Why The Heck Are You Still Smoking?

I know you are an intelligent person and that you totally understand all the health reasons why you should give up smoking. But you do not give up. So why?

You tell me you are addicted, but you have used the patches and the gum and they did not work, so this means that there is more to it than an addiction to nicotine. What can it be that is causing you to buy death and inhale it every day?

What? Oh sorry if that was hard, but it is true - you are buying your own death. Incidentally, it does not do any good to the health of anyone you come into contact with either.

Let's get down to the 'nitty gritty' here, we need to find the real reasons you are smoking, before you will be able to quit. Time to look at some possible reasons.

1. Addiction to nicotine! OK we have agreed that the patches did not work, so it is more than just a physical addiction.

2. It is a habit. Well yes it is but habits can be broken; modern wisdom has it that you can break a habit by replacing it with another - preferably one less harmful!

3. Fear of stopping smoking - are you frightened of ideas like 'what would I do with my hands?' Really, is the cigarette such a big part of your personality? Aren't you more than just a cigarette holder?

4. Fear of getting fat, because smoking stops you eating too much. Really? I see overweight and even obese people smoking, don't you?

So it would appear the main reasons which keep you smoking are linked to fear. It is your unconscious mind which is controlling what you do. There is a mnemonic about fear, it is F-false, E-evidence. A- appearing, R- real. Your unconscious mind is using this false evidence.

Somehow it has been convinced that smoking makes your life easier and protects you. We know consciously that this is false, therefore we have to educate your unconscious mind to understand this too.

It is the emotional protection portion of the unconscious mind which is keeping you smoking, and it goes back a long way, to that first cigarette experience. Thinking on an emotional level, the day you managed to smoke your first cigarette, you would have been getting the emotional highs that are so important when you are young.

Look at the new `cool` me, I look like an adult, like one of the gang. I am not a 'mummies boy or girl' any more. This makes a good feeling in your unconscious mind and so the unconscious mind thinks that smoking cigarettes is an emotionally positive thing for you. You simply have to disabuse it of that notion.

This reaction of the unconscious mind is why people feel the internal 'tug of war' - which can make it much harder to quit.

You just do not need that sort of emotional support any more. You are a person. Look at me the successful business man, look at me with my beautiful wife, my great friends. These need to be the messages you give your subconscious. Write 'I am a successful non-smoker' on cards, keep one in your wallet stick one on the fridge and the bathroom mirror, be proud of this new person and break the habit.

If you want a few more good reasons, think about this. Why is smoking so unpopular, annoying and considered anti-social?

1. Bad Breath. Your breath really stinks, it is horrible sitting near you when you open you mouth. Breath fresheners or mints, you must be joking, it is still there, we prefer not to associate with you.

2. Passive Smoking. Why are you trying to kill me? When you smoke there is that constant stream of smoke which pollutes the area. Please be aware of what you are doing and do not inflict your habit on me.

3. Litter. OK you put the packages in the bin; yes of course you do but what about the 1,000s of cigarette ends all over the place. They are litter too.

4. Nipping out from the office for a smoke. Let me tell you the truth: we resent it, every time. You are cheating the company and us your colleagues.

5. More smells. We don't want to smell your stale smoke in the elevators or the rest rooms, ashtrays and bins are disgusting. When you all stand smoking outside the office we have to walk through the stale smoke, so we smell too.

6. Clothes, cars and taxis. Before I forget, your clothes smell too. I will not buy a car a smoker has smoked in, or sleep in a hotel room a smoker has smoked in. You are costing the hotel trade money. You pollute their hotels and others will not stay in them.

Oh by the way thanks for leaving the group for a smoke but your breath still smells when you come back, so don't breath on us please.

Think about these ideas Mr or Mrs Smoker, change your unconscious thought process. Smoking does not make me one of the guys it makes me an outcast, write that on a card and keep it where you can see it.

You must genuinely believe that you can stop, and that stopping will make your life better, before you can break the habit. Remove the idea that smoking makes me feel good and replace it with 'smoking makes me feel bad.' Reload the data in you subconscious and kick the habit, to keep your (non-smoking) friends.

There is help for those who seriously want
to quit smoking