10 Top Tips to Help you Stop Smoking and Beat Cravings

• Decide on Specific Day to Quit Remember, there is never going to be a ‘perfect’ time when everything in your life is hunky dory. Stuff happens - often unpredictably. Set yourself the Big Day and stick to it.

• The Night Before the Big Day Destroy all remaining cigarettes and get rid of ash trays. Leave nothing lying around that reminds you of smoking. If someone else in your home smokes, tell them to do it out of sight for a while!

• On the Big Day Write a list of all the reasons why you want to be a non-smoker. Put copies of your list all around your home. Post-it notes are good for this.

• Distract Yourself   Any cravings will leave as quickly as they came if you distract your thoughts rather than allowing the tension to build. Act like a non smoker would. If, in the early days that seems easier to say than do then try counting backwards from 100 in 7s or say the alphabet backwards until the craving passes.

• Phone a Friend If your will-power is wavering, call a friend for support and encouragement. Share your goal with as many people as possible – keeping it to yourself only serves as a get out clause allowing doubts to creep in that might sabotage all your efforts!

• Treat Your Senses You may have thought that you momentarily enjoyed smoking but you didn’t enjoy the effect it had – treat yourself to something by all means, but make it healthy. Try dates or grapes if you want something sweet. Bananas and avocadoes contain tryptophan, which your body converts to serotonin. This is the ‘happy’ hormone, which is often what we attempt to seek in a cigarette.

• Take Positive Action What have you been meaning to do but never got round to? Learning guitar, taking up belly-dancing or salsa, or playing golf or tennis all put you in a positive, healthy frame of mind and make you feel that life is worth living to the full.

• De-Stress When we’re under pressure we want to go for the ‘quick fix’. In the long run, though, we just make things worse. Give your lifestyle a bit of an overhaul. Cut out unnecessary tasks and replace them with leisure and relaxation time. Learn Self-Hypnosis or mediation to release all your tension and feel more relaxed.

• Dream On Imagine a healthy, happy you just a little way into your future and imagine stepping into that image. See what you’ll see, hear what you’ll hear and feel how good it feels to be a contented non-smoker. Imagine yourself being more in control of your life. Think of a word or a phrase that represents this state and say it often throughout the day. Now, don’t you just love being in control?

Gina Brown is a fully qualified Stop Smoking Hypnotherapy Specialist established since 2006 at www.Head4change/stopping now serving the Hampshire area Stockbridge, Andover, Winchester, Salisbury & Romsey

Call Gina on 01794 301 771 or email her at www.Head4change/contact