How I Quit Smoking

How I Quit Smoking
When I quit smoking for the last (and final) time, I had tried everything. From patches to cold turkey. From dry inhalers to help groups and meetings with other people who wanted to quit.
I read a book called 'Alan Carrs Easy-Way to stop Smoking' and this worked for 6 months. Then I was back onto them. I still recommend that book by the way. Other friends of mine read it once and never smoked again.
The problem for me was the fear of not having that crutch. The book helped with that, but I was back onto the smokes again 6 months later. So now I have stopped for 2 years, what was my secret?
Hypnosis! I am going to talk you through the reasons why it worked without you going to see a hypnotherapist and hopefully this will help someone out there to quit like I did.
Firstly, the hypnotherapist made me look at smoking differently. She basically said that most people think of stopping smoking as 'quitting.' She said that this is the main reason people don't manage to stop. If you think you are losing something, you will miss it. Instead, consider it is gaining health, freedom, pride.
Focus on what you wish to gain. This focus also relates to your image of yourself. See yourself as you want to be. A confident, proud none smoker. This keeps you moving in the right direction.
Hypnosis helps to make this image concrete in your subconscious but if you can do this yourself using your imagination, you don't need hypnosis at all.
Secondly, you have to recognise that smoking is addictive. For the first week, you must concentrate on your goal. As the nicotine is leaving your system you should feel encouraged and proud. You see, when you stop, you will get pangs.
They are a bit like being hungry. This is because your body is saying it wants a quick fix of a lovely cigarette. This nagging feeling is proof that you are winning the battle.
Every time you have a niggle, it last around 10 seconds. Overcome this by being proud that you are making it, that these pangs are proof of the nicotine leaving your body.
And that really is it. The hypnosis also scared the hell out of me by making me see myself as becoming ill from smoking, but I don't think this was the reason I quit. It was really the two reasons above.
If you want to try the hypnosis, I have put a link in the BIO section of this page to a site where you can download MP3's from a reputable hypnotherapist. There is a free download on there too you can try out to see if you like it.
Good luck. Just go do it. I was terrified of quitting and smoked 20 a day. This made it bearable. After a few weeks, you won't look back.