Most people, when they think about quitting, focus on the future. Not next month or next year, but the hours and days after you quit.
The fear of running out of a cigarette may seem like it is in the future, yet a craving never goes away in the distance that it is now! The only time you need to control your craving is in the present.
But the problem is that this is where fear and anxiety also live. However, there is a way to use your past to let go of the fear and anxiety of the present.
A popular method used in neurolinguistic programming and in my calm process is to revisit a time in the past and bring it back to the now.
I ask my clients to clearly define how they will feel when they have successfully quit smoking. Common responses are proud, happy, free, or successful.
Then I ask them to recall a time in their past when they felt this way. The most common response was when they held their son for the first time. Other answers include winning, an event, buying your first home, and riding your motorcycle for the first time after getting your license.
The next step is to revisit that memory. To remember and deeply feel the event, to remember the exact time, the place, the people and, most importantly, your feelings and where they are in your body.
This process is established in the first Calm session, and your task is to revisit these memories as many times as possible before the second session when they quit.
The second session of Calm is when we dive into the unconscious mind, to unearth all the connections, habits and beliefs about smoking. Usually in the middle of the session, I will have them remember the positive feeling and then dismiss it.
Next, I ask them to imagine a situation where they might be tempted to smoke, and I quickly returned the good feeling to them to completely smash the feeling of smoking.
We repeated this process three times imagining different smoking scenarios, each time making them win the battle over smoking and making them feel good about their victory.
Over the next few days and weeks, each time you crave or feel like smoking, you will experience this feeling again. In addition, they will stack at least two more strategies to ensure they remain non-smokers for life.
Of course you can use this feeling to relieve any stress in your life.