Msg # 6849   
Date: 07 May 94  09:46:00
From: Bob Johnstone
  To: Kara Cowan
Subj: RE: QUITTING SMOKING
____________________________________________________________________________

 >BK>
 >BK> What if tomorrow would be the day you completely stop craving a
 >BK> smoke? Wouldn't it be too bad to start smoking again today?
 >
 > I know this wasn't aimed at me, but thank you for the insight.  I have
 > been trying to quit for some time now... and I still get nervous when
 > my pack runs low...

 Dont go without a pack, just keep it in a place where it is not so convient
to pick up a cigarette so that it reminds you that you are quitting.....

 Dont even quit, until you have practiced the mental exercise
 in RELAX TO THE MAX, for about three weeks.  In the meantime,
 cut down as much as possible by doing the following.

 1. Each time you take out a cigarette, look at it, think about HOW it would
feel to smoke it or go without it and then take a DEEP breath three times.

 2. Take that cigarette and tear it up into tiny pieces, sure it costs money
to do so, but it WILL cost you MUCH MORE if you continue to smoke.

 3. See how you feel after tearing up the cigarette.  If you feel you can go
without, do so as long as possible.  When you next feel you want one, do the
same thing...... IF AT ANY POINT you feel you cant go without, then take out
another and smoke it, BUT MAKE SURE YOU DO TEAR ONE UP FIRST..... It will do
more for you to break this habit than anything you could imagine or do...

 4. Continue doing this each time you feel like smoking and practicing the
exercise in the series on RELAX TO THE MAX...... you will find that you
REDUCE the amount of cigarettes that you actually smoke, reducing the amount
of nicotine in your system, so that when you do stop completely, it will be
much easier to do so.

 5. IF you do light up and smoke, do nothing else while smoking.  Pay close
attention to HOW you feel as you take a puff.... do you feel satisfied with
the 3rd puff or does it take you 4 to feel satisfied?   NOW at the point
where people feel satisfied, is where they sit talking with a lit cigarette
in their hand or they place it in an ash try to burn as they do other
things.... PUT IT OUT AT THAT TIME, for the smoke you BREATHE while it sits
in that ashtray is the MOST DANGEROUS for you and others around you.....  It
is the reason that "passive" smokers get throat and lung cancer..... as it
burns, it is NOT being filtered thru the cigarette, it contains much more of
the chemicals in the cigarette than what you inhale thru the filter and take
into your lungs.

 6. After practicing the exercise daily for a week or so, when you feel like
a cigarette take one out, sit and look at it, smell it, think of how it would
be to go without it.  Would it cause any STRESS - that - is what makes it
difficult for a tobacco addict or heroin addict to go without smoking.  Think
of that stress, THEN PRESS THE THUMB AND FINGER ON YOUR LEFT HAND and think
of the pleasant feelings that you built up when practicing, and thinking
about pleasant memories.  Think of the stress, the pleasant feelings, switch
back and forth between thoughts of stress you feel when you deprive yourself
of a cigarette, and the pleasant feelings over and over, not less than ten
times.

 7. At that time if you feel you DONT really need to smoke, tear up the
cigarette.... Destroy it..... that is the MOST powerful suggestion you can
give your mind that YOU are in control, that YOU are destroying that habit.

 > It seems like the hardest part for me
 > is the "habit" more than the nicotine.


 Copyrights 1947-1994 by Dr Bob Johnstone
 May be reprinted only with written permission.....

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