Personal Development through Thinking

Second Week (or more if needed)

The first thing to do is congratulate yourself for arriving here. If you are thinking ‘yes, but that was easy I haven’t done anything other than think’, then let that voice go or challenge it. Thinking this way falls into the conventional ways of thinking that tell you there is only one way to quit, and that’s quit! It would be wrong because that one way to quit smoking has not been able to help every person.

The reason I asked you to start thinking about cigarettes is to make them conscious in your mind. We all know that when we smoke it’s a habit. But how many of us even consider the idea that habits cannot be broken unless we truly recognize them? We say it’s a habit and then forget about it as we do with most habits. Making it conscious reveals to us some of the hidden truths about why we smoke. They are not really hidden only overlooked and accepted.

If, after the first week, you have not found any hidden truths then do it again. Don’t tell yourself you have failed because it was not a test. Be kind to yourself and understand that each person has her own time frame, which cannot be measured by someone else. Try very hard to avoid the language of success and failure because it has no place here. If someone should discover you are trying this method and they give you a hard time let it go from your mind. Remember, they have no idea how difficult this is for you.

Now, what to do for the second week, which will be quite difficult. I would like you to give up smoking for one hour a day. No, it’s not a typing error (and that is very possible for me if you read my bio), one hour. Now if you smoke one cigarette every two hours then it will be for two hours. Try this for another 7 days. You can pick your hour each day but it has to be an hour of importance. Perhaps you like a cigarette after a meal or first thing in the morning - you choose - but make each day a different hour. Now supposing you last for 30 minutes and it is 10 minutes longer than you would normally wait. Do not tell yourself you have failed to make the hour, tell yourself you have lasted 10 minutes longer than normal. But, resist going into a full-blown ‘Wow!’ mode of success. This is about a change of habit not success and failure (which may be the end result your are looking for but which we try to avoid during the process).

If anyone is looking on and telling you that you can’t even quit for an hour leave them with their opinions. Let their voice go from your mind, as they have no idea what you are doing. Tell yourself for the time you have stopped that you have stopped smoking for one hour, 30 minutes, always using supportive language. However, the hour is not to be wasted. The most important thing to do with this hour is fill it. Do something that can be performed routinely for the seven days. So to summarise:

Week 2
a) Decide each day on the 1-hour you will stop smoking and tell yourself you have stopped.
b) Fill each hour of the seven with something you can perform routinely.
c) If you don’t make the hour congratulate yourself on what you have achieved, 1 minute upwards.
d) Keep thinking about every cigarette you are smoking
e) Keep an empty packet from this week
f) Don’t slip into success and failure language.
g) Never start chastising yourself, if you do, challenge the voice. Be kind to yourself. (You are on a journey or self-realisation)