Stopping and Quitting…
It’s the same thing right? Not really. I listen to people tell me all the time how they stopped smoking…right before they started again. Our perception of the two words may differ, but let’s look at a comparison.
When you’re driving down the road, you come to a big red octagonal sign that says, “STOP”. What do you do? Hopefully you stop. Then, once you have a sense that all is clear, you begin your trip again. That’s often how it works with a smoker who intends to stop. Then some event, situation or trigger occurs and they restart their habit.
Compare that to QUITTING. Using the same driving example, when you decide that you’ve reached your destination, you’re done. You’ve turned the key – You have quit. The same is true for smoking. When you resolve that you want to quit, hypnosis can help you turn that key and neutralize the triggers that drive you to smoke.
The trigger is generally an emotion. I’m not talking about the extremes of sadness or euphoric happiness (although they could be present). It’s the emotion that quietly fits somewhere in the middle and drives us to engage in the “Too much” I’m talking about things like boredom or frustration or stress or loneliness or fear…or any number of emotions that we deal with.
As humans, we are emotional beings. You see, addictive habits like smoking often become a band-aid to cover whatever it is we are feeling. People tell me “I want to stop smoking”. This is when I ask if they think it would be better if they “QUIT” smoking and I explain the emotional drivers that push them. It’s usually not until they read a small book called the ”Secret Language of Feelings” that they get it…and see how those things inside of them cause the habits that are slowly killing them. This is a small investment that I recommend if you “really” want to quit smoking. It costs about the price of 3-packs of cigarettes. What is the value of your life or someone you care about?
I had a man recently tell me, “That book doesn’t sound very manly”. I suggested that there are many men that suffered and died from heart failure, stroke, cancer or emphysema that wished they did the manly thing, stepped up and took control of their life. It’s not about ego – it’s about common sense and taking a proactive step to stay healthy and alive.
I am all about helping people recover their lives and health, but it is a partnership. First, they have to want to gain that positive change that awaits them. Secondly, they need to follow the directions that will get them there.
So let me explain where I’m going with the concept of emotion and how I can help you not stop – but QUIT smoking. It’s been proven time and time again that hypnosis will help a person become tobacco free. Yet, as a 5-PATH® practitioner, I can take that process much further.
Many hypnotists will successfully get a client into hypnosis, give them suggestions to provide change and make them stop. The common practice is to give direct suggestion, which can be very powerful and permanent for some issues. For instance, if a person came for hypnosis to assist with sports enhancement or test preparation, direct suggestion can be very helpful. Yet, even in those instances, if there’s any emotional component behind it, then 5-PATH® is the most effective process.
Underlying emotion often causes addictive habits and when present, direct suggestion will eventually fade, leaving the client capable of restarting their habits. A 5-PATH® practitioner goes further by exploring the subconscious and targeting the emotional component that is the underlying cause and driver of the addictive habit.
A Certified 5-PATH® practitioner neutralizes the internal perception of the driving emotion. The result is the freedom to step onto a clean path without hidden emotionally-driven habits or fear. It is the hidden “stuff” we carried throughout our life that has dampened our successes, made us wary of relationships or caused addictive habits.
5-PATH® gets to the root of the issue. And that’s why YOU CAN go beyond “stopping” and instead, “QUIT” smoking and live your life successfully without unnecessary baggage.
Anthony “Tony” M. Davis, CCH
Certified 5-PATH® Hypnosis Practitioner
Empowering People to Reach Their Goals…
