By-Pass Your Cravings to Stop Smoking by Richard Mcgough - HTML preview

Introduction

Part 1. How Hard Is It To Stop?

Part 2. Take It Or Leave It.

Part 3. Todays Better Than Tomorrow.

Part 4. Withdrawal Symptoms, Here It Comes

Part 5. Hypnosis Vs Nicotine.

Part 6. 6 Simple Self-hypnosis Tips To Beat Cravings.

Part 7. The Benefits Of NLP Revealed.

Part 8. Kill Your Cravings With The Swish Technique.

Part 9. The Power Of Anchoring.

Part 10. Turn On The Tap.

Part 11. Nicotine replacement, Is there any point?

Part 12. Saying Goodbye To Smoke Without Saying Hello To Fat.

Part 13. What Now?

Part 14. Why On Earth Did I Start?

Part 15. The Good Parts About Stopping.

Part 16. Why People keep smoking when they no longer want to.

Part 17. Never Again!

Part 18. Times On Your Side, Or Is It?

Final Thoughts.

Introduction.

Hello and welcome to this free ebook all about stopping smoking, getting past your cravings as easily as possible and staying well clear of smoking once you have stopped.

I have condensed and included a lot of useful information and proven techniques to help you quit with as little mood swinging and sweating as possible, enjoy.

Part 1. How Hard Is It To Stop?

How hard is it to stop smoking? Is a question nearly every smoker asks themselves after they've been smoking for a few years and the novelty's worn off, in fact we usually enjoy it the most when we are teenagers and "Not Allowed To." But when the not allowed to phase passes and no one gives a toss any more whether we smoke or not, then most of us see it as a habit that's holding us back, both physically and financially!

But just like everything else that's bad for us and negative it can be removed from our lives, with a little know how, and the fact that you are even reading this means you're already over halfway there because you WANT TO STOP.

And once you've stopped smoking you'll be able to throw the window open and take in all those smells you couldn't before: petrol, dog shit, and other peoples smoke.

One of the best things you can do to get rid of cigarettes for good, is to be harsh with yourself and say "I'm going to feel tense and irritated and generally not quite myself for the next 2 to 4 weeks."

This is of course a bad way to feel and why would anyone self impose this? (the smoker inside you will ask) And the best answer I can think of is that feeling irritated for 4 weeks is a million times better than developing one or more of the medical nasty's that no one in there right mind wants to get!

I'm 31 and I stopped smoking six years ago, it wasn't easy, and for the first week or so your having an almost constant argument with yourself about whether to have a cigarette or not. This is just the nicotine trying to trick you and you will actually notice when this starts to ease off. As soon as it does you will realize that this is actually do-able and you will feel instantly better about deciding to stop, also if you use even 1 or 2 of the techniques covered in this ebook your cravings will have their sting removed.

Once you have stopped for about 2 or 3 months you'll wonder why you ever smoked in the first place, this is a great stage to be at because you've pretty much beaten it.

One last thing that you need to fully understand is that you need to avoid all alcohol in your first two months of stopping, indeed avoid any situation where you'll be drinking and surrounded by smokers, because two things will happen.

1-They will offer you cigarettes.

2-Some of them will make fun of you for stopping ( because you stopping highlights their inability to!)

You don't need either of these things when your trying to get past the first few weeks, or indeed the first two months! So to re-cap, it is difficult at first, but if you stick to it you will basically become a stronger, healthier version of yourself (and you'll have more money).

Visit www.letsgetsmokefree.com To Learn More Part 2. Take It Or Leave It.

It will help you to stop if you figure out what kind of smoker you are, there are six types for you to choose from so have a look through the information below to help you come to a decision.

1. Part time/Social smoker.

Hardly anyone falls into this category although lots of smokers wish they did, or tell themselves they do. however if you are in this category you may feel that your part time smoking poses no serious harm to you or anyone else. You could be overlooking warning signs that your occasional smoking is turning into a habit, especially if you tend to smoke a little more when you are stressed or socializing, because that's one of cigarettes sneakiest tricks! We constantly underestimate it because it's small and it's quick, but a two or three a day habit can easily warp into a six or eight a day one. And all it really takes to get the upper hand on you is a few extra days of stress or party's which can pop up at anytime, if your a part time social smoker you might as well do a quick swap to a non smoker to save yourself a harder time quitting later on.

2. The smoker who can stop anytime.

Except now! This ones all to familiar and most of us who have smoked or still smoke will land at least halfway into this category, if not all the way in it. The thought process behind this one is a perfect example of the way a person can distort logic to be able to keep doing what he or she wants to do. It goes something like this “I'll just finish this last packet then I'll stop” or the famous “I'll stop tomorrow” or even “I'll keep smoking just now but I'll stop at new year” and while reading it sounds a little bit funny because we can see the obvious self deception it is actually very dangerous because most people who get into the habit of appeasing their more sensible side with this bullshit end up still smoking two, three or even ten years down the line. And only stop when they've considerably weakened themselves and burnt heaps of money, yes this one is a long wait for a train that isn't coming.

3. The emotional smoker.

For those of us that have more extreme shifts in mood (for whatever reason) dealing with nicotine withdrawal can be all the more difficult because what for someone else is a slight downer can seem to you like a plummeting spiral! The flip side of this is that once you do get free of the withdrawal stages you’ll feel much better about your accomplishment, and lets face it, if you know your going to be having strong mood shifts its better to behave in a way that creates really good moods as opposed to really bad ones. If you think you are this type of smoker you probably smoke to avoid negative feelings, situations and arguments.

For you smoking has become something to run to when things are happening that you either don't like or have no control over, the challenge for you is to become comfortable with yourself when your not smoking, and also you have to ask yourself “if being around something or someone is so annoying to me that it forces me to want to smoke, is it really worth being around that?” I would guess the answer to this question would be a big fat NO!

Take It Or Leave It Part 2.

4. The smoker who worries about weight gain.

If you are a smoker who is afraid of putting on weight you are probably using cigarettes (some of the time at least) to keep your hunger at bay and you may be worried that if you stop you will get really fat, really fast. However you would actually be better being a slightly heavier non smoker than a stick thin smoker, people who smoke aren't thin in a healthy way, no no, they are thin because their body is working twice as hard as normal to get rid of all the poison coming in with the cigarette. So your using up all your proteins and minerals and fuel reserves twice as fast, to put it even more simply continuing to smoke is dragging you closer to becoming a skeleton than you are probably comfortable with. And besides quitting smoking doesn't automatically mean you have to start eating bucket loads of junk food as we will cover later in part twelve.

5. The alcohol connection.

Some of us fall into the trap of using alcohol and tobacco to deal with the normal day to day problems that occur, unfortunately this usually has the opposite effect and weakens our ability to deal with problems unless we have a drink or cigarette close to hand. If something creates tension in you and is a pain in the neck in general it's still going to be that way wether you have a cigarette or a drink in your hand, all that introducing the chemical does is slightly fog over and obscure the problem, and while this seems better in the short term it is actually more than useless because the next time you come across a problem without the help of drink or nicotine it will seem like a much bigger deal than it really is.

6. Situation smoker.

This type of smoker reaches for a cigarette when they feel pressure or when they are on a deadline and need to get a certain task finished. They then stop until they are under pressure or deadline again, also the situational smoker will smoke while engaging in certain leisure activity’s, like meeting a friend for a drink or playing snooker or golf. It's easier for a situational smoker to tell themselves they can stop anytime they like or that there habit isn't to bad for their health, it's also just as easy if not easier for their habit to grow legs and become a full time problem. The indecision of this can be the worst thing, your never quite free of smoking and totally healthy nor are you ever so bogged down with tar that you get a health scare and have to stop, you just float about in the middle for years getting slowly more dependent on cigarettes, if you only want to smoke in certain situations are those situations really worth being in?

Visit www.letsgetsmokefree.com To Learn More Part 3. Todays Better Than Tomorrow.

One of the worst excuses I've heard (and uttered myself) is the dreaded and famous "I'll stop tomorrow".

This little beauty's usually spoken about 3 seconds after the smoker in question has extinguished the last cigarette of the night, you never hear a smoker say this when they haven't had one for 6 hours and its only 3 in the afternoon! In the land of quitting smoking tomorrow's always just out of reach and never quite gets here.

Another excuse that is similar but not quite as far into fantasy land as "'I'll stop tomorrow"

is "ill cut down, and then I will stop... " For some reason this very rarely works, it always starts with the very best of intentions, 6 a day for a week then 4 a day the next week and so on, but instead of going 6-4-2-0 it usually goes 6-6-8-11-14. So this one is just as useless as the first one!

"Quitting smoking would be bad for my health because it would disrupt my exercise routine... I WALK to the shop to buy my cigarettes"

Another good (or bad) one is "smoking relaxes me" we all know how relaxing it is to rake through all the junk drawers in the house looking for your emergency cigarette (which you already smoked) because you have run out and don't get paid until TOMORROW!!

Yes very relaxing indeed, this reasons rubbish to, you only feel slightly relaxed when you smoke because the cigarette is topping up the nicotine levels in your body and postponing the dreaded withdrawal for another 20 minutes or so, the nicotine levels that wouldn't be there in the first place if we didn't smoke.

So basically if your going to quit tomorrow. . . today's going to last a bit longer than a normal day, probably about 3 years long! The best thing to do is give the power of now a try and stop today , read on, the next bit's the worst then it gets easier.

Part 4. Withdrawal Symptoms, Here It Comes

“Hold onto your lug nuts, it's time for an overhaul!” Jim Carrey-The Mask This bit is grim, while you can avoid some of the pain in the arse of it with various techniques it is still going to be difficult, the only good thing about it is that it reaches it's worst and most annoying at around the four day mark. So if you make it past this point then it has done it's worst and it's only going to get easier, but those first four days seem a lot longer at the time, we will have a look at what to expect just now so you know what your in for and hopefully you won't be bowled over and go back to smoking.

The first symptom I want to warn you about is irritation, little things that you would usually swear under your breath at and move on or not even notice at all will distort and warp into the most annoying problems you have ever come across, almost as teeth grinding as the infamous and pointless rub-ix cube! The same is going to apply for people that usually slightly annoy you, try and avoid anyone like this especially in the four day danger zone because you might end up shoving them into moving traffic.

The next symptom to watch out for is low moods, these can appear out of nowhere and hang about for different amounts of time depending on the person, and depending on what you do when they pop up, if you mope about and indulge them they'll probably last longer than if you go and float about in your local swimming pool or go for a walk. But just like the cravings they fade out and reduce in intensity.

Sleeping difficulty is another one, you might have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, or both! “Brilliant!” I hear you say, but this ones not all bad, when I quit I used to really look forward to finally getting to sleep because you are getting through about seven hours of stopping smoking while unconscious, and when you wake up you’ll feel better and you'll be that much closer to being free.

Also if you were a heavy smoker after about two weeks of stopping your body realises its not getting anymore and every morning you will cough up a little bit of tar and mucus, it's usually dark brown with little black bits in it. A bit disgusting but also satisfying because you can see the effects of your efforts and at the same time realise what you were doing to your body for all those years. Also with sleeping while going through the worst parts of withdrawal you may get the odd warpy dream or two about smoking and maybe even wake up suddenly a bit sweaty, this is just the poison coming out of your system and your subconscious mind going through the motions it's used to, just stick the light on, drink some cold water and read or watch TV for a while, you will soon fall back to sleep. And this weird dream thing only crops up in the first week.

The last one is trouble concentrating, this is temporary and not worth worrying about.

Since your going to be constantly concentrating on not smoking which translates as saving your own life your not expected to be able to diffuse bombs or crack safe's. Allow yourself some easy time in this first difficult four days to a week of withdrawal, your main priority is getting clean from smoke. This is why it's really good to time your first four or so days with holidays from work or school or whatever, especially if you've got a stressful job, bomb diffuser or something.

Visit www.letsgetsmokefree.com To Learn More Part 5. Hypnosis Vs Nicotine.

If you have tried to stop smoking before, either by going cold turkey or with nicotine replacement, and failed, then using a good hypnosis programme is that extra bit of help that will tip the scales in your favour and allow you to succeed!

Did you know that stopping smoking with hypnosis has a much higher success rate than other methods, and for most people it only takes one session with a hypnotist to permanently stop?

Most of us have heard the saying "It's all in the head" before, and this is certainly true of quitting cigarettes. The physical part of the craving only lasts between one and two seconds, it is the "I want to smoke now!" thoughts that this craving creates that usually hang about and drive the person who has stopped back to smoking, this is where hypnosis gets right to the root of the problem and helps you destroy your cravings.

During hypnosis the person that wants to quit is placed in a relaxed state of mind through guided imagery and sound, while in this relaxed state you will be more open to suggestions and the hypnotist or audio programme you have chosen will implant ideas about smoking, such as the healthy effects of quitting smoking, how much better you will feel, look and smell and how much money you will save.

The best part about stopping smoking with hypnosis is that you won't have to go through the first two to three weeks of stopping like a bear with a sore head and a thorn in all four paws! Because through the hypnotic suggestion your mind will be thinking about the positive points of quitting instead of shouting "feed me smoke!" and this greatly reduces the need for constant iron will power on your part.

Another great benefit about this method is you can strengthen your resolve at home, this is done by going to the place in your home you find the most relaxing and placing yourself in a relaxed state with deep breathing exercises you can learn from a good audio self-hypnosis programme, and listening again to the suggestions in the audio programme. If you have already visited a hypnotist first then reinforcing it at home will double your chances of success. It is also far cheaper than other methods like nicotine replacement.

Part 6. 6 Self-hypnosis Tips To Beat Cravings.

Hello, welcome to part four, a simple guide to self-hypnosis, which is a proven method to destroy your cravings. Let's get started.

Get yourself comfortable, either sitting or lying down, don't cross your arms or legs. Focus on a point in front of you and let your breaths become slow and deep, and as you continue to focus on your point (this can be anything from a scuff on the wallpaper to a certain button on the television) imagine bringing it closer to you.

You can now let your eyes close slowly while continuing to take slow and deep breaths, now scan down your muscles starting with your neck, shoulders and back (these two are especially important because a lot of unnoticed tension builds here throughout the day) and right down to your feet, and imagine each group of muscles you scan on the way down going loose and relaxed and becoming warm and heavy, say to yourself, "my whole body is warm, loose and heavy."

Once you have relaxed all your body, imagine a door in front of you and mentally walk through it. This door leads to a relaxing, calming place, this can be a real world location you relate to calm positive feelings or your own personal Narnia, what's important is that you feel safe and relaxed "warm, loose and heavy."

You will now be in a hypnotic state and much more open to the positive suggestions you are going to recite to yourself.

Once you are in this hypnotic state and your breathing is still deep and slow (which pretty much takes care of itself) you can start to recite your personal affirmations, These act as commands to the subconscious mind which it will strive to achieve, for the purpose of what we are talking about today it might be something like "I'm sick of smoking and I'm ready to stop" "I feel better when I don't smoke" "smoking doesn't fill the void, it creates it" and you can make up a few others while your in the moment.

Enjoy this state for as long as you want to, and when you have finished you can count yourself out of the trance. You can do this by telling yourself that you will feel more and more awake with each number you count from 1 to 10, until you are fully awake at the count of 10.

When you open your eyes you should feel calm and relaxed, this is partly because of the deep breathing you have just done but also because you have given your mind, your actual mind a relaxing break from the conscious world where it is constantly skittering from one thing to the next in the speedy way that only our modern laser quasar text message world can provide!

You will feel a little different, in a good way and with regular practice (once a day is enough) you should find yourself experiencing less and less cravings. You should also find it becomes easier over time to get into deeper levels of trance as you become more experienced. Like most things practice will perfect your self-hypnosis, once a day for ten minutes is fine.

To View An Excellent Self-hypnosis Video Visit www.letsgetsmokefree.com

Part 7. The Benefits Of NLP Revealed.

For some reason one of the best, if not the best way, to quit is often not mentioned, overlooked or disregarded by the person who would benefit from it the most, you.

This method is called Neuro linguistic programming or NLP and it is sometimes overlooked because some media reports labelled it as “new age nonsense” and this has unfortunately stuck in peoples minds , yet many top professionals in everything from sports to the stock market either practice it or at least understand some of the basic techniques and use them to their advantage. It is in fact a very powerful method for change, in this case changing from smoking to non smoking without ridiculous amounts of cravings and mood swings.

The main focus of NLP is replicating the most effective behaviour patterns in any field, for example Tiger Woods in golf or Richard Branson in business, and teaching you how to replace a part of your behaviour, which is bad or detrimental with behaviour from the best role model in the field.

By learning a few simple techniques you can greatly change the quality of your life. The first principle of NLP is to know what outcome you want, this is very important because many people have not thought about what they definitely want, others have no idea what they want but know what they don't want. Their life becomes about moving away from those things they don't want. NLP focuses on the importance of moving towards those things you want. Once the outcome you want is clear in your mind you can begin to move towards it.

The second principle is to have sufficient sensory acuity (clear understanding). This means to know if you are moving towards or away from your outcome, this is achieved by reading your behaviour to observe if you are in the desired state for moving towards your goal.

The third principle is flexibility of behaviour. This means to vary your behaviour until you get the response you want, if your current behaviour is leading towards your goal then you should continue, if it isn't then you should do something else.

The fourth and final principle of NLP is to take action now! This is a very important step because when someone says "I'll do it tomorrow" either to themselves or others, tomorrow usually means never, as we discussed earlier.

The key benefit to you is that you can begin to move towards the things that are important to you in life, today that might be becoming a non smoker, next month it might be creating more money for yourself or your loved ones. What you want is definitely within your reach by adjusting your behaviour and identifying your goals, and sometimes it only takes a small positive adjustment today to get a very big positive response a few months down the road.

Part 8. Kil Your Cravings With The Swish Technique.

Here is a technique that can help you overcome your craving for cigarettes with NLP

(neuro linguistic programming) but first let's take a quick look at the history of NLP.

After graduating from the university of San Francisco (with a bachelor degree in psychology) and then serving as a captain in the US special forces during the cold war in Europe, John Grinder moved on to work for a US intelligence agency, he then returned to college to study linguistics (the scientific study of human language) in the late 60's and received his P.h.D. In 71.

In 1972 while he was working as assistant professor in the linguistics faculty at the university of California he was approached by Richard Bandler for help in modelling Gestalt therapy (at the time an experimental therapy which focused on the individual's experience in the present moment) and this lead them to model or copy behavioural patterns of Fritz Perls, the creator of gestalt therapy, Virginia Sitar, a leading figure in family therapy and Milton Erickson who was a leading figure in hypnosis and psychiatry.

This work was the foundation of what would become neuro linguistic programming.

Richard Bandler and John Grinder began hosting practice groups, it was here they were able to practice their newly discovered behaviour patterns and teach them to the groups participants, they also used the information gained from these practice groups to publish several books. It was during this period that a creative group of students and psychotherapists formed around Grinder and Bandler, and all of them made valuable contributions to the growing field of neuro linguistic programming. In the 1980's the group separated and continued with NLP in their own directions.

The method used to combat addictions and cravings is known as the swish technique, this is a valuable technique for managing your own thinking, states, and behaviours. And each time you use the swish you are training yourself to re-direct your mind from negative habits or behaviours to more positive ones.

Visit www.letsgetsmokefree.com To Find Out More How to use the swish is as follows.

1. Select and visualise a replacement behaviour.

First select your replacement behaviour, ask yourself "what do I want to do instead of smoking another stinking cigarette?"

Once you have selected the replacement behaviour, going for a walk for example, visualize yourself acting out this behaviour as if you are looking at a square, clear photograph of yourself doing it.

2. Find the trigger for the unwanted behaviour.

Ask yourself "what occurs just before the unwanted behaviour (smoking) begins?" And this time you want to visualize a clear, square photograph of what happens just before you engage in the unwanted behaviour, for example you might visualize a picture of yourself just sitting back from the table after finishing a meal.

3. Put the replacement in the corner of the unwanted image.

Visualise your replacement photograph (going for a walk) as a small postage sized image in the bottom corner of your trigger photograph (sitting back from the table after finishing a meal).

4. Swish the two images.

Now you want to make both photographs swap places in your mind's eye at the same time.

Have the "negative" image become smaller and at the same time have the "positive"

replacement image become larger and closer until it replaces the negative image completely. Imagine a "swish" sound as you do this.

5. Clear your mind

After each Swish round blank your mind, fully! Think of something else or visualise your favourite colour. Breathing deeply as you do this since some people tend to hold their breath while concentrating on doing the Swish. It is crucial to the success of the Swish to clear your mind or turn your attention outside before you do each next round.

6. Practice 5-7 times

Repeat steps 3 to 5 up to about seven times until you have difficulty in maintaining the

"negative" or trigger photograph. It can seem a little blurry and unclear at first, depending on your ability to visualize, however if you keep practising your swish it will become crystal clear and will help you to exchange your trigger behaviour that happens just before you smoke for your better replacement behaviour.

Part 9. The Power Of Anchoring.

Stopping smoking is a subject that's usually approached with a sense of grim foreboding when in reality it's one of the best changes you can undergo, in the last chapter I covered the NLP swish technique for dealing with nicotine cravings and changing unwanted behaviour patterns, in this article I'd like to tell you about a technique called anchoring.

This technique involves anchoring thoughts and feelings when you perform a specific action such as squeezing your thumb and finger together. The anchor can be a sound or a gesture, it's totally up to you, so in the instance of a smoker who is quitting, if they crave a cigarette then by performing the anchor action the craving is relieved, below are the steps to follow to successfully practice the anchoring technique of chaining 1 positive and 1

negative anchor together, By doing so, whenever you start to feel the negative state it will flow to the positive state.

Step 1. Get yourself in a calm and relaxed state, this is easily done by getting yourself in a quiet, comfortable place where you won't be disturbed. Either sit or lie down in a comfortable position, without crossing your arms or legs and begin to take slow, deep breaths and with your mind scan down over all your muscles, loosening and relaxing any that you feel tension in (usually the shoulder and neck muscles). Slowly close your eyes and let yourself relax, don't try hard to relax because this will keep your mind in a state of effort, just let it come naturally with your slow, deep breaths.

Step 2. When you feel at your most relaxed, do your first (positive) anchor, pressing your thumb and forefinger together is a good one, but it's up to you.

Step 3. Open your eyes