Hi i went to the spiritualist church and the medium called george came to me with a message ,george said i have got your dad here ,he is very worried about your health ,he said if you dont give up smoking you will be seriously ill with your lungs and your children need you ,george said other things that only me and my dad would know ,so i know it was him ,only a few days ago i saw my dad he was only their for a few seconds but i wonder now if this is why he came to me to warn me about my health ,only i have been dreaming about him a lot just lately as well .love deanna god bless

I'm not your Dad, Deanna, but I'll validate the opinion.
If you are smoking, stop. Stop now.

I was a 3 1/2 pack-a-day smoker - I can tell you that it will do you harm! I've had friends (no longer here) who didn't stop.

Here's the statistics from a meta-study in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis c 2002 or so -

Cold Turkey - 5% success
Patch and Drug-Store Aids - 8 to 12% success
Hypnotic Smoking Cessation - 88% success - including for inexperienced hypnotists

As an example, in my hypnosis clinic I charge $250 to stop smoking, give a lifetime guarantee, and am done with 90% of smokers in a single two hour session. 75% have no withdrawal, or they weren't bothered. The other 25% tough it out. I have about 5% who need two or more sessions, and about 5% failures who simply don't take responsibility.

I suggest that you figure out how much you want to be healthy, how much money you'll save, and find someone who will work with you. - And please, do it now. Look up a local hypnotherapist in your phone book today! - Personally, I suggest avoiding group sessions. Personal attention from an experienced worker is usually the best way. (I've done hypnosis for 55+ years and feel entitled to an opinion.)  - Don't just go for cheap - you usually get what you pay for.

But, most important, DO IT!

We love you and want you to stick around!
dave

Thanks dave for being so caring i will take your words of good advice and i will try to give up ,the trouble is i get so much stress and it dosent help love deanna

I second that! Smoking definately does more harm than good!! IT may take the stress away, but it kills ya softly while you do it.. I myself was never a ciggarette smoker, but I smoked pot for a good 7 years.. During one point in my life around the 6th year of smoking, I would smoke 5 to 6 blunts a day of cannabis..  I have been pot free for about two years now!! It makes me feel more healthier and definately more vibrant and alive!!

I know cigs are more addictive  so it may be harder for you to quit.. But please do yourself a favor and quit now.. Your dad knows what's best and wants you to do the right thing! So, quit now and you'll be more healthier and live longer!!

IF, I can quit you can too!!

Mind over matter!!

peace

Thanks bear i will try to give up the fags ,to tell you the truth it is worrying me what dad said because i know its true my dad loves me and he is trying to warn me ,i have got to do it for my children as well as myself and for dad too love deanna god bless bear

Amazing this is posted today!  Last night, my husband was having some BP issues..he smoked alot yesterday.  I'm a smoker too..less during the week than the weekend, and most of that is just "habit"..that is, while doing certain things, a smoke goes with it.

Husband has not had one today..I've had a few, can't smoke at work.  We've discussed it for quite some time, and I hear the tax is going up again, so perhaps this is the time?

For those who are pot smokers, the statistics in the present world are that pot smokers are 1% more likely to have health problems than non-smokers of all types.  Further, pot is habituating, just as making love tends to be, but it is not addictive. Tobacco is addictive, and the cigarette companies have added more chemistry to increase the addictive potential. It is nowhere so benign as marijuana.

Back about 1958 a friend complained that he wanted to stop smoking. So we rolled him a dozen or so wee little teeny matchstick sized joints, and cut them in half. He was instructed to smoke one of these when the tobacco urge hit. After a week or so he returned. He was tobacco free and wanted to stop smoking so much pot because he was tired of feeling stupid.

If used as a sacrament, meaning a means of approaching the divine, pot seems to do litle harm and occasionally some good. (I have a California Medical Marijuana card, and use pot to dry excessive secretions in my lungs that interfere with breathing, as well as stabilization of my gut from IBS. It also brings on spiritual experiences.)

Anyway, tobacco has a very limited shamanic use. (For example, as an ingredient in ayahuasca, where it is intended to induce vomiting.) Outside that, it is harmful.

There are lots of alternatives. When I do a hypnotic smoking session I ask if the person meditates - and amazingly a large number of people have some experience in meditation! Then I suggest a simple meditation that replaces the cigarette. It uses breathing, because the mind follows the breath - hold your breath for ten or fifteen minutes and you'll notice that your mind gets pretty intense on the topic.

First breath, stop outside activity. Second breath, focus inwards. Third breath, focus on feeling grounded - grounding cord down the spine to the center of the cosmos - sense that you are in the proper time and place for you. Send the mind outward and notice the manner in which everything operates as a unity, communicating with its own mechanical logic, and held together with love, logic and wisdom. Keep pointing outward until you feel one with the universe. Maybe you'll encounter the Creator - and a cosmic sense of humor - Sty n that space and become one with it. When you come back to the world you'll have a changed perspective - and that's as good or better than cigarettes can do.

Since this is not sex, there is no temptation afterwards to reach for a cigarette.

However, no matter what path you take, please start now.

Incidentally, if you have ever tried to tell kids what is good for them, you've noticed how it goes in one ear and out the other. Showing your kids how to stop smoking is a lesson that they will never forget. Then later on, when they are confronted with anything from tobacco to hard drugs, they'll remember, "Oh, Mom quit. I can quit too." If you need something to boost your resolve, try remembering that it save the lives of our children when we quit. Isn't that a good enough reason?

dave

I know several people who gave up smoking without having a problem. I believe the main thing is to make the commitment to do so.

One good thing to do while working to give something up, is to not do so for a day, and then ask yourself: "Okay, I didn't ___ today. Do I feel like I'm missing something? No.  Am I glad I didn't_____? Yes."  Do this for a while and after a while you'll realize that you aren't missing anything.

Hi i have tried so many times to give up smoking but with no success but i must take my dads warning seriously so i have got to try harder for my own sake and my familys ,just hope this time i can do it,i am going to ask jesus to help me love deanna

Another smoker here! So I guess I'll have another attempt.
I wonder Dave, if one is experienced with guided meditation, could one record a tape with some good working sentences to hear it while in meditation, so that it had a similar effect like a session with a hypnotherapist?

Spooky

Good question Spooky.  I've been thinking of flying to California for one of Dave's smoking cessation sessions but it probably wouldn't be as cost effective flying in from Germany.

Rob

Don't fly in from Gernmany - not necessary.

Smoking cessation is effective when one ceases to fight it. First, the cues that we sense (when I was doing 3.5 packs-a-day) include blood pressure and nervous activity. Nicotine reduces blood flow and greatly increases axonal repolaization time.  When we have stopped smoking for a while, we sense these as they recover. Lacking information, view them as "nervous energy", when actually what hapens is that your body is recovering from chronic nicotine poisoning. So first, recognize what you're feeling - it's good health returning. We simply were unused to feeling so much good health and energy, so we used to grab another butt. However, now that you recognize them, these are not "withdrawal feelings" but simply undirected energy - so go out and wrk it off doing enjoyable things. Sex is a great activity!

Meanwhile, if you need to tell yourself anything at all, try "No thank you, I'm a non-smoker. I'm no loger a slave to a poison peddler." Notice that the same authority will generalize into all aspects of your life. (By the way, I also sell my smoking cessation process to therapists. It's about 95% effective in one two-hour session. If you can either hypnotize or meditate it should work out.) Feel good as you take control and consciously keep telling yourself how good it feels to have all that new vitality!

The key is to actually DO IT. - after a few days it gets much easier.
dave

Becoming an ex-smoker is easy.....I've done it several times in my life...... :)

But yes, I am smoking again. It felt great not to smoke for a while this spring and I lasted about 2 months. I tell myself I'm smoking "the best" -- and at $7/pack, that's expensive, even though I don't smoke but 2-3 in the evenings.

Don't guilt yourself, Deanna! It's a coping mechanism, that's all. And it's enjoyable...until you can convince yourself that you really don't want it or need it.  And then you may have to try again.

Like me.

Well, we all have weaknesses, and we all have strengths.  How to apply our strengths to our truest desires?  There is a part of us which is not yet convinced that we really want to quit this activity.

Tobacco was a sacred thing to the native americans. It was used ceremonially. Perhaps the first step in quitting for us would be to use the tobacco more consciously, as a sacred ritual.

Putting ourselves down for a "bad" habit only decreases our feelings of self-worth. Our egos really don't want a piece of that thinking and will argue with us, even after we have removed the nicotene from our systems.

Really, quitting smoking is relatively painless.  It is the thought of wanting it that is difficult.  The thought of wanting it and not doing what we want to do.

Well, my 2 cents for today. When I have it all figured out I'll let you know.... :)

blink

Thank you very much Dave. Yes probably, "just do it" is the main thing. And the right time is always "now" I guess.

Spooky

Hi Spooky-
I wish I could do more than just give information and encouragement, but like any addiction, when you start using, you agree to pay the price (it's in the fine print). :-]

I just finished working with a smoker in my clinic, and he advised me that Pfizer has come out with a "stop smoking drug" called "varenictine"  (expensive) which is quite similar to cytisine.  The herbal equivalent is available as "Tabex", which is taken in relatively large quantities for about two weeks, but blocks all the reinforcement properties (dopamine release) of nicotine, so should be useful. It comes from a type of acacia. From looking at the structural formulae, it looks like almost all natural opiates would also block nicotine, but they have a more severe addictive potential. Of course if you happen to have a garden full of poppies it might be an interesting experiment.

With my 3+ Pack-a-day habit I chose to stop "cold turkey" because I had no idea of any other method - this was in the late 1950's - and had I recognized that all the sensatios are actually good health returning instead of feeling as if I was getting sick from withdrawal I wold have been a lot happier. But - you're right on target with the observation that it's just a matter of doing it. That way we don't have to go and unstick you in the spirit world. ;-)

Meanwhile, tell youraself that all the new energy and new awareness is all part of good health returning - which is true - and the fact that it returns like Gangbusters is why we don't usually recognize that fact.

dave

OK, Dave, Spooky, Deanna, you've convinced me.

Last night I came home completely exhausted from my job, had one cigarette.  I tried to be completely CONSCIOUS during this.  Meaning, AWARE of every sensation.  I could feel that my throat really didn't want me doing this.  My body was definitely rejecting this activity at a deeper level if I would only listen to it.  I did it anyway because my mind wanted it.

Then I meditated and fell asleep until 1 in the morning. I got back up, read a while and smoked one more outside on my quiet porch. I was not "conscious" this time because I took a book with me and read it while I smoked.  This time the cigarette seemed to consume itself, and very quickly, whereas the previous time it seemed to take a long time.

Two very different sensations.

So, I went back in and meditated myself back to sleep, but not before I decided to try using my "main gal" to see if she can help me quit smoking. I like her meditation cds, and maybe I just need some reinforcement.  

It certainly works for everything else!

But the "awareness" aspect seems very important also.  I almost feel as if I could completely quit again simply by really really really being aware.  At the very least, I believe I could reduce the smoking to maybe one cigarette a week.

I think the body, when listened to, tells us exactly what it likes and doesn't like, what it needs and what it rejects.

But we, in our societies, have been trained to ignore its wisdom.

It has an innate wisdom and it will always tell us in some way if we are harming ourselves.  Did you feel bad after that meal? Your body didn't like it. Are you breathing fast and is your heart racing for no reason? Get quieter inside--you are overstimulated.  Are you sluggish and lying around in bed for days? Does it make you feel content? No? Well, get up and do something, anything.

Well, I'm sure I've blabbed long enough here.  But I appreciate the re-visiting of this subject.

love to all, blink :)

In designing my smoking cessation program I made an effort to provide some other activity to replace smoking, like sucking mints etc, plus reinforcement for not smoking, "Feel good when you reach for a mint" and a more abstract empowerment for refusal, "No thank you, I'm a non-smoker. I am in charge of my own life." If the collective reinforcement value of these exceeds that of smoking, it resolves the habit easily.

I've had very little luck with negative approaches, which is common for most workers. After all, if I slapped you every time you came for treatment, you'd soon stop coming. The same is true of working on ourselves.

dave