Stop Smoking

It is often said that smoking is a habit. In a sense, I kind of agree with that.

People that see me in Cape Town for hypnosis to stop smoking often expect to be brain-washed to no longer have the habit. However, what if the act of smoking in itself is not the habit? What if there were underlying habits that need to be addressed? And what are those underlying habits?

Let us examine the act of smoking first. If that in itself was merely a habit, then all you would need to do to sop smoking is to stop the act of lighting up. For example, if I had a habit of wearing black all the time, to stop this habit, I would start each morning by wearing different colors. And if I wanted to change into evening wear for a night out, I would simply select different colors from my wardrobe. If need be, I would buy a few items that are not black. And it is as simple as that.

Take another example. A friend of mine had the habit of leaving all the lights on at home while relaxing in the evening. Then she found out how much electricity she could save by stopping this habit, and she stopped straightaway. The next electricity bill was a lot less, and she was pleased to be doing her bit for the environment. It was very easy.

But what about smoking? If you smoke and the act of smoking in itself was a habit, then all you need to do in order to stop is just to stop. You will be saving a lot of money and will be healthier, and it will be easy.

Not so convincing, is it?

There are 7 reasons why.

1. The smoker has a habit of considering smoking as a mere habit, and so is totally powerless to solve the real reasons why they smoke.
2. One habit is the abdication of responsibility.  “I smoke because it’s a habit” or “I smoke because there is a monkey on my back telling me to smoke” and various other excuses.
3. The third habit is to tell yourself that if you stop smoking, this in itself will cause withdrawals. You will be irritable, nervous, lose sleep, or become ravenously hungry. Whereas in my experience, the cigarettes are there to help drug away irritability, nervousness, insomnia, or hunger. If the drug is simply stopped, naturally, the symptoms return. But it is easier to have the habit of blaming cigarette withdrawal for one’s emotions. After all, who wants to admit to being emotional?
4. Another habit is to take a drug instead of dealing with problems. As this becomes more and more of a habit, more and more negative emotions are swept under the carpet. It becomes instant conditioning to smoke in order not to feel angry or sad, or to smoke in order not to show nervousness, or to smoke in order to feel satisfied after a meal or whilst having a drink.
5. The fifth habit is not to consider cigarettes a drug like any other. How many times have you read this phrase “smoking and drugs”? As if there is any real difference. What I find particularly poignant is seeing someone smoke one cigarette after another whilst saying passionately how they would never take drugs.
6. The sixth habit is the need to be perfect. Many smokers are exceptionally calm when handling conflict, because they are drugged. Many women smokers are exceptionally fashionably thin, because they are drugged.  But neither state of being is normal or sustainable. And neither state of being is perfect either.
7. The seventh habit is to hold onto denial, the “smoking is just a habit” belief, holding on tightly, till (literally) death.

So if you are a smoker who wants to quit, change these 7 habits, and you will find quitting an easy process. Hypnotists and other practitioners that use tapping techniques, such as EFT, TFT or MTT, can help you to be totally free from the underlying reasons. Change is easy when you know how.

© Suzanne Zacharia 2010.  My name is Suzanne Zacharia and I am committed to spreading the word about health options. I believe that the more and better options one has, the more choice there is.

A virus caught along with 5 other students at university at the end of 1986, plus medical negligence, meant that I got smokers lung at a relatively young age.  In desperation for help with my symptoms and quality of life, I turned to complementary therapy, and I have outlived one doctor’s prognosis by many years now.

I am now a complementary therapist, author and trainer specializing in energy healing.  I help ex-smokers-to-be and practitioners that help ex-smokers-to-be to achieve complete freedom from smoking with my Stop Smoking E-Book. Want to use this article?  You can, as long as you credit me with it and invite your readers to get my FREE book “EFT How-To For You” at http://www.EFT-Scripts.com and my popular FREE online course “5 Days to Change Your Life” at http://www.NewAgeInternationalTraining.com

Pubs and restaurants in Beijing were supposed to stop smoking. Then there was a big uproar and China had to allow smoking in the end, despite the Olympics.

Clearly this was a PR exercise that failed. But the point is, most people do not associate athletics with smoking. Just like you would not associate healthy living with smoking. Put it this way, if you were to choose a new doctor, would you feel confident choosing a doctor who smokes? If you were to visit a hypnotherapist, would you feel assured of the outcome with a hypnotist who smoked?

Although smacking of Big Brother, it does actually make sense to stop smoking in restaurants and bars, I have just come to Cape Town in South Africa from London in the UK. In Cape Town, smoking is allowed in bars and restaurants. Some restaurants make an attempt to make a non-smoking section, the rare coffee bar is non-smoking, but most bars and restaurants frankly stink. In London, smoking was banned in all public places last year, and it is a pleasure now to go out for a drink or a meal. There was initially much worry about going smoke-free. Businesses were worried about losing custom. However, in the UK most people are non-smokers now, and so this was a great deal easier.

And despite the health risks, in Cape Town, just like Beijing, there is a need for a drug. Nicotine happens to be a perfect drug. It calms you when you need calming, wakes you when you need to be alert, is easily delivered into the body, and is legally available.

Smoking is a coping mechanism. Smoking takes the not-Fun out of life and the smoker is left with Fun. Smoking takes the not-Happy out of life so the smoker is left with Happy. Without smoking, the smoker is faced with a great deal of not-Fun and not-Happy, and life is very grim indeed. People need to be healthy. However, they also need to be happy. Sometimes being happy is more important than being healthy. Why should it matter if you die early of cancer or a heart attack, if you have lived a happy life? And who actually wants to live a long and miserable life?

This is why nicotine replacement and various wonder pills alone fail. When the smoker is given ways to be naturally happy, such as with EFT, hypnosis, or meditation, then they can finally be calmly free from smoking. And when a nation is healed, when it becomes stronger from within, you get smoke-free restaurants. It really is a holistic matter.

China has a great deal of trauma from the past, as does Cape Town. The pain of the people needs the balm of nicotine. I sincerely hope that one day, this pain will release. With this release, there will no longer be a need for cigarettes. And then China can rest assured that its bars and restaurants will be smoke-free.

Suzanne Zacharia

Author and Stop Smoking Expert