Just wondering..I want to quit smoking! Blessings, Jai

asked 23 Dec '09, 07:56

Jaianniah's gravatar image

Jaianniah
37.8k13105607

edited 26 Dec '09, 08:41

Your answers, and my own desire, helped me stop smoking! Read how I did it below. Thank you so much! Jai

(26 Dec '09, 08:39) Jaianniah

You might want to try something that Anthony Robbins calls the Swish Pattern.

To begin, find a place that's quiet and contemplative, where you can spend a few minutes visualizing.

First, imagine yourself with the bad habit, in every detail. What kind of person are you with the bad habit? What effect does the bad habit have on your life? How does that make you feel? Now imagine the kind of person that you will be with the bad habit, five years from now, in every detail. How does that make you feel?

OK, set that image aside for a moment, and now imagine yourself without the bad habit. What kind of person are you now? What kind of person are you in five years? Imagine these things in every detail. How does that make you feel?

Now take the first image of yourself with the bad habit, and mentally put it in a slingshot. Point the slingshot towards your chest. Now pull the slingshot away from you, until the image of yourself with the bad habits is far away, the size of a postage stamp.

Release the slingshot, allowing the image to begin moving towards you at very high speed. As the image moves towards you and gets larger, mentally change the image of yourself with the bad habit to the image of yoursef without the bad habit. Let the image of yourself without the habit continue to increase in size until it slams to a stop just in front of you. As it slams to a stop, say "SWISH!" out loud. (or WHISH, or WHOOSH, or even SLAM!, if you're dramatically inclined).

Repeat the process a few times, as quickly as possible. Be as dramatic and vivid with the imagery as possible. Repeat it, until you feel an effect. Usually, you shouldn't have to repeat the process more than a few times to feel the technique sink in.

Why does this work? Because habits are unconscious. If you perform this process correctly, you will discover that you have now become sensitized to the behavior associated with the habit. You will now notice when you are beginning the pattern of behavior that constitutes the habit. This gives you the power of choice; now that you are consciously aware of reaching for the behavior, you can choose, in that moment, to do something else other than the bad behavior, something more empowering.

Anthony Robbins claims that he eliminated a lifetime of fingernail biting using two sessions of this technique.

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answered 23 Dec '09, 19:16

Vesuvius's gravatar image

Vesuvius
32.7k851201

edited 04 May '10, 15:33

I quit smoking! I used your technique + a nine-page list of affirmations read twice daily+ a pro-con list (21 reasons to quit- 7 reasons not to quit...)+ prayer+ an absolute refusal to buy another pack of cigarettes+ a straw to chew on...Thank you! Jai

(29 Dec '09, 07:01) Jaianniah

Well, I've been gradually developing a theory about habits over the past year or two. You'll find my idea in this answer about the Fibonacci series.

In that example, I've shown how I went from rarely cycling to cycling 10 miles a day everyday (weather permitting).

The same principle applies to breaking bad habits, according to the theory presented.

So for any bad habit you want to break...

  • Day 1 will be difficult to stop doing it
  • Day 2 will be difficult to stop doing it, but maybe slightly less so.
  • Day 3 will be difficult to stop doing it, but slightly less so than day 2.
  • Now there's a breakthrough and you will now coast a bit to day 5
  • If you can make to day 8, it becomes even easier not to do it
  • Now you've got another week to day 13 before it becomes even easier
  • By day 21, you've almost broken it completely
  • If you can make it to day 34, I suspect it's gone for life

So, based upon this, if you want to break a bad habit fast, set yourself the goal of not doing it for just three days.

And then you should find it becomes alot easier to continue not to do it.

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answered 23 Dec '09, 19:16

Stingray's gravatar image

Stingray
93.6k22130369

I know this post is old, but I find your answer very accurate. I have experienced this happening to me being anaware of that. Now, how comes that the Fibonacci series has to do with breaking a bad habit? I was just wondering...

(21 May '10, 14:30) BridgetJones09
1

The magic number Phi (or The Golden Ratio), of which the Fibonacci series is a disguised descendent, lies at the heart of almost everything in life. If you search for it on the internet, I'll think you'll be surprised.

(21 May '10, 16:09) Stingray

To replace a bad habit you must mentally think and want to change it. Once you have decide that you really want to change it than you have to retrain your brain to do somthing else in place of it.

I use to speak negative things of what was happening to me all of the times. So, finally I stop and now I speak postive things about my self about my own reality about life. In time it is happening people are seeing and telling me what I was speaking. Everytime I catch myself forgeting to think and speak postively everyday than I do and I also speak graditude to God for all the good that is happen in my life. I might be hungry but I will say I am full and I have box full of food. I say my skin is smooth and healthy and than it becomes that way.

So we manifest what we think and speak so we have to be careful what we think and speak while we are not paying attention and in a kind of idle laid back way.

Also it feels so good to keep other people lifted up and make them feel good about them selves even if they are strangers give them a compliment about something if it is only you have a lovely or beautiful smile or beautiful white teeth.

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answered 24 Dec '09, 06:03

flowingwater's gravatar image

flowingwater
7.1k63197

Loved your anwser.

(26 Dec '09, 16:10) Asklepios

Glad you did Asklepios and thank you for your lovely comment. You see your comment lifted me into a higher vibrational frequency and we can do this everyday to others along the way as we meet them in our daily lives at home, work, in the grocery store, gym, or wherever. Thanks and have a lovely and happy day Asklepios sorry I have been out for a while I am just now reading this.

(11 Jan '10, 02:14) flowingwater

I asked this question because of a series of events:

I started working on Inward Quest about a month ago.

I learned about manifesting...and changing your thoughts...and that your thoughts create your reality;

My spiritual energy, or "vibrations", began to rise;

I became slowly aware that if I was creating my reality with my thoughts, then I was also continuing with my bad habits because of my thinking:

I made a list of affirmations, and started reading them aloud each day, twice a day;

On that list, I stated that I was going to be a healthier, happier person;

The affirmations worked on my subconscious, which raised my vibrations even more;

All of a sudden, I began to detest the fact that I smoked, and realized that I no longer needed to smoke to get the "feeling" of more energy...I was actually experiencing the rise and fall of my own natural spiritual energy, and that when it went up, it was much more satisfying to me than having a cigarette;

So, I prayed that God remove my desire to smoke.

I found myself making two lists: one list was reasons why I wanted to discontinue smoking, and the other was why I wanted to continue smoking. (I felt that I should acknowledge the fact that some part of me wanted to continue smoking, but not all of me did);

I had twenty-one reasons why I wanted to quit smoking, and only seven reasons why I wanted to keep smoking....

All of a sudden, something a friend shared with me hit me: High energy always trumps low energy! I could feel the change inside of me. The high spiritual energy was pure and clean, whilst the energy from nicotine was false and actually lowered my spiritual energy!

Without any fuss or problem, when I ran out of cigarettes, I just refused to buy more.

The intent had already been set in the past, and the energy to quit was in place from my affirmations. I had some nicotine patches on hand, and slapped one on my arm to quiet the severe cravings...I kept my hands busy , and when I felt a big desire to smoke, I drank a lot of water and made myself a cup of coffee, which I am not addicted to...this helped a lot.

I posted my list of twenty-one reasons right next to my bed where I would see them, and re-read these whenever I want to smoke.

It all worked together. I no longer smoke.

I should mention that I was a chain-smoker, and hadn't realized that I was smoking almost three packs of cigarettes a day!

I realize that this is a long-winded explanation of how I quit- I wrote it in the hopes that it will help other people somehow.

Thank you all for your great answers to my question- they helped me, and I took all your suggestions.

This is like a miracle to me!!!

Happy Boxing Day 2009, Jaianniah

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answered 26 Dec '09, 08:36

Jaianniah's gravatar image

Jaianniah
37.8k13105607

1

As of 12/29, I am still am smoke-free and I think I am through the worst of the withdrawal...T.Y again! Jai

(29 Dec '09, 07:04) Jaianniah

Stop smoking is easy, I used to do that about 30 times a day. It is to NO SMOKE AGAIN witch is more difficult! I stopped 3 years ago with a book " AllenCarr's Easy Way to stop smoking " It is a washing brain machine to pull out you envy to smoke. Congratulations for what you did. I am happy for you. Courage

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answered 13 Feb '10, 16:45

Le%20B%C3%A9mo's gravatar image

Le Bémo
1414

I quit smoking using an NLP technique called Hand Actuated Mental Reconditioning, which I learned from HAMR.com. I imagined getting ready for a smoke - finding my cigarettes, looking for matches, or maybe going to the store to buy one. Basically, I imagined all the little things that led up to lighting a cigarette - the craving, etc.

Then I imagined sitting on the side of a mountain enjoying a crystal-clear cool breeze, basically relaxing in nature, admiring the clean horizon. It was very peaceful.

I mixed these two images together, poured them one into the other.

Over the next three weeks, I simply became less and less interested in smoking, until I just failed to ever get around to having another cigarette. I think I had about five cigarettes after I ran out of my own, and just never got around to getting more cigarettes. That was five years ago.

Now I had quit many times in the previous 20 years. it was really hard to quit, and the cravings were terrible and sooner or later there would be a trauma in my life for which cigarettes were the only real soothing method I could get. But after doing this HAMR technique only one time, after that every time I thought of smoking, I'd mentally find myself on the mountainside, relaxing in a mountain meadow and enjoying crystal-clear turquoise air and the thought of actually inhaling smoke of any kind was very unpleasant.

Another time I was on an airplane across the Atlantic ocean and having a gigantic panic attack, contemplating my imminent death, etc. I'd developed panic disorder a decade before, and one of the first and by far the biggest phobia that I developed as a result was a fear of flying. I had dealt with this phobia extensively through therapy.

So there I was on the plane thinking "Well, so much for the therapy, I'm convinced I will die a horrible death now and this was a bad idea!" I started using EFT, tapping on whatever feeling was foremost ("I'm afraid to die!!" then "I feel so terrified!" then "When will this agony ever end!") I did this over and over again for at least an hour or two, there were so many layers of scary feelings.

Then, at one point, I tapped on the feeling "I'll never get my act together, I'm a loser" As I tapped away on this feeling, the thought changed in my head: "My mother was right, I'll never get my act together, I'm a loser"

BAM! That was the original belief, buried way down deep, that led to my whole panic disorder and phobia about flying. I remembered that a decade before I'd had my first series of panic attacks on an airplane returning to my job after secretly visiting my home town without letting my (very bossy) mother know that I would be visiting. On the trip back to my job, I knew that I would probably be getting fired, and I felt bad because I had specifically gone against what my mother had told me to do with my life and now I was going to face the consequence.

That secret, suppressed belief was underneath a decade of crazy anxiety problems and phobias. I dug it out by putting myself right into the most scary situation, and then using EFT to confront my feelings directly, in the moment, until a breakthrough came.

But wow, did that experience ever suck! :)

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answered 31 May '10, 22:01

Lishui's gravatar image

Lishui
411

In my experience there is no fast way to get rid of a bad habit. It takes replacement behavior, and that is tedious....but it works!

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answered 23 Dec '09, 16:22

LeeAnn%201's gravatar image

LeeAnn 1
17.0k1519

I agree. The bad habit needs to be replaced with a good habit.

(23 Dec '09, 22:50) shazsays

Congratulations Jai - It is such an enormous accomplishment to be able to kick the smoking habit and you are so much better for it!! I have been smoke-free for 16 years now and when I began the process of quitting I used to tell myself that I was a born non-smoker and have always been a non-smoker (of course we are all born non-smokers!!) but that belief became my mantra and made it so much easier for me to say no whenever the desire for a cigarette presented itself...When I quit I would still dream of smoking and upon waking would feel horrified that I might have lit up without knowing it - but much to my relief it was just a dream and I am still enjoying my non-smoking status!

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answered 06 Feb '10, 17:09

truthseekr's gravatar image

truthseekr
40028

Allen Carr's "Easy Way to Stop Smoking" worked for me

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answered 04 May '10, 17:24

wildlife's gravatar image

wildlife
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Allen Carr's "Easyway". Get it, Do what he says. seriously. Good luck

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answered 18 May '10, 22:18

Hinds's gravatar image

Hinds
312

Congratulations on quitting! I am going to answer this anyway, for those who read it for answers. To quit a bad habit, use Two Hands Touching with EZ Deletion Sequence EZDS video and affirmations. For example to quit smoking cigarettes, after doing the first part of the video:

Do THT Then say, "Delete all the ways I hold in my body and feel about smoking cigarettes." Do THT

Say,"Delete all the physical and psychological causes and affects of smoking cigarettes." Do THT

Say,"Delete all the mental and emotional causes and affects of smoking cigarettes." Do THT

Say,"Delete all the psychic/empathic and spiritual causes and affects of smoking cigarettes." Do THT

Say,"Delete all the remaining and unknown causes and affects of smoking cigarettes." Do THT

Say, "I am healthy and happy." Do THT

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answered 27 Oct '12, 12:25

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Fairy Princess
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