photo credit: Matthieu Aubry. via photopin cc
To quit smoking is a tall order. It is for many a great discomfort, big problem and insurmountable obstacle.
I was a smoker from my teenage years year until 2010. I consider 29th of November as my second birthday, because it is the date I quit smoking for good. This enables me to have a balanced view on this matter.
There are two disclaimers I have to make here:
1. I did not practice mindfulness when I have stopped smoking. I have no idea if this method I will post here will work for anyone. I believe it will, at least, not hurt your efforts to quit smoking.
2. Allen Carr's book "Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking: The Easyway To Stop Smoking". The author claims on his web site that he sold 10 million of his books. I know people who read his book and did not stop smoking. For me it did the trick, and in this post I will explain how.
I am not the first one to think about mindfulness and smoking. There is a great article in Psychology Today in which Judson Brewer discusses how to do it. I will try to simplify the process. This does not mean it will be easier.
Smoking is probably the most rationalized human behavior. Drug addiction, alcoholism and gambling are on top of that list, too.
Some of most famous statements of smokers:
"I could not drink coffee without a cigarette"
"I must light one when I wake up"
"Smoke after a meal tastes so great"
"I can quit smoking when I want, and now is not that time"
"I would quit smoking but it would make me fat"
"I have tried to quit smoking before and could not do it"
"I have a lot of stress in office these days, it is not the right time"
This way smokers fool themselves. They know that, too. It would be interesting to dissect human urge to do bad things for their health (and others, too). Not only it is bad in a long-term, it is bad even in the moment when they actually smoke. There is no possibility that inhaling any kind of toxic fumes into human lungs is pleasant. The smokers perceive that it is enjoyable because it satisfies their nicotine addiction. It reduces stress caused by that same addiction. In this way smokers see the cigarette as a way to reduce stress thus giving them pleasure. I would not even talk about how wrong that argument is.
Smokers are not mindful. Just look at any smoker and pay attention to his or hers behavior. It goes like this:
1. They light up the cigarette.
2. In that moment they are aware of the fact they are smoking.
3. As soon as nicotine injects into the body, the addiction is fed.
4. After that, smokers move their cigarette away, usually out of their sight, and are not aware that they smoke until it is time to put it out in the ashtray.
Smokers are not aware that they are smoking. Ask any smoker if there was a time they actually left a cigarette in the ashtray to burn out and never even noticed until it started to smell bad? This is the case for any smoker who works and smokes in the same time.
There are no benefits of smoking. If you read Allen Carr's book, you will learn this over and over. He burns the rationalizations of smokers one by one and dumps them collectively into the ashtray. See what I did there? :-)
How I stopped smoking?
As I said before, I did not practice mindfulness a that period in my life. I did not even have an idea what meditation or awareness are. I have read Allen's book and just throw half-finished pack of cigarettes in the trash. I have decided to smoke my last cigarette, and I did not even finish it but extinguished it halfway. That was it for me.
Before that I unsuccessfully tried to cut down, to smoke just a few cigarettes a day. I even installed some Android apps that notified me when is the time for next cigarette, taking into account how many cigarettes I may smoke that day. It was a hell for me. After a few days of this i caught myself looking at the smartphone screen and waiting for it to ping.
What happened? I did not think much about what happened to me and made me quit, until recently. I have started practicing mindfulness meditation last year and read some books on the subject. In this process I learned about mindfulness, human brain functions and started noticing things that did not matter to me before.
I have reached the conclusion that Allen's book gave me a prolonged moment of clarity. It made me aware of my smoking habit all the way. I did not simply light-and-forget, I started noticing every smoke I inhaled. In combination with Allen's almost hypnotic writing style and his irrefutable arguments against smoking, that made me realize that each smoke I inhale made me more stupid in my own eyes. I understood that smoking is something that is happening to me now and it was very bad and unpleasant. I saw that clearly at one point and throw away my addiction.
People who tried and failed to quit smoking told me that days after the decisions are like hell. They just could not endure the pangs. They felt nervous and depressed. For me, they were five of my most precious days because I knew that each minute I was further away from hell. I had an issue after four days. I felt intense dizziness, and I had trouble maintaining my balance for two whole days. Fortunately that was my blood pressure dropping, since I did not ingest anymore of toxins and my heart started pumping less intense, lowering my blood pressure. I have helped my heart deliver oxygen to my body, by removing the dirt from my blood.
What about mindfulness? How would it help?
The plan to quit smoking using mindfulness:
1. When you feel the urge to smoke, take 10 deep breaths. Concentrate solely on the breath and if urge resurface just gently return your focus to the breath.
2. If the urge to smoke does not go away, drink a glass of water. Do it mindfully. Drink deliberately slow and notice how water travels to your abdomen.
3. If the urge to smoke does not go away, feel where in the body you feel this urge. Locate the exact point. When you find it, imagine a soap-bubble around it. Stand outside this bubble and look at your urge. Do not judge it, just feel it and accept it is there. Breathe while you are doing this.
This should help you, and if not, try again. You have to understand that the goal is to clean your body of nicotine. You can not throw it out immediately, since this takes about five days. Every time you light the cigarette, you move that five days window further into the future, thus prolonging your withdrawal symptoms.
After you are clear of nicotine, you have one more step to do. You need to break the connection between smoking from other activities. You have to learn not to light a cigarette after a meal or while drinking coffee. Be aware of the habit to smoke after waking up in the morning, since the first ten minutes of being awake is the critical time.
I hope this advice will help you and please write your experiences in the comments section!
I was a smoker from my teenage years year until 2010. I consider 29th of November as my second birthday, because it is the date I quit smoking for good. This enables me to have a balanced view on this matter.
There are two disclaimers I have to make here:
1. I did not practice mindfulness when I have stopped smoking. I have no idea if this method I will post here will work for anyone. I believe it will, at least, not hurt your efforts to quit smoking.
2. Allen Carr's book "Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking: The Easyway To Stop Smoking". The author claims on his web site that he sold 10 million of his books. I know people who read his book and did not stop smoking. For me it did the trick, and in this post I will explain how.
I am not the first one to think about mindfulness and smoking. There is a great article in Psychology Today in which Judson Brewer discusses how to do it. I will try to simplify the process. This does not mean it will be easier.
Smoking is probably the most rationalized human behavior. Drug addiction, alcoholism and gambling are on top of that list, too.
Some of most famous statements of smokers:
"I could not drink coffee without a cigarette"
"I must light one when I wake up"
"Smoke after a meal tastes so great"
"I can quit smoking when I want, and now is not that time"
"I would quit smoking but it would make me fat"
"I have tried to quit smoking before and could not do it"
"I have a lot of stress in office these days, it is not the right time"
This way smokers fool themselves. They know that, too. It would be interesting to dissect human urge to do bad things for their health (and others, too). Not only it is bad in a long-term, it is bad even in the moment when they actually smoke. There is no possibility that inhaling any kind of toxic fumes into human lungs is pleasant. The smokers perceive that it is enjoyable because it satisfies their nicotine addiction. It reduces stress caused by that same addiction. In this way smokers see the cigarette as a way to reduce stress thus giving them pleasure. I would not even talk about how wrong that argument is.
Smokers are not mindful. Just look at any smoker and pay attention to his or hers behavior. It goes like this:
1. They light up the cigarette.
2. In that moment they are aware of the fact they are smoking.
3. As soon as nicotine injects into the body, the addiction is fed.
4. After that, smokers move their cigarette away, usually out of their sight, and are not aware that they smoke until it is time to put it out in the ashtray.
Smokers are not aware that they are smoking. Ask any smoker if there was a time they actually left a cigarette in the ashtray to burn out and never even noticed until it started to smell bad? This is the case for any smoker who works and smokes in the same time.
There are no benefits of smoking. If you read Allen Carr's book, you will learn this over and over. He burns the rationalizations of smokers one by one and dumps them collectively into the ashtray. See what I did there? :-)
How I stopped smoking?
As I said before, I did not practice mindfulness a that period in my life. I did not even have an idea what meditation or awareness are. I have read Allen's book and just throw half-finished pack of cigarettes in the trash. I have decided to smoke my last cigarette, and I did not even finish it but extinguished it halfway. That was it for me.
Before that I unsuccessfully tried to cut down, to smoke just a few cigarettes a day. I even installed some Android apps that notified me when is the time for next cigarette, taking into account how many cigarettes I may smoke that day. It was a hell for me. After a few days of this i caught myself looking at the smartphone screen and waiting for it to ping.
What happened? I did not think much about what happened to me and made me quit, until recently. I have started practicing mindfulness meditation last year and read some books on the subject. In this process I learned about mindfulness, human brain functions and started noticing things that did not matter to me before.
I have reached the conclusion that Allen's book gave me a prolonged moment of clarity. It made me aware of my smoking habit all the way. I did not simply light-and-forget, I started noticing every smoke I inhaled. In combination with Allen's almost hypnotic writing style and his irrefutable arguments against smoking, that made me realize that each smoke I inhale made me more stupid in my own eyes. I understood that smoking is something that is happening to me now and it was very bad and unpleasant. I saw that clearly at one point and throw away my addiction.
People who tried and failed to quit smoking told me that days after the decisions are like hell. They just could not endure the pangs. They felt nervous and depressed. For me, they were five of my most precious days because I knew that each minute I was further away from hell. I had an issue after four days. I felt intense dizziness, and I had trouble maintaining my balance for two whole days. Fortunately that was my blood pressure dropping, since I did not ingest anymore of toxins and my heart started pumping less intense, lowering my blood pressure. I have helped my heart deliver oxygen to my body, by removing the dirt from my blood.
What about mindfulness? How would it help?
The plan to quit smoking using mindfulness:
1. When you feel the urge to smoke, take 10 deep breaths. Concentrate solely on the breath and if urge resurface just gently return your focus to the breath.
2. If the urge to smoke does not go away, drink a glass of water. Do it mindfully. Drink deliberately slow and notice how water travels to your abdomen.
3. If the urge to smoke does not go away, feel where in the body you feel this urge. Locate the exact point. When you find it, imagine a soap-bubble around it. Stand outside this bubble and look at your urge. Do not judge it, just feel it and accept it is there. Breathe while you are doing this.
This should help you, and if not, try again. You have to understand that the goal is to clean your body of nicotine. You can not throw it out immediately, since this takes about five days. Every time you light the cigarette, you move that five days window further into the future, thus prolonging your withdrawal symptoms.
After you are clear of nicotine, you have one more step to do. You need to break the connection between smoking from other activities. You have to learn not to light a cigarette after a meal or while drinking coffee. Be aware of the habit to smoke after waking up in the morning, since the first ten minutes of being awake is the critical time.
I hope this advice will help you and please write your experiences in the comments section!
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