Would You Like To Quit Smoking?
Hello, and thank you for stopping by my web page.I'm an ex-smoker myself, and I know how hard it is to quit smoking. I was a smoker from 1967 through 1984 and at one time smoked as much as 3 packs a day. Quitting is one of the hardest things I've ever done.
In the early 1980s, while watching late-night television, I heard a woman talking about a survey she'd done with current smokers. She asked, Do you enjoy smoking? And a huge majority of smokers answered, Yes, I enjoy smoking.
I thought to myself, I enjoy smoking. I enjoy the taste, I enjoy how I look when I smoke. Smoking is relaxing.
Next, she asked, If you could quit smoking right now with no consequences -- no craving, no withdrawal, no weight gain -- would you quit? And 96% of smokers answered, Yes, I would quit.
I realized that I, too, would quit in a moment if I could do it without consequences. When I'd said I enjoyed smoking, I'd been making the best of a behavior that I felt powerless to change rather than seeing the whole truth about how I felt about smoking.
Different parts of me wanted different things: one part wanted me to continue smoking, while another part wanted to quit.
According to the survey, 4% of the people polled genuinely enjoyed smoking. It turned out that I wasn't one of the 4%. If you're in that group, this exercise might not be for you.
If, on the other hand, you're feeling torn about smoking or wanting to quit, you might be like me — there might be different parts of you wanting different things. The part of you that wants to continue smoking is currently the one in control. And you can change that.
My Approach
If you'd like to quit smoking, and there's a part of you that wants to keep smoking, I'll bet it has some good reasons, and I invite you to hear what it has to say. Some people have found that a part like this is actually trying to protect them from something it considers worse than smoking!Once that part has a chance to be heard and acknowledged, you may be able to get some movement on your desire to quit smoking. In fact, that part of you might know a lot about your smoking and be able to offer you information that can help you quit!
Reasons and Strategies
It's my belief that a behavior like smoking is often a strategy adopted for good reasons. When you started smoking, it might have been the best strategy available to you at that time.When I talk about good reasons, am I saying that smoking is good? No!! I think smoking is pretty harmful, both to your physical health and to your self-esteem.
So what do I mean about having good reasons to smoke?
I'll use myself as an example. For me, smoking was a way of keeping my feelings under control. I was 16 when I started to smoke. I was having a pretty miserable adolescence, and I was growing up in an environment where feelings weren't appreciated. Smoking helped me keep my feelings under the surface, and there were a lot of feelings to keep hidden.
I think we all have strategies like this operating under the surface, strategies that we adopted a long time ago. You can bring these strategies out into the light where you can see them, acknowledge them for the useful part they played in the past, and then make conscious choices whether to continue using the same strategies or adopt new ones, based on your current life goals.
Exercises
These exercises are intended to help you get some movement on your desire to quit smoking. To start, click Next.
