Creation of your Own Smoking Habit

By: Patrick Glancy

Pretend you or someone you know has a bad habit. A big bad monkey on your back. How did it get there? How did it start? Probably a combination of three things; emotions, authority figures, and repetition.

Example:

Let's just use a younger you for the example, 10-14 years old. And for this example, let's use the habit of smoking. If you don't smoke.... replace the word "smoking" with any craving you get, or just pretend you smoke? It is an article about smoking after all.

So when you were around that age I think we can safely assume you were learning about life and how you fit into it. If you were like most kids, you weren't as confident about yourself as you would be later in life.

You may have felt self-conscious, dependant on others, powerless, not good enough, or just not as capable as you would have liked to feel. Let's call this feeling "bad". Now, this doesn't mean you felt miserable, but, did you feel as "good" as you wanted to feel? Did you feel as "good" as you believed other people felt?

Feeling like that would lead you to wanting to feel better, or, as good as everyone else. What ways does your mind see to do this?? That matters upon what learning situations you've been exposed to.

Experiences that teach you smoking is strong, capable, tough, independent, self-assured, unique, and feels "good". Experiences that involve emotions, authority figures and repetition. Of course advertisements do this, so do parents and family members. Are these experiences repeated? Of course.

Your mind would develop a craving for the very thing it believes is in your best interest. The thing that will make you feel better. A craving that is a "feeling", separate from a "knowing".

Then at some point you tried your first cigarette, and DID feel better. But you were not very good at smoking yet and since it made you feel better, you practiced it until you were good at it.

Life goes on and you continue practicing your smoking habit. Reinforcing the existing cravings and creating new ones. Like branches on the tree of the first craving.

A lot of people working to quit smoking have thought of these things. A lot have not. But, all of the people that have tried to quit smoking have used a lot of time thinking and analyzing their habit. Trying to argue themselves into quitting. But, you didn't learn this habit by thinking and analyzing. Why would trying to quit smoking that way work?

It is common sense to quit smoking using the same elements that created the habit. A "hypnotized" mind, along with emotions, authority figures and repetition. These are the elements of modern hypnosis.