Want to be free of smoke, become fitter, breathe deeper, smell better, taste better, feel better, live and love longer?

What is the alternative? Live another 10 – 20 years coughing and spluttering and forever saying I’ll give up smoking next week, next month next year! And develop a nasty smoking related illness?

It’s a no brainer, isn’t it? Who wants to actively continue to pollute their bodies with all of the symptoms that you currently suffer as a result of your heavy smoking habits.  

You know when I went into this business, I was loathe to treat people for smoking cessation and I’ll tell you why. Though I was highly trained and knew how to do it, it entailed a massive guilt trip on my unsuspecting clients as I showed them the reality of what it is they are doing to their lungs, their hearts, their minds and their families. It appeared to me to be the direct polar opposite to what I was trained to do: relieve people of guilt, bad feelings, anxiety, depression. And there I was, effectively telling a client in deep hypnosis, that if they didn’t stop they should feel guilty and bad until they die a horrible death of emphezema or cancer! Hardly what you would call a pleasant experience.

But there were more reasons why I didn’t like doing it. I used to smoke 40 fags a day and I gave up without any help at all. Part of my psyche was therefore, “What’s the problem? Why pay me to make you feel bad when you can just give up?” You see, I was assuming that what was my experience could so easily be anybody’s experience.

But let me take you through my experience and show you how I gave up and what I had to learn to finally stop smoking.

 I’d find excuses to smoke, like, a bit of stress and out would come the rollies. 

I was 29. I was living in Liverpool in a house I had bought with my then partner. I’d had a rough year with a redundancy at work at Christmas and I was waiting to be accepted onto my Post Graduate Cert Ed (PGCE) in Manchester the following September. I’d had a bit of a breakthrough in the January after the redundancy where I needed to take stock of my life and had shifted in my mind what was important to me and what wasn’t. However, my relationship had nose-dived and was in its final death throws.

And my smoking habit was sky high. I must have been smoking easily 40 a day, and as my smoking bill was going up and up, the quality of my choice of tobacco was going down and down, until I was smoking more paper than tobacco in the rollies that I was making! And I dreaded thinking just how much money, when I’d been working, I must have spent on cigarattes over 15 years…and that was in the days where tax was half what it is now! Perhaps £1000 per year….that would have been a small deposit on a house. But I tried not to think about that.

 My throat was continually sore, I was skint, and my chest was aching. 

I’d find excuses to smoke, like, a bit of stress and out would come the rollies. My partner smoked constantly and not just tobacco, and every night my house was full of this fragant smell that seeped out under the door and through into the dining room where I might have been writing or reading. Well if he was smoking, what was the point of me giving up? I could only give up if he also gave up. I used to tell myself that I’d stop when I eventually got pregnant, but clearly with the breakdown in our relationship that was hardly now realistic.

My throat was continually sore, I was skint, and my chest was aching. You know, quite high up on the chest, almost like you can imagine where the two lungs branch off? There was this dull, painful feeling just there. And I wheezed and gurgled, and wheezed. Very sexy!

 I started to ask myself questions like, “What will happen if I don’t stop?” 

I started to ask myself questions like, “What am I doing smoking this stuff, day in day out?” And then I’d quickly answer with, “Well I’m stressed at the moment. I’ll give up when I’m feeling better.” And as the weeks went by, I realised that I could be stressed most of my life…..on and off….so does that mean I would always have to smoke? The questions became more and more difficult to answer honestly.

For example, I started to ask myself questions like, “What will happen if I don’t stop?”. And then I’d quickly answer myself, “Who knows? I could die of anything. Doesn’t have to be smoking. I’m not ill.” ……yet…..

I argued that I might put weight on….even though within a year or two I might lose it again.

I argued that my choice of tobacco was so cheap and the way I rolled them so meagre that it wasn’t costing me much…..well, it wasn’t costing me much money at least.

And with every fag I lit, up went another smoke screen on my life, another way in which I could avoid really taking stock and making my life how I wanted it to be. Let’s face it, there wasn’t much happiness in those years: redundant, finishing a relationship, losing my house. Which smoker would want to really have to grapple with all that without a fag in their hand?

You’d think typically, this is NOT a good time to give up smoking.

In the April, I’d amazingly found myself on an exchange trip with Spain….my degree had been in Spanish….organised by Millbank College in Liverpool. Looking back, that was the beginning of a lifelong friendship with both the teachers at Millbank and my correspondents in Spain. I’d gone to Spain and of course, cigarettes were pennies next to the pounds we paid in the UK. And you could smoke blond tobacco which really hurt your throat, or black tobacco that really hurt your lungs! It was great! All this cheap tobacco just waiting to be smoked! So I smoked away, even when my host family didn’t smoke, there I’d be, fagging away in the kitchen or on the balcony while their 2 and 8 year olds played nearby…..they didn’t seem to object….I didn’t really need to feel guilty….times have changed haven’t they?

 And as we walked out of the cafe we were in, I threw my tobacco, my precious tobacco and papers, in the bin! 

And then in May they came to England and stayed with me. That week, my correspondent, Mavi, saw me living in this smoke filled house, dragging myself around in a pall of smoke and misery, and with such diplomacy and sensitivity never once drew attention to what must have been quite a place to come and visit! Fortunately her children were back in Spain with their Dad.

One day on a trip in Wales with my correspondents, in a discussion about smoking, they asked me why I didn’t try and stop. And I thought about it there and then. Long and hard in the few seconds I had. And as we walked out of the cafe we were in, I threw my tobacco, my precious tobacco and papers, in the bin!

I made a decision in that moment to stop smoking for ever. I didn’t know it was for ever at that moment, but it felt like I would never want to go back.

I knew it would be hard. I knew I would have to face all the difficulties I had yet to encounter with the failure of my relationship, my relocation to Manchester, my house sale and all without the smoke screen up in front of me. I knew I would have to face cravings and coughing and not know what to do with my hands….I had tried a few times before to stop. I knew that I would need to keep reminding myself of my decision to reinforce my willpower to stop. I knew I might put weight on. I knew with my partner in the meantime, I would have to daily face his smoke and his friends in our house, smoking. I knew that many of my friends smoked and they would probably want me to carry on smoking. They wouldn’t want to feel left out or uncomfortable because they hadn’t yet made the decision to stop. But I also knew I couldn’t let another week, month or year slip by where I was still chained to the weed and out of control of my life! I knew that the only way to stop, was to tell myself, there is no better time than now.

 ..this is the only life you have and that you must choose how you want to live it. 

However, the day you stop smoking isn’t the last time you think about it. The commitment to stop takes you to make a decision about your health and wellbeing. It requires you to understand that this is the only life you have and that you must choose how you want to live it. You must make the desire to stop stronger than desire to keep smoking.

At any stage, I could have started again at any time. Especially with all that was going on at the time. But with every day that passed, I reminded myself that I had made a decision about how I wanted to live my life. I had to confirm and affirm every day that I wanted to be free of smoke and not use stress as an excuse to start again. And from that moment, 15 years ago, I have never smoked, nor wanted to smoke since.

I knew that the only way to stop, was to tell myself, there is no better time than now.

 I knew that the only way to stop, was to tell myself, there is no better time than now. 

NOW is ALWAYS the time to give up smoking. There is no better moment than now. You can postpone it forever using any one of thousands of excuses that smokers trot out like tired old comedians who keep repeating the same jokes….and seriously, they just aren’t funny any more! The only excuse you have for not giving up smoking, is that you are already dead! Once dead, you really can’t give up smoking any more. And before I continue, I want you to think how many people you know who would benefit from stopping.  Forward them this article!

So this brings me onto the reason I am writing to you.  If you want to give up smoking in the new year, keep watch for the teleseminar on 29th January at 9pm.   If you want to sign up to the telephone seminar, click here to subscribe and I will then send you the telephone number and dial up number well before the call.  I will also send you a few reminders just in case you’re someone who lives without a diary!

And if you want to book in to see me to stop smoking in the new year, go to the comments page and send me an e mail.