Only the drug companies are winning!

Now hooked on another drug?

With over eleven million smokers wanting to stop smoking in the UK alone it would seem that there would be a massive supply of customers clambering to get their hands on stop smoking products. Not so! The vast majority of smokers who seek help in quitting try products recommended by Doctors and Government programmes. These products are either greatly subsidised or free to the smoker. Great! I hear you say. Well is it?

Most group practices and health trusts are funded by central government and as such are bound to meet targets and have to make a profit or break even to ensure their grants are maintained. I was only yesterday speaking with my practice nurse who also overseas care of the smokers who want to quit. I was seeing her for my annual check up and she was asking about what methods I used and how successful they had been. She was very surprised that my success rate was nearly three times higher than hers. I asked her about her methods and sure enough she was now prescribing Chantix and reported that it was giving better results than NRT( patches,gums Inhalers). When I asked what the actual success rate was she thought around 25%. It was not surprising to me. Most of my clients have tried these products with little or no success. Their first option of course as it is free. She then asked me how I was achieving around a 90% success rate. I told her how, describing in detail how we approach each smoker as an individual with their own particular 'method' and triggers for smoking. I went on to explain that we then show smokers what really causes them to smoke, and how we convinced people that the nicotine was not the problem. This really surprised her she said she found our approach really sensible and enlightening but said, "My trouble is I only get 15 minutes with each smoker. I see them for fifteen minutes and then give them Chantix if they feel they need it." !

What a joke I thought. I told her that we see smokers for around an hour and a half and then they go away and the vast majority never smoke again. Around 10% come back for a free boost but that is about it. We use simple psychological techniques approaching the problem at it's root cause. When I asked how many she sees again she said, "Nearly all of them".

It was clear to me that the route favoured by the government just meant that the poor smoker was going around and around in circles being prescribed drugs that essentially didn't work. The the only winners were the drug companies like Pfizer (who even state that their products 'May help' and that willpower is still required) and The Practices, who are seen to meet the target set by government. These targets achieved whether or not the smoker quits! It's all about turnover.

The methods I use are sensible non invasive and chemical free and rely upon harnessing the persons own inner strength and resources to help them escape the ridiculous habit cycle that they feel stuck in. We use a combination of relaxation therapy, positive reinforcement and Neuro Linguistic Programming(NLP). A fancy sounding name for the simple process of installing new habits and behaviours. The smoker essentially gets to choose between feeling good about being a non smoker and feeling bad about being a smoker, when confronted with a situation that would have resulted in smoking before. The brain will usually choose a good feeling as opposed to a bad one. It's not rocket science. Only trouble is there is no revenue for the drug companies and no tax going into the chancellors coffers.

I know that if all smokers who want to quit used the methods we use in our practice then we would be doing ourselves out of a job, but there are lots of other habits people need help with! As there are only around four hundred practitioners using our method we could never even hope of helping 11 million people, but for those who really want to stop we keep on helping. That's why we developed the online version of the system we use. Much cheaper than one to one but essentially the same process. Give it a try you might be surprised !

(For one to one help you can contact the practice at info@12free.org)

The Voices

I was dealing with a heavy smoker last year. He was one of the few that come in for a second session. He came in and said that he had been having a hard time. When I asked him to tell me what he was finding hard, he said. "Well most of me wants to stop, but there's a little voice in my head that says, Go on you know you want one, and it makes me smoke". So I said to him, "What does it sound like"? His reply being, that it sounded like a little Irish leprechaun sitting on the other side of the fence." Well I replied, "What does 'most of me', sound like"? As he had said that most of him wanted to stop. He said that he couldn't really tell as it spoke very faintly. So I said back to him, "Where about in your head do you hear the little fella"? He said, gesturing over his right ear, "over here". So I went on to ask, "where is 'most of me' whispering from" he said putting his hand over his heart, "Here". How interesting, I thought, so I said, "Tell me, what do you think 'most of me' would look like if you had to put a face to the whisper... He said, he would look like a really healthy fit and strong looking version of me with a calm peaceful look. So I said to imagine 'most of me' but with a very clear loud voice instead of whispering, he said that that was hard to do. So I said to him, "say out loud right now in a strong calm voice, 'I'm a non smoker and I feel great! He could do that, so i said "now imagine 'most of me' saying it just like that". He smiled and said oh he can do that now. Now I said move the new 'most of me' with the loud voice to the other side of the fence but in front and louder than the leprechaun. He closed his eyes, and took few moments to do this, then turned quite flushed, opened his eyes with a smile and started to weep..he then said, "I'm never going to smoke again".. I checked up with him yesterday and he has never felt better and is a non smoker still. It reminded me of what my teacher had told me, sometimes you just have to tear up the script and go with what you've got. Not all smokers are the same, but all smokers can be non smokers if they really want to!

With love Nigel

Should have gone to an expert!

I have been helping smokers for the last five years using the 'Phoenix system' developed by DR Barry Neale PhD. This system was ten years in development and has one of the highest success rates of all methods. IN A STUDY CARRIED OUT OVER A TWO YEAR PERIOD, OF 300 SUBJECTS WHO WERE CONTACTED 1 MONTH AND AGAIN 6 MONTHS LATER BY TELEPHONE 95% HAD NOT RETURNED TO SMOKING. This makes it one of the most effective stop smoking systems in the world! '1-2-Free' is the only version of this system available in print and on CD and now downloadable. I Have developed this system for download as I know how effective it has been for my clients. And I have been asked by many smokers if there is a cheaper alternative to a private session. As I signed on the dotted line when I paid for the training to use this system, I was reminded me of a nasty experience I had years before, but also filled with a sense of relief...

It was with a horrid feeling of revulsion that I recall the experience of my first and last attempt at plumbing. It was when I moved into a small apartment, I had just signed the lease, which was quite a big step for me, and a little scary as there were so many rules I had to stick to. There were some shared facilities, the toilet and the kitchen being used by two other people. I had no idea that I was about to make foolish mistake. I had just graduated from university with hardly any money, just enough to pay the rent and eat. One day I came home a bit stressed and became irritated by the dripping cistern in the toilets flusher unit, so I decided to 'have a go' and fix it by trying to do it myself. I stood on the toilet and before I knew what had happened, it started to wobble and I cracked the seal around the out pipe. This meant that whenever it was flushed 'stuff' started leaking onto the floor. Now what? I didn't want to get in trouble so I went to local store and bought some filler to seal it. I read the tube and it said, “remove all lose material and clean down before applying”. OK, so out with the few tools that I had. A hammer a screwdriver and a small multi-purpose gadget. I got behind the WC and started chipping away at the seal. Once I had a few bits out it really started to stink, YUK! Anyway I soldiered on, braving the horrid smell, then disaster! One too many chips... the tube itself smashed and all of its contents went over my hands and onto the floor. Luckily it was mostly water but the pipe inside was coated with god knows what! By now I was cursing myself thinking,

I SHOULD HAVE GONE TO AN EXPERT, BORROWED SOME MONEY FROM MY FOLKS, AND GOT IT DONE PROPERLY... WHY DIDN'T I GO TO AN EXPERT ?

I think panic had started to set in, what was I going to do. What would the landlord say? Would he kick me out? That's when I made the decision to sell my graduation present, a TAG Chronograph watch, then buy a new WC to replace the old one. Nobody would notice and I had a week before my room mates got back from Holiday. I went to a watch dealer and got two hundred for my watch, way below what it was worth. I felt really upset about it but hey what choice did I have? Yes I know ...

I SHOULD HAVE GONE TO AN EXPERT PAID HIM THE MONEY!!

I took the money to the local plumbers merchant and bought the exact same WC and lugged it home strapped to my bike. When the coast was clear, I got it up to the third floor, I was absolutely exhausted, it was so heavy. What the hell had come over me to make me try to fix it on my own....?

WHY DIDN'T I GO TO AN EXPERT PLUMBER?

The next day after the landlord had gone out I started chipping the old WC out well I say chipping it was really just a case of smashing the bend and undoing the screws around the base. I wish! I got the horrid smelling old WC off after about five hours. But then more problems.... once it was off, I looked into the pipe which was thick with, well lets just say it was brown and slimy and smelt like your worst nightmare. I had to clean off some of this awful stuff, I had no gloves and only a kitchen knife would move it. It took me about an hour to scrape the stinking sludge away, Finally the join was clean, but the whole room smelled like a dead animal mixed with garbage. That's when the landlord decided to come home early.. Oh my God I couldn't do any banging or screwing a until he was out again. That was about a day and a half.! A day and a half spent in what could only be described as an open sewer. The whole room was foul smelling. How was I to go the the toilet, I had to use a bucket and carefully tip it down the hideous brown hole. I think by now I had learnt an important lesson. If you want a job doing properly.....

GO TO AN EXPERT!!

Once the landlord had gone out again I fitted the new WC to the filthy brown pipe and sealed it up replacing the screws from the old base and putting the seat from the old WC back on... now all I had to do was get rid of the old WC... how was I going to do it without being seen. There was only one way. Smash it to small bits and dispose of it in various bins. The last insult was the smashing, the first whack made a splat of the brown sludge fly right in my face...I thought that I was sure to die from some hideous disease, I don't think I felt clean again for a month after! I'm not sure if anyone ever noticed the change but I sure as hell learnt a big lesson. If you want an important job doing then whatever you do ....

GO TO AN EXPERT!

Which brings me back to my system. Now there are lots of different methods for stopping smoking. And if you are really lucky then you might stumble upon one which works. But statistically only seven percent of people who are having trouble stopping smoking will manage it on there own by doing it themselves. The rest need help! There is a multitude of stop smoking advice to choose from, ranging from ridiculous patches,drugs to plastic cigarettes to weird gel to help forums and support groups,NHS clinics etcetera. Now I was a heavy smoker around twenty years ago. I was desperate to give up smoking as my fitness was starting to suffer and I was at quite a high level in Athletics. How mad was I to smoke? But I started with a bunch of my friends when I was around eleven and by my twentieth birthday I had been hooked into around forty a day. It was on April the 9th 1985 that I was shocked into making the decision to quit smoking . My Mother died aged 49 from the result of smoking. I was heart broken. That was the final straw, I knew I had to quit. Little did I know that I was to spend the next eight years trying... I tried everything , patches which were useless, I had a patch on and still wanted a cigarette! NHS group clinic, I found depressing which made me smoke more. Cold Turkey which seemed to work until I got stressed out. Plastic cigarettes, what a joke. I think I tried pretty much everything with out any real expert help, just doing it myself. "You know what that can lead to", I always thought! Finally a friend of my Mothers told me about a guy she had been to see to help her quit. I knew she had been a non smoker for about eighteen months since seeing him. He was a specialist using a system called "The phoenix system", I went to see him paying his £250.00 fee. The morning before that session I chain smoked fifteen. They were the last cigarettes I have ever smoked.! He was brilliant. He showed me why I had found it so hard to quit and implanted some great techniques and suggestions which completely changed that old habit. I knew that day that I've finally quit smoking and cigarettes were a thing of the past. I rang home and told my Dad I've wiped out my smoking habit. He was over the moon too.

Now forget about that horrible toilet thing just remember, you don't need to go down the lengthy route that I went down because you of course are totally free to choose which method you use to stop smoking you could try to do it yourself and good luck to you if you do, or you could.....

Go to an expert, get some effective advice and quit with specialist help!

That was an important lesson for me way back then. It kind of changed my life, I wish I had applied it a bit quicker!!

Only click here to get the expert advice and one of the world most effective on line stop smoking methods, if you really want to stop smoking .

Many warm regards

Nigel

Just good feelings

That's it, nothing more nothing less.
Smokers smoke because it makes them feel good. The irony being when they realise that they do not want to smoke anymore, smoking also makes them feel bad. So it makes you feel good then makes you feel bad. Most people don't like feeling bad but because the habit of smoking is established in the unconscious, stopping can become quite tricky unless a positive approach is used. Don't believe all the nonsense about nicotine addiction, this is a notion proliferated by drug companies and some ill informed medical professionals who tend to believe what they are told by drug companies. This notion has prevented many people from quitting merely because they think they are addicted. Well as a smoking cessation specialist having helped thousands of smokers to quit I can tell you that the problem has nothing to do with nicotine, It's just a habit!

Nicotine is a poison that the body does all it can to remove from the system. Your body does not 'need' nicotine. This is the reason why when you have a lung full of tobacco smoke you get a rush to the head, especially if you haven't had a 'dose' for a while. The rush to the head is caused by your brain sensing that there is an unwanted poison inside of you. To remove this, it increases your heart rate by about ten beats per second, to flush the poison out of your body. Because your heart rate has increased, you are getting more blood flowing through your brain and consequently more oxygen. It's the oxygen that gives you the head rush, in the same way that it would if you started breathing faster than you needed to for a few seconds.

So we come back to the feel good factor. You smoke because it makes you feel good. So why does it make you feel good. The reason is simple. It's because smoking is linked psycho physiologically to a time when you also felt good before. Like when you first started smoking with all your friends or when you are out socialising or after you've had sex or feeling grown up or any number of reasons. The Mechanics are the same. You think you are stressed, or upset, or tense.. brain says, "don't feel bad, have a good feeling," and offers the link, via a cigarette, to previous good feelings.

If you really want to stop smoking then one of the best things you can do is to start doing something healthy that also makes you feel good and focus upon what you want from being a non smoker. Then all you need to do is to break the habitual link. This is really easy to do if you are prepared to to approach this from a new direction. If you really want to then just click here for a neat pattern that will break up your habit. It's free and it will work... just do it!

With love ...Nigel

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