Changing the Smoker Paradigm

You were born a nonsmoker. It’s your natural state. Your smoking habit had to be learned. No matter how many years -- or even decades -- you’ve been smoking, you’re a nonsmoker by nature. Even if you’re a chain smoker, that behavior is nothing more than subconscious programming.

You know all of the logical reasons for quitting. You may have tried many times. If so, your subconscious programming has been reinforced by repeated failure. None of that matters.

If you’re ready to quit, if you’ve made the decision to stop for good, you can do it quickly and easily. You can do it without fear of craving, irritability, or weight gain.

Does that seem too good to be true? I don’t blame you for feeling that way. I was a human cigarette incinerator for forty years. I know all about trying to quit, only to be defeated by the unrelenting craving. I went through the vicious cycle of quit/relapse more times than I care to think about. And when I finally did quit, it was like flipping a switch. Presto! Instant nonsmoker!

How did I do it? I stopped relying on logic and will power. The resources of the conscious mind are powerless against subconscious programming. If you really want to quit, you’ve got to change your program. You need specialized help that confronts your subconscious programming.

Luckily, there’s a discipline that offers a fine tuned approach to changing deeply ingrained behavior. That discipline is neuro-linguistic programming, or NLP. There’s no simple definition for NLP. I like to think of it as a method of accessing and controlling the interface between the mind and the brain. That definition is a deliberate oversimplification. There’s plenty of literature on the technical aspects of NLP, much of it easily understood by nonscientist readers.

Many people are familiar with NLP as a therapeutic approach. NLP is also used by Olympic athletes and world class musicians to model optimum performance. Many top salespeople use NLP to communicate with customers. If you’ve ever wondered why a certain politician or other celebrity has so much charisma, NLP offers compelling insight.

Here’s a classic demonstration of NLP in action: If you were to imagine being in your kitchen, opening the refrigerator, how are the various items arranged on the shelves? Do you just toss food in any old way, or do you have a system? Do you arrange food by category? By size? Do you have a specific space for produce? If you had a few fresh limes in the fridge, where would they be?

And if you were to take a nice fresh lime out of your refrigerator, can you imagine how that lime feels in your hand? Is it cool to the touch? Is the pebbly surface firm? If you hold the lime close to your nose and inhale deeply, does the lime have a nice fresh smell?

And if you were to put the lime on a counter or cutting board, and get out a good sharp knife, and slowly, carefully, cut the lime in half, how strong is the delicious, pungent aroma of the lime?

And if you were to hold one of the lime halves in you hand, and look closely at the soft, translucent flesh inside the lime half, how clearly can you see the delicate membranes that separate the sections, like the spokes of a wheel?

And if you now open your mouth wide, and put the cut surface of the lime in you mouth, and close your lips around the lime and suck the lime juice as you squeeze the lime half with your thumb and fingers…

…are you salivating as you read this?

Now compare that descriptive sequence with the following sentence:

“Think of something that makes you salivate.”

If I had omitted the entire sequence of images starting with “If you were to imagine being in your kitchen”, and simply suggested thinking of something that makes you salivate, you might well have thought about limes or some other citrus variety. But would your mouth actually water? Probably not. By engaging your senses, I was able to bypass logic and elicit a physical response.

Sensory imagery is one of many tools utilized by NLP to facilitate paradigm shift.

Trying to quit smoking with will power is like saying “Think of something that makes you salivate”. Allowing NLP to engage your mind is an easy, stress free way to access the natural nonsmoker state within you.