What is the point of going to the doctor, getting medications for everything from anxiety & depression to high blood pressure when you are poisoning yourself 20 times a day or more? You may think you know that smoking is “not good for you” but have you really looked into what smoking does to your health? You can research online almost any part of your body, every organ, every tissue, bone, every system, from your head to your toes and there will be research about how smoking negatively impacts every single aspect of your health.

It’s not like smoking can only kill you over the long term. If you were driving in your car and you were in an accident, your chances of survival are compromised, significantly. For one thing, your heart rate when you are smoking is up by 10 to 20 bpm and your arteries are constricted which means that your blood pressure is up and unstable. This lasts for about 20 minutes, until you have another cigarette. You also have carbon monoxide in your blood as well as 1 quadrillion free radicals that come from about 20 or more poisons.

What are you thinking? That’s just it. What ARE you thinking? The truth is, we avoid thinking about all this because it seems to be an impossible task to quit smoking. That’s what “they” want you to think. The manufacturers of tobacco products including gum, patches and other “nicotine replacement” products that is. The thrust of their advertising is about how you can not quit without using their products. Now, think about this…why would you want to replace the nicotine with another nicotine product or a pharmaceutical product? Do you know the success rate of those products? Check it out online. Don’t you really want to eliminate nicotine and smoke from entering your body in any way? And do you want all the side effects of yet another drug?

The pharmaceutical industry is constantly coming up with new schemes to get your money. Now they are saying they will have a vaccine to help you stop smoking. WHAT!!!!

Hypnosis is the best way to quit smoking on the planet. There are absolutely no negative side effects. It only takes an hour or two instead of weeks or months of having it on your mind and in your schedule. It is so easy. All you have to do is sit back in an easy chair and listen to the suggestions. And you are done. And if you are really hard to hypnotize, you may have to practice it a few times until your mind learns how to do it. And as a bonus, as your mind learns how to do it, you can use it for many other things you want to change, like exercise motivation, and eating right, stop nail biting, eliminate depression and anxiety and so many other things.

I encourage you to come in and learn about hypnosis and the benefit it can be in your life.

Is it too late for you?

If not, make an appointment today.

A woman called this morning whose husband had just had a heart attack. They are both in their mid 50’s and both have been smoking since their early teens. The one thing the doctors said that HE MUST DO is to stop smoking. He has lost some of his ability to reason which they just hope he can get back but no guarantees. He thinks the program costs too much. How much did the heart attack cost? He is not able to work for two months. That cost much more than this program.

She doesn’t know if he is ready and we are not sure that hypnosis can help him now that his ability to reason is compromised. It may be too late for him but not for her.

She has made an appointment to come in to stop smoking. She does not want to go through having a heart attack or stroke.

I often think ….Why don’t people come in BEFORE they have something like this happen? Smoking poisons every single cell in the body and each cigarette contains 1 quadrillion free radicals.

Is it too late for you? If not, call Sandra and make an appointment today. 951.443.5083

But they have done this to themselves for years. It won’t help for you to add to the mental dialog they already have going on every day. Mostly it makes them more frustrated at the problem they have not been able to solve. They get mat at you and mad at themselves. So they push the anger down (not really) by having a cigarette.

The problem is that you can not change anything you don’t like about another person. No one can. We have a hard enough time changing things we don’t like about ourselves. When you know how the mind works, you can stop trying to change others and concentrate on improving yourself. The change in your behavior influences other people around you. It’s like dropping a pebble in a pond. Your behavior, good or bad, ripples out to all the people who come in contact with you and influences their lives. You can only hope that they notice the change in you and begin to look at themselves and their behavior and decide to modify what they are doing.

Unless it is their idea and their desire to live a longer, healthier life they probably won’t be able to quit. The number one most effective reason to quit is so they can watch their children grow up and be a better example to them. Several clients have stopped because they have worked hard, sacrificed and are going to retire early and they don’t want to be sick or die before they can enjoy the fruits of their many years of labor. Some simply are tired of it: tired of the hassle, the smell, wasting all that money, etc.

Having said all of that, here is a typical story I think will help. The wife of a smoker said that her husband had told her he had quit. But she knew better. Still, she did not bug him because she had nagged him for years to quit and it only caused problems in their marriage so she stopped nagging and he kept smoking.

One evening as they were getting ready for bed he said he thought he had left the car unlocked and went downstairs “to lock the car”. When he came back, his wife could smell the smoke left on his clothing. She said nothing that night but the next morning she gently and cautiously asked “did you have a cigarette before you came to bed last night?” He admitted that he had. (He knew she knew.) She gently said “I could smell it on you”. And that was that. She did not continue the conversation.

Later in the week, (when he had had time to think about it) she gently asked him if he would go see a hypnotherapist to stop smoking and he said yes. He needed help. He could quit until he was in a social/business situation and then he would “bum” one from a colleague. He wondered why it was so hard for him to quit. The reason is that ONE bummed cigarette, that ONE puff. It only takes ONE puff and a smoker is back at it, every time.

By the time a smokers health is compromised, they begin (in error) to think “I might as well keep smoking, I’m done for anyway.”

Smokers avoid and ignore the elephant in the room because they think it is too big and they are too busy. So if you want to get someone to stop smoking, the best way to help is, gently and at the right time, present options for them. You do the research, discover the success rates of each option, then present the options with their success rates and the cost of treatment and let them mull it all over. You can do the research by simply “googling”. Don’t push, just offer.

Cost of Cigarettes
Most people can not tell you how much cigarettes cost them each month. When asked, they can tell you how many they smoke in a day and how much they cost but they avoid doing the math. We like to keep ourselves in the dark about some matters. Because if we knew how horrible death would be from smoking and much we were spending, we might have to re-consider that behavior.

Now, since gas prices are soaring and the economy is slowing, people are beginning re-think that expensive habit. So let me help you get out of the dark. If you are smoking a pack a day, you are spending about $127 per month or $1,530 per year. That’s if you smoke a standard, full tar cigarette, at $4.25 per pack (if you live in Canada it is more like $10.00 per pack). Some people are even spending $100.00 per month on the prescription drug Chantix taking about 6 months to complete the treatment. And oh, those “possible side effects”. Hypnosis takes only one or two visits with most practitioners and costs considerably less but has no negative side effects.

It’s not just the cost of the cigarettes. “The costs add up: Cigarettes, dry cleaning, insurance – you can even lose your job. A 40 year old who quits and puts the savings into a 401(k) could save almost $250,000 by age 70.” Quote from www.msn.com on the high cost of smoking.

Cost of Insurance
“The average smoker will pay at least 40% more for life coverage than they would if they were a non-smoker. Some insurance companies are more forgiving than others depending on the company you choose, you could pay up to 55% more for your life insurance. Being a smoker affects all forms of life and health based insurance, including critical illness coverage and income protection.” Quoted from ezines.com

However, once you have stopped smoking for even one year, your life insurance could be significantly reduced, and could be reduced again after being a non-smoker for two years. Contact your provider for specific information.

Cost of the smell
Some of my clients say that after they smoke a cigarette, they don’t want to hug or kiss their boyfriend or girlfriend, spouse, or their kids. The effect is less love and affection. And they avoid smoking around their kids so they sneak off to the garage and if the kids come out to talk with them, they make them go away (to avoid the second hand smoke). But the cost is that the parent avoids the kids and then the kids are sent away from the parent.

Then there is the cost of selling a car that smells like cigarette smoke, or selling the house with the smell of cigarette smoke on the walls, carpets and drapes. Some people won’t smoke in their car or home for those reasons and because they don’t want to offend family or friends who may travel in their car or visit their home.

Social Costs
Many people are closet smokers. Nobody knows they smoke (or at least they would like to believe people don’t see them or smell them). They say it is very stressful to take great pains to find time and place to smoke, hide the paraphernalia and to cover up the smell.

And smokers complain that when they are at a movie, out to dinner, at a party that they have to leave their friends or families just to have a cigarette. The effect is that they miss out on whatever fun is going on.

Cost of compromised Immune System
But what is the real cost of smoking? It’s not the money you spend daily on cigarettes. It’s the cost of a compromised immune system. It’s the collected small cost of all the common colds for which you must pay a co-pay at the doctor’s office, the cost of overusing antibiotics, it’s all the sick-days off work, periodontal disease, the asthma, the Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD), emphysema, heart attack, stroke or cancer, to name just a few. Cigarette smoking adversely affects every single organ in the body.

Cost of health care
“The total cost of caring for people with health problems caused by cigarette smoking — counting all sources of medical payments — is about $72.7 billion per year, according to health economists at the University of California.” Quoted from: www.berkeley.com

Cost to businesses
Smokers may take a break before beginning a project or after completing a project. And now that they have to go outside to smoke, they take extra time away from their work. Sometimes they avoid co-workers or clients because they don’t want to offend with the smell of the smoke on their breath, hair and clothing. Many say they are embarrassed that they are a smoker. They take time to brush their teeth, spray cologne and wash their hands often. In some cases, while a smoker is “out back” smoking, valuable customers are left at the counter or waiting room or the phone is not being answered.

“Smoking cost the nation about $92 billion in the form of lost productivity in 1997-2001, up about $10 billion from the annual mortality related productivity losses for the years 1995-1999, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new lost productivity estimate when combined with smoking-related health-care costs, which was reported at $75.5 billion in 1998, exceeds $167 billion per year in the United States.” Quoted from the Center for Disease Control

Cost to the fetus
Mothers who smoke cause serious problems for themselves and their unborn children. Birth defects cause lifelong problems for the parents and children. Not to mention the health care costs of taking care of babies born with birth defects.

Cost to Babies
Babies naturally bond to the touch and scent of their mother and father. What if the mother and father smoke? Many of my clients say they “like” the smell of cigarette smoke, that it reminds them of their mother or father. How sad is that!

Cost to Kids
Annual expenditures through Social Security Survivors Insurance for the more than 300,000 kids who have lost at least one parent from smoking-caused death: 2.6 billion.
That’s pretty sad, too.
Quoted from: http://tobaccofreekids.org/research/factsheets/pdf/0072.pdf

Costs to Teenagers
Approximately 90 percent of smokers begin smoking before the age of 21. In 2005, 23 percent of high school students were current smokers. Over 8 percent of middle school students were current smokers in 2004. Tobacco advertising also plays an important role in encouraging young people to smoke before they are old enough to fully understand its long-term health risks. Quoted from the American Lung Association: http://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=39853

Many of my clients say they started smoking because their parents or big brother or big sister or their entire families smoked. Some say they started because a cool friend of theirs smoked and they wanted to be like them. Others say they started because all their friends smoked and they wanted to be “in” the group. Some say they started out of rebellion. Teenagers are strongly influenced by television, popular musicians, actors and athletes and the media; film and news. How important is it to give them a better role model. It may save their life.

Costs to loved ones
Many of my clients say that they don’t want to put their loved ones through watching them die a long, slow, painful, suffering death. Many of these smokers have witnessed a parent, friend or neighbor die this way. Some also say that they want to be able to see their children or grandchildren grow up, graduate, get married, and have families. Some say they want to regain their energy so they can keep up with their children or grandchildren.

Conclusion
With the emotional costs to our families, the slowing economy, rising gas prices and health care costs in mind, can you STILL afford to smoke?

Additional Points:
Our behaviors, moods and attitudes influence everyone around us. Behaviors, moods and attitudes radiate out like a pebble in a pond. What do you radiate? What do you want to radiate?

Last week I had a client who was hiding her smoking from everyone, including her husband. In the trunk of her car she had a bag with her smoking paraphernalia in it. It was a canvas bag inside of a plastic bag inside of another plastic bag. Inside the canvas bag were two smoking jackets, one was worn over the other. There was a knitted hat so she could put her hair up inside of it and a pair of gloves to keep the smell off of her hands. And, there was a pack of cigarettes and another pack in which she could put the butts. She said that all her husband had to do was to open the trunk of her car, smell it and she would be found out. Disaster!

She had to find places to hide to smoke. One such place was behind the local supermarket. On two separate occasions, someone must have been watching her get out of her car, go to her trunk, put on two jackets, a knitted hat, and a pair of gloves. They must have thought she was a terrorist or drug addict because the police quickly showed up. And as they searched her and her car, she pleaded, “Honest, officer, it’s only cigarettes!” Imagine how you would feel if that happened to you. She said they even ran her driver’s license!

When she was hiding out if she heard a car approaching, her heart would pound hard thinking she would be found out. She was always anxious that somebody would find out someday and that would get back to her family.

Even her dentist would ask, “Do you smoke?” and she would say “No, why?” Dentists know, even if you don’t confirm it. Smoking causes problems with the gums which can become at the least periodontal disease and at the worst cancer.

She was hiding it from everyone, her husband, kids, friends, mom, sister, and employer. Every once in a while someone would say “Why do you smell like cigarettes?”
She wept as she told me that she wanted to stop smoking so she would have “nothing to hide” from the people she loved most.

Imagine the torture it must be, always looking over your shoulder when purchasing cigarettes and finding places to hide. Always wondering when you will get the next opportunity, always having this “sneaking” on your mind. It becomes almost an obsession. It takes precedence over almost every aspect of your life. You will smoke in the pouring rain or the sweltering heat. You will go to the store after dark to make sure you have cigarettes for the next day. You will make excuses just to go somewhere, anywhere so you can sneak one.

It doesn’t have to be that way. It’s easy to quit with hypnosis. And what a relief it is when you no longer need to hide and sneak.

I just talked with a potential client who was referred by her friend who had stopped smoking last week with my program. She said that she had been hypnotized many years ago by her former husband and found it to be a wonderful experience but more recently she went to a stage show with her adult children and thought she could be hypnotized but was asked to leave the stage. She was wondered if she could still be hypnotized. Yes, of course she can be, under the right conditions. She is probably a very good candidate.

Things to consider on the positive side are that she trusted her former husband hypnosis was done in safety and comfort in the familiar family home. The stage show situation was vastly different. She didn’t know the hypnotist, she was on stage in front of family and many people she didn’t know and may have been anxious about what the hypnotist would have her do. Besides, she actually knew very little about hypnosis as evidenced by her questions.

Whether hypnosis will or will not work for one person or another is dependent on many factors. Some things I do to help you achieve the results you desire are:
Talk with you before hypnosis so you get to know and feel comfortable with me.
I instruct you about what hypnosis is and what it isn’t.
I help you reconcile the truths and myths you may have about hypnosis.
I answer any questions you have.
Provide some therapy so you understand what actually makes you smoke.
We discover what makes you want to quit and what triggers you have.
I use what you tell me in your hypnosis session.
I let you know how you are likely to feel in hypnosis.
I provide a save, comfortable environment in which to relax.
I let you know that afterward you will feel like you just had a great nap and that you will be able to drive home and most important not want to smoke.
After we talk, you and I will know if you are a good candidate for my program.
If you are not a good candidate, I will give your deposit back. No hard feelings.

So, even if you think you can not be hypnotized, make an appointment to at least talk. I’m giving you an hour of my time. But reserve two hours (and I will, too) so that if you do want to stop smoking in one hour, we can do it right then and there. Call me. What are you waiting for? Don’t make it complicated. How could I make it any easier or safer for you? Just make the call. You will be glad you did.

I am building a referrals only business. I want you to be successful so you will refer your family, friends, neighbors and co-workers. Your success is my success. Make the call.
951.443.5083

A young woman called who told me she wanted to get her mother in to see me. One of her mother’s breast implants had begun to leak but the surgeons would not operate until she was smoke free for 6 weeks. So her daughter told her about me, gave me her number and I called her to tell her about my program. She sounded less than enthusiastic and wanted to think about it. I sent her my free CD and told her to look on my website and call with any questions she might have.

I called her about a week after she had time to review my CD. I answered some of her questions and told her that with her breast implant leaking, I wanted to get her in ASAP and asked when she could come in. She lived in Ohio and said she would have to make arrangements to fly down and stay with her daughter.

A couple of weeks went by and she didn’t call so I called her. She didn’t answer. I left a message. I didn’t want to push her too hard so I said I would wait to hear from her. Time when by and I didn’t hear from her. I called her daughter who said she is had talked with her, also but she is very stubborn and she couldn’t push her anymore, either.

The next call I received was from her daughter. Her breast implant had ruptured and she had to go into emergency surgery and died during that surgery. I felt absolutely horrible. I knew that I could help her stop smoking which could have possibly saved her life.

I told this story because I want people to really think about just one of the risks they are taking by smoking. If they had to have emergency surgery, their survival would be compromised. The anesthesia is complicated by the nicotine and tar in the blood and lungs. Regulating the blood pressure is critical and complicates the process of anesthesia. Nicotine poisons all the cells of the body. This is the reason that plastic surgeons doing facelifts want their patients to be smoke free for 6 to 10 weeks before surgery and after. They will test the client before surgery for nicotine in the blood and cancel surgery if needed. They don’t want to be subject to lawsuit if the person dies or at the least has disfiguring scaring.

I know I can help you stop smoking easily. It only takes an hour or two. Give me a call and let me help you. You will be glad you did.