If you are in the process of quitting nicotine consider this- follow carefully–

• One- what you think,
• Two- your physical reactions and
• Three- your feelings.

And number FOUR- Your Actions. You control what you actually do. What you act on. You can do a thing or
you can literally stop yourself from doing it as in:

• take the donuts out of the cabinet and drop them in the dumpster ,
• walk out of the bar,
• stop yelling,
• turn the TV off,
• slow the car down,
• put the clothes back and walk out of the store,
• cut your credit card up,
• abruptly stop arguing with yourself and walk two miles,
• pour the cola down the drain and drink a glass of water.

Ironically, action greatly influences the other three–

• thinking,
• feelings
• and physical reaction.

That is exactly and I mean exactly how to stop smoking.

Trust this. There is no greater secret.

Part Two

Now for some behind the scenes information.

This blog post is all you will ever need to quit smoking.

• It is the one biggest secret.
• It is worth a million dollars, if you can put a dollar amount on it.

But, up to this point, it is not long enough and involved and detailed enough to make most people happy.

That includes Google. The site ranking crawlers like to see a 250 word post. That way they can perceive it as substantial.

As serious and grown up, whatever that means. That is silly. But those are the guidelines most bloggers play by. So let me flesh this out a little  even though the answer to quitting smoking nicotine is contained in the first part.

Extensive research has been done on this subject. The finding? It all boils down to your actions.

No matter how you feel, or think. No matter what influences bombard you, everything comes down to your actions.

After action the amazing thing is that

• your feelings will follow.
• Your thinking will change.
• All because of action.

Have you ever wanted to stay up late knowing you had an early appointment. You knew you should go to bed and get the rest needed to arrive fresh and on time for your appointment. And you have , no doubt, learned the consequences many times. That’s why your better judgment tells you to get some rest. In a case like that there are times when you accidently fall asleep and are so thankful you did.

Other times you get involved in a late night TV show, movie, or book and stay up half the night knowing you will be worthless the next day. So what’s going on? Oh, some psychology and a little stubborn streak maybe but, guess what? It doesn’t matter . All that matters is your action. Go to sleep. Get in bed and rest.

This is often too simple to be taken seriously. Before I was able to stop smoking I spent years playing with the idea. Feeling, thinking, pondering, reading books on the subject and such. That has the potential to ruin your life.

On the day I stopped smoking I still had

• the questions,
• the anxiety,
• the dread
• and the hopeless feeling.

The difference that day? Action. Trust it and you can stop smoking right this minute. I promise this is the big secret.

It is worth a million dollars. It can save your life. And you learned free right here. Don’t discount it just because it is free.

The secret to quitting nicotine? Action.

Don’t try to pretend it doesn’t hurt to stop smoking nicotine or that you don’t want to smoke. It does  hurt and you do want to smoke.

That’s what we have to deal with. Get clear on this.

It does hurt and you do want a cigarette. But that is not the problem anymore.

You have decided not to smoke. Period. So you now have a new problem to manage.

The pain and the attraction toward smoking. That’ s what you have to deal with and there are some excellent ways to do it. Think of it like this. You are about to fall from a high roof and you wince at the thought of possibly breaking a leg. A broken leg hurts. But once it’ s broken, whether or not it will break is of no concern. It’ s broken.

Now you have to manage the fact that it is broken. The pain, the care and how you are going to get around, become the things to manage.

Same with smoking. Once you have decided to quit on a specific day, that’ s it. The decision is made. You are now going to deal with the new challenges that come with that decision. Anxiety, pain, emotions, cravings , the whole list that appears. You must become aware of these challenges and deal with them all, and remember you are not allowed to deal with them by smoking. That must be absolutely settled and I mean absolutely. That door is welded shut and bricked over.

Decades ago the Japanese beetle was a threat to American trees and crops. There was a flurry of high level agricultural meetings on how to stop this threat. Finally, the decision was made. There’s no way to stop the influx of beetles. So, the new, more realistic problem became how to cope with it successfully. That’ s what you are doing. You are now coping with the aftermath of being smoke free. This is something you will do for the rest of your life and it becomes second nature. Actually it becomes first nature—to play with words here. It is reflexive or, first nature, NOT to smoke and second or third nature to smoke.

When a quit smoking facilitator told me to suck on hard candy to calm the urge to smoke I wanted to slap her across the room. What an idiot to think that a piece of candy could do that. It cannot. But it can make a slight dent in the oral fixation . I eventually realized it does help some. Every slight blip on the radar helps, so use them all. The goal is to stop smoking. Not to be a little angel in every aspect of your life.

You are actually saving a life here! Don’t lose sight of that in a moment of slight discomfort or even great discomfort. You are saving your own life! Look into local massage services to help relieve tensions.

• Meditate,
• use a straw or gum,
• take two to ten walks a day,
• drink water,
• have coffee,
• go to a movie.

Do any of these things that are not triggers to smoke. Recognize that you are out of your comfort zone and give yourself a break.

It hurts to stop smoking nicotine.

Something is trying to tell you there’ s an imbalance so, ultimately that’s a great thing. Something is not in its usual balance. It’s why spoiled food smells awful as a warning not to eat it.

In this case, feeling off kilter means your systems are working just fine. Keep moving ahead. Recognize that you do want to smoke. But, you have made the quality decision to be free and that will take paying this price. Very small in comparison. You are saving a life with this bit of confusion. One more bit of mind trickery: What if you get hit by a bus tomorrow and this was all for nothing? That won’ t happen but if it did you would have lived your last day with a higher quality of life. Congratulations. You can stop smoking nicotine.

Here is more information about quitting smoking from Healthline.com

What is hypnosis and can it really help with smoking cessation or a drug habit  like nicotine?
The act of focusing your attention on an activity ( smoking or not) is simple hypnosis.

The mind is in a flow state and you are influenced by the incoming stimuli.
I have heard hypnosis compared to being in the groove, a steady flow .
Yes, the process works. You already do it daily when drifting off to sleep, waking up, in some flow states of working , listening to music and eating.

To do those things with a directed purpose is hypnosis.
Our culture supports smoking in a hypnotic way. It is an everyday thing. We walk past people who are on a smoke break. We see cigarettes for sale in stores, we are used to the sights and smells of smoking. The everyday moments accumulate into a hypnotic drone of normalcy.
But it is dysfunctional to abuse yourself by administering a poison to your system day in and day out. There are parts of our culture that are so messed up that even this post is mocked and even considered ‘church lady’ .

The only way you could force yourself to do something so self abusive would be through a hypnotic influence.
The daily seepage of information into your conscious and subconscious is certainly not clinical hypnosis but the process is similar— expand or contract a persons boundaries until they change either for better or worse.

Use self hypnosis to influence your behavior in a positive way.
There is plenty of good information on self hypnosis in bookstores and on the web. You could benefit from it to stop smoking nicotine and to come to terms with other areas of your life.

I don’t expect a simple admonition to frustrate you into quitting. It helps to underline the rationale—
Wake up from the smoking trance. This culture has tricked you into hurting yourself. Snap out of it.Quitsmart — Everything You Need to Break Free from Cigarettes

What do you do when the novelty of quitting nicotine has worn off?

It can actually give you a surge of energy to plan to quit, psych yourself up, then take that bold step. “Hey, look at me, I did it?”
But, now come the days or months when the initial boost of committment is waning and you begin to feel a sense of lethargy toward the whole idea of quitting.

First of all, that’s what this blog is all about! It is here to bridge that very gap.
Second, this time is probably the most important of all during the process. Why? Because it’s when the process gets momentum. This is where you get to put your best foot forward and keep the faith even though you may not feel it.

Funny thing, it won’t feel like your best, it will just feel kind of room temperature or even down. Expect to be confused. What can you depend on when you’re confused? Keep reading…

This is when you get to relax and settle in to the routine of being your most natural self without cigarettes.
Those first few days or weeks of telling others you’re quitting, going through a few rituals, maybe buying something new as a help or encouragment, are now behind you.

It is likely you will start to feel some strong pulls back toward your old smoking , nicotine addicted self.
So the big send off is over… now you’re on the train in unfamiliar territory around unfamiliar people. All you want is to get your bearrings and to do that, you are tempted to smoke. That would get you feeling ‘back to normal.’

Let me remind you that your normal self is the one who does not smoke.  This will always be an absolute fact. There are very few absolutes in life. This is one. It is completely abnormal to smoke.

Do not buy in to the idea that you will get back to a safe comfort zone if you could just have one or two cigarettes.
This is your journey back to normal and the feelings you are having are perfect. It will be this way for a while.
If there was not a price, it would be worthless. Stay with it.

NOTE: This series is for the advanced reader. These posts are earmarked for removal but remain here temporarily.

Even when you do not have advance notice on stressors you can know the answer when the smoking question comes up. It goes like this. ”  hey there’ s a store up here on the right and I’ ve got time. I could stop and get a pack of cigarettes and smoke just one or two to remember what it’s like. I know I won’ t like it and so I’ll prove to myself that I don’ t really want it.” That’ s dirty wrestling.
So what’ s your counter attack? Here’s a suggestion. ” Yes, there is a store up here on the right and I’ve got time and one cigarette would be just amazing right now. I can already feel the relaxation going through my body as I take that first couple of drags.
But I have decided that the rest of my life is too important to waste on a few fleeting moments of chemical addiction.
Those smoking moments will be gone so quickly then I will be burdened with having to re-commit making it harder the next time I have this little scuffle with myself. So what I am going to do is drive past this store and grieve the loss of that habit. Yes, grieve it because it hurts to let it go.
I know that this moment is the only moment I have to work with and my choice is to honor it with my freedom from smoking. I know it will get easier as I build strength in these decisions and the only way that strength will accumulate is through making it real over and over.
This moment is the one I choose to make it real. It hurts. I am making this decision anyway because it is definitely worth the hurt. There is a lot at stake here. As I do this I know it will hurt less and less over time. This is the best decision.”

That was an example of wrestling with the present moment.

Alone-ness
You are alone in this. What I write here can be a support to you but in the end, you are looking out into a vast empty stark, cold landscape and you are facing it with a resolve that you will be alone and do it anyway. This is what writers call the winter of your life .
Even if you are doing this process from a beach house in the summer, it is winter deep down in you and it must be. You might ask.”  Why so gloomy? Does this have to be so dark and awful?”  Here’ s the answer. It can be much easier if you go ahead and recognize that this gulf you feel is real and must be worked through. Grief is extraordinarily strong. It can reach down into parts of your psyche you didn’ t know you had. It can pull up feelings that will scare you and leave you wondering if you are crazy. That’ s all a part of this. Remember, most people who try to do this do not make it. This is your chance to actually make it.
The ego is a major trickster and will stop at nothing to trip you up. Just take a breath and keep going. Take another breath. The act of breathing on purpose seems so stupidly simple yet it carries with it a power the wisdom traditions still have not figured out.
Just breathe and be aware of your breath. Think of each breath as a present moment. Each one, you are free from smoking. Each one, you are taking a higher road. The part of you that knows how simple, yet profound this moment is.

Do not look for any bells and whistles. Nothing big will happen. If you are determined to have some big major breakthrough, forget it.
Just go back to simple breathing. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Count four breaths in and four out–equal pace. Nothing dramatic.
Ask yourself why you want some big dramatic breakthrough. A release that will suddenly free you from addiction and numb you to the confused feelings. Some other worldly experience to write home about it?
Let me suggest that’ s the ego wanting to engage you in a give and take. Like a hostage negotiator, it will try to engage you in a back and forth debate. Don’ t fall in the trap.

Just breathe and keep moving forward one simple moment at a time. Nothing glamorous, not even close.
More caution. If you find yourself doing a lot of self soothing, like taking bubble baths and enjoying chocolate as a way to baby yourself, be aware that it could be a ploy by ego to lull you into a sense of entitlement.
Just stay calm, relaxed and level headed. Any extreme could lead to your falling off the path.Quitsmart — Everything You Need to Break Free from Cigarettes I highly recommend this program.

NOTE: This series is for the advanced reader. These posts are earmarked for removal but remain here temporarily.

A year or two of moments is really nice. A few days are excellent too. But twenty years is the same as twenty minutes. It is the single moment that counts. As you will see, I mean that.

How do you measure a moment? For this project, think of a moment as a second.  The time it takes to snap a photo, blink or clap your hands once. That is the moment you have to deal with. That’s what will accumulate into thousands of moments and make years and become the rest of your life. You only have to quit smoking for a moment. Then another.
Yes, this is a trick. It’ s a good one and it works. So in each moment you can choose to smoke or to be free of smoking. That becomes the wrestling match between you and ego. Every single time you win the match you are empowered tremendously.
So it’ s not about quitting smoking. That’ s a byproduct of this process. The real juice of this whole “wrestling with the moment”  thing is in the moment of choice. When you are exhausted of the fight  you will make a decision for or against smoking. That decision will greatly impact all the future moments.

Real motivation is the process of changing perspectives, the moving of boundaries. Nobody can motivate you until they help you change perspectives.
That change could be in many forms. A friend of mine was walking along the sidewalk when a car came off the road and suddenly onto the sidewalk! My friend was motivated to get out of the way. That was a real change of boundaries.
A positive motivator influences you to take limits off yourself and change your own boundaries. You can stop smoking. When you change your own self-made boundaries you can be free of smoking.
When you decide that nothing is as important as quitting smoking, it will happen. Sounds kind of extreme but if you will hold on to that idea it will help.
Without a statement that strong your boundaries might be too flexible.
Decide.
In the present moment I will always say an absolute  no to the idea or act of smoking. Make your mind up. Then, when you start to tease yourself with the un-quality choice of  just one or well, “I’ ll quit tomorrow” , you will know you have started to wrestle.
It often feels good to get a good argument going in your mind. The ego loves it because it’s the ego’ s best chance to survive. That’s really all it wants–to survive. So it knows that to establish an argument is like cracking the door open. It’s like rattling a leash for the dog. Here it comes, bounding around the corners so fast it slides on the hardwood floors.

That trusty ego just panting and wagging its tail in delight. Ego will use any foothold it can get to start something, anything to get an argument going. After you have played this game awhile you will recognize ego quickly.
It likes constant music, video games, surfing the net, problems, emotion, yelling at a football play on TV, crying, being a victim, driving fast, over eating, over drinking, and, of course, smoking and even making a case for smoking.

 Sincerely Feeling vulnerable in the present moment. This is part of what wrestling is about. It is emotionally painful to know you are doing your best and still feel empty and alone. You really want to do something that helps pick your spirits up. In the old days you would smoke. That is not healthy.
So, today you are going to do something healthy as a pick-me-up. Why are you going to do anything at all? Because you really feel empty and this wrestling is becoming serious and not fun anymore and is getting troublesome. That’ s good! That’s ego again. Yep.
Remember it will do anything to get its way. It is the most spoiled brat you can imagine. It is also the most cunning, clever, cute, lovey dovey, story telling, charming manipulator on earth. It will try and try and try.

In the middle of the night, on the way to work, when you least expect it and even when you are on guard. That’s what must happen. To get good at wrestling you have to be on guard. Not nervous, just prepared.
Mentally go through your day before it happens. You know which of your coworkers will be smoking on break. You know how to avoid that situation all together. But will you? Ah! That’ s wrestling the present moment. You know what stress situations you will be in. Traffic, meetings, kids, school, relationships. You know the triggers. Coffee, telephone, driving, after a meal, almost all predictable..Quitsmart — Everything You Need to Break Free from Cigarettes  ( See part 3 of this series )

NOTE: This series is for the advanced reader. These posts are earmarked for removal but remain here temporarily.

Wrestling with the present moment is all you ever have to do to quit smoking. Of course you have to win the wrestling match.
Here’s one way to win.
Right now, get a feel for this present moment. Breathe in and be aware of the moment. That’ s all. It’ s no big deal, just breathe in and out and be aware that this is a present moment. That is what it all comes down to. It is so simple but that does not mean easy.
Think of “You”  and ” your ego”  as two separate things. Your ego wants to smoke. ” You” do not. Your ego will do anything to get back to smoking. Anything. “You”  are aware of all this. The wrestling goes on between ” You”  and “your ego” . ” You”  have never been a smoker. Ego is always up for anything to keep it busy, occupied, tapping, humming, or…smoking.
Here are some examples so you can get a feel for the difference between ” You”  and “ego”. Note: I am not using the clinical definition of ego, this is a generalization.

When you always have to have music in the car, that’s probably ego.
When you’re calmly looking out over the ocean, that’s ” You”. When “You”  are aware and observant that “ego”  likes music in the car, that can be a good balance.
When you eat even if you’re not hungry- “ego”.
When you are drifting off to sleep, ” You”.

The ego can get so out of control that it will make ridiculous choices. Stupid is not a strong enough word. Imbecile. Idiot. Arrogant and downright dumb. Have you seen the  drug rehab TV show ‘Intervention’?  The show is usually dealing with an aspect of a personality that is ego driven.
Let’s define something before we get too far into this ’”ego” jungle.

Ego is needed in all walks of life. It is a very important part of the personality that helps you navigate the world. Ego is just fine and is not to be treated as bad. But that doesn’t let it off the hook.
The controlling self or, Ego is still the part of you that wants to smoke. It will go to extraordinary lengths to get what it wants. And it will become an imposter using the voice of ” You”.  But make no mistake, it is not “You”. It must be tamed and used in a positive way.

Have you ever heard of one of those pathetic news stories where animal control officials have to go to a house and deal with about 90 cats? There are cats on all the furniture, bathrooms, walking over bookcases, on the kitchen counters and just all over the house. That’ s exactly what happens when the ego gets out of control. The cats need what nobody is providing: limits and boundaries.

Here’s a quick tip. The ego will tell you that it will be fine to smoke just one or two a day. “You can get this thing under control and keep it manageable”,  it whispers, using ”Your”  voice.
That’ s crap. It won’t work. You have to learn to recognize that kind of manipulative ego trick. To quit smoking it must be 100%. Ego will try for every kind of variation on 100% until it learns there are absolutely none.
So, how do ” You” effectively wrestle with ” ego ”?  This blog is dedicated to all the smart, creative things you can do to make the process much easier. It works. I have actually done it. I have used my awareness every single day for over 20 years and have not smoked or, as some others like to say, I have been free of smoking.
I have coached many others in these exercises but I will not use the testimony of others because this process is very personal. One can praise the program today and go back to smoking the next. It is up to each person every day. There will never be a day when you have made it.  Completing this is done each moment, literally. Quitsmart — Everything You Need to Break Free from Cigarettes You can only accumulate moments and be thankful for each one. (continued , Exactly How to Stop Smoking Nicotine Part 2)