HAVE you tried and failed to quit smoking?
Is your bathroom cabinet littered with out-of-date nicotine patches and stale gum?
Paul McKenna is here to help you quit smoking once and for all[/caption]
And is that vape you switched to permanently glued to your lips, a cloud of sickly sweet vapour engulfing your every step?
Quitting is hard, really hard – and you’re not alone in struggling.
Just under two million smokers in England tried to give up last year, according to new research by University College London – that’s almost 40 per cent of everyone who lights up.
Most go it alone, trying to quit without any support and as a result, most fail.
That’s why, Sun Health has teamed up with world renowned self-help guru Paul McKenna.
In our exclusive two-part series, he will guide you through the simple steps he has used to help celebrities ditch their cigarettes for good, in a matter of days.
It’s so effective that one in three people who try it give up instantly, and forever.
OVER TO PAUL MCKENNA…
IF you want to quit smoking, or vaping – without gaining any weight – look no further.
I’m going to show you how to retrain your mind and body, to help you break free from your addiction, regain your willpower and ensure you’re no longer a slave to nicotine.
My method has helped A-listers including Jerry Hall, Ellen DeGeneres and even royalty to quit.
The main technique we are going to use – hypnosis – is proven to be the single most effective way to kick the habit, according to a recent meta study (a study of many studies).
So, I’m sharing my powerful 25-minute, hypnotic audio trance (below), which you should listen to using headphones or ear pods every day for the next seven days – to get optimal results.
This is essential because smoking is a habit, and all our habits are regulated by the unconscious mind.
Through hypnosis, I am able to communicate directly with your unconscious mind, to reprogram your mind.
I can help you visualise being a non-smoker and create negative associations with smoking, and positive associations with quitting.
As well as the trance, I am going to share a series of psychological techniques that I use in the Quit Smoking section of my brand new Change Your Life app.
But before we get to that, I want to tell you a few home truths about your habit.
In the UK, about six million adults smoke cigarettes[/caption]
Paul McKenna’s methods have helped model and actress Jerry Hall quit smoking[/caption]
Comedian, actress and TV host Ellen DeGeneres is also a fan[/caption]
The first thing you need to recognise is smoking is nothing more than an external means to change the way you feel.
Food, alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling, watching TV, scrolling social media endlessly and shopping all work the same way.
As a drug of choice, nicotine is not a smart one.
Is that temporary good feeling worth it when you consider the likelihood of an early and painful death?
It doesn’t matter if you have smoked all your life or you have tried to quit many times and failed. Follow my instructions and you will never smoke again
Paul McKenna
If I asked you to swallow a cyanide pill or inhale asbestos dust each day in exchange for some temporary feelings of relaxation, would you do it? Probably not.
But if you’re a smoking or vaping addict I’ll bet you’re dying for a cigarette, even as you read these words.
One factor that stops some people quitting smoking is they fear they will replace it with overeating or drinking.
My technique stops that, because we are treating the cause, not the symptom. It literally primes you for success.
So, the first thing you need to do is to pick the day you want to stop.
I can’t make you quit – you have to make that decision for yourself. What I can do is make it really EASY for you.
So why not choose today and tell yourself: “Today is the day I am stopping.”
And remember, the odds are in your favour.
Seven out of ten of you will get a significant result by following this process.
Amazingly, around one in three listen to my trance just ONCE, do the techniques and they never smoke or vape again.
A slightly larger percentage of people have to work at it.
They have to reinforce and practise the techniques for seven days to two weeks.
Then there’s a small percentage who need to keep going, or maybe even try several times, often due to external crises or stress.
But remember this. If you stop for an hour you can stop for a day. If you can stop for a day, you can stop for a week. If you stop for a week you can stop for a month…if you stop for a month you can stop for three months and so on.
It doesn’t matter if you have smoked all your life, if you have tried to quit many times and failed or if you don’t believe this will work for you.
All you have to do is follow my instructions fully and completely and you will never smoke again.
While you will have stopped in a week, I recommend you play the trance every day for two weeks to cement the process.
ADD IT UP
FIRST I’d like you to do this simple exercise.
Add up all the time you actually spend smoking in a day.
For example, if you smoke 20 a day and each cigarette lasts for about five minutes, you smoke for about 100 minutes (an hour and forty minutes) each day.
If you already spend over 22 hours a day not smoking, does it feel a bit easier to believe you could not smoke for 23 hours a day? What about 23 hours and 55 minutes?
TIP #1: HINDSIGHT AHEAD OF TIME
A LOT of smokers don’t quit until it’s too late – waiting to be told they have health problems.
So, using the power of visualisation, I want to take you close to the end of your life, so you can look back and see if there’s anything you want to change.
This is important because the unconscious mind does not differentiate between a real and a vividly imagined event.
If we can have hindsight ahead of time, it can shape our lives in an incredibly positive way.
This process gives you a snapshot of where you could end up, allowing you to make better choices.
(Before starting, read through each step so that you know exactly what to do.)
- Imagine that you continue to smoke until the end of your life. In your mind now, travel into the future to a point near the end of your life.
- Notice what your health and quality of life is like. Ask yourself, ‘What regrets do I have? What do I wish I’d done differently?’
- Return back to the present moment with your insights.
- Now, imagine that you have successfully quit smoking today. Once again travel to a point near the end of your life.
- Notice what your health and quality of life is like. Ask yourself, ‘What am I most grateful for in my life? What am I glad I did when I was younger?’
- Return back to the present moment with your insights.
- Now, compare the two futures. What will your long-term future be like if you continue smoking? What will it be like if you quit?
- Compare these two possible futures at least ten times, until it’s a simple decision of the future you want, and the choice you need to make now to create it.
TIP #2: THE SWISH
ONE of the biggest motivators to do something is imagining the pleasure we will get.
When smokers imagine getting a cigarette out of the packet and lighting up, it creates a dopamine release – which is associated with feelings of pleasure and reward.
Then comes that little moment of euphoria when they take a drag and get their serotonin hit – the so-called happy hormone.
All that happens in their mind before they smoke, motivating them to do it.
The Swish disrupts that motivation.
So now, using the power of visualisation, we are going to imagine putting a cigarette in your mouth.
But then we are going to visualise the amazing picture of health you’ve just created – where you don’t smoke.
It’s a deceptively simple psychological process that tells your unconscious mind: “Not that, but THIS!” Let’s do it now.
The main technique Paul uses is hypnosis[/caption]
1. LOOK BACK
Think of the very last thing you are aware of before a cigarette goes into your mouth for the first time.
It can be the sight of your fingers coming towards your face, cigarette in hand; the sight of the lit match burning; even your hand reaching into the packet.
Make sure you are seeing the image through your own eyes, as you would in real life.
When you’ve got it, put it to one side for the moment.
2. LOOK FORWARD
Now create a picture of you in an optimum state of health, as a non-smoker or non-vaper.
Enjoy looking at it for a few moments on a giant screen – bold, beautiful and larger than life.
Now, imagine shrinking it down and pushing it way off into the distance until you can barely make it out.
3. REVISIT
Once again, imagine the picture of what happens just before you begin smoking.
4. SMASH IT
Now, close your eyes and imagine your picture of health coming straight at you, growing bigger and bolder as it approaches until you can see it smashing the old smoking picture into tiny pieces and filling the screen in front of you.
Take a moment to enjoy the good feelings, then briefly open your eyes.
5. REPEAT
Close your eyes again and repeat steps 3 and 4 at least ten more times, as fast as you can.
There are three ways to test how well you have done at creating a new, positive association to a healthy new you:
- Imagine the picture of what happens just before you begin smoking. If the Swish has been successful, the old picture will feel different to you and you may even struggle to bring it to mind.
- Imagine smoking a cigarette. Again, you will know if it’s worked because the image of the healthy new you will be more appealing than the idea of smoking.
- If both ‘a’ and ‘b’ have been successful, take out a cigarette and go to light it up. If you really don’t want to, congratulations!
If at some point in the future a bit of the old urge returns, simply ‘swish’ it away following the steps above.
One in three people try Paul’s method once and never smoke or vape again[/caption]
TIP #3: THE CALM ANCHOR
MOST people smoke to control their feelings – after a meeting to alleviate stress, or after a meal or sex to elevate those good feelings.
These days we all have inescapable stress in our lives.
It could be your commute, worries in your job, struggling to find a home/work balance, bringing up a young family, or what’s happening in the world, with wars, climate change and the economy raising our stress levels.
But when you create a calm anchor, you can switch off the stress – and eradicate the need for that cigarette. Let’s do it now.
(Before you start, read through each step so that you know exactly what to do.)
1. FIND CALM
Remember a time when you felt really, really calm – at peace and in control.
Fully return to it now, seeing what you saw, hearing what you heard, and feeling how good you felt.
2. AND SQUEEZE
As you run through this experience in your mind, make the colours brighter and richer, the sounds crisper, and the feelings stronger.
As you feel these good feelings, squeeze the thumb and middle finger of your right hand together.
Paul’s process is literally priceless. I honestly feel I owe him my life
Daniel Flower
This helps you associate the particular pressure in this particular place with this particular emotion.
Run through this memory several times until you feel a lovely sense of inner peace and calm.
3. REPEAT
Now go through this relaxing memory at least five more times while continuing to squeeze your thumb and middle finger together to really lock in these good feelings.
You will know you have done it enough when all you need to do is squeeze your fingers together and you easily remember the feelings of calm.
4. STRESS IT
Next, think about a situation that in the past you would have found mildly stressful.
Once again, squeeze your thumb and middle finger together.
Feel that calm feeling spreading through your body and imagine taking it with you into that stressful situation.
Imagine everything going perfectly, exactly the way that you want.
See what you’ll see, hear what you hear and feel how good it feels to be so much calmer and in control in this situation.
5. CHALLENGE YOURSELF
Now, still squeezing your thumb and finger together, remember that calm feeling of being in control and once again imagine being in that situation that used to seem stressful.
This time, imagine a few challenges occurring and notice yourself handling all the challenges perfectly.
See what you’ll see, hear what you hear and feel how good it feels to be so much calmer and in control in this situation.
6. SPOT THE DIFFERENCE
Stop and think about that situation now. Notice the difference from only a few minutes ago.
Do you feel less stressed and more in control? If not, just repeat the exercise until you do!
Each time you do this exercise, it will become easier and easier to do.
In tomorrow’s Sun on Sunday: Paul McKenna shares his instant craving busters so you’ll never want a cigarette or vape again.
I quit smoking overnight – Paul saved my life
DANIEL Flower quit smoking overnight and then lost a whopping 12 and a half stones in weight – thanks to Paul McKenna’s method.
Daniel, 48, of North West London, tells Sun Health: “I was a massive smoking addict of up to 40 a day, I believed I was never going to be able to stop.
“I desperately wanted to give up for numerous reasons, health firstly then the smell!
“Oh my goodness, to those that don’t smoke it’s literally unbearable, even now the smell I find abhorrent.”
After first listening to Paul’s hypnotic trance, Daniel says he became “apprehensive” towards cigarettes.
“I had two packets of cigarettes, I crumpled them up and threw them in the bin. It was that quick,” he says.
“Paul’s process is literally priceless. I honestly feel I owe him my life and I’m so thankful and eternally grateful.
“But my advice is to really immerse yourself in the process, it’s not difficult.
“Even today it’s still working, it’s amazing. I still use it regularly if I have stress with work or just feel I need a top up.
“I’m living proof that it works.”
To try Paul McKenna’s app free for seven days, visit: paulmckenna.com/app
