Quitting smoking.

[Someone here]

4 hours ago, Ananta said:

My best advice is that it would serve your best interest if you quit again RIGHT NOW or it could be months or years from now that you try again. Not even kidding

Yes totally agree. I've hit rock bottom I'm considering isolating myself so I can quit. It's a bit extreme but extreme proplems require extreme solutions I guess. Will get rid of all cigarettes in the house. 

[BlackMaze]

Whatever works for you! It's true better quit now again because you don't know when the next attempt will be if you let it

[Someone here]

I'm back to smoking again after a month of quitting... Need to take this seriously once again. Day zero. 

30 days challenge. No smoking. 0️⃣?

[flowboy]

@Someone here  Do you want a golden, but counter-intuitive tip?

 

[Someone here]

@flowboy sure.. Go ahead 

[flowboy]

The negative emotional reaction that you have when you slip up, or "fail", or even when you think about the lung damage, is actually what keeps you going back to it.

I learnt this after many years of attempting to quit. I have zero cravings now.

On the surface level, it seems that associating smoking with pain (by negative self-talk or scaring yourself with facts), would deter you from it.

Actually though, it keeps the attachment in place.

Why this is, has to do with the subconscious, and its desires not aligning with your conscious ones. (it secretly enjoys the emotional pain that you give yourself. I know it's weird)

To be successful in quitting, you have to associate smoking not with pain and hate, but with NOTHING.

Meh.

That's the key.

(if you are wondering how to do this, start with forgiving yourself for starting to smoke ever. Leo's forgiveness exercise may help. And then any time you slip up, become good at quickly forgiving yourself and just go "yeah whatever. Stupid but I'll be fine. I am allowed to make mistakes", and go right back to being quit without giving it a second thought.)

And simultaneously work on associating NOT smoking with awesomeness.

What I did was write down an affirmation everyday about why I loved being a non-smoker. Example: "I love that I can walk up two flights of stairs without seeing stars, because I am a non smoker". Or: "I love that I can talk to people for hours without needing to go outside and interrupt the flow, because I am a non-smoker." Or: "I love breathing freely as a non-smoker." Et cetera. I used to hang them up on my wall. My entire wall was covered, but it did help.

- Make sure that they state that you are a non-smoker in the present

- Make sure that they have no negativity in them, but give you a light, warm feeling. This is super important for lasting change

Try to come up with one every day for your 30 day challenge.

Edited March 23, 2021 by flowboy

[Someone here]

@flowboy thank you 

[flowboy]

@Someone here  You may find that you have resistance against doing this (the forgiving yourself, and releasing the emotional attachment, moving to a 'meh' state). For me, it felt like I much preferred to keep hating on myself and scaring myself. That's a sign that it's true, though. The attachment to the negative emotion = the attachment to smoking. I had to read this in two books before I got it (Psycho-Cybernetics and Existential Kink)

Good luck