Most smokers, when asked what their biggest challenge or problem they face when quitting smoking will offer a range of answers. Some will say it’s the cravings… others will say it’s the habit, they are so used to smoking at certain times, in certain places with certain people. I’ve even had people say it’s their lack of will-power or inner strength. Some even think they are so addicted they can never quit, whilst others believe they cannot cope with life without smoking as it helps reduce anxiety and worry.
This wide range of different challenges smokers face is the reason why there are so many different approaches to quitting smoking, but the reality is that it all really boils down to one problem, and that is ‘thought’. It is about what you think about smoking and what you think it does for you that is the problem.
We all live in a world where our senses are bombarded all the time with external data and information. To such an extent that we have become a ‘thought-generated’ society. Everything we do, everything we become all stems from a thought. Everything we have, all the modern technology, was at sometime just a thought – an idea, in someone’s mind. So much so, that what we think will happen often does. In other words we create our own destiny.
If you think you have no will power – guess what – you don’t. If you think you are addicted – guess what – you are, and if you think your body cannot cope with physical cravings – guess what – it won’t.
The issue therefore is not cigarettes or tobacco products; it is about what you think about them. We are all programmed (even brainwashed) to think a certain way, for example; most smokers think that smoking relieves stress. Media advertising, subtle and not so subtle messages from soap operas, popular trends, and our education and social systems all contribute to us adopting specific attitudes and ways of thinking about everything in life, so it is not your fault that you have come to think about cigarettes as giving you pleasure – a companion and friend, always reliable always there, offering stability in an insecure world. This subtle programming means that most of us are unaware (asleep) to what is happening and just keep following the trends, and those who want to make changes ‘sleepwalk’ towards the solutions offered by the same media style programming…
The only solution to dealing with this problem is to shatter this illusion and see it for what it is. To wake up to reality and see that whatever you think the benefits of smoking are, the truth is that it is that you have been deceived by your thoughts. The battle is in your mind and your thinking and not in the cigarette. Take therefore every thought captive and recognise its source. Ask yourself “Where did it spring from?” Where did you learn that smoking gives you pleasure?
In recognising the reality that it is ‘not your thought’ but one installed in you from external sources, gives you clarity and with a clear mind you can seek the truth from the only true source of wisdom which comes from inside of you and not from the external world with its gamut of solutions. True wisdom comes from within. The answer you need to help you quit can therefore only be found within yourself…
Until the next time,
Success and Happiness