How To Stop Smoking In One Simple Step (Without Using Willpower)

I’m going to describe a framework to understand smoking as an emotional need, provide you with the easiest tool for instant smoking cessation.

Why do I think I can help you?

Simple:

I'm a hypnotherapist.

I help people reset their habits of thought, belief and behaviour. And although hypnosis has had a bad reputation over the course of the last 100 years, it's still widely used in medicine, sports and in certain areas of business.

To keep the matters short: hypnosis allows you to create changes on a subconscious level which result in effortless changes on a conscious level.

That's why I refer to it as "the Reset". It's literally rewiring your brain circuits and changes your associations in order for you to live a better, healthier or a more productive life.

And what is best is that the changes being made feel effortless to a person who's cooperated with a hypnotherapist.

But there's another - somewhat shocking - reason why a smoker could benefit from reading this article.

And that is:

I quit smoking when I was 11 years old. 

Yes, 11 years old. 

(Now, obviously it's not my picture, but you gotta admit it looks awesome!)

I was fortunate enough to light up my first cigarette with a group of people whom I did not respect. I didn’t want to be like them, so I didn’t have a need to be accepted by this group. 

It was only after I became a certified hypnotherapist that I realised how lucky I was at this period - unlike millions of people worldwide, who during the period of adolescence took their first puff and stuck with it for decades. 

Now, we all know the statistics and realise that smoking is bad for you. 

A typical cigarette contains around 300 chemicals that damage our respiratory system and lungs. Besides, cigarettes can make you smell like an ash tray. And annually besides creating damage to the body they are causing deaths of more than 8 million people annually.

Yikes…

So we all know smoking cigarettes - aka “death sticks” - is literally deadly. 

In light of current Covid-19 pandemic it makes sense to take care of our lungs and immune system. More than ever before. 

Lesson #1: Covid-19 damages respiratory system and is more likely to do more damage in lungs of a smoker. 

We all know someone who keeps smoking despite the negative effects. It’s easy to empathise with people who in those stressful times keep repeating how smoking “helps them relax”, “calms them down” and “allows them to focus”. 

Now, it's important to make a distinction between "nicotine" and "cigarettes".

In and of itself nicotine isn’t a “bad chemical”. 

Actually there's research that proves it can have a positive impact on your mood, focus and productivity. 

The critical question is how much you're going to take and in what way you’re going to ingest it. 

There are both good and bad ideas to do this.

Inhaling it amongst 300 different chemicals in a sticky cloud of dirt is generally a bad idea. 

Especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

It's easy to demonise nicotine and blame it for the hidden smoking pandemic. But upon closer inspection we'll notice that the main villain isn't nicotine itself.

It's all the stuff that tobacco companies put around it that makes it so destructive. We'll learn how to use nicotine effectively in a little. Now we're going to move to the mental and emotional aspects of smoking and how you can use the power of your mind to... change your own mind.

Lesson #2: Nicotine works by tying to acetylcholine receptors in the brain, which can have a calming effect on your mood, focus and enhance your productivity. It has been proven to promote neuroplasticity - growth of new connections between neutrons in the brain. 

Despite all sorts of research, social actions and campaigns for the past 50 years people who had been trying to quit smoking weren't really able to.

It'd easy to think of them as "weak-minded" individuals. But the matter is more complex than that.

If you listen to a smoker describing their addiction they’ll sometimes say that smoking "allows them to calm down”. But the calming effect experienced while smoking isn't primarily the function of nicotine. It's rooted in the power of association the smoker has in his mind.

Lesson #3 - People smoke for emotional reasons and rationalise it with their conscious mind to sustain their self-image as a rational person. 

Remember how I was able to quit smoking at the age of 11? 

Here’s the main reason:

I didn’t care about the kids that were around me and gave me the cigarette. 

It may sound harsh, but let me explain. 

The period of adolescence is when most of us discover that our parents, our religion and our society don't know as much as they pretend they do.

And we feel a little bit lost.

At the same time our bodies, minds and physical features change rapidly and we have to learn how to play the game of life on new terms. Sometimes these new terms contain feelings of lack of safety and/or stability in our lives. This period is volatile. 

Most people begin to smoke during this period. Sometimes their "initiation" starts during a school break or when they're hanging out with their friends.

If you'd ask a smoker about the first time he's tasted a cigarette he'd probably say it was awful.

So now the question arises: how is it that despite that horrible taste he kept his desire to smoke for decades ahead? Did the taste suddenly change?

It isn't the taste of a cigarette nor nicotine that ties people to smoking.

It's basic human emotions.

Once lightened up the desire to smoke is associated with powerful feelings of safety and belonging to the group.

In this way smoking becomes a ritual, which reinforces feelings of safety and belonging to the group.

Our basic human desire to feel good is fulfilled with this ritual and helps us become a member of something "bigger than ourselves".

And no matter if we move to another city, grow up or lose touch with the primary group of people associated with smoking - the feeling of safety and belonging associated with the ritual remains with us wherever we go. 

I was lucky to take my first puff with people whom I did neither liked or admired. I didn’t feel I wanted to be with them nor wanted to be a part of their group. 

So as a result I’m a non-smoker today. 

And in a moment I’ll show you how to become one. 

How to stop smoking in two easy steps. 

Quitting smoking is hard. Ask millions of people who try to quit smoking every year and fail miserably.

So what's the difference between those that quit easily and the rest of the world?

The primary thing is that they're able to reset their identity. Let's go deeper.

I never had to quit smoking.

I never had to quit smoking since I was never a smoker in the first place. 

I never began smoking and never thought of myself as a smoker. 

And this is key when it comes to creating powerful change in a person's life.

Lesson #4: Your Identity is the most powerful persuasive tool in the Universe. It makes you or breaks you depending on how you use it. 

So what is the fastest and easiest way to quit smoking? 

It’s not to “quit smoking”. It’s not to “try to quit smoking”. 

It’s not even to take patches, gums and all other products that substitute nicotine.

The easiest way to “not-smoke” is… 

To become a non-smoker. 

Or - to put it another way - to stop thinking of yourself as “a smoker who tries to quit smoking” and start to think of yourself as “a non-smoker”. 

Simple. You might think it’s “too simple”. 

But it's just your conscious, "logical" mind talking right now.

You have to understand this powerful concept:

Your IDENTITY - YOU - are the most powerful persuasion tool available in your disposal. 

And how you identify yourself is crucial to what you do.

Thinking of your identity - aka “ego” - as a tool allows you to create yourself the way you want to - not the way you’ve been programmed to by your circumstances and environment. 

Think about it:

Every year hundreds of millions of people devote their lives to a nation, a religion or a sports team. 

Even though personally they’ve never met their “founding fathers”, kings, emperors or even their democratically chosen representatives. 

They’ll say: “I’m German”, “I’m catholic”, “I’m a Mercedes owner”. 

And their identity is the key propelling force behind their thoughts, beliefs and actions. 

So the number one thing that keeps millions of people from quitting smoking every years is…

Their identity as “smokers who keep trying to quit”. 

A smoker who keeps trying to quit is never going to quit, because his identity is wrapped around the idea of "quitting" and "being a smoker" in the first place.

If you add to this mix a group of friends and colleagues who smoke you'll end up with a person who is destined to fail.

So "trying to quit" or "quitting" is not a solution. This identity includes cravings, thoughts and beliefs associated with smoking.

The solution is to break the habit of being yourself and become a non-smoker. 

Lesson #5: Your identity writes your story of who you are influences the direction of your thoughts, beliefs and actions. 

So we’re through. I just saved you a couple of hundred bucks by showing you how you can reset your settings from a “smoker who’s trying to quit” to “becoming a non-smoker”. 

You’re welcome. 

But let’s get deeper my dear reader.

After reading this text some of you will “click” and implement this solution right away. 

It's really that easy.

For others this process might take a little bit longer. This - again - isn't the question of your willpower. It's a question of your identity and what you choose to do with it.

In the next article from the smoking series I'll describe how you can use hypnotherapy to eliminate the root cause of smoking. I'll also describe how you can keep the benefits of smoking without taking a single puff ever again.

Until next time,

Donald Graff