in the current economic climate.

The relationship between stress and smoking is a really interesting one and something that I explain to all clients who come to me to help them stop smoking permanently.

Cigarettes are powerful stimulants. Because they are stimulants, they keep your heart rate up 10-15% higher than normal. Each smoker is living with a constant artificially high levels of adrenalin and cortisol in their system – you may as well inject adrenalin directly every time you have a cigarette!

I’m sure most people are aware that adrenalin and cortisol are STRESS hormones. These are really useful when you need to run away from that rhino that is charging at you, as the stress response diverts your body’s resources away from clear, rational thinking and away from the replenishing and repair functions of the body, towards making your body ready to run or fight. Every smoker spends more of their time in this state. In other words it is the cigarettes that cause stress. They can never relieve it.

The good news, therefore, is that without cigarettes we are all so much more able to cope with the other stresses in our lives.

The unconscious workings of our minds are really quite amazing. Whirring around in the background to keep us safe, guiding our behaviours towards pleasure and away from pain and harm. In order to be able to do this, the unconscious part of our minds has to ‘learn’ what is good for us - from the moment we are born it is evaluating things around us and within us in order to learn what behaviours are good for us.  Behaviours become automatic after a while (consider driving, for example, or playing the piano). After a while of consciously doing something, we are able to do it unconsciously, which is just as well in a lot of cases, especially when we are driving.

When a smoker gets that niggling feeling as the nicotine starts to leave the body, we think that having a cigarette temporarily relieves it. Every time this happens, the unconscious mind is ‘learning’ that that the cigarette relieves stress. However, this learning is incorrect. All it is doing is temporarily relieving the niggling feeling caused by the previous cigarette. It cannot possibly help with any other stress around us. After a very short while, this response becomes automatic, leading to us reaching for a cigarette in times of stress. Now here’s the thing – smoking does not relieve stress, it CAUSES it.

So firstly, if you smoke, in some ways it is not your fault! Your unconscious mind is motivating you towards doing this because it mistakenly thinks it is doing something good for you. We just need to break the cycle.

Realising this can be the first step in becoming free of smoking for good. Cognitive Hypnotherapy is an approach which works with the unconscious part of your mind, helping you to let go of those unconscious beliefs which motivate you to smoke, and take on new unconscious learnings which can enable you to become a happy non-smoker permanently, so much better able to cope with all those other things that life throws at you.

Clicking here could be the first step in becoming smoke-free.

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