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The Quest For The Perfect Way To Quit Smoking

2012
02.04

the quest for the perfect way to quit smoking cigarettesIf only …

See if I have this right.  When I smoked, if there had been a way to quit smoking that:

  • Left no cravings from the get-go
  • Required no will power
  • Was quick.  (So many programs take weeks of classes … YAWN!)
  • Didn’t need me to prepare a date weeks in advance.

… I’d have almost hugged it to pieces!  Wouldn’t you?  Isn’t it every nicotine addict’s dream to simply not want to smoke any more?  “Dream on…” I’d tell myself

Sometimes, though, dreaming pays off – as you will soon see.

Like most smokers, when I smoked I used to wish I could just wake up and not want cigarettes any more.  If only there was a way not to miss them and not to want them … but it seemed there just wasn’t such a thing.

Nicotine replacements just left me wishing I could get the nicotine from the cigarettes I so enjoyed.  (The gum cost me a filling or two and some hefty dentist’s bills along with them I seem to remember!)

As for going cold turkey, (which I’ve discussed in a previous post), my willpower simply wasn’t up to it.  I’d drift towards cigars, (which I hated), or a pipe, (which made me look ridiculous), telling myself that these weren’t “really” smoking.  Thankfully, no one asked me what I thought it actually was or I’d have been stumped for an answer!  Of course, cigarettes were back on the menu in a matter of mere days.

Seeing The Smoking Problem – Not The Solution

In the end, I resigned myself to the fact that I was trapped and the risk to my life was something I’d just have to live – or die – with.  What a place to get to!

Of course, I was great at identifying the problems.  For one thing, the cravings seemed to have me in their grip.  My willpower was a joke.  My only consolation was that every smoker I’d ever met seemed to be in the same boat

As a trained psychotherapist, perhaps I should have known better.  I knew how to help people change, but I somehow never thought of applying my skills to my own smoking!  Talk about “physician, heal thyself!”

I have a diploma in something called NLP.  Don’t worry if you don’t know what that is – essentially it means that the way you process information can be used to your advantage.

For example, suppose something embarrassing happens – you know, your pants fall down in the middle of the shopping mall on a busy Saturday afternoon.  You might say, “One day I’ll probably look back on this and laugh.”  NLP, which stands for “neuro linguistic programming” would ask, “Why wait?”  The fact is that if you can laugh at something that once felt embarrassing then all that has changed is the way you look at it.  The event itself is exactly as it was.

Advertisers often use NLP based ideas to get us to feel good about their products.  A classic example of this was in the 1980s when Michael Jackson, who publicly stated that he would never drink Pepsi Cola, agreed to appear in Pepsi adverts!  Pepsi realised that Jackson, who was – and still may be – the best selling musical artiste of all time made millions of people feel good.  All they had to do was link some of that good feeling with their drink, and regardless of what Michael actually said about their product, it would boost sales.  They were right.

Had I thought outside of the proverbial box, I’d have seen much sooner that NLP could provide a shortcut to quitting smoking.

Hypnosis sounds like it should work and indeed NLP is the child of hypnosis.  But here’s the problem with hypnosis for quitting smoking: you’re fully awake!

Contrary to popular misconceptions, (due in part to Hollywood and cartoons), you don’t become a sort of zombie when you’re in a hypnotic trance.  As a smoker, the desire is to drift off somewhere very comfy and wake up with a non-smoker’s brain.  That won’t happen and I think it’s why a lot of people fail to give up their smoking habit with hypnosis.  Of course, it has its success stories so if it works for you then do it!

Joining The Dots: The Answer Appears…

Eventually, the Holy Grail did show up.  It came from joining two dots in my head.

Dot 1: Emotionally, like all smokers, I seem to enjoy smoking.

Dot 2: Logically, also like all smokers, I know it’s dangerous and stupid.

So there’s a battle going on between emotion and logic, and emotion always wins.  If only there was a way to get emotion to agree with logic!  If I could feel better about not smoking than I did about smoking, then I’d have it cracked!

And that’s what NLP teaches – how to change the way you feel about things – almost instantly!

From there, it was a matter of the pieces falling into place.  It took a few years to “fine tune” of course, but eventually “Smoking Is History” took shape and is now a 2 hour video course.

And yes, I did quit – easily – one November Monday back in 1993.  And no, I’ve never wanted one since.

You can read about “Smoking Is History” – and what other people have said about how it helped them, (over 4,000 ex smokers so far – I’m proud of that) by clicking here…

 

 

Tags: nicotine addiction, quit smoking, stop smoking, ways to quit smoking cigarettes Category Ways to quit smoking cigarettes information |

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3 Astonishing Truths About Common Ways To Quit Smoking

2012
02.02

Here Are 3 Astonishing Truths About Common Ways To Quit Smoking

home truths about some ways to quit smoking

The dilemma you face as a smoker is that you want to quit but you want to keep smoking too.  How many times have you howled, “If only I could keep smoking without all the risks”?  The following truths about some common methods for  quitting smoking should help you discover the truth – and what to do about it.

Truth 1. Setting a quitting date isn’t wise.  One of the top tips for quitting smoking you’ll see everywhere is the idea that you should set a date when you will quit.  Even the UK’s National Health Service recommends it – so that’s government approved advice!  There is a downside, however, that is hardly ever acknowledged: it makes you dread that date.

If you were going on holiday you would understandably not only set the date, but get increasingly excited as the day drew closer.  But quitting smoking isn’t something you’ll be looking forward to; otherwise you’d do it today.  Why wait?

So whilst there does have to be a line in the sand, as it were, after having once crossed it, you will no longer smoke, psyching yourself up in this way can make it harder.  After all, you’re inclined to feel that smoking relieves anxiety, so why make yourself feel more anxious?  You’ll only want another cigarette?  Added to which, you think that on that day – and forever after – you’ll be depriving yourself of a pleasure.  No wonder you find it hard!

What should you do instead?

Decide on your preferred method of quitting and just do it!  If you were on a diving board, you wouldn’t stand there for days deciding whether you were going to do breast stroke or crawl once you hit the water, would you?  You’d have decided that beforehand and then you’d simply dive in and start swimming.

Also, focus on the positives.  Instead of making “movies of misery” in your head, anticipating how deprived you’ll feel, you can luxuriate in the sense of pride, the relief of not having to sneak out or stand around in all weathers, and the clean feeling you’ll have of not being socially outcast any more.  Smoking really creates more problems than it could ever solve!  And the truth is, it’s solved none of them over the years!  After all, if it really could relieve stress why does the thought of continuing to smoke seem so stressful that you’ve set that date at all?  It’s a paradox and no mistake!

Truth 2.  Withdrawal is recovery in disguise.  Of all the tips for quitting smoking you’ll find sprinkled throughout the millions of words written about how to stop smoking, you’re unlikely to find this one.  But it’s true; nonetheless, that your body is simply trying to eliminate all the poisons you’ve inhaled.  As the nicotine leaves you’ll experience that little tense feeling of “wanting a cigarette.”

Now, if you were healing from any other kind of disease, (addiction can be classified that way), you’d accept the odd twinge as part of the recovery process.  The truth is nicotine withdrawal doesn’t hurt as such; it’s just mildly uncomfortable. By viewing those little exits of nicotine as part of your healing process, and realizing they’ll soon stop as your body recovers, you will find nicotine withdrawal simple to deal with

Truth 3. Smoking isn’t sociable.  It’s just that fellow addicts can’t see their way out of the hole they’re in so they’ll offer you cigarettes in the hope you’ll get back in with them.  Forcing more poison into your system isn’t sociable and the reality is that if you do accept a cigarette off someone who knows you’ve quit, you’ll feel bad and they’ll feel guilty – so there are no winners.  Far better to join them for a chat and tell them how good it feels to be free of the addiction – then leave it at that.  If and when they’re ready they’ll find their own way to quit smoking.  If they ask you for help, well that’s different of course.  But many smokers think they’re trapped forever, tragically.  You can’t help them out, any more than you would have let them help you when you felt trapped – so don’t try.  Change the subject and be their friend.  Friendship is one thing; smoking is another.  There is no requirement on friends to smoke with each other – so don’t allow the “sociable” tag to be your excuse or your downfall!

Tags: ways to quit smoking cigarettes Category Ways to quit smoking cigarettes information |

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Welcome to Ways To Quit Smoking Cigarettes dot net

2012
01.29

Ways to Quit Smoking Cigarettes – Good Ol’ Cold Turkey!

ways to quit smoking cigarettes

 

 

 

Somebody is going to keep thinking up ways to quit smoking cigarettes as long as people keep smokin’ em, that’s for sure.  Because as long as there are smokers, people will always say they wish they could give up, quit, or that they’d never started.  Many will try the double-edged sword of compromise by cutting down – believing that smoking less is not doing them quite as much harm as before.  Sadly, the cutting down rarely lasts and probably isn’t that much help to the body’s recovery – or the wallet’s for that matter!

One of the Most Common Ways To Quit Smoking Cigarettes Is …

The way to quit smoking most commonly tried is, of course, cold turkey.  What this really means is using your will power.  If the attempt to quit smoking fails, (which it frequently does), then the poor smoker not only feels terrible because they’ve failed but also because they’ve gone right back to smoking again.

Of course, they rationalise it, saying they enjoy it.  But how can you enjoy something you wish you didn’t do or had never started?  Can you imagine anyone saying, “I wish I’d never started gardening!”  Or fishing, or falling in love.  You can fill in the blank.

The fact is, smoking is an addiction – legalised and frowned upon socially perhaps – but it’s addiction by any other name.  That’s significantly different from a “habit”, examples of which may be the route you take to work or the way you get dressed in the mornings.  If your customary route is blocked one day you’d find another one without screaming at the walls that you must go your way!  Or if your socks were in a new drawer and you went looking in the old one, you’d instantly forgive yourself for your minor error.  Who cares?  Habits, except for unfortunate folk with some forms of Asperger’s syndrome or OCD, are for the rest of us, easy to break.

Smoking isn’t a habit and so cold turkey won’t work.  Trying to apply willpower to an addiction is like wishing the river would turn around and run up hill.  It isn’t going to happen.

What about those who do manage to quit smoking cigarettes with their mighty willpower?  You’ll find the vast majority will still say they miss smoking and wish they could do it.  A health scare, or perhaps the fear they wouldn’t see their children grow up will often have caused the turnaround and it is this repeated thought pattern that has kept them on the straight and narrow.

To my mind, however, a truly successful way to quit smoking cigarettes would not leave the poor addict craving for life.

As an ex smoker myself, (I smoked for 22 years), I tried many ways to quit smoking cigarettes as you might imagine.  Cold turkey left me … well … cold.

Tags: benefits of quitting smoking, quit smoking, stop smoking, ways to quit smoking cigarettes Category Ways to quit smoking cigarettes information |