You may have heard that Mark Twain humorously said, "Quitting smoking is easy, I've done it a thousand times!" Well there is some truth in that statement. It is easy to stop smoking, but staying quit is where it tends to get harder. Some people will quit for ten minutes, others for an hour, others for a day, others for a week, month, year or decade and then go back to it. It is that strong an addiction. Myself, I quit smoking 25 years ago and even now, I recognise that I could become hooked again if I lit a cigarette. How I've managed to stay off the dreaded weed is by persuading myself to do so at a subconscious level with self-hypnosis. I have persuaded myself that the benefits of non-smoking far out-way the small pleasures I may get from smoking. I say small pleasures, because when I did smoke all the enjoyment I got was (at the most) from the first few draws on about two cigarettes a day. Small pleasures indeed! The rest of my smoking was pure habit that left me with a bitter taste in my mouth and other obnoxious and dangerous symptoms. Once I got this positive persuasion into my subconscious mind, it became automatic and relatively easy to recognise the dangers of smoking whenever I was tempted. The problem is that once a person is addicted to nicotine, he/she is always an addict, and one cigarette, or even one draw on a cigarette, can re-establish the habit of regular smoking almost immediately. Oh, an addict may say to him/herself, "I'll give it up again tomorrow!" "I've done it once so I'll do it again!" and many other excuses. So when I am tempted to smoke (and it's not so often these days at all), I just remind myself of... * how I used to feel most of the time (wheezing chest, bad taste in my mouth etc.) * how the ceilings in my house seemed to be permanently stained brown * how my car had a permanent smell of stale tobacco in it, the same with my clothing * the way a lot of my money used to literally go up in smoke! I ask myself, do I really want to go back to all that? The answer's just got to be no! And here's a just few benefits I focus on... * the extra things I can buy for myself and family now I no longer smoke * the fact that it is no longer a waste of time getting fit now that I'm no longer a smoker * I'm not so worried when I learn of price rises in other products * the holidays I have treated myself and my family to as a non-smoker that I couldn't afford when I did smoke Quitting smoking was relatively easy for me, but I am a hypnotherapist and I can recognise that for some it may not be so easy. From my experience of helping clients to quit, the habit appears to be around 90% psychological. I reach this conclusion because of the reports I've had from clients who have quit (before consulting with me). After about a week or month they had started again without even being able to explain why... saying something like, "I wasn't even craving for one!" "I didn't even want to smoke! I don't understand why I did it!" I believe that this is the subtle, yet powerful force of psychological addiction at work, more than a physical craving. And where there is such psychological addiction, it needs to be handled with "psychological remedies". In other words, an addict needs to feel totally persuaded and convinced at a subconscious level, of the benefits he/she will receive as a non-smoker. If you are trying to quit smoking, some of the above techniques (bullet pointed above) may help you. However, if you still feel overwhelmed by the addiction, you may want to enlist the support of a competent registered therapist. A good therapist would explain that he cannot make you stop smoking. What he/she can do is help you build confidence in your own creative abilities to persuade yourself at a subconscious level, of the benefits of a new, healthier and wealthier way of life as a non-smoker.