If Obama can quit, so can you!

President Obama Quits Smoking

By Caitlin Dickson | December 09, 2010 3:50pm

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In response to a new Surgeon General's report on the effects of exposure to tobacco smoke, Robert Gibbs was questioned by members of the press today on the President's own smoking habits. Gibbs assured reporters he hadn't seen the Obama smoking in 9 months and that he was chewing nicotine gum in an effort to quit. Media tweeters quickly spread the word on the President's smoking status and it wasn't long before people were responding to the news.

Go for it.

Great American Smokeout 2010 a Success

The phone was ringing on Nov. 10, the Great American Smokeout 2010! Nothing like a little push to help people quit smoking. (a push, and a 50% discount).
12 more people have quit smoking as a result of the Smokeout. (I've been checking on them and they are all doing just fine.)
The evil-doers at Philip Morris is quaking in their boots.
I can't wait to do this again next year!

1/2 Price offer to celebrate Great American Smokeout 2010

I am offering a half-price smoking cessation hypnosis program for smokers who decide to quit smoking on Thursday, November 18 – the Great American Smokeout.
Since 1977, the third Thursday in November has been designated as the Great American Smokeout by the American Cancer Society. On this day, smokers are encouraged to abstain from smoking all day or, at least cut back the number of cigarettes they smoke. Every year millions of smokers participate in the smoke out. Often, this simple step -- of not smoking for one day -- leads to a permanent cessation of smoking.

The 1/2 price offer is an opportunity to reach more smokers; ones who hadn’t consider hypnosis.

Smokers ready to quit should go to the Contact page of my website, http://www.relaxationsuite.com/contactus.php for complete details of the GAS Half-price Offer.

How to Talk to a Smoker

As a hypnotist who specializes in smoking cessation, I receive several phone calls a month from frustrated, scared spouses, parents, grandparents and friends for advice on how to help the smoker in their lives quit. I feel their fear and frustration, but smokers quit when they are ready and nagging does not help.

Anyone who has a 13 year-old or was a 13 year-old knows that if you nag, the person who you are nagging will just dig his heels into the ground with a “Don’t tell me what to do” scowl. Stop nagging and use a different approach.

I submit the following tips on how to help the smoker in your life quit smoking.

1. In a short (five or ten minutes), poignant conversation, tell the smoker you care about him and you would do anything he asks to help him quit. This is not an intervention. You are telling him how smoking is impacting you and other people (even pets) in the smoker’s life. Be specific: “Our son smart enough now to know the dangers of smoking and he’s scared you are going to die.” “I don’t want to see you wither away from cancer.”

2. Promise that you will never, ever bring the subject of quitting smoking again, until he is ready to discuss it. 

3. Renegotiate your terms. You are doing something hard - you are going to stop nagging. You now have the power to change the arrangement the two of you had. If the smoker smoked in the house, send him outside. If he smoked in the car, ask him to stop. If he’s already smoking outside, you can still change the terms to “never smoke where I can see you or smell you.” The operative word here is “negotiate.” If the smoker says no to your first offer, ask for something else.

4. If you are paying for the cigarettes, on any level, STOP. If your spouse or child is depending on you for an allowance or other funds, tell him you will not fund the smoking habit. Do the math with smoker – “Cigarettes cost $7 a pack and you are smoking a pack a day. That’s $50 a week.” Deduct the amount of the cigarettes from the allowance. If you do not give him an allowance, but he lives rent free, start charging rent, at least the amount of the cigarettes.

(Be fair and give him one month’s warning if you start charging rent.)

5. Do not use children to plead your case or nag for you. You may scare the child or scare her more than she already is. However, if the child has come to you asking, “Why doesn’t daddy quit smoking?” or “I’m afraid Grandpa is going to die because he smokes,” you may refer the child to the smoker to answer the question. “I don’t know the answer, but you can tell Grandpa how you feel about this.”

6. Do not offer to pay for the patches, acupuncture or hypnosis sessions because smokers may say to himself, “If it doesn’t work, it’s not costing me anything.” Smoking costs money and a smoker needs a financial incentive to quit. You can offer to reimburse the cost of the patches or sessions after he has been smoke-free for six months or a year.

7. Keep your promise not to nag.

In The Beginning

Nothing like starting with a cliche.

I am a hypnotist. I’m not a physician; I’m not a psychologist. And clearly, I'm not a writer.

I help people with bad habits – over eating, fear of public speaking, trouble sleeping, etc., and a large part of my hypnosis practice is helping people quit smoking. I have helped hundreds of people quit smoking.

I’m writing this blog so that I could reach more people who want to quit smoking than I can in my one-to-one hypnosis sessions.

I do not care what you do to quit smoking. Just quit! I have a lot to say on this subject and a lot of it will help you quit.

Some options on how to quit:

• Going Cold Turkey
• Nicotine Patches
• Acupuncture
• Nicotine Gum
• Pharmaceuticals
• or Hypnosis 

They all can work for you.

My bias, of course, is toward hypnosis; but I support anything that will help you quit. We will discuss all the smoking cessation modalities in this blog.

Being a smoker is being a pariah. My clients tell me that people shout at them as they stand outside a building. I would never do that to a smoker. I don’t hate smokers -- I help smokers. I’m writing this blog to give the readers - the ones who smoke - information and real support.

(Besides, why would I love a job working with people I hate?)

My Primary Life Goal is to live in a world where the tobacco companies have gone out of business and no one smokes because they don’t want to. 
I will work on my Primary Life Goal until I achieve it. And I will.

Just watch me.