In this article, we’ll provide advice on how practising mindfulness can help you quit smoking, an incredibly harmful addiction that takes years off your life and also puts a massive dent in your bank account.
Mindfulness training is an extremely powerful tool and one of the many techniques we use to help dissolve stress and anxiety and break your relationship with bad habits.
However, you should consider our Hypnotherapy to Stop Smoking programme if you want to kick the habit permanently.
In these online hypnotherapy sessions, one of our expert therapists will use a multi-therapy approach to resolve the core issues causing you to spark up in the first place, stopping the cycle for good.
Feel free to fill out our Complimentary Breakthrough Session form, and in 22 minutes or less, we’ll pinpoint the obstacle stopping you from overcoming whatever smoking behavioural problem you’re facing.
Otherwise, leave your details, and we’ll be in contact to answer any questions.
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is a mental state where we focus on being fully present and aware of ourselves and what we’re doing. This stops us from being overwhelmed by our surroundings and helping us accept our feelings, thoughts and bodily sensations.
Scientific research has revealed that mindfulness training can create new connections in your brain and alter the production of chemicals that determine your moods. Meditation and mindfulness can reduce the amount of grey matter in the brain’s amygdala. This is the part of the brain responsible for controlling our emotions and behaviour. By doing so, lower your stress levels.
At the same time, meditation can increase the grey matter in your prefrontal cortex, improving our ability to solve problems and be creative. Through mindfulness, you can re-programme your mind and learn how to stop smoking or vaping.
Mindfulness to Quit Smoking: Reasons Why and How to Quit Smoking
Smoking is as dangerous as it is addictive, and we all know the health risks associated with this habit. But, even with the constant reminder of these facts through various health campaigns, they’re rarely enough to encourage smokers to quit and probably exacerbate their stress, making them reach for another cigarette.
Our expert hypnotherapists understand that smoking is both a physiological and psychological addiction. When we smoke, we get a hit of nicotine surging through our veins. However, as time elapses, this drug slowly seeps out of the body, causing discomfort — this is the physical addiction. Then, every time we light up again, our brain is rewarded with a little dose of dopamine, creating psychological dependence.
The dual nature of a smoking addiction means we need a two-pronged approach to quitting. To beat the physical addiction, we have to remove nicotine from our systems. To defeat the psychological need, we need to use mindfulness training for smoking cessation.
Facts about Smoking
Research clearly shows that smoking is detrimental to our health, and to those around us from second-hand smoke. The substances inhaled include tar and carbon monoxide, which reduces the amount of oxygen in the body. This leads to shortness of breath and heart disease. If you need encouragement to smoking, organise a free phone consultation to understand our mindfulness meditation techniques and why smoking cessation is the best thing you will do. Here are some facts about quitting smoking:
- 50% of all long-term smokers die a tobacco-related death
- Research estimates a person’s life is reduced by five and a half minutes for every cigarette they smoke
- In Ireland, smoking is the lead cause of avoidable death. Nearly 7000 people die each year, and thousands of others become ill from smoking-related diseases
- Roughly 30% of all cancer deaths in Ireland are linked to smoking, and the habit directly causes 90% of lung cancers.
- Smoking during pregnancy accounts for an estimated 20-30% of low birth weight babies, 14% premature deliveries and up to 10% of infant deaths.
How to Stop Smoking using Mindfulness
Next time you have a cigarette, really focus on the action and feeling of smoking. Be fully present to the feel of the cigarette on your lips, its taste, and the sensation of toxic smoke entering your lungs.
Do this for the whole cigarette without becoming distracted or thinking about something else. As you smoke mindfully, ask yourself are you enjoying the process? Do you like the taste? Is this actually a pleasant experience?
For some, they may be happy with smoking. Others will soon realise that they are only smoking because it has become a habit.
Quitting smoking can be hard for some. Mindfulness hacks the habit loop, offering a new approach to smoking
Smoking continues to be among the most preventable deaths int he world. Why are so many smokers struggling to quit their habit? This question is often asked by clients of addiction psychiatrists or neuroscientists.
The brain is built on reward learning systems. Nicotine is one of the many chemicals in cigarettes. Even the action of inhaling can act as a stress reliever. The combination of this, the addictive chemicals, the sudden rush to the brain and the overall smoking behaviour can become a reward in your mind.
People often go on smoke breaks to act as a reward, or to give them a break when they finish a task at work. They may have a smoke in the morning when they wake up, or before they to sleep. Or perhaps they smoke when they drink. This action quickly becomes an associative smoking trigger when the person want’s to relax or take a break. The behavioural science shows that this “reward” adds to the addiction.
Using Mindfulness training, Hypnosis and our unique multi-therapy approach, we can break that smoking trigger and habit so that the craving to smoke goes away.
You can then replace this habit of going for a smoke, with a new one. Our techniques are so powerful that most of our clients speak about how easy it was.
If you read our reviews, or search online for Hypnosis to Quit Smoking, you will find plenty of content to prove the positive results.
You may even know someone who used mindfulness to quit smoking, or some other smoking cessation treatment.
Can Mindfulness Help You Quit Smoking Permanently?
Once our clients decide to stop smoking, our friendly therapists first use hypnosis to help them quit for good. Then we teach them handy mindfulness techniques to conquer any lingering cravings they might feel.
Rather than reaching for a cigarette to scratch that uncomfortable itch, the client must accept this feeling and remember it’ll only last for a moment. Giving in and lighting up guarantees they’ll have another craving once the nicotine leaves their body.
Everyone we’ve worked with has found that cravings disappear quickly and for good with this combination of hypnosis and mindfulness meditation techniques. This is even more-so if they’ve smoked for years or their whole life. Plus, most of our clients are able to give up after just one of our online “quit smoking hypnosis” sessions. The remaining appointments used to resolve any underlying issues, such as stress and anxiety, that might be triggering the habit.
Whether you’re hoping to quit smoking due to friends and family suffering because of your addiction, financial reasons or health conditions, call us on 01 450 8923 to book directly. Depending on availability, we might be able to help you become a non-smoker this week!
Hypnosis and Therapy Centre: Hypnotherapy to Stop Smoking Programme
Of course, every client is different, and mindfulness is just one of the many techniques our highly-trained and experienced therapists use. After one session, nearly all of our clients feel rejuvenated. They find that they never feel the urge to smoke ever again — including one who was smoking 80 a day!
Feel free to read our other related blogs such as how stress and anxiety can be the root cause of anxiety and how online Hypnosis actually works.
Fill in our Complimentary Breakthrough Session form. In 22 minutes, we’ll get you started on your journey to becoming healthier and happier.