Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 1.
Being a smoker is like
cycling with stabilizers attached to the wheels, you can find it hard to
be balanced without smoking. Now, when you cycle freely again, the natural
balance returns.
When people smoke, more than half of what they
breathe is fresh air - pulled through the cigarette right down into the
lungs. So if you feel any cravings you can instantly overcome them by
taking three deeper breaths. Imagine breathing from that space just below
your belly button. Whenever you do this you put more oxygen into your
bloodstream. This means you can use deep breaths to change the way you
feel instantly and give you power over the way you feel and help you let
go of those old cravings and thus making it easier to stop
smoking.
Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 2
Next, think now of all
the reasons you don't like smoking, the reasons that it's bad and the
reasons you want to stop smoking. Write down the key words on a piece of
paper. For example, you experience breathlessness, it's dirty, filthy and
your clothes smell, your friends and family are concerned and it's
expensive, unsociable and so on. Then, on the other side of the paper,
write down all the reasons why you'll feel good when you've succeeded in
stopping. You'll feel healthier, you’ll feel in control of your self, your
senses are enhanced, your hair and clothes will smell fresher and so on.
Whenever you need to, look at that piece of paper.
Powerful Stop
Smoking Hint 3
Next, we are going to programme your mind to feel
disgusted by cigarettes. I want you recall 4 times when you thought to
yourself "I've gotta quit", or that you felt disgusted about smoking.
Maybe you just felt really unhealthy, or your doctor told you in a
particular tone of voice 'You've got to quit' or somebody you know was
badly affected by smoking. Take a moment now to come up with 4 different
times that you felt that you have to quit or were disgusted by
smoking.
Remember each of those times, one after another, as though
they are happening now. I want you to keep going through those memories
and make them as vivid as possible. The more vivid you make those
memories, the easier it will be to stop smoking. See what you saw, hear
what you heard and feel how you felt. I want you to take a few minutes now
to keep going through those memories again and again, overlap each memory
with the next until you are totally and utterly disgusted by
cigarettes.
Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 4
Have a think to
yourself about the consequences of you not stopping smoking now, if you
just carry on and on. Imagine it, what will happen if you carry on
smoking. What are the consequences? Imagine yourself in 6 months time, a
years time, even 5 years time if you do not stop smoking now. Think of all
the detrimental effects of not stopping right now and how a simple
decision you make today can make such an impact on your
future.
Next, imagine how much better is your life going to be when
you stop smoking. Really imagine it's months from now and you successfully
stopped. Smoking is a thing of the past, something you used to do. Keep
that feeling with you and imagine having it tomorrow, and for the rest of
next week. In your mind, imagine stepping in to that non-smoking version
of you and feel how it feels to be a non-smoker.
Powerful Stop
Smoking Hint 5
Also, your mind is very sensitive to associations,
so it's very important that you have a clear out and remove all tobacco
products from your environment. Move some of the furniture in your house
and at work. Smokers are accustomed to smoking in certain situations. So,
for example, if you used to smoke on the telephone at work move the phone
to the other side of the desk. Throw away ashtrays, old lighters and
anything that you used to associate with smoking. Make your environment
conducive to stopping smoking.
Powerful Stop Smoking Hint
6
Smokers sometimes use their habit to give themselves little
breaks during the day. Taking a break is good for you, so carry on taking
that time off - but do something different. Walk round the block, have a
cup of tea or drink of water, or do some of the techniques on this
programme. In fact, if possible drink a lot of fruit juice. When you stop
smoking the body goes through a big change. The blood sugar levels tend to
fall, the digestion is slowed down and your body starts to eject the tar
and poisons that have accumulated. Fresh fruit juice contains fructose
which restores your blood sugar levels, vitamin C which helps clear out
impurities and high levels of water and fibre to keep your digestion
going. Also try to eat fruit every day for at least two weeks after you
have stopped.
Also when you stop, cut your caffeine intake by half.
Nicotine breaks down caffeine so without nicotine a little coffee will
have a big effect. Drink 8-10 glasses of water (ideally bottled) to help
wash out your system.
Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 7
You were
used to using cigarettes to signal to your body to release happy
chemicals, so next we are going to program some good feelings into your
future. Allow yourself to fully remember now a time when you felt very
deep ecstasy, pleasure or bliss, right now. Take a moment to recall it as
vividly as possible. Remember that time - see what you saw, hear what you
heard and feel how good you felt. Where abouts in your body were those
feelings, imagine turning them up and spreading them through your body to
make them more intense.
Keep going through the memory, as soon as
it finishes, go through it again and again, all the time squeezing your
thumb and finger together. In your mind, make those images big and bright,
sounds loud and harmonious and feelings B and intensified. We are
making an associational link between the squeeze of your fingers and that
good feeling.
Okay, stop and relax. Now if you have done that
correctly when you squeeze your thumb and finger together you should feel
that good feeling again. Go ahead do that now, squeeze thumb and finger
and remember that good feeling.
Now we're going to programme good
feelings to happen automatically whenever you are in a situation where you
used to smoke but now you stop smoking.
So, next I'd like you to
squeeze your thumb and finger together, get that good feeling going and
now imagine being in several situations where you would have smoked, but
being there feeling great without a cigarette. See what you'll see hear
and take that good feeling into those situations without a need for a
cigarette.
Imagine being in a situation where someone offers you a
cigarette and you confidently say 'No thanks, I don't smoke'. And feel
fantastic about it!
Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 8
Get social
support. Your commitment to stopping smoking for the rest of your life can
be made much easier by talking about it to friends and family and letting
them support you. They will congratulate you on doing so well too! You
really did stop smoking.
Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 9
Be
aware of making excuses for yourself. Some people talk themselves into
smoking, especially if they encounter a stressful situation and in the
past they used to deal with it by smoking. If those old thoughts pop into
your head, shout the word “STOP” in your head, to stop the thoughts from
progressing. Nicotine just stresses your body more and is like that itch
that can never be properly scratched; the more you smoke, the more you
have to. So say “STOP” and steer clear of old slippery
slopes.
Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 10
Reward yourself.
Congratulate yourself. Feel how good it feels to stop smoking and be a
non-smoker. Treat yourself each time you get past a certain milestone; the
first week or first month, the six month target. Let yourself know that
you did something really special here.
Keep on using your brain,
stretching it and helping your self, by running through these exercises
time after time; you are sure to be able to make it easier and easier and
successfully stop smoking for good.
