Witch Craft, VooDoo and Smoking

Witch Craft, VooDoo, and Smoking

Creating a habit can take as little as 30 days. Breaking a habit can take a life time. But sometimes we don't have a life time.  So lets get this one on the table.  Smoking.  Yep, its the big one.  Now, if you never smoked then this post may not resonate with you. But please feel free to follow along.

I learned to smoke as a task driven habit.  During college I took classes that were made up of doing a task with a class mate then analyzing the results.  My project-mate was a smoker.  I was not.  At the end of each assigned task we would step outside so my class mate could smoke a cigarette.  It was a reward system for him.  He would offer I would decline.  One day he offered and I gave it try.  After short time my class mate suggested I start buying my own cigarettes. I was hooked.  Addicted.

The chemical in tobacco, nicotine, is more addicting than heroine.  Really! Look it up if you don't believe me.  It is faster acting, hits harder, the effects are short lived (making you want more sooner) and the psychological and physical addiction is devastating.  If you smoke you know when you want, when you NEED a cigarette.  You smoke when you drink, when you talk on the phone, after you eat, before you eat, after a movie, or any event of a length of time.  You get so addicted you panic when you run out.  You arrange your day and your finances so you are in constant possession of your cigarettes.

I smoked for well over two decades. I was addicted. Hooked.  I smoked exactly a pack every 24 hours. I smoked the some of the most potent and strong cigarettes on the market.  I coughed and I wheezed but I kept smoking.  Addiction blinds you to the truth.  All addiction does. It alters reality.  I can't count the times I was told I smelled of smoke, people didn't want to be in the same room with me.  I wore suits and the material held in the odor.  My closet stunk of the odor.  But I was blind to it.  I was addicted.

I wanted to quit.  But there was always a reason for not quitting. I tried cold turkey, the slow method, the weaning method but it never worked.  As soon as a stress level or a good wine, or a good dinner came my way I was smoking again. My mind was not right for quitting.  The key to getting the mind right is in the word 'quitting.'  A smoker will always use the word 'give up.'  I want to give up smoking.  It's so hard to give up the habit.  Those two words are what locks your addiction.  You are convinced that you are giving something up.  And you know the the pain, both physical and mental that comes along with giving up smoking.  That's the first thing I had to get my head wrapped around was the concept that I was NOT GIVING UP anything.  Because you can only give up what you have gained.  THERE IS NO GAIN IN SMOKING.  What am I gaining?  A hacking cough, a persistent wheeze in my breathing, bad breath, foul smelling clothes? These are not gains so I am not giving up.  I am quitting.

Period. Quitting smoking. Convince yourself of that one very important aspect and you have begun to reverse the mental programming of the addiction.  There was no witch craft or Voodoo in my quitting but there was an unorthodox method.  First I read a book titles, "Quitting, the Easy Way." It's by a British author and it's powerful. Second, I went to a hypnotherapist who reinforced the ideas of the book.  I can hear what your saying now! A mind quack? A brain probe! No,way.  I was skeptical too.
Very skeptical.  But there is a point in a smokers path where it's time to try the unorthodox.  I did over  three years ago and I have no urge, no desire, and little memory of smoking.  Honestly, I cannot remember the triggers to my smoking.  Once in the past three years have I even thought about smoking.  And I have had some of the greatest stresses in my life in the past three years.  These types of stresses would have had me smoking in a second.  But not today.  "Quitting the Easy Way" and a little mind sweep worked for me.  It may be worth a try for you too.