Stop Smoking Now: A Walk in the Woods from Winter to Spring

This post aims to take you into hypnosis. If you don’t want to go into hypnosis, or if you don’t want to stop smoking, you can stop reading this post now…

Good. You’re still here. You’re reading these words. This means you want to stop smoking, and, you want to use hypnotherapy to do it.

But you’re wondering: How can I go into hypnosis while I’m reading? Don’t I need to close my eyes?

The answer is no. You can go into hypnosis even with your eyes open. In fact, you’ve likely done this many times in your life.

Have you ever driven down a freeway and suddenly realized you passed your exit? The act of driving often creates an effect called “time distortion”—a kind of daydreaming that causes you to lose track of time and place. You’re driving down the freeway, thinking of something totally different, and before you know it you’ve passed your exit.

Get the picture? Well, I’m going to create the same effect here. So, if you want to take the first steps toward becoming a non-smoker, keep reading…

Take in a deep breath. Let it out. Slowly. Get in touch with your body. Your body is your subconscious. Feel for your heartbeat. Feel for your pulse...

Time is slowing down for you. You are reading. These words. Slowly. Very. Slowly.

You notice your breath is coming slower too. Perhaps you feel your heart beating slower as well. A sense of inner peace grows inside you…

You want to Stop. Smoking. Now.

Take in a deep breath. Let it out. Slowly. Get in touch with your body. Your body is your subconscious. Feel for your heartbeat. Feel for your pulse...

Now then. Imagine. Just imagine…

You are outside on a cold winter day. The wind is blowing. It’s below freezing. The sky is a cloudy gray. But since there’s no rain or snow falling, you decide to take a walk in the woods. You’ve had a lot of pressure on you lately and you want to clear your head.

You walk down a dirt path in the forest. The leaves have already fallen so the trees are bare. There’s not much ground cover because it’s been beaten down by heavy snows and rains. The dirt path feels hard because it’s been below freezing for several days. The earth cracks and crunches as you walk. It’s around the time of the winter solstice so the days are quite short. It’s getting dark in the forest already.

You want to Stop. Smoking. Now.

Before long you’re a good distance down the trail. You’re deep into the cold woods. And you begin to feel tired. It’s hard to catch your breath. Your legs feel heavy. Your body feels lethargic, like it has no energy at all. And this even though you’ve only been walking a little while.

Without thinking you reach for a cigarette. You light it. You take a few puffs and then something bad happens. Your chest hurts. You begin to cough. You know cigarettes are bad for you and you’ve been wanting to quit for a long time. But you’re hooked. You know you’re hooked. You admitted that to yourself a long time ago. Even so, the pain in your chest reminds you—it’s time to quit. You know it. Your doctor knows it. Your family and friends know it.

You throw the cigarette on the ground and crush it beneath your boot. There. It’s cold. It’s dead. It’s extinguished. It can’t hurt you anymore. You’re not hooked anymore. You’ve just been freed of the need to smoke. You pick up the dead cigarette and put it back into its pack.

You have Stopped Smoking.

Your steps come lighter. Your head feels lighter. You are reading these words. Even. Slower.

A shift has happened inside you.

You keep walking down the trail. Then a strange thing happens. The cold cloudy winter day turns warmer. The sun shines brighter. The day got suddenly longer. Green buds appear on the trees. You see green shoots rising up from the forest floor. Immediately you feel better. You have more energy. The chest pains are gone. The coughing is gone. Cigarettes are gone from your life.

And then, after you’ve taken only a few more steps, you see it’s springtime. Fresh green leaves are unfolding on the once-barren trees. Flowers are pushing up through the warm earth. Green grasses and flourishing shrubs wave in the gentle breeze. It’s as if, simply by throwing away and snuffing out that single cigarette, your whole life changed.

You feel better already. You see things differently now. You’ve got a new perspective on life. You were born without the desire to smoke cigarettes. And you want to get back to that natural way of living. You want more days like this—warm spring days with pleasant healthy walks in the forest.

You come out of the forest. There’s a public trash can right there, waiting for you. You find your pack of cigarettes, and your lighter, and you throw them away. A feeling of relief washes over you.

You’ve made your decision. You were born a non-smoker. You have returned to that natural state of being a non-smoker.

Now then. Return to the here and now…

I’m not going to claim that little story will absolutely bring an end to your tobacco habit. It most cases it will take more in-depth work than that. But for smokers who have made a decision to quit, this little parable is all it takes to get you on the road to being a non-smoker.

Want to go farther? All it takes is one phone call, or one email, to make an appointment.

Thomas C. Williams

Clinical Hypnotherapist

Copyright © 2018 by Thomas C. Williams