Studies show that the stress levels in smokers are generally higher than those in non-smokers. Smokers typically experience what they perceive as normal moods during smoking and worsening moods between cigarettes. The apparent relaxant effect of smoking is actually only a reversal of the tension and irritability that develop during nicotine withdrawal. In simple terms, a lack of cigarettes for a smoker causes stress, that is then reduced by smoking.

Psychologist Andy Parrott, Ph.D., of the University of East London agrees that evidence shows that the apparent relaxant effect of smoking only reflects the reversal of the tension and irritability that develop during lack of nicotine. He comments that “Regular smokers, therefore, experience periods of heightened stress between cigarettes, and smoking briefly restores their stress levels to normal,”

However I would argue that cigarettes don’t even restore stress levels back to ‘normal’. Cigarettes are well known to increase the heart rate and the blood pressure, which exacerbates stress. It would seem plausible to say that a lack cigarettes causes stress, which is only partially remedied by smoking. A cigarette will probably not even quite get you back to normal relaxed levels, although it may feel like it because of the stress it has caused. Most smokers are fooled, or want to be fooled, into thinking that cigarettes are good for helping them deal with stress.

Probably the biggest relaxation benefits a cigarette can provide is the taking 5 minutes out, and the deep breathing from smoking. You must stop what you are doing in order to smoke a cigarette, plus you must take in slow deep breaths when drawing from it. These things are known to greatly help stress levels. However you don’t need to smoke to do this. When you are feeling stressed, simply stop what you are doing for a minute or two, and take a few slow deep breaths. It’s really simple, but highly effective. Try it right now. Put down whatever it is you’re doing and take 5 or 6 slow deep breaths. Close your eyes if this helps.

Doesn’t that feel better?

All you need to do is keep reminding yourself when you are starting to feel a bit stressed to stop what you are doing for a few minutes, and take a few slow deep breaths. 4 or 5 mini breaks like this during your day will make a very profound difference to your stress levels – whether you are a smoker or a non-smoker.

But if you are a smoker, don’t keep kidding yourself into thinking that smoking aids stress, because it doesn’t. The truth is that whilst you are a smoker, those greedy cigarette companies are controlling your stress levels. They are playing with your mind, trying to force you to smoke. They have got you on a cycle of dependency that must be broken. The product they are selling to you is not providing you with anything. And how much are you paying? Instead it takes from you, and gives you some back when you use their product. But it actually leaves you worse off, and you are allowing that to happen.

Do yourself a favour – Become a non-smoker today. Take your life in your own hands, and be happier, healthier, and save cash as well.

If you want help quitting smoking, then I REALLY recommend Quit Smoking Hypnotherapy. It has recently done a great job helping both my Mum and Dad quit smoking after a combination of 72 years as smokers. They have not smoked for more than two months so far, and although they are giving each other great support, they both admit they couldn’t have done it without Quit Smoking Hypnosis. They are already happier and healthier than I have seen them for years. A real source of inspiration to show that it can be done at ANY age, no matter how long you have been smoking.

Gastric Band Hypnosis aims to use the power of the mind to help you lose weight. At first it does sound quite improbable, but after some careful consideration, it does actually seem feasible. Let me explain…

Gastric Band Hypnosis works by convincing the subconscious mind that you have actually gone through with a gastric band surgical procedure. The theory is that once the subconscious mind believes this to have happened, it will act as if this is true. The patient will feel full much sooner than before, will eat less, and so consequently will lose weight – just as if they have really had surgery.

I have to say that I am a BIG believer in the simple premise that in order to lose weight you must eat less. So this product did get my attention. It does not claim what so many claim, which is some sort of miracle weight loss, with no changes in life style needed. I don’t believe it is possible to stick with the same lifestyle and lose weight. This product only claims to help you eat less, which in turn will help you to lose weight.

Basic science says that if you consume more calories than you burn then you will gain weight. It also says that if you burn more calories than you consume then you will lose weight. So if someone eats less and burns more calories than they consume, then they must lose weight. It is just physically impossible to gain weight if you are burning more calories than you are consuming – but people sometimes don’t realize or forget this simple fact.

That is why I don’t believe in miracle weight loss. The calories you eat must go somewhere, and if they are not burnt off, then they must be stored on the body as fat. You can do loads of exercise to burn it off, but isn’t it easier to just not eat the calories in the first place?

Here are my own personal experiences of Gastric Band Hypnosis…

The product came with 4 mp3 sessions plus an eBook. There were also 2 bonus sessions “Sensible Eating Hypnosis” and “Exercise Motivation Hypnosis”, which I have yet to try.

There were really 3 sessions, “Gastric Band Fitting”, “Gastric Band Inflation”, and “Gastric Band Post-Op”. These are supposed to mimic a real procedure that is done over a few sessions. A 4th session was also included which you can use if you want to reverse the whole procedure.

Listening to the sessions was actually a very enjoyable experience. I though I was going to get a stern voice telling me how unhealthy and fat I was, but this actually wasn’t the case. It was a calming and relaxing English male voice that guided me through a gastric band procedure as if it was really happening. I could actually picture the hospital in very clear detail, almost like I was actually there, and see the doctors and nurses. I listened to one session each day for 3 days, and enjoyed all of them. To me it was worth listening to for the relaxation benefits alone!

What struck me was once I finished the sessions I weirdly felt different. It’s hard to explain exactly what I mean. Perhaps it’s rather like when reading a very good influential book that seems to click with you and change the way you think forever. Or a wise older person whom you deeply respect, giving you life changing advice. Whatever it was I did feel like I had made a profound and deeply lasting change. A switch had been clicked in my brain.

I am not particularly THAT overweight, at least not in my humble opinion, but admittedly I could probably do with shedding a few pounds, perhaps about 14. I did find after the sessions that I wasn’t as bothered about eating as I was before. I have started leaving food when I have had enough, which is not something I generally did before. I also don’t seem to be as bothered about eating in between meals anymore either. So overall I am definitely eating less than I did before, and that’s without really trying.

The scales? Well I have lost 6 pounds in the last 3 weeks. That’s an average of 2 pounds per week. Whilst that’s not exactly ground breaking, I hear that it is quite a good healthy rate to lose weight, so I am quite pleased with the results so far.

The thing that really struck me about this product is that not only has it so far done what it claims to do, but also it was a pleasant and enjoyable process. I don’t see why we should have to torture and beat ourselves up just to lose a bit of weight.

Overall I would say that if you are struggling to lose weight, then you should give Gastric Band Hypnosisa shot. You don’t have to do anything crazy such as eating cabbage soup every meal, or starving yourself till you nearly pass out. You just carry on with life just eating that bit less than before – constantly and consistently, which I feel is the key to it’s success. All those bits of calories here and there that you stop eating soon add up, and can make quite a difference over a period of time.

All I can really say is that it has worked for me, so it could well work for you also. It isn’t a miracle weight loss aid that will help you shift 10 pounds per week, but I’m not sure such claims are actually true anyway. This is a sensible, slow, enjoyable and relaxing way to lose weight, which I think is a great balance. This could just be the missing part of the jigsaw you need to meet your weight loss goals.

Check out the sales page bellow for more information…

Buy Gastric Band Hypnosis

Clinical hypnotherapist Jon Rhodes DHyp (a contributor to this site) has released The Ultimate Self Hypnosis Script Book which contains six inductions, fifteen deepeners and eighty-five  self hypnosis scripts. These scripts cover a wide range of topics from appreciating people more to relaxation to weight loss. Almost everything you could think of is in this script book.

I was fortunate to get a sample copy of the eBook and it really is dynamite. A must have for anyone who frequently performs self hypnosis or anyone training to be a hypnotist.

It’s currently on sale at $99.95 but you can get a 20% discount by clicking on the link below.

Buy now and get 20% off!

20% Off The Ultimate Self Hypnosis Script Book!

The idea is to wake up early and get more things done in the morning, while the rest of the world is still asleep, leaving less for you to do in the evenings when you’re tired. Think about how many times you think “I’ll do that later” and then forgot about until the next day. These small tasks build and build until they become a cause for stress and anxiety.

While no-one expects you to wake up at 4am every morning even if you wake up just one hour earlier that is a full hour to get jobs done where you will have little to no other distractions.

Some people find it hard to change their sleep patterns and this is understandable, as they are the result of years of routine…or non-routine in some cases. So how do you change your internal clock so that you can wake up earlier?

Well there are a number of techniques that can be helpful but the most important and obvious one is that to wake up early you also need to go to bed earlier. This may sound counter-productive in some ways since the idea of waking up earlier is to get more things done, however the vast majority of people are at their most productive shortly after they’ve woken up and then decline gradually as the day goes by. Waking up early gives you an extra hour or so before you have to go to work to get things done around the house, or even get a head start on work you have to hand in to the boss. Imagine how impressed they’d be with you handing in your assignment at 9:00 am whenever they give you a project. That’s the type of impression that can lead to promotions and pay rises!

Besides going to be earlier there are many other ways to help yourself wake up earlier. Most people have an alarm set for a specific time and while this is a good idea it can work even better if taken a step further. Try placing your alarm at the other side of your bedroom so that when it goes off you have to get up to switch it off. This makes it much more likely that you won’t just go straight back to sleep. Also have a glass of water next to your bed so that you can have a drink as soon as you wake up, this will hydrate and energize your body immediately.

You should also relax as much as possible before you go to sleep at night. A long soak in the bath and a book will help you to unwind and this in turn will allow you to enjoy a deeper, most restful sleep so that when you wake up you are ready to get up and get on with your day.

The biggest battle in waking up early though is the one with your mind. The alarm goes off at 6:00am and there’s an argument going on with one side saying “Come on! Time to get up!” while the other side is saying “Urghhh…let’s go back to sleep”.  One of the best ways to win this battle is with self hypnosis. You can program your mind and convince both sides that it is much more beneficial to wake up early in the morning. Our friends at HypnoBusters have a great session called Wake Up Early that will relax you before you go to bed and strengthen your desire to wake up early.

Remember, the more you get done early on, the more time you have to relax later on.

I won’t talk today about how to perform self hypnosis as I know that that has already been covered at Relaxation Haven. What I would like to talk about though is how to get the very most out of self hypnosis when you use it for relaxation. To achieve complete relaxation with self hypnosis you need the perfect set-up. This differs from person to person as I understand yet there a few pieces of advice I can impart on you.

To begin you want a quiet, peaceful room where you can be sure you won’t be disturbed. To add to the relaxing atmosphere you may wish to lower the lighting and light some incense. This will all add to the relaxation of your self hypnosis session.

While you are performing self hypnosis and feeling completely relaxed there is an NLP techniques you can use so that whenever you feel stress during your daily life you can immediately calm yourself down and begin feeling relaxed once more. When you are at your most relaxed during self hypnosis consciously touch the tip of your index finger over the tip of your thumb and say to yourself mentally “I am completely relaxed”.

This is known in NLP as anchoring. Your mind will now associate the act of touching your index finger to your thumb with the feeling of utter relaxation. Now when you are at work or at home and you feel any sort of stress you can simply touch your index finger to your thumb and think “I am completely relaxed” and you will immediately begin to feel the waves of relaxation wash over your mind and body.

I hope you will find great success with this technique and you will continue on your quest for more knowledge about NLP, self hypnosis and relaxation.

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Note from Kurt: Thank you to Doug for providing us with this article. You can read more of Doug’s work such as his recent article on creating a self hypnosis trance over at NLP Hypnosis Secrets. You can also read more about how to perform self hypnosis right here at Relaxation Haven.

Resource: Attract A Soulmate Hypnosis – Self hypnosis to attract handsome men or date beautiful women.