WITH any addiction – cravings are the devil on your shoulder, tempting you back.
Smoking is no different.
Paul McKenna is here to help you quit smoking once and for all[/caption]
Paul McKenna’s method has stopped people smoking after years of the habit[/caption]
Paul says: “[The techniques] are so powerful they made the former Queen of US daytime TV Ellen DeGeneres ditch her habit INSTANTLY, live on her show”[/caption]
Whether it’s going for a drink with friends after a long week or trying to calm your nerves before a job interview, the urge to light up can be hard to resist.
So even when you’re desperate to quit, it can feel almost impossible.
For those of you who’ve tried time and again to stub out your habit, we’ve enlisted self-help guru Paul McKenna.
On Saturday, he shared a 25-minute hypnotic trance (scroll down to listen) exclusively with Sun readers – and it’s so effective, one in three people listen once and quit forever.
In addition he shared three visualisation techniques to help, known as Hindsight Ahead of Time, The Swish and The Calm Anchor.
Today in the second part of our exclusive series, the world-renowned hypnotist, shares the final two techniques anyone quitting needs, to help ease those cravings.
OVER TO PAUL MCKENNA…
TODAY I’m going to introduce you to the final two psychological techniques in my quit smoking toolkit.
They are so powerful they made the former Queen of US daytime TV Ellen DeGeneres ditch her habit INSTANTLY, live on her show.
Ellen was smoking like a chimney at the time, but when she did the Threshold technique she packed up on the spot.
And when you combine this with my craving busting Tapping method, you’ll never want a cigarette or vape ever again.
LISTEN TO PAUL’S EXCLUSIVE HYPNOTIC TRANCE BELOW – THROUGH EARBUDS AND ONCE A DAY, FOR SEVEN DAYS
Ellen called me afterwards and told me: “I feel so good! I can’t believe I’ve given up smoking in minutes after all these years.”
If she can do it, so can you.
First up, the Threshold technique works by building a negative association with smoking in the brain.
One of the ways people quit is they naturally go through a threshold.
For instance, they have a health scare, they get sick of waking up with their mouth tasting like an ashtray, they hear about a loved one being diagnosed with cancer – and in those moments they tell their unconscious mind: “I’ve got to quit”.
I will help you create an artificial threshold, by compressing four memories and running them all at the same time, through your mind until your brain goes: “Never again!”.
That artificial threshold will create a powerful negative association to smoking, meaning you will never go back to feeling “it’s great” or “I’m missing out”.
Next up, I will help you supercharge that feeling with a powerful tool for change known as the Tapping method.
This knocks out cravings in an instant.
Successful quitters have all experienced a series of moments of emotional intensity in a very short space of time… The brain goes through an experience of overwhelm, and your biological survival mechanism kicks in.
Paul McKenna
It’s worth noting here that it’s important anyone who wants to quit continues to use my 25-minute hypnotic trance that I shared exclusively with Sun readers on Saturday – as well as my first three visualisation tools, Hindsight Ahead of Time, The Swish and The Calm Anchor.
Together, all these tools will help ensure that this time when you quit, it WILL be for good.
There are also additional exercises in the Quit Smoking section of my app.
When I recorded these techniques for the app, one of the studio engineers took me aside and told me he was really concerned about something.
When I asked him what it was, he said that he was a 40-a-day smoker but he hadn’t had a single cigarette in the past five days.
I asked him why that was a problem and he said, “I really enjoyed smoking – I didn’t want to quit”.
“So start again,” I said.
But he told me: ‘But I don’t have any desire for it anymore – do you think it might be something to do with all this ‘quit smoking’ stuff we’re doing?”. He never smoked again!
THE THRESHOLD
WHEN I first began helping people to quit smoking, I was interested in why some people were continually trying to quit (and failing) while others didn’t even seem to think about it all – one day they just quit completely and never smoked again.
What was the difference that made the difference?
The tapping technique also works to help you stop vaping, Paul says[/caption]
It turned out that the successful quitters had all experienced a series of moments of emotional intensity in a very short space of time.
It led me to discover that if four or more negatively-emotionally charged smoking-related incidents happen in quick succession, the brain goes through an experience of overwhelm, and your biological survival mechanism kicks in.
It works something like this: You get chest pain, a close friend is diagnosed with cancer, several of your friends quit and you feel the social pressure, your partner quits, you find yourself short of breath or you went on a smoking binge and wake up with your mouth tasting like an ash tray.
If these incidents had happened in isolation with plenty of recovery time in between, they would not necessarily be enough to get somebody to quit.
But when all these things happen around the same time, the critical mass of emotional negativity towards smoking pushes your brain through a threshold.
Your brain starts to worry, a massive negative feeling builds up in your body, your primal protection mechanism kicks in and you say to yourself “never again!”.
A strong negative association begins to build up towards smoking and it tips you over the edge.
Of course, with hypnotherapy and the power of visualisation, you don’t have to wait until you are actually experiencing serious health problems in the future in order to change.
By vividly remembering four of the negative incidents you have had in relation to smoking over and over again, you can create an artificial threshold that will be every bit as effective as the ones which can happen spontaneously.
Remember, the reason this works is because the mind can not tell the difference between a real or a vividly imagined experience. Let’s do it now!
1. ENJOYMENT MEMORY
Call to mind the three times when you most enjoy or feel the need to smoke.
For example, first thing in the morning, at work, after dinner etc.
If you like, you can write them down so it will be easy to remember them later.
2. NEGATIVE MEMORY
Next, call to mind four negative experiences with smoking where you felt like you really wanted to quit, or even tried to quit smoking.
Maybe you had a health scare, or you just felt repulsed by smoking.
Once again, make a list of them so you can easily call them to mind.
3. RELIVE IT
Now run through the first of those four negative memories in great detail.
Do it as though you were back inside the experience, re-living the moment completely.
See the things you saw, hear the things you heard and feel completely the negative feelings you felt all over again, like you are actually there.
4. RELIVE IT AGAIN
Repeat the process with each one of the memories.
Go through each memory again and again, one after another. Each time you do this, make the images bigger, brighter and more colourful so they are becoming more and more intense.
Go through them faster and faster, until the events begin overlapping and the worst parts are happening over and over again, one after another after another.
5. THINK ABOUT A CIG
Only think about having to smoke a cigarette when you have generated an overwhelmingly strong negative feeling throughout your body.
Imagine somebody is trying to force you to smoke, even though you no longer want to.
6. FORCED
Now, run through each of the three times where in the past you would have enjoyed smoking.
Imagine somebody forcing you to smoke in each of these three situations until you want to scream: “Screw it – never again!”.
THE TAPPING METHOD
NOW, I’m going to share my final technique – my instant craving buster.
The great psychologist Roger Callahan believed that all human behaviour is regulated by electricity, chemistry and energy within the body.
He found that by tapping on various acupuncture meridian points, it could change this flow of energy within the body, and could therefore knock out compulsions and behaviours.
When you tap on these acupuncture points as you experience a craving, it changes the way the energy in your body is flowing.
This is my version of his process, which he called Thought Field Therapy – commonly known as the Tapping Technique.
It is the most powerful craving buster I know and works for both smoking and vaping.
By tapping in a specific sequence, you can reset the way your brain interprets and responds to stress.
We will focus on any cravings, intense feelings or nagging desires for a cigarette or vape.
You will need to be able to really concentrate for a few minutes, as it is important that you continue focusing on the craving feeling as you follow my instructions.
It doesn’t matter whether you use your right or left hand or whether you tap on the right or left side of the body.
Both sides have the same effect, so simply use whichever side and whichever hand comes naturally.
(Before you start, read through each step so you know exactly what to do.)
You’re going to use the tapping technique when cravings strike[/caption]
1. I want you to feel the biggest desire you possibly can for a cigarette, right now.
If you don’t have a big enough craving, put this technique to one side and come back to it when you’re really feeling it.
2. Focus on this craving for a moment, and when you’ve thought of it I’d like you to rate your desire for a cigarette on a scale of 1- 10, with 1 being the lowest and 10 the highest.
This is important, because in a moment we want to know how much you’ve reduced it.
- On a scale of 1- 10, how strong is your craving? Remember, if you’re not gagging for a smoke (i.e. your craving is not at least a 7), come back to this technique later.
- Now take two fingers of either hand and tap about ten times under your collarbone while you continue to think about having a cigarette or vape.
- Now tap under your eye ten times.
- Now tap under your collarbone again.
- Place your other hand in front of you and tap on the back of it between your ring finger and your little finger. Continue to think about smoking a cigarette as you do this and each of the steps which follow: Close your eyes and open them.
- Keep your head still, keep tapping and look down to the right then down to the left.
- Keep tapping and rotate your eyes round 360 degrees clockwise, and now 360 degrees anti-clockwise.
- Remember to keep thinking about the cigarette you were craving as you do this!
- Now hum the first few lines of ‘Happy Birthday’ out loud.
- Count out loud from 1 to 5.
- Once again hum the first few lines of ‘Happy Birthday’ out loud.
- Stop and check – on a scale from 1 to 10, what number is your craving at now?
- If it hasn’t completely gone yet, just repeat this sequence again until it does.
If the craving returns at some point in the future, just run through this sequence again.
Each time the craving returns it will be less intense than the last and it will take less time to knock out.
Soon you will be able to knock out any craving in a matter of seconds and in time the cravings will disappear altogether.
To try Paul McKenna’s app free for seven days, visit: paulmckenna.com/app
I started smoking at 12 – then stopped overnight
ALEX Clarke was a 40-a-day smoker who started at the age of 12, but overnight she kicked her habit – thanks to Paul McKenna’s method.
After years of trying – and failing – to quit, Paul’s process had such an impact that she retrained as a hypnotherapist, and now helps others.
Alex, 47, from Gorton, Manchester, tells Sun Health: “I started smoking at twelve years old.
“It was the 90’s, and I wanted to be a’size zero’, which was all the rage back then.
“I’d heard somewhere that smoking curbed the appetite; in reality, all it did was give me bad breath and a wheeze.
“Before doing Paul McKenna’s giving up smoking process I was smoking 40 plus a day.
“Some days I would even be crying and smoking because I didn’t want to be so hooked!
“But I couldn’t stop, no matter what I tried.
“Cold turkey saw me relapse after a few months.
“I tried gum, patches, sprays, you name it, but I always relapsed.”
Alex came across Paul’s Quit Smoking Today book and audio 10 years ago and after doing it, she stopped smoking overnight.
She said: “I thought I couldn’t be hypnotised, let alone that it would change anything!
“I went to bed that night and woke up in the morning with no craving for that first morning cigarette.
“Not only that, I didn’t remember that I was a smoker.
“I was stunned! I tried to search for the craving, and it wasn’t there.
“I opened my packet of cigarettes and sniffed them, trying to elicit the craving, and felt nauseated. I remember laughing and thinking, ‘This is how non-smokers must feel’.
“I’ve had zero relapses, despite some very stressful life events, including divorce and bereavement.
“My life has been completely transformed for the better since giving up smoking!
“My advice to those about to embark on this process is to keep an open mind and give it a go!
“You often get secondary benefits too, like relaxation, less stress, and better sleep.
“Stick with the program and remember you are not really giving anything up; instead, you are giving yourself health.
“I desperately wanted to give up, and by the time I came across Paul’s book, I had tried everything! It felt like my last resort. I’m so grateful it worked!”
