How I stopped smoking in 3 days!
By Bill Loganeski
When I started smoking a pack of cigarettes cost fifty cents.
In those days no one knew about the connection between smoking and cancer.
When we were kids smoking made you feel cool and grown up.
Everybody smoked in those days unlike today it was socially accepted.
Little did we know the damage it was causing our lungs.
To make matters worse it is very addictive and as we all know hard to quit.
You got into smokers habits, like having a cigarette after eating with a cup of coffee.
Or not starting your day until you had you first smoke or having to have a cigarette after sex. Oh, those were the good old day. I was a bad smoker, and did not care who was around me and no one was going to telling I could not smoke in their house. Now I think back to the damage I must had done to my children’s health.
Over time the government started alerting us to the dangers of smoking
And making us aware of the cancer and damage smoking was causing.
I knew I had to stop but did not know how. I tried many different things and of course none of them worked for very long. You must bear in mind that when I realized that I had to stop smoking I had been smoking for over 30 years a pack a day. I was an addict. I was hooked. I could not imagine going through a day without a cigarette. I read an article about behavioral researcher who had written a best selling book called “What To Say When You Talk To Yourself” I purchased the book and in three days after 30 years I stopped smoking. The following is what he said in that book that changed my life over 15 years ago.
What did he say?
1-When you reach for a cigarette you are playing a tape recording in your head which Dr. Helmstetter, Ph.D calls “Self-Talk” and it is this self-talk that drives your actions. You can learn to change your Self-Talk and driver yourself in another direction.
Negative Self-Talk:
“I need a cigarette” “A cigarette will relax me” ” I need a break, I need a smoke” “I can’t exist without my cigarettes” ” I will shake if I try giving up my cigarettes”, “What is the use of trying because I know I so will start smoking again”.
Positive Self-Talk:
“I can do this”, “Smoking is bad for me and I don’t want to do any more”
Here are some from the book:
” I choose my thoughts, No thought, at any time, can dwell in my mind without my permission.”
“I focus my attention on the things I can control if I can’t affect it or direct it- I accept it”
But the phrases that got me to stop were:
” I was born a non-smoker and when I stop smoking I will return to who I was before I started smoking.”
“Before I started smoking I did not shake because I did not have a cigarette”
“Before I started to smoke I was able to breath, and will still be able to breath after I stop smoking.”
“Smoking is a dirty habit and I am a clean person, I don’t want the dirt”
And the killer Self-Talk phrase was:
“I don’t smoke” and he writes that you should say this as you continue smoking. Because in 3 days of smoking and telling yourself that you don’t smoke you will reach the point where you tell yourself “well if you don’t smoke what are you doing smoke” and it becomes easy to put away the cigarette and never look back.
Here is a link to Dr. Helmstetter, PhD’s website- to get your FREE copy of his latest book “Today’s Self-Talk” . http://www.shadhelmstetter.com/selftalk/
We are not compensated by Dr. Helmstetter, PhD we are providing this as a service to the members of our community on the Saturday Morning Diet.
