Crunch Time for Smokers

Crunch time is coming for many smokers in England with the summertime date for the ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces rapidly approaching.

Some will leave it until the July 1 deadline before thinking about how they will address this issue and adapt to change.

Others, however, will be planning for the change and thinking through the implications of the ban in terms of the impact on their life-style.

National No Smoking Day on Wednesday, March 14 provides a good opportunity to focus minds. No Smoking Day is an annual health awareness campaign which aims to help smokers who want to put an end to their habit.

The fact it has been running now for 24 years is a measure of its success. Last year, according to the charity which runs the event, 1.5 million smokers made an attempt to quit on No Smoking Day and many more took a step towards stopping.

Hypnotherapists use a number of different techniques, including hypnosis itself, to help people quit smoking. The first requirement however is that the person has a genuine desire to quit and a willingness to take responsibility for their decision.

With a good level of commitment on the part of the smoker the likelihood of successful treatment is very high. As Paul McKenna points out in his new book Quit Smoking Today: ‘I can’t make you quit smoking, but I will make it significantly easier for you to quit.’

Paul believes it is all about smokers taking personal responsibility and gaining control back over their lives. He, like us, is not on a moral mission to stop people smoking. What he finds difficult to understand is the total lack of freedom that smoking causes.

The idea that someone can stop smoking after just one session with a hypnotherapist may seem surprising. But everyone who quits smoking has to make exactly that change at some point in their life – however it comes about.

It takes just one moment to stop smoking, and that is the moment when you finish your last cigarette.