Stop Smoking Session I
First of all, you are aware that we have already completely uncovered the underlying cause of your compulsive smoking habit. You no longer feel the compulsion to smoke at all. We are now only dealing with a habit pattern -- the hollow shell of your original problem.
Habits can be broken as easily as they are created. One of the ways to do that is to make you aware of your smoking. From the very moment you reach for a cigarette, you will be extremely conscious of what you are doing. If you light it and start to smoke, you will be unusually aware of every moment of the time you are involved in smoking that cigarette. The main reason you have continued to smoke is because you are doing it unconsciously -- you have not really been aware of what you were doing. But now you are. Each time you reach for a cigarette, you attention will be drawn to that cigarette and focus uncomfortably upon it. When you are aware of what you're doing, you are no longer in the unconscious habit. You already have no need to continue smoking; you know that. So this will be easy and effortless. There will be none of the struggle and fight with will power you may have experienced in the past, no guilt of smoking as you do it. The awareness may make you annoyed with smoking, disgusted and bored by it. You may even want to put the cigarette out when you are only half-finished.
It will not taste as good as it used to. You simply will not wish to continue. You have already made up your mind. You have found the reason you smoke and you have already made up your mind -- a final decision to stop smoking altogether. You have already made up you mind to stop smoking altogether. You have already made up you mind that you are going to stop now, not tomorrow, not the next day, but you are going to stop this very moment. You have made a final decision to stop smoking.
You want to stop smoking as of this very minute. You know why you want to. Think about that reason. Form it clearly in your mind. Think about the problems smoking causes. You have no need of smoking because of that, you are giving it up. You're giving up coughing; you're giving up pain; you're giving up trouble; you're giving up all the things you don't want, including smoking. You are giving up the things you don't want in order to get the things you do want: relaxation, rest, a feeling of security, happiness.
You will forget about cigarettes altogether. You have no need to buy them because you have no need to smoke them. Consequently, your purchase of cigarettes will immediately cease. And should you perhaps accept a cigarette without realizing it, you will immediately be aware of it and will be overcome with an uncontrollable compulsion to break it in two as soon as it enters you hand. Whenever you touch the cigarette, you will instantly break it in two. It will remind you of all the bad things you're giving up and all the good things that are in store for you. You realize how much greater the proportion of good you are receiving is than the portion of bad you are giving up. It will seem as small thing to you to give up smoking, considering the tremendous benefits you will be receiving for giving it up. It is easy to give up things you don't like. And you don't like to smoke.
You will begin to feel proud of yourself, very proud. You will find it easier to conquer other habits. It makes it easier for you to conquer life in general. It fills your ego, making you self-confident, self-assured and self-reliant.
You will keep a record in the beginning of your progress. Every single day, you will remind yourself how successful you have been as an abstainer. How many days, how many weeks and months you have been an abstainer and how wonderful it has made you feel. You will continue to keep this record and it will encourage you and fortify you as a tangible record of your success. And soon you will no longer feel the need to keep such a record because you will know that you are an abstainer permanently. That this record will go on unblemished for the rest of your life.
You already know that no habit is stronger than the power of you mind which created it in the first place. It is now you versus tobacco. You will easily win for you are stronger. Your have patience, great patience now, perseverance, great perseverance, calm and relaxed determination. Nothing can shake it. You will go on patiently day to day. Every day will be a success. You will become accustomed to success. And soon that feeling of success will be far more important to you than any habit could possible be.
