Keep on Smoking

That's right, keep on smoking.

It's not and never has been my intention to 'make people,' stop smoking. If you want to smoke then that's your choice and it's fine by me. The purpose of this blog is to help people who want to stop smoking in a way that makes it very likely that they will. Making the decision is the biggest step, once that has been taken you will find becoming a non smoker a whole lot easier if you get as much informed opinion as possible about how to do it.

When I say informed opinion that means getting advice from people who have stopped smoking easily and people who help them do it. So please, if you don't want to stop then carry on smoking because nobody will ever stop you from smoking except you, when you decide.

Just do me a favour, when or if you do decide, please don't be conned into thinking that it is hard to do and don't try to do it when it is most likely you will need to smoke. Like new years day for example. Statistically 50% of New Year’s resolutions have been broken by the end of the first week. There is some very sound reasoning why this is the case and particularly with smoking. According to government figures only around 7% of smokers who rely on willpower will succeed in quitting on the first attempt. New Year’s Day is perceived by many to be a time to make a fresh start or turn over a new leaf, but in actual fact it’s quite probably the hardest time to quit smoking. By the last week in December the days are at their shortest and cases of Seasonally affected Disorder (SAD) are coming to a peak and the cold is starting to bite. Christmas is a welcome fillip to the gloom with celebrations and indulgence being the order of the day. However as the year draws to a close, the festivities are over the decorations come down and the unwelcome credit card statement drops on the door mat, merriment can in some turn into less uplifting mood states. Add that to the still long dark nights at the coldest time of the year, it’s a recipe for the blues or worse a bout of depression. This is the time of the year when any coping strategies (tobacco, alcohol etc) would be most needed by those who have adopted these behaviours. Hardly the best time to consider quitting!
However as stopping smoking is almost certainly the single best thing a smoker can do for their health stopping at any time is most certainly a positive step. I recommend that should you decide that this is the time when you’re going to quit smoking then you really need the best advice about the easiest way to go about it. One thing is for sure if you rely on willpower alone then unless you now how to use it effectively, statistically there is around a 93% failure rate.This is a shame as if you get good advice and use correct techniques your success is pretty much guaranteed.

You need not only get the best advice about how to use your willpower but also new coping strategies which can be installed using effective psychological techniques including hypnotic intervention and NLP. All this gives you a far higher chance of success.
If you really want to quit smoking now, do yourself a favour and make it easy on yourself, use an effective method!

You will find everything you need to become a non smoker easily, in this blog, it's down to you to find it.

With love Nigel

A Poem for 'Jeremy Fisher'

To A dear fishing buddy who recently shuffled off.

"How am I going to kick this horrible weed" ? He'd often ask, not really wanting to hear my answer; "Come down and see me, I'll do you for nothing, We'll find you something better to do instead" this would make him laugh one of his filthy 'Sid James' laughs, muttering something like " I bet we would, Tapping his Whisky flask in his hip pocket!..... Seems he's found his own thing to do instead....

Can you see them too

They hide underneath the mirror
they'll see you first .. can you see them too?
matching clothes to their homes they feel a heavy shoe
sliding away long before they'll give you a view,
for they see you first ..can you see them too?

They can hover motionless, invisible to the untrained eye
unleashing breathtaking power with ease they fly,
to the place where they hide in the mirrors side,
when disturbed by a hunter,feathered or furred,a man or a bird...
the largest of their kind are few ...can you see them too?

when the eye becomes skilled through watching and time,
or by the awesome wonder near, in the beauty of seeing
through the looking glass moving, of figures that ghostly appear,
at first maybe one but once seen they stand out,
the beautiful creature, spotted and stout,
but one false move, one glimpse, one clue,
with a flick they're gone ...can you see them too?

On learning their habits, their likes and their haunts
through the mirror you'll see them in crystal so pure
feeding at ease, their white gape they flaunt
stationary, to them comes their food or your lure,
but the story's not over yet, as they taunt,
for they know what is what and with consummate ease
they'll reject all that's not right as speedy as light,
and another dry net ,an empty belly too
they're really not daft...can you see them too?

but once every year an opportunity draws near
around May if you please when on one thing only they'll feed
the Mayfly, Hurrah, makes them bold, foolish, reckless no fear,
and then my friend you might get your chance to fulfill your need
to outwit this quick monarch behind the mirror
and if you can handle their power their speed

their uncanny ability to find buried weed
and if you appreciate how lucky you've been
and you'll give them their due
then the finest meal that God gave to you

will mean at last ...you'll see them.... and taste them too!

Habit Buster

Escape your Habits

How do you know you've got a habit? You have a habit when you stop noticing you're doing it. The mind is a clever bit of kit. The habit mechanism, which is part of the unconscious mind, functions perfectly well without any conscious intervention. Smokers will tell you that they sometimes don't even remember lighting up, as the habit is so well integrated with their daily ritual. This is the only reason in my opinion why people find it hard to quit. Habits run themselves unconsciously, so trying to consciously stop a habit tends to be quite tricky unless you go about it the right way. In fact trying consciously can make it even worse. As I said before in an earlier blog, trying not do do something reinforces that something in your mind. For example: Try not to think about a nice slice of soft gooey chocolate cake...ummm. You see what I mean!

The way to get a habit is to repeat something over and over again consciously. Just like when you learn your times tables parrot fashion. Once your unconscious picks it up through this repetition, you'll know it forever! You'll have a habit! If you want to stop doing a habit then you have to focus upon the benefits of not having the habit by repeatedly focusing upon these benefits until they becomes the norm. Then what you have is a situation where the mind has the choice of two behaviours where before it only had one. Now with smoking, the habit has been reinforced so many times, (even a twenty a day smoker will be putting their hand to their mouths 200 times a day), that to repeatedly focus on the benefits would be quite a task even though there are many. The old Tony Robbins system of affirmations with visualisation can help, but not always. There are many different ways of doing this, some very effective some not. So for convenience here, another exercise is needed. The brain needs a mechanism in place that leads you towards the new behaviour.

So here's your chance to re direct your brain towards what you really want in a way that should make it impossible to think of the old behaviour without being pulled toward the new behaviour instead.

The following is an exercise that will work for any habit. I'll describe the exercise and then give a pictorial example. First read it through to get the idea, then do it with your eyes closed at the start, it may take a wee bit of practice but trust me this works.

It works because your unconscious really does want what's best for you, and will lead you in the right direction, if you give it specific instructions that it can positively follow. If you have a habit, then at the moment your unconscious believes that this habit serves some purpose that benefits you, it's not trying to harm you. Give it something better and it will follow, because that is the way of the universe. You may need to change some beliefs about your habit but that is easy. Do you still believe in the tooth fairy?

Step 1. Form in your minds eye what it is you do or feel just before you do the unwanted behaviour. It could be a feeling or and image or an internal dialogue. To put it another way, find in your mind what it is that brings up the urge to do the behaviour. When you have this image, make it big and bright, adding sounds and feelings if you find that easier. Now the most important part of step 1 is that when you bring up this image it must be associated as if you are really there, looking out of your own eyes. When you have this image, add to it in words or feelings all the things that you hate about the behaviour and it's effect upon you. If you find this hard, then it can sometimes help to actually do the behaviour. This is now your 'ready' picture

Step 2. Put that image aside for a moment.

Step 3. Now I want you to think about how you would be if you didn't have the problem. If you no longer had this habit, how would your life be greatly improved? So form an image of how you would see yourself differently if you were completely free of this habit and how that would make you feel. If you find this tricky, just imagine how you would be. It's important that you are dissociated in this image (as if you are watching yourself as an observer) Keep on adjusting this image until you have a picture in your mind of an image of a new you that really draws you towards it. Take your time and form that image. When you have it, it should be making you feel good, as if you want to smile. If not keep on adjusting it until it does... This is your 'steady' picture

Step 4. Now , Starting with your 'ready' image big and bright and colourful, put a small dark image of your 'steady' image in the lower right hand corner. Now have the small dark 'steady' image explode big and bright and colourful and cover the ready image which will simultaneously shrink and fade small and dark as fast as you can say"GO". Then open your eyes. Repeat this sequence five times opening your eyes after GO every time. Ok so to run through step 4 it's (eyes closed) two images together,GO.(open eyes) and repeat five times. It's important that you do this quickly. As quickly as you can say the word GO!

Step 5. Test it. Try in vain to picture the 'ready' image. What happens? This should be hard to do without your new 'steady' image cutting in. If it doesn't, go back and do it again even faster. You could even test it out with the old behaviour, it will feel somehow wrong. For many people this will wipe out the habit completely!! This will be permanent!

Below is a pictorial representation. It might not be your particular stimuli or ideal but you will get the rough idea. Don't do it with these images, use your own unique images in your mind.... this is just a representation to give you an idea.

If there is no change at all, then describe what you did in the comments section on this blog and I'll find out what you need to change to make it work and return to you.

with love

Nigel

Let your Brain take you by the hand.

Use your Brain to Gain.

For the vast majority of 'smokers', smoking just accomplishes good feelings .i.e. Smoking makes you feel good. This is why many people who smoke, tend to smoke more at times of stress and upset. The cigarette is a quick tool to a good feeling, and we all like good feelings! People who smoke have made a habit out of using tobacco as a coping strategy.

This is the reason why becoming a non smoker fills many people who smoke with a sense of dread. Thinking how will they cope without that good feeling...it really is nothing to do with nicotine, nicotine addiction is a myth.

If a smoker can come up with a strategy that gives them the same benefit as the cigarette on an conscious and unconscious level then giving up smoking is very easy. When I say the same benefit, I mean something else that makes you feel good. If you can't actually think of anything that would make you feel as good, because sadly some people can't, then astonishingly, just imagining something that would make you feel good can work too, if utilized correctly.

It just becomes a matter then of overcoming the mechanical unconscious habit and that is even easier as long as you point your brain towards what it wants and not what it doesn't want.

Habits are just 'programmes' in the brain and just like a computer the program will work over and over again until you replace it with a different program or in cyber geek language overwrite it with a better one. The only difference being that you cannot entirely delete a habit like you can a programme. It has to be that way or you would be able to forget how to drive or forget how to count. That's why when you become a non smoker you have to stay a non smoker !

Coming up with an effective strategy then becomes a matter of using your brain to get what you want, and it is always a very personal thing. That is why it is impossible to take a group of people who smoke and use the same technique on all of them. Every one of them will have a different set of strategies to elicit good feelings. However the same psychological model can be used by all people who smoke, who want to be free of this destructive habit, by incorporating their own unique set of strategies. A simple NLP swish pattern can easily achieve this. This is where a skilled NLP practitioner can be very helpful. It can be done amazingly quickly, and the change is permanent. The only things that can limit the effectiveness is if the person does not want to be a non smoker, or the person is not prepared to make the changes required to enable a cessation in their coping strategy.

With love

Nigel

Dont think about a pink elephant.

Most people are not aware that there unconscious minds do not easily process negative suggestions. The word “not” or any of it’s derivatives only exist in the world of language. Therefore, you can’t not think about what it is you don’t want to think about. This has important implications for the smoker trying to stop smoking. So if we say “don’t think about a cigarette” what do you think about first……think about that…………or not! This means your unconscious functions far more smoothly when you concentrate on what you want as opposed to what you don’t want.

This principle is closely related to a universal law in the field of Hypnosis called “the law of reverse effect”. This law states that the more you try not to think about something, the more you think about it. Further , it’s useful to consider for your goal whether the internal representations, or self talk or imagery you use is empowering to you or defeating your efforts. In other words is the way you see yourself stopping smoking helping you to achieve that outcome?

In the course of my work with people from all walks of life I have found that every spiritual system teaches it’s followers to see God or the goodness in everyone, and our aim is to do that. Therefore we must also assist others in doing that for themselves. We urge smokers who want to stop smoking to seriously practice focusing on what they want and not what they don’t want. Really concentrating on the benefits of being a happy healthy non-smoker daily will rapidly clear the mind of the negativity commonly associated with tobacco cessation.

It is a valuable experiment as a therapist to hold on to the internal representation of exactly how we want a smoker to be when we’re helping them become a non smoker. Therapists often see their clients fully experiencing their goal as the client discusses their smoking problem. We ask the client to discuss the problem, inviting them to “try” and hold onto it as we just listen and hold a totally positive, resourceful image in our minds. The most common experience is that as client talks about the problem, they begin to run out of steam and are left a bit bemused that what they were talking about even seemed like problem in the first place!

Positive thinking is the single most powerful thing a human being can learn to assist them in all aspects of there lives. Focusing on a problem will do nothing other than amplify the problem. The old brain storming technique where people just gather around and throw any ideas to solve a problem works for this reason. So for a smoker a good personal brainstorm to assist in becoming a non smoker can have tremendous results. When it is understood that the only reason people smoke is to make them feel good, then a few brainstorms about what else could possibly make a smoker feel good usually throws up a number of other pleasurable activities.

Shocking tactics

Give them a phobia of cigarettes?

I think that even hardened smokers would admit that they wouldn't want their children to copy their habit. But the truth is the children of smokers are far more likely to become smokers than the children of non smokers. What can we do avoid this?

Well, as I see it, the way that Governments and health organisations are approaching the matter is not helping. Even today with all the information about the harm smoking can do, the take up rate amongst children remains about as steady as ever. The reason for this is simple, they're leaving it too late...! Once a child passes the age of about six, they can start making there own decisions, convincing them otherwise is much more problematic. So here's some tips, some a bit radical if you don't want your kids to follow you down the smoking path:

• Don't let them see you smoking!
• Subtly arrange for them to chew an unlit cigarette good and properly before the age of six. When they go, "Yukky" and splutter, copy there responses and say, whilst also tasting a cigarette, Eeeew, yukky,nasty,cigarettes!" being as dramatically offended and frightened as possible, and throw them (the cigarettes) out the door, preferably into the dark...
• Become a happy healthy non smoker.

The second tip may offend you, but it will pretty much guarantee they'll be non smokers. Exactly in the same way that many people have a phobia of spiders or any other fear inherited from their parents. People with phobias, who don't know why they have a phobia, have usually had it installed before the age of six by their parents, before they develop a critical faculty. It's just like sowing a seed...

with love

Nigel

P.s. If you want to be a non smoker and you want an experience of what your lungs are going through, have a good chew on an unlit cigarette yourself, I mean really give it a good chew, for a minute or so, until you can't bear it anymore. While your chewing think about what you do the moment before you light up....as if you are really there...

Radical indeed !

What would happen if you became a non smoker

All this will be yours if you can change your mind.

Pretty good news I think !

Have you ever changed your mind before... think about it,

when was the last time you changed your mind...?

What did it feel like? Where do you feel that feeling? Is it an internal dialogue or an image that you're getting about changing your mind before. Well just step inside that thought for a moment and hold on to it, and while you're there....

Here are the facts.

1. You will live a longer life and see your family grow up.
2. You will be more healthy.
3. You will get back your sense of smell and taste.
4. You will feel proud of yourself.
5. You will have more money.
6. You will get fresh breath and whiter teeth.
7. You will be in control.

So what stopping you from getting all this?

LIES and...

FEAR

That's all! Its the fear of what you believe will happen, either because you've tried it before and failed or you believe the myth about Nicotine Addiction. If the former is the case then chances are you also believe the latter. Beliefs drive your behaviour. Well, let me tell you some facts which may go against your beliefs:

• About a third of all smokers who quit smoking experience no discomfort at all.
• Becoming a non smoker will cause you no harm.
• Nicotine is not an addictive chemical,Tobacco manufacturers just want you to think that.
• You most probably know somebody who has quit without any help at all.
• They are no different to you.
• Most smokers who have trouble trying to quit smoking thought they would have trouble.
• The third who quit without discomfort thought they would have no discomfort.
• You have been a non smoker before, no worries at all.
• you will be physically more relaxed when you become a non smoker.

So the facts are you can have everything at the top of this section and whats more you will feel great. Because you can change your mind, Just believe the facts not the lies. Remember there are multi million £/$ organisations and big Government revenues at stake, they want to keep you smoking. Who do you trust most, an outspoken crazy woman like me who has found out the truth about smoking through years of experience, or these multi national organisations who have to answer to their share holders. All I can tell you is that I have no axe to grind and I am making no money out of letting you know how to be free.

With love

Nigel

I'm A Smoker

It always makes me giggle when I hear people describe themselves as a smoker. One of the fundamental of flaws in human psychology is that people who have a problem that they would like to change, have a feeling of being 'stuck'. This is shown by the way they convert an action into a thing. So for example the statement,

" I started smoking, (action) when I was twelve and I have been smoker, (thing) ever since."

So what does this mean?

Well in therapy talk one of the ways to change smokers is to make them aware of this conversion in some way. One to one counselling, NLP, groups, cognitive behavioural therapy, hypnosis, and any other form of help can do it with varying results. But the thing to understand is that you cannot 'be' a behaviour. Smoking is a behaviour, therefore you can only be a human being that smokes because really, there is no such thing as a smoker...

What Am I trying to tell you?

The great thing is of course when this process is understood then the event is turned back into an ongoing process. This means that it is not fixed and can be changed, therefore smoking can be stopped. This all sounds too simple but people who smoke can by default be people who are non smokers..

The great thing about this!

A lot of people who smoke really do think that they could never become non smokers for fear of the consequences. This is a shame as everyone was born a non smoker and for the vast majority spent at least ten years as happy healthy non smokers.....

What about the Nicotine addiction?

Well in my opinion there is no such thing! This I believe is a myth proliferated by the tobacco companies, drug companies and Governments. Believing that one is addicted to something becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Smoking is just a habit. The Brain just becomes accustomed to tobacco as it does any other habit. I like my long grass Analogy:

If you walk through a field of long grass and turn around you'll see where you have been as the grass will be flat, come back four days later and you will not be able to see, as the grass will have straightened. However if you keep on walking down the same route everyday eventually there will be a bare track. The brain is a bit like this, if you think of the neural pathways in the brain as the long grass, keep on doing the same thing everyday and you get a 'bare path' in the brain so to speak, or in other words a habit. But just like any bare path, stop going down that route and the grass will eventually cover it up again, with no harm to the ground!

Change the way you think and you really can stop smoking.... harmlessly.

Warm regards

Nigel

Great news about Jo

It was Christmas 2005 when I last met my Friend Jo. What a meeting that was to be for both of us! That was when she told me that she had been diagnosed with cancer. I was very shocked and deeply saddened. She seemed to have accepted the news quite well and was preparing herself for the treatment which was to be surgery followed by chemotherapy. She has always been stronger than me when it comes to this sought of thing, she has an

extremely positive outlook on everything.

We had been at school together and lived in the same street and were as near as you could be to being sister and brother. We are Godparents to each others children. We both started smoking at the same time after stealing some of My Dads cigarettes and going into her cellar. I remember being quite sick at the time but the sense of rebellion felt great. It was incredibly spooky when we spoke to each other on the phone about five years ago and revealed to each other that we had decided to quit on the same day. We hadn't seen each other for about two months! Little did I know that we would both spend the next three years trying to quit. I eventually found out how to quit effectively using the power of my mind and some other techniques but Jo was struggling. She had always seen alternative stuff as hocus pocus so she never really noticed how I had quit even when I told her how I did it... Still, she finally woke up to the fact that the NRT route was just not helping and the zyban was making her sick.. and she asked me scathingly for the address of the guy that had helped me! Within a week phoned saying she 'knew ' that she had stopped for good! I struggled not to say "I told you so", but really I think I was more pleased than she was!

I think the news of her illness really effected me in a profound way as I went for a check up at the doctors and started running again as I was convinced I would be next...Thank God I was given the all clear. The wonderful I am delighted to say is that Jo called me yesterday and has been given the all clear on her final routine tests. So it's party time at the weekend!!!

If you are trying to quit read some of my post about changing the way you think. There are some links to http://www.12free.org/ and if you need any further help look up an Hypnosis/NLP practitioner near to you. Pure hypnosis is effective but when combined with the NLP it makes a huge difference. Neuro Linguistic Programming or NLP was invented By two guys called Richard Bandler and John Grinder and for want of a better turn of phrase is really like new software for the brain. As I understand the brain can learn really fast and just needs help in showing it which way to go... I recommend it strongly...

with Love

Nigel

Licenced to Kill

Tobacco Giants and Government killing even more people

The Government really should be appallingly ashamed of itself now in 2007. A few months ago British American Tobacco announced more increases in sales with the cynical eye of a cold hearted killer as it predicts that the number of smokers over the next ten years will hold steady at around 1 billion. I feel feel this is a disgraceful and alarming confirmation that hypocritical Government Smoking policy is a total ass. The governments own target is for a reduction in smoking of 2% by the year 2010. These figures and the corporate boasts from the gloating tobacco manufacturers only fuel the case that it is highly unlikely that there will be anywhere near that kind of reduction given current smoking policy.

How long are the people going to allow the fat cat Murderers of the Tobacco companies to profit from the deaths of thousands upon thousands of people every year? And you can keep your freedom of choice arguments where they belong. Tobacco is the only over the counter product sold that kills people when used as intended. Would the freedom of choice brigade advocate allowing the sale of crack cocaine or heroin behind the supermarket checkouts? As far as I can see there is not a lot of difference between selling those drugs and tobacco. And if you're in the mindset that, 'ok everybody should be able to do what they like to themselves' then where does it stop? Why is euthanasia not allowed? Who knows, but at the end of the day smokers are killing themselves ...albeit slowly and apparently helplessly, leaving the misery and heartache of their families behind.

I am seriously considering fronting a campaign for a total ban on the sale of tobacco. If you would be prepared to support such a campaign and help save the lives of thousands of people leave your name and comments. It would drastically reduce the number of smokers and therefore save lives because at present 350 people die every day in the UK from smoking. That’s over six times the amount killed by the 7/7 terrorists on the underground, look at the fuss the Government make in response to those deaths. Any members of 'Forest', the oxymoronicly named pro smoking action group, laughingly backed by Tobacco manufacturers, can go take a hike. Likening yourselves to a clean green fresh thing like a forest... pathetic! My mother died as a result of smoking over twenty years ago and as far as I can tell many thousands of mothers have died since because the Government has refused to show a bit of spunk and do what the large majority of people really want. If a total ban started today we would have saved 2450 lives in the UK by this time next week. So I say to you Mr Paul Adams boss of B.A.T. I hope you sleep well tonight given that your company has just killed another 350 people in the UK, God knows how many in the US and thousands all over the world. And George Bush and Tony Blair think Bin Laden is the problem.....Nobody in the world including the most well known dictators in history have killed more people than your company!

If you want help stopping please don't let them fool you into thinking it's hard to stop, find out how to do it easily.

There are many ways to stop easily using the power of the mind. I found stopping easy when I went for private treatment with Nigel Bird at his practice. He now has a website http://www.12free.org/ where he can be contacted and an on line system for helping smokers to quit.

Much love

Nigel

smoking fish

If you want to become a non smoker read on

I was out trout fishing when I was told that one of the locals old boys, who we called Jeremy Fisher (right) as he bore a striking resemblance to a toad, had recently died from throat cancer bought on by his smoking. I had spoken to him many times about his smoking as he always had a bad cough and passed it off as, " it's these bleeding fags, scuse my language ". He was such a character. He knew that I had quit and he always asked me how I did it, but never seemed to want to wait while I 'bored him' with my experiences, he was so eager to get to the lake... I knew he had be going to a local support group without any success. I wish I could have spent more time helping him but he was always keen to get "That Big trout under the out fall". I will really miss him, he was full of great tips about how to catch trout..and a perfect gentleman, have fun in the happy hunting ground pal, we'll catch up some time ...

It got me thinking that if you are trying to give up smoking then getting help from an expert would appear to be a sensible move. It is however very dependant upon whom you go to for advice. There is a plethora of stop smoking agencies on the Internet and available through national health organisations like the NHS who would appear at first to have your best interests at heart.

Why Support groups don't help!While these groups do provide sympathy and understanding they do generally not greatly increase the percentages of success amongst people who want to give up smoking. It’s true that many of them are organised by former smokers but statistics point to the fact that the group therapy route isn’t as effective as it could be.

I believe there is one main reason for this. People who try to give up smoking using group therapy have usually already exhausted all the choices they have as individuals in terms of ways to give up smoking on their own. This is obvious as they are now at the group stage. They are then confronted by a number of other people who are trying to give up smoking who are suffering from the same affliction, and/or a mentor who is 'experienced' in dealing with this type of problem.

The one important thing that is often overlooked is that people who are trying to give up smoking are learning nothing from people who are trying to give up smoking! There is a strong tendency to 'compare notes' with sufferers of the same problem. The individuals in the group just become experts in having the same problem, as opposed to finding out how to make or use new choices and strategies to become a non smoker. When individuals compare notes with others suffering from the same problem, it tends to compound the problems they have. This is due to a reinforcing of beliefs. The person trying to stop smoking usually believes that it will be hard to do. (A commonly held notion partly fuelled by the government and partly fuelled by the tobacco manufacturers). When this notion is backed up by others of the same ilk, it tends to reinforce that belief by strengthening the neural pathways to that belief in the brain. I was researching a popular Internet support forum the other day and was astonished by the horrible sense of negativity amongst 'fellow sufferers'.

Of course this makes the whole issue of finding it hard to become a non-smoker, a 'self fulfilling prophecy'. I didn't see any comments from ex smokers who found it easy to stop. (Of course not, why would they be there? They found it easy and didn’t need any help.) All these poor individuals are doing is reinforcing their belief about what a sorry time they are having. And yes its 'nice' to have a shoulder to cry on, but shoulders don't teach you much. In reality shoulders used in this way become an anchor for bad feelings! For goodness sake do yourselves a favour and lighten up! The body and mind can and does function perfectly well without the horrible cigarette and nicotine poisons.

Stop telling yourself that , "you’re going up the wall" or "I really need a cigarette" or all the hundreds of negative self pitying internal suggestions that you are delivering. Nothing is going to 'happen to you' if you quit smoking. (Apart from you becoming very much healthier, having more spare cash, extending your life, smelling really great, tasting great food, feeling in control, not feeling guilty, having more time bla bla bla..etc. etc) Allow the part of you that is able to stand on its own two feet, to actually do just that, without needing something to act as 'An old friend' to look after you.

And as for this old friend, have you ever had a friend who you thought was the bees knees that you really got on well with? Then one day you found out that they had been saying bad things about you or doing stuff which a friend wouldn't do. Supposing this so called friend was slipping cancer forming poisons into your food, telling your family that you really stink, stealing your money, saying that you couldn't cope without them and that you were weak willed with no back bone. How much would you want to have them as a friend? do you really need a friend like that. Have a look at the friend on the left here from a different perspective, lets say diagonally.... Have you ever had a friend like that?

As far as I am aware there are no support groups run by smokers who found it easy to stop. This is a great shame as there are thousands of people who really did find it easy to give up smoking. This Begs the question: How did these people find it easy to give up smoking? The reason they found it easy is because they believed it would be. I know this is the case as I have experience from both sides of the fence. Being an ex 45 a day smoker, My Father gave up a similar habit easily and his wife (My step mother) gave up easily as well.  Unfortunately many people, me included, tended to blank out what their parents said. If only I’d really listened way back then, it would have been so much easier to quit. I am now convinced having spoken to hundreds of ex smokers that it could be so much more easy for everyone involved if they could really find a way to change the way they think about quitting. The more I speak to smokers the more convinced I am about why they have found it so hard, even though I now know it really is easy.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that they are finding giving up smoking hard, but it is clear to me why they are having this experience. If you are trying to give up smoking it would be immensely valuable for you to contact any of your friends who managed to quit smoking easily without any help, and ask them how they did it and what they believed would happen to them. Listen to what they say, I mean really listen, ask them lots of questions about what they thought would happen to them if they quit and stuff like that, then start to structure your own internal dialogue or self talk in a different way.

Unfortunately this may sound ridiculous if you already have a belief system that says, ' it is hard to give up smoking'. This is where a little tweaking can come in handy. In the useful booklet available as part of the 12Free system  there are some really cool tips and exercises that really do help with this.to get your free download contact leave an email address in the comment section and I will give you the whole system free via my skydrive.

If you could change this belief in some way so as to destabilize its influence over your decision making, with regards to stopping smoking, then you will find stopping smoking much easier. Changing beliefs is a key way to accomplish change. In his book "Using your Brain for a Change" Richard Bandler gives some extremely useful exercises to help change beliefs which also work very effectively.

All you really need to know is that if you change your belief, that it's hard to stop smoking, into a belief that it is easy to become a non smoker, then your experience of becoming a non smoker will be much easier. Because as I said before it really is easy if you learn how to do it, thousands upon thousands have found this to be the case. None of them however go to support groups of forums. It's easy to change a belief; do you still believe in Santa? Most children below the age of six really do believe. Get out of yourself; dont get help to quit from people are also finding it hard, you'll learn nothing. Become one of the thousands who found it easy easy. There really is nothing different about them, they have the same physiology and bio mechanical make up. All they do different is they ‘know that they can be a non smoker’, and knowing this and believing this is easy, because it’s true!!

And as for smoking fish well I have now bought a really cool fish smoking room with the money have saved by being a really happy healthy non smoker and it kind of makes me laugh when I look at all those beautiful tasty trout drying out in a room full of smoke. I wonder what they would think.... get me out of the God damn smoke no doubt and give me some water perhaps....

Do the government really want you to stop?

Smokers who want to give up their habit have been getting a really raw deal over the last ten years. Successive Governments have wanted to be seen as doing the right thing and helping them to do so. So what have they been doing

Well they have set up NHS stop smoking clinics and they subsidise nicotine replacement therapy or NRT (patches, Gums, inhalers) and Zyban. They run horrible TV ads which frighten the living daylights out of smokers. They spend around 71 million pounds of tax payer’s money to be seen to be doing something. But let’s get all this into perspective.

According to government statistics if 7 % of smokers trying to stop smoking using willpower alone will succeed. Around 16% of smokers trying to stop using NRT will succeed. What that really means is that at least 84% of smokers trying to stop with these methods will fail? Which means NRT doesn’t work. The ‘stop smoking‘, drug Zyban has already been linked with many deaths.
So do the Government really want to help? Well we’re not so convinced! Their target for the year 2010 is a reduction in people smoking of 5%! If they got their priorities right they could easily do something. They have graphically demonstrated how effective they can be in the last few months.

Double Standards
Last year a man went into his corner shop for his weekly groceries. The man asked the shopkeeper for his usual Chinese chicken wings , the shop keeper said, "sorry I had to take them off the shelves....Sudan 1 additive cancer risk". The man said "oh well, I’ll just have the cottage pie then," …"sorry cancer risk", the shop keeper replied, "What about burger relish", the man asked ....again the shopkeeper said "sorry cancer scare " so the man said "never mind, what about Brown sauce?".. "Cancer scare".... was the answer. The man said "OK then I’ll have a nice healthy lasagna". The shopkeeper replied "I'm afraid it's got Worcester sauce in, had to take it off the shelves Government orders... cancer risk". The man said "in that case I’ll just have a pint of milk and twenty of my usual cigarettes" the shopkeeper replied fine that will be £5.40 please and handed them over!

Would you eat Cottage pie with brown sauce or some Lasagna containing cancer forming Sudan 1? Well the Sudan 1 potential cancer risk is 1:200000...that means one person out of every two hundred thousand eating food containing Sudan 1 could develop cancer as a result. The proven cancer risk from Cigarettes is 1:5 ! In fact 1:2 that’s right one out of every two smokers will eventually die as a result of their habit.

Licenced Bandits
So why don’t the Government just take cigarettes off the shelves? For the answer to that question you only have to look at the Maths. The Government Receive £8,055 million pounds revenue from tobacco .That’s over 8 Billion pounds. They spend 71 million ‘trying’ to help smokers stop. It costs the NHS I.5 billion treating smokers for diseases caused by smoking. This leaves them with a profit of around 6.4 Billion from smokers. Call me Cynical, I don’t care. You can’t argue with the figures.

What else could they do to help?
Taking cigarettes off the shelves would be a very brave move and would be a massive help in preventing 114.000 deaths every year and would massively reduce the costs to the NHS. Increasing the age when you can buy them from 16 to 21 would also help. Most smokers start smoking in their teenage years. There are also far more effective treatments to help a smoker who wants to stop than tobacco sponsored NRT. Many different psychological interventions have far higher chances of success.

It's all about perception and how you see your problem. For example look at the picture on the right.The tobacco monsters going keep on chasing you, his alter ego, until you have another? What about if you decide to turn around and chase him away? Or is he too powerful....look at the picture, what if I told you that he is not as big or powerful as you think he is? Now get a ruler and measure him on the screen...... not so scary now!

Visit http://www.12free.org/ for cost effective psychological assistance

Barking mad psychology

Stop smoking gel-whatever next?

It brought a smile to my face when I read about one of the latest stop smoking aids.
It consists of a gel that is rubbed into the hands and contains all the extracts of tobacco with a marked reduction in nicotine which is purported to have been leeched out in the process. Now call me Mr Cynical but are we to really believe that this product is going to help. It is now becoming more and more apparent that the most common form of stop smoking aid; Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) in the form of patches and gums has a very poor success rate. ( below 20% effective).

Of course the more enlightened observers will be aware that the raw material for NRT does in fact come from Tobacco Manufacturers. A cunning plan if ever there was one, the manufacturers of this new stop smoking gel plainly declare that they obtain their raw material from tobacco, therefore supporting the 'poor old tobacco producer' in his noble efforts to help people kick their habits!

What nonsense! The tobacco producers first concern is to their shareholders. They can only score if more tobacco is sold, whatever form people are crazy enough to buy it in, be it dead leaves chopped up in paper rolls, tacky little rash forming patches, foul tasting gum. or now a handy little squirt. The testing stated in The Mail quoted a pool of 200 candidates who had various degrees of success. Well hello, is this bribery or can we assume this a valid result.

It is common knowledge, for those who wish to see it, that other psychological interventions like hypnotherapy, Neuro Linguistic Programming and Time Line therapyTM to mention a few have studies of candidates numbering into the thousands which have proven to be far more effective than all of the state funded assistance currently available.

These treatments still receive no formal acceptance. I ask myself why? Could it be that they require no raw materials from tobacco manufacturers and are so effective that they would drastically reduce smoking for those who want to quit, thereby slashing treasury income, who knows? Conspiracy theorists amongst you may agree.

Picture the scene. A Women smoker gets stressed by her kids, has a row with her husband then goes round to her friend for a consoling coffee and a chat. She reaches into her handbag and squirts some gel into her hands. As she rubs her hands together, a la Fagin, her face relaxes and she lets out that long satisfying sigh, (you'll know the one if your a smoker). Meanwhile her friend is looking on with a look on her face that says," oh my god, my friend's turned into a drooling nutter". She hands her her coffee but the slippery hands prevent her from gripping the cup and she spills the coffee onto her white trousers, getting really stressed again. Straight into her bag she goes, but no, not for tissues, she needs another squirt! This time her friends doubts are confirmed as she watches her mate rubbing her hands together while rolling her eye.... she is a drooling nutter!

Ridiculous as it may seem this is what we are being led to believe is a way forward. It's high time people understand that if you want to stop smoking then replacing it with something else will just transfer the habit at best, or worse, another source of toxins for the poor body to deal with as well as the tobacco poisons that are trying to be eliminated!

The secret to stopping smoking is no big secret. You just have to stop. Its the way you go about it that makes the difference whether you succeed or not. http://www.12free.org/ have designed a system to help you do this and it involves no chemicals or replacements. They just get you to think differently and actually enjoy the process. Its no big deal but it is effective.

If you really want to stop smoking then what have you got to lose? Order your copy now and prepare to change the way you think

http://www.12free.org

Save the Children

Where do they get their advice?
It is always amusing to me how the Government go about reducing the numbers of people smoking. As far as I can see from my experience of dealing with smokers who want to stop, everything the Government does is likely do have a polarity response .i.e. making people smoke more or encouraging people to smoke. And being a bit of an old cynic I could interpret this as a deliberate elicitation!
Anybody with teenage children will tell you if you tell them not to do something they're more likely to do it. So raising the age at which children can buy cigarettes is doing what?
Well first of all it's throwing down a challenge to 'get away with looking older'. Secondly those that do manage to con the 'innocent' shopkeeper will appear more of a hero to their peers and therefore more likely to be copied. And of course the proposed age increase only affects the actual buying capabilities, as the legal age at which smoking is allowed remains the same!
The Government claim to have studied models from other countries and these show mixed results. The trouble with studies is that you tend to find what you’re looking for. The big question we need to be asking ourselves as a nation is; What are we doing that is making smoking still appear so attractive to young children. Well a number of factors appear to be in play. Children basically begin smoking because their friends or parents smoke or because it makes them feel older or rebellious. We as a society need to question ourselves as to why being grown up is so attractive to children. Most teenagers tend to be repelled by anything that would make them appear remotely 'sensible or grown up' like their parents. However smoking and possibly drinking seems to be an exception.
Before the teens a large amount of children aspire to be like their parents. Hence little girls dressing up in Mums clothes and make up and little boys playing with Fake tools like Dads. If children could experience being grown up and all its problems they would soon realise that the state they are actually in really is the most appealing. How many adults actually want to appear to be older? It seems that both groups are suffering from 'grass is greener syndrome'. Children smoke to appear older, what do adults do to appear younger? They spend a fortune on cosmetics, surgery and numerous regimes, but ultimately the clock cannot go backwards and ageing is an unfortunate by-product of life that adults do there utmost to avoid.

Stopping smoking is one of the single most effective things a smoker can do to prevent premature ageing. Clearly just telling children that they will regret starting smoking when they are older is futile as any parent will tell you. Telling them not to smoke is even worse. Like waving a red rag to a bull .Even showing them what tobacco does with actual tar infested body parts seems not to be enough. There is a vast amount of information available at schools advising of the terrible effects of smoking. This still fails to significantly reduce the number of young smokers. It would appear then that they quite probably take up smoking with the knowledge of the harm that it can do. Why would they do that? Surely they don't think that they are immortal?

Well this may well be the case from their point of view. How long did it take for Christmas to come around as a child? Well I remember it seeming almost forever! So could it be that children think that they will be able to try it and stop at will, 'some time in the future.....' regardless of the damage? This is almost certainly the case; They have an inbuilt mechanism that makes them braver when they are children. Just go to Disney World and see how many young children 'don’t' want to go on the scary rides. Further, there is also conflicting advice, because adult smokers are always told how quickly they will experience better health when they stop. A presupposition that they can stop! This of course reinforces the belief in the youngster that they will be able stop. What they fail to see is that it can be much harder to do when the time arrives. (It’s actually very easy to stop but only if you understand the mechanism behind the habit forming part of the brain, or if you are by nature a positive thinker)

Unfortunately the Government and the NHS bombard adults with negative messages about how difficult it will be to stop. So by the time the child arrives at the adult place where they want to become non smokers, they have been conditioned to believe that it will be hard to quit smoking. This is why only 7% of smokers quit just using will power. It has become a self fulfilling prophecy.

So what is the answer to the question of reducing the numbers of young smokers? In an ideal world leading by example can usually set young people on the right path. So this means not smoking as a parent as a bare minimum. Making children more aware from a young age (below six) that putting foul tasting chemical laden smoke in their mouth is a bad experience. Even actually letting them taste it would also most probably be enough to turn them away from it when they're older. That’s how Phobias work.... personally I see nothing wrong with giving them a phobia of tobacco. Not very PC of course, but an idea that could be adopted by the government anti smoking campaign designers. The same idea is used by traffic safety organisations!! In other words teach them younger. Don't wait until they start. They also do it with sex education. The nation needs to understand what role peer pressure, fashion and the media have in developing a healthy population. This means quite literally blanket banning of all smoking in any image in all media. This is in place to a certain degree, but not by any means far reaching enough. It also means removing any possibility of children seeing adults smoking. Pie in the sky? How near are we to having a blanket ban in public places?? Why not go the whole hog and have an outright ban on the sale? After all what we are talking about is saving around 350 lives every day! When you think about it, tobacco is the only product on general sale that Kills people when used as designed. Guns kill far less people and are much harder to get hold of.

What would happen if smoking was banned from sale completely?
Well most probably the whinging freedom of choice pro smoking action groups would be up in arms initially. Freedom of choice? Are they really saying that they think people should be allowed to kill themselves anyway they see fit? And in doing so set a great example that will lead many children along the same path? It is my experience when dealing with people who defend freedom of choice that it's only their choice that they defend vigorously. Would they also defend the choice of those who wish to exist in a society that doesn't allow children to become embroiled in a habit likely to kill them when used as designed? Because until the problem item is totally removed the wheels of disease and death caused by smoking will continue to turn.
Of course we now slip into the realms of the world of politics where the Government of a democracy is supposed to enforce the wishes of the majority. Mr Spock from tv.s 'Star trek' espoused the view where the need of the many outweigh the need of the few, and was prepared to die for it. I know its fiction on TV but that’s how it should be. Why is there urgent policy not in place to get rid of tobacco outright, instead of their target of a two percent reduction by 2010! That's another 638750 deaths!! The majority of the population do in fact want that? Well does Government really work that way? Could it be so influenced by big business or huge tax revenues that it allows itself to be dragged into the mire of hypocrisy? Are we really able to do without the eight billion pounds generated by tax on tobacco? A tax on something that makes people feel good but also kills them! Is the government the ultimate Drug dealer? Is Alistair Darling the man on the corner with the bling and the gold tooth?

Where else would he get the money from?
Well as far as I can see the only reason people smoke tobacco is because it makes them feel good. Nicotine addiction is a myth. (Dave to add link to the 'myth about nicotine') This then presents the question what else could people be doing to make themselves feel good? The sky really is the limit. Let’s just say that instead of spending five pounds on a box of cigarettes every day you could spend five pounds on something else to make you feel good that doesn't kill at the same time? What did people do before Walter Raleigh brought back the weed? And let’s hope that G Daddy Brown doesn't then put in place a feel good tax because at the end of the day that's what he's getting from smokers. Smokers are paying the government to feel good. And in the big picture of things the loss of the revenue could be absorbed. On the other hand he could raise taxes (shock horror) to cover the loss or cut back arms spending. Wouldn't a responsible society want to pay for our children’s future health?
According to the Royal College of Physicians A ban on smoking in public places would save the British economy £4bn a year, according to latest research. Most of the savings identified in the study, would come from increased productivity as workers took fewer cigarette breaks. The report, 'Going Smoke-Free', also refutes the "myth" that banning smoking at work would increase smoking in the home. The government has announced moves to ban public smoking in all public enclosed places, except pubs and bars that serve minimal or no food, and a consultation exercise to this effect is under way. And this is just public places! An outright ban would also save around 1.4 billion in anti smoking advertising and the cost treating smokers in the NHS. Of the 12,000 deaths caused each year by passive smoking, just 500 are due to smoking at work. Professor John Britton, chairman of the college's Tobacco Advisory Group, said: "The big problem with passive smoking is the number of people affected by smoking at home." How do we address that? The evidence shows that, if you make public places smoke-free, a lot of people who smoke quit. "You become used to the idea that smoking is not normal and you don't do it in front of other people. To have loopholes or exceptions is illogical and counterproductive," he said. Prof Britton said children who passively smoke face increased risks of cot death, asthma and other respiratory problems. The £4bn predicted savings to the UK economy would come from increased productivity, lower NHS costs and reduced insurance, cleaning and fire-related bills. Prof Britton said the impact of a smoking ban in Ireland and other countries had been examined and added: "Wherever smoke-free policies have been introduced they have been very popular and very successful, with no policing or compliance issues to speak of." The popularity of the measures increase substantially between the government announcing them and implementing them and then still more after it happens. So really revenue cannot be used as an issue.

The simple facts are raising the age where children can legally buy tobacco will have very little effect on reducing the number of young smokers. The other government technique in practice at present on TV in NHS backed campaigns of trying to frighten or humiliating people into stopping is equally useless. When smokers are frightened or worried or stressed or unhappy it's a negative state which makes them feel bad. What do smokers do to make them feel good again? That’s right ..........smoke.
By now the answer to the question of how to get people to stop smoking and how to stop children from smoking should be clear. Teach people other strategies to make them feel good. Remove tobacco completely from society so children cannot be led up the garden path by peers and role models and for goodness sake let’s start realising that good feelings can happen without narcotics. It's not that hard, in fact feeling good is remarkably easy, something 12free teach in thier booklet. Individuals, who find good feelings hard to come by, need to address the question of what it is that they are not coping with that necessitates anesthetizing. And what about the freedom of choice brigade? Well sadly they are the poor individuals without freedom at the end of the day, they only have two choices....to smoke or not, having only two choices is not my idea of freedom!

http://www.12free.org/