Is There a Magic Formula That Can Help Me Successfully Quit Smoking?

By Paul R Mather

The problem with quitting smoking is that it's so damn hard, right? Plenty of other people have managed to do it and yet, every time you give it a try, it proves impossibly difficult. You start off reasonably confident, but in no time at all your nerves are getting seriously frazzled, and that's when you see someone else smoking - or else catch a whiff of some stray cigarette smoke - and your resolve crumbles...

And when you ask those ex-smokers you know how they managed to go about quitting, you get a different answer off each and every one of them! Some found it easy, others found it terribly hard, and they all swear by different methods. So, one of them tells you to try cold turkey, while another insists they couldn't have done it without nicotine patches - or gum, or acupuncture, or hypnosis...
In fact, the more ex-smokers you talk to, the more magic formulas you're sure to hear about, because they all went about quitting in radically different ways. But it's important that you realise there's one vital factor they all had in common - and that is, without exception, they all really wanted to quit!
Each of them had positive motivation, which is the only 'magic' ingredient needed. All a patch, or some gum, or even a therapist can ever do is help to reinforce your own determination. And if it's not there to begin with, then you're wasting your time.

Actually, it's far worse than that. You're needlessly torturing yourself, while at the same time raising false hopes amongst friends and loved ones, who as a result are likely to be a lot less supportive and sympathetic when the day comes that you're really serious!

So take my advice, and get your motivation sorted out before you even think about trying to give up. Appraise yourself with ruthless honesty and objectivity. Like everyone else, you know smoking is bad for your health and costs a lot of money, but do you actually care? If you're not yet ready to quit, then admit as much.

Maybe you perceive that you enjoy smoking, don't mind the gaping hole it leaves in your wallet, but feel obligated to try and give up simply because your partner keeps going on about it? Well, you'll fail, and deep down you know it - so don't even try!

There are lots of reasons why somebody might genuinely choose to live a short but happy life, and if you currently feel this applies to you as a smoker, then be honest with yourself. It hardly makes you Pol Pot, and nobody has any right to judge you.

Naturally, I hope you'll decide to quit one day soon, and I hope when that day comes you'll seriously consider using hypnotherapy to help you - though in truth, the method you choose is of infinitely less importance than the state of mind you're in when you come to smoke that final cigarette...
Because if your mind is made up, and you're motivated to quit on the deepest psychological level, then you are pretty much guaranteed success, regardless of which method you choose. And so far as quitting smoking goes, that's the only magic formula that counts!

Paul R Mather is a certified hypnotherapist and the owner of Cerulean Therapies, a company specializing in helping people to quit smoking. For more information on issues facing those planning to quit, please visit http://www.quitclever.co.uk

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