“Agree with Sharpink. I wonder whether sometimes you need to re-enact the decisions you've made several times just to check you really have made up your mind?
I vividly remember an abseiling experience ... I knew I
wanted to do it (though I'm frightened of heights) but working out how to take the last few micro-steps to get me over the cliff edge took several minutes!
”
In the mind Re-enacting the decision you've made V's every single cigarette smoked is the conscious mind (12%) V's the Unconscious mind (88%) Only one clear winner, the 88% of everything done 'as a smoker' V's concentrating and remembering 'as a non-smoker' - (The average smoker of 20 has smoked a whopping 6720 cigarettes in just 365 days x that by how many years the persons been smoking and you can see how powerful that 88% becomes when a person tries to stop)
That's why you may have been a little frightened abseiling, you had never done it before, the conscious mind using logic and choice says.. "throw myself over the edge holding a rope,,,hmmm...." and the micro steps was the conscious mind overcoming the natural reactions of survival with logic and reason and deciding to trust... hot sweats, fear, excitement, elation are all symptoms of overcoming stress and anxiety.. It's a rush - BUT that is a very similar rush a smoker experiences when polluting the body with all of those deadly chemicals and know carcinogens - the body goes into a similar state of anxiety and 'calming feeling' a smoker misreads is the body returning to 'not being under attack' the anxiety and stress is over.
Another way to consider the way the mind works - (for drivers) think of the first time you ever drove a car... pretty scary (for me anyway) all those things to remember, the clutch, the gearstick, where the gears are, indicators, mirrors, signals, petrol, highway code, speed limits AAAHHHHH! Yet each and everytime it is repeated it becomes easier and easier -
Now think of the last time you drove your car... (hopefully a little better) the mind has a way of being able to just do things automatically without any conscious thought (not much anyway) needed as when in a new situation - when something is repeated so many times is becomes automatic good/bad or indifferent the mind unconsciously takes it all in..
Day by day the non smoker is building one experience per day of being a non smoker V's all of those days as being a smoker - psychology explains that this is how a non-smoker can be a little jittery as really to the mind this is a new experience to the mind it has to consciously keep reminding itself of the new choice..
Then all of the routines of being a smoker are now here but as a non smoker - that can be tough, as all of the triggers that led to smoking now lead tosomething that is unknown, different - some people unconscious replace the act of smoking with the act of X whatever it might be, gum, sweets, coffee, wine, stress, anger, water, beer, sex, harder drugs etc.. (you'd be amazed how many clients I see that are addicted to nicotine gum)
Stopping Smoking using hypnosis is still the most successful route and as a registered member of the CRSST
The Central Register of Smoking Cessation Therapists as the art of being a non-smoker becomes as natural breathing in and out, it just happens you don't even have to think about it
just like the experienced driver, driving the car - it can become an automatic part of your life - instantly and easily.
