I was always passionate about helping people quit smoking.
There are different kinds of bad habits, but this one can affect not only your own health, but also the health and well-being of your loved ones.
Although there’s a component of nicotine addiction in the smoking, this component is only minor. If it were only for nicotine, the nicotine replacement therapy would be very effective. Unfortunately it works only in 10-20% of cases.
The biggest problem with smoking is that it’s a HABIT. Most likely you practiced this habit for years and years.
Someone may say: “We need to break this habit!” I don’t like the idea of “breaking” something. There is a chance that this “something” will resist.
One elegant approach is to progressively introduce small changes to the habit. Each change is relatively small – we are making one tiny step at a time – but the end result is very impressive.
With smoking one example of such small change is the exercise called “a butt bag”.
The idea is that you start collecting the butts from all the cigarettes that you smoke in a plastic bag. And you carry this bag with you everywhere you go.
Each time you put a butt in the bag, you also need to break a new cigarette and put it in the bag.
Usually I recommend doing this exercise for at least 2-3 weeks.
About a year ago I started giving this assignment to all my clients who wanted to quit smoking. I ask them to do that during our very first free consultation.
Depending on the amount of cigarettes that you smoke at the end of 2 weeks the bag may become really disgusting. The way it looks, smells, its weight in your hands – it’s quite an experience.
And it’s such a beautiful test of your motivation!
One caveat – you need to be very consistent and honest with yourself when you collect the butts. If you feel that you are not ready yet, it may be worth waiting a little bit. Because when you start you want to be sure that there’s no way back to smoking.
If you are interested in quitting smoking, feel free to book a free consultation. Note that right now I work exclusively online via Zoom or over the phone.
