When you are born, your mind has 4 things: Fight (your stress), Flight (how you escape it), a fear of falling and a fear of loud noises. That's it. From the time you are born until you are about 8 years old, the lower part of your mind is developing. This is your subconscious mind. You take in everything and don't question anything. It's like a gigantic sponge! Some things are positive known associations (you know you like to be hugged) and some are negative known associations (you don't like to be kicked). Around age 8-9 the middle portion of the mind, the Critical Mind, is developed. This serves as a gatekeeper or filter to the subconscious mind. It won't let anything in that it does not already know (positive or negative). Around age 9, the conscious mind is developing. This is our logic, decision making, rationalization and willpower - our thinking mind.

Perhaps at a young age you learned from mom that smoking relieves her stress. She was angry and yelling one day and told everyone to leave her alone. She said she was so stressed out and was going out to smoke a cigarette. That's all it took! Fast forward 20 years and you have stressful job. Chances are you will start to smoke because that's what your subconscious mind knows. When you've had enough and decide to stop, you are not able to until that known association in your subconscious mind is changed. Through hypnotherapy, we get the mind, body and emotions in a very relaxed state and are able to penetrate that Critical Mind, find the known association of "smoking relieves my stress", and we can change it. Perhaps you realize that "mindful breathing can relieve your stress", so we are able to change the known association and you can become smoke free!

The subconscious mind is very powerful (approximately 88% of your total mind. The conscious mind (the part you think with) is only approximately 12%. Pretty amazing!