I'm Going to Quit Smoking

With autosuggestion you say to yourself: "I'm going to quit smoking. It would be stupid to risk lung cancer or heart disease for a lousy cigarette. Besides, I'm tired of these nasty cigarettes."

Your conscious attention is upon the resolve to quit. Your conscious begins raising doubts. You begin to think about the consequences of breaking the cigarette habit. You wonder about the jitters and whether it's worth it or not. You begin to rationalize, weighing the "good" and the "bad" and naturally favoring that which you believe to be the most pleasurable.

Your resolution is subjected to scrutiny by logic and past experience. In the light of past failures, the conscious mind is forced to admit: "I should quit smoking, but I wonder if I can." The autosuggestion has been watered down with self-doubt. It becomes, "I hope I can give up the cigarette habit." With more rationalizing and more self-doubt, it eventually becomes, "Oh, what's the use." When you argue with yourself you defeat the purpose.

The Voice Within

Well, I have news for you. You may not believe this but the fact is that you always wanted to stop smoking. Oh yes you did. You do not need any body to tell you what is good for you and what is not. Deep down inside, a plaintive voice has been calling out to you to stop and you have been hearing it but you just haven’t done anything about it now.

You want to know why that happens? It is because you have convinced yourself that you will quit smoking at a later date. This promise false though it might be was enough to subdue that inner voice. The voice cried out and the response it got was...“Well I didn’t say that I was not going to stop smoking did I? Just give me the time and I will do it. I know what is good for me so don’t be a nag.”  

And that silences the inner voice. But that later date never comes. Come on who are we trying to fool. It’s just a way of convincing yourself that you can stop if you want but certain external factors are hindering your efforts.   

You can start the quitting process by doing some paper work again. You have to have a very clear idea about why you want to quit and the best way to find out why is to sit down with a piece of paper and write down why you exactly want to quit.

You list should include things like:

• To save your self from the hazards of smoking
• To gain better control over your life
• To increase your self esteem
• To set a good example to others, especially children, because if you smoke there is a very good chance that they too will become a smoker

But the most important point that you should put down is that you should try and quit in order to make it healthier and safer for those who live around you especially your friends and family. Hey come on, you really owe it to them.