SMOKING CESSATION

1. Read Allen Carr’s EASY WAY TO STOP SMOKING

This book will prime your brain for quitting, and there is even a strong likelihood that you will quit smoking on your own after reading this book without hypnotherapy or any other intervention. However, if you’re still smoking after reading this book, then don’t worry…your mindset will be in a peak state to move ahead with hypnosis, another means of smoking cessation, or a combined method. You will have the edge to achieve long-term success. 

2. Begin separating smoking from your triggers before you quit

If you pair cigarettes with alcohol, coffee, driving, or anything else, start experimenting with breaking those links now. For example: delay your driving cigarette until after you reach your destination, put off smoking whenever you drink alcohol, or enjoy your coffee first and smoke after. Treat this as a temporary experiment—tell yourself, “I’m just trying this today.” Every time you loosen the link just a bit, it becomes easier to do so the next time around.

Many smokers relapse after quitting because of their triggers. I thought that would be my downfall, but I accidentally began breaking links whenever I visited my family by hiding my addiction from them. One trigger was alcohol for me. So when I had wine with family, I’d delay smoking until everyone was asleep. At first, I told myself, “I’ll smoke later…I’ll smoke as many as I want when everyone’s asleep,” but when “later” came, I often only had one cigarette and didn’t even want it that badly. Over time, this delay naturally separated drinking and smoking for me.

When I finally quit, my first glass of wine as a non-smoker triggered zero cravings—and hasn’t since. You can try the same: delay your cigarette until after your drink, or surround yourself with people who disapprove of smoking so you have to hide it. Repeat often enough, and your mind and body will start treating smoking and drinking as separate habits—making quitting much easier to sustain.

3. Pretend to smoke a cigarette before lighting up

Quite often, smokers take a cigarette break as a way to step away and destress. In fact, there is a theory that smokers use cigarettes as an excuse to take deep breaths when stressed, particularly when going outside. As a former smoker, I was skeptical of this idea. I don’t even remember where I read it, but it intrigued me. What if all I needed was to take some deep breaths?

It sounded silly, but when I found myself regularly chainsmoking 2-3 cigarettes back-to-back, I began to think otherwise. Taking deep breaths on their own seemed out of reach and too disconnected from the cravings I was having. So, I would pretend to smoke instead of immediately chainsmoking a second cigarette. I’d pretend to take a cigarette out of my pack, pretend to light it, pretend to smoke it, pretend to flick the ashes, and pretend to stub it out in my ash tray…and I’d do this for the same length of time as it took to smoke an actual cigarette. I was stunned, but it relieved my cravings so well that within 1 week, was no longer chainsmoking. Soon after, I started doing this immediately before lighting up once any craving hit. Within 2 weeks, I was able to cut down from about 30 cigarettes daily to 5-10 cigarettes a day shortly before my scheduled quit day. 

Cutting back before your quit date is not necessary if you smoke 1 pack or less a day. However, if you smoke over 20 cigarettes a day, it is advisable to cutback beforehand. Experiment with using this as one of your tools to cut back. You might be tempted to hold a pen or straw in your mouth, but this might restrict airflow and lessen the effect of the oxygen entering your lungs. Instead, just breathe deeply without obstruction, as if you were smoking. You may feel silly, but you will also feel your cravings fade.

4. Make sure you have no cigarettes in your possession on the day you quit

Don’t make the mistake of having emergency cigarettes on hand when you quit. Many smokers reach a point where they smoke cigarettes reflexively without even thinking about it. After hypnotherapy, although your cravings will subside significantly, your muscle memory will still be there. If you have no cigarettes nearby when you quit, you won’t instictively be able to go for one.

5. pick a Day to quit when you will be away from your day-to-day routine and your usual triggers will be minimized

This will not be possible for everyone. But if you can do it, quit while you are away on vacation (preferably in an environment where smoking is prohibited or heavily frowned upon) or when you have some time off that you can spend with loved ones that will be supportive of what you’re doing. The first week can be tricky if you’re surrounded by your daily smoking triggers. You will certainly need to face your triggers no matter what, but whatever you can do to lessen your triggers in the early days will help you be successful. In other words, don’t go to the bar on day 2 with your friend that’s also a smoker and expect that you’ll manage fine, and don’t quit during the holidays. Pick a time that you think you’ll be most successful. Stack the odds in your favor as best as you can.

1. I would go outside and pretend to smoke whenever a huge craving hit.

I already mentioned this earlier on this page in how you can prepare to quit smoking, but this is also what really helped me in the first 3 days of quitting while nicotine was leaving my body. Whenever I had a huge craving, I would go outside and pretend to smoke. I would take out my imaginary “pack of cigarettes” and “lighter”, take one out of the “pack,” pretend to light it, and then “smoked” for the same length of time as I normally would, never forgetting to flick my “ashes”.  Then, I would pretend to put the cigarette out and “disposed” of it as I used to when a smoker.  My husband at the time thought this was ridiculous when I told him.  “How can that possibly help?”  But he decided to try it when he was quitting, and it worked for him too.

This idea came to me after I read somewhere that people go outside to smoke because they really want is to step away and get some air.  Whether or not that’s true, deeply breathing fresh air definitely helps cravings subside. I experimented with this while still a smoker, breathing deeply in and out to interrupt my growing habit of chain smoking, and it even helped me cut back from 20-30 a day to 5 a day before my official quit date. Cutting back prior to quitting isn’t always beneficial for everyone, but I’m one of the cases for which it was a massive help.

2. I focused on the short-term rather than the long-term.

When you quit, do yourself a favor:  don’t tell yourself you will never smoke again. Even though I was completely committed to quitting, I found that the idea of quitting forever made me freak out when I was experiencing nicotine withdrawal, to the point that I wanted to smoke immediately. I would think, “The shop is right around the corner, and I can easily get up and get myself a pack.” But, then I told myself that I wasn’t going to go get the pack this minute…maybe the next minute, but not this minute. As soon as I switched my goal to 1 minute—a manageable increment of time—I was able to make it past even the worst nicotine cravings with relative ease. Moreover, it became easier each minute to say no. Soon, enough minutes had passed that I went 3 days without smoking and all of my physical cravings had vanished, 7 days when most of my emotional cravings had passed, and about 2 weeks when I stopped thinking about cigarettes at all. This is similar to one day at a time from Alcoholics Anonymous. It is an ongoing process, but it gets easier with every minute you say no.

3. I made a point to avoid my biggest triggers for as long as possible when I quit.

While I knew that I would have to face my triggers eventually, I also knew that I wouldn’t stand a chance of success if I faced them too soon after my quit date. My biggest triggers were coffee, alcohol, and social situations. So, I refrained from these 3 things in the early days. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to this, so there is no clear answer as to how long you should avoid your triggers. However, at some point, a part of you will know that it’s time, that the smoking cessation definitely “took,” and that you are stronger than your triggers. For me, it took 2 weeks before I had my first cup of coffee or glass of wine. The fact that I had not smoked for that long and that my cravings had finally subsided felt like an impossible miracle, but this also made me keenly aware that I was made up of tougher stuff than my addiction. That’s when I knew I was ready, and you will know when you are ready too.

4. When I quit, I walked…a lot.

Allen Carr wrote that there’s an empty feeling in the body similar to hunger when nicotine starts leaving the body that tells us it’s time to have another cigarette. When we quit, that feeling hits for a prolonged period of time, and people often try to fill that empty feeling with food. I also discovered later during my hypnosis training that another reason we go for food after quitting is because cigarettes contain sugar, and that hungry feeling we get not only signals a dip in nicotine but also a lowered blood sugar level. Going for cigarettes temporarily raises the blood sugar level without having to eat.

I’m not going to lie, I did eat a little bit more in the early days, but the nervous energy I felt at the same time wouldn’t let me sit still, so I walked. Rain or shine, snow or clear skies, I walked. I realize as I write this that walking is something I started doing more in my early 30s when I worked in London. There, I would sometimes get so stressed and disgusted at work that I would use my entire lunch break to walk and smoke. At the time, I felt that walking and smoking helped me to clear my head a bit, or at the very least to sort through how and why my work environment was making me feel the way I felt. So, walking was already a method I used to de-stress.

Then, when I officially quit smoking, I had a massive amount of nervous energy that I needed to discharge somehow. So I started walking, usually between 2-5 hours, and not necessarily in one go, but broken up throughout the day. This was especially wonderful when I returned to Geneva, because it’s such a great walking city. Walking was gentle enough that I didn’t feel stressed about doing it. There is no commitments, like joining a gym, and I could walk as fast or as slow as I wanted (according to my level of craving and nervousness). I was able to go whenever I wanted, even around 11pm, because Geneva still has lots of people out and about at that time, so it felt safe. Most importantly, it was out in the open air, which helped to kill any cravings I had as per point #1. As a result, not only did I not gain weight when I quit, I actually lost some.

5. When the going got tough, I reviewed the stories of people my age or younger who passed away from smoking to remember why I was quitting.

This one is quite morbid and sad, and I send my thoughts, prayers, and gratitude to those that were taken down due to smoking. I say gratitude, because reading the stories of people that have passed due to this addiction, seeing their pictures, and trying to wrap my head around the fact that they were around my age or younger, kept me strong in my determination to quit, especially in the first 3 days after my last cigarette.  Whenever my addicted brain was urging me to go buy a pack of smokes, I would go to www.whyquit.com and read some of their stories. The world is lacking without them, yet if we can glean anything positive from what they and their families experienced, it is that their stories can help others to quit.

6. In the first 3 days of quitting, I kept reminding myself that I will be happy again.

Nicotine is a cunning little bastard. It highjacks the pleasure pathways in our brains, so that when smokers smoke, dopamine is released. I’m not a medical practitioner, nor have I found any scientific studies on what I am about to assert, so apologies if my correlation on this point is inaccurate. I just remember how horrible I felt the early days of quitting. Based on my experiences, it’s my belief that, since it takes about 3 days for nicotine to leave the body when quitting and release its control over the brain’s pleasure pathways, that likely also means that for the first 3 days, my body was readjusting to not having dopamine firing because the artificial trigger (nicotine) was leaving, and as a result of this readjustment process, I was feeling depressed.

I remember clearly that, during this stage of my quit, I was miserable and actually thought that I would never be happy again. I would watch a hilarious comedy, but it wouldn’t make me laugh. Good news came about something, and not even the slightest feeling of joy would well up within me. I felt like a dreary zombie. Luckily, I realized this potential correlation on day 1, so I kept reminding myself that I would be normal again. And then, sure enough, around day 4, the drab curtain started lifting, and I felt increasingly happier.

Again, I am not a medical doctor, so take my advice as you will, but if you do decide to take a prescription drug like Chantix to quit, please stop as soon as you see any signs of depression and extremely morbid or suicidal thoughts. Chantix helps to block the pleasure pathways as well, which is why people stop wanting to smoke almost immediately after beginning the medication. In other words, dopamine does not fire when you smoke while taking Chantix, which is why the desire to smoke disappears. The drawback is that Chantix prevents any pleasure hormones from being released into your brain, so it can feel like you walked into a depressive haze. Try to get off your Chantix as soon as you can after you’ve stopped smoking (after talking with your doctor, of course). Remember, the depressive feelings are temporary and will pass once you stop taking the drug. Keep your eyes on the prize, and once all of the nicotine and cessation drugs are out of your system, you will definitely be happy again. 

7. I had no cigarettes in my possession.

This one is not entirely true. I stupidly had 1 cigarette in my possession after my first hypnosis session, and I smoked it later that same night. Don’t make the mistake of having emergency cigarettes on hand when you quit. If I’m completely honest, I definitely wouldn’t have had that last cigarette if it wasn’t sitting in my bag at the ready.  The temptation was too huge, and I cracked.  So, when I had no more the next day, I could not give my addicted brain an easy out when the nicotine pangs began. If you do hypnosis and/or take a cessation medication to quit, you most likely will not have any cravings whatsoever when you quit…I am one of the rare outliers that did.

8. I quit while I was away from my day-to-day routine.

I was visiting family when I quit, which wasn’t a completely new environment to me, but it was different enough that the triggers that I faced in my usual life did not touch me there. Plus, I was also constantly putting off smoking to hide it from my family so that I would not have to deal with the judgmental words and unsolicited advice to quit. I feel that helped quite a bit, especially in the first 3 days, which were the toughest for me in particular (for some people, this tough patch can last about 7-30 days as the emotional triggers of smoking are overcome).

If at all possible, consider quitting while you are away on vacation (preferably in an environment where smoking is largely prohibited or heavily frowned upon) or when you have some time off that you can spend with loved ones that will be supportive of what you’re doing, because the first 3-7 days can be tricky if you’re surrounded by your daily smoking triggers. You will certainly need to face your triggers at some point because they are unavoidable, but in the early days, be gentle with yourself. 

9. I reminded myself that I was born a non-smoker, so it was within my nature and power to go back to being a non-smoker.

When we become smokers, we forget the crucial detail that, before we became addicted, there was a time when we were not. There was a time when checking that we had enough cigarettes to last us the day wasn’t even a consideration. There was a time when we didn’t hit the corner shop or gas station for smokes. There was a time when we ate without having to follow-up our meal with a cigarette. There was a time when we weren’t terrified of having no cigarettes in our possession. By quitting, we are simply returning to our natural way of being in the world. Even if you have smoked more than half your life and do not remember what it is like to go a day without smoking, the body remembers, the soul remembers, and the brain remembers. 

10. I reminded myself that other people, some heavier smokers than me, were able to quit, so I could too.

Unless you are quitting with a group, friend, or partner, the quitting process can feel like a lonely experience, especially if you are one of the last remaining smokers you know. I reminded myself that other people have done this, chainsmoking friends included, so I have it within me to do the same. It felt daunting and impossible to quit, and I was genuinely worried that I was going to fail, but I managed to pull through, like all the others before me and all the others that will come after me, including you.You have it within you to do this.

11. I knew that there were lots of ways to quit, so if one did not work for me the first time around, there were other ways to do it.

When I started my preparation for quitting smoking, I first read Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking book. Although it did not help me kick the addiction, it did give me a stronger and broader understanding of quitting smoking when I finally did, and I attribute a lot of my success to this book, even though I did not quit immediately upon finishing it. So, rest in peace Allen Carr, and thank you from the bottom of my heart and lungs for your pivotal work.

I also tried hypnotherapy, which instilled in me an autopilot function that quitting was necessary immediately at all costs, and it strengthened my resolve to make it happen no matter what. It was not the silver bullet for me that it often is for others because I still had cravings (again, for most people, the cravings subside after hypnosis, so my experience is not the norm). Nevertheless, it pushed me into a “take no prisoners” mindset that helped me to successfully quit. 

The path I picked to quit will not be the right path for everyone, and there is no one way to do this. Most importantly, you do not have to pick only one way, but you can even stack methods. Start by reading Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking and go from there. If you feel that a prescription drug might be the best way to go, speak with your doctor. If you feel called to try hypnosis and/or mindfulness (either while taking a prescription from your provider or doing hypnosis on its own), feel free to contact me whenever you are ready.  No matter what path you choose, you will find the most successful path for you.

The most amazing thing is that, when you do quit, you will notice a number of benefits almost immediately…many of which science has not yet uncovered because the full spectrum of how cigarettes affect the body is not completely known. In my case, I discovered the following benefits when I quit:

• As a smoker, I felt like anxiousness was always present and coming from a nameless place within me. Moreover, I often felt like I had this current of tension flowing through me but there was also a lethargy that would not let me move. Constant anxiety is no longer my natural state. Now, I realize that my natural state is relaxed. This does not mean that I am never anxious, it just means that my anxiety has decreased significantly and is now usually prompted by a clear trigger. It is no longer a constant feeling with an inexplicable internal source. 

• I can get to sleep much more easily. This is not always the case, especially while traveling or if stress pops up in life, but now I can generally get to sleep much more easily than I was able to as a smoker.

• I have more energy, and I no longer feel chronically lethargic or like I am trapped in my own body.

• I no longer suffer from sleep paralysis. I used to have episodes a few times a week, but it stopped as soon as I quit.

• My menstrual cycle normalized within the first month. All of my hormones seemed to balance themselves once cigarettes were no longer a part of my life.