How to Quit Smoking

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Bird) — Mon, 06 May 2013 23:44:00 +0000

1-2-free Stop Smoking system now totally free!

That's right, nothing to pay, no obligation, no detail capture, just freedom from the habit you may have grown to hate. After years of trial and error it seems that people who want to quit and are willing to pay for this huge wish, are usually more successful after they do. However I have come to the decision that the information that so many smokers who are desperate to quit require is becoming addled by the amount of gimmicks and pharmaceutical clap trap on the web. So at the risk of slightly reducing the effectiveness of the system, as opposed to a paid for process, you may have it absolutely free. All you need to do is leave me a contact email address. (I suggest you open a separate email account in Hotmail or similar, specifically for this purpose to avoid spam later on. You can then just delete the account once you have the system ). I will then give you details of the sky drive where it is available.

Check out some of my bloggs to give yourself a bit of a head start. you have nothing to lose , only the Fags!

P.S If the cogs move in the brain test diagram, you have the type of brain that can give up habits ridiculously easy using 1-2-free.

P.P.s All 1-2-free links on this blogg are now broken so the system is only available via our skydrive.

Its all here still.

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Bird) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:05:00 +0000

This blog is now primarily being used for research into smoking cessation by individuals and organisations. I rarely add further info unless something ground breaking comes up, as of yet all you need to quit is here, so go for it and have a party!

Most of the information on this blog has been tested 'in the field' so to speak, by myself and other smoking cessation specialists on real clients so I can therefore verify its usefulness.

There is a free NLP technique in the 'Habit buster' blogg and also links in the blog prior to this to a full free hypnosis /NLP smoking cessation system which is available to download from a skydrive site.

If you really want to quit without chemicals, please don't hesitate. It really is free, as you will be!

much love,

Nigel Bird.

Quit for Free on me.

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Bird) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:10:00 +0000

It's 2010 and this is the first time I've been back here for a while. As the purpose of this blog is to help people become non smokers , I have to put out a few more snippets of information that will help them achieve this goal. Firstly however I need to reiterate that if you really want to become a non smoker then all the information you need can be found on these blogs. I have not been able to supply a downloadable stop smoking session on these pages, but I'm working on that now. The the best way for you to receive this download at present is to contact me via email at nigelbird5@hotmail.co.uk I will then send you a link to my skydrive at microsoft where I will authorise you to download the MP3. I will also send you my E book as an pdf . Then all you really need to do is read the book then listen to the cd. You'll be jumping for joy at being a non smoker. That's it... simple. Why am I giving this stuff away? Well, I just want to, there's no hitch, it really is free, so what have you got to lose, except that old Habit !

Look forward....

Still here if needed

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Bird) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:13:00 +0000

Have been away for some time and neglecting the blogg. However Through all my experience of dealing with smokers and helping them to quit I am pretty sure that the information you need to quit can be found amoung the various postings on this blogg. There has to my knowledge been no more discoveries in the last year aimed at helping a person to quit. Therefor for me to continue adding more posts will only serve to fill the blogg with more stories about quitting and make finding the information you need more lengthy.

Essentially you need to check out the nicotine addiction sections then devise a way to deal with your habits craving manifestations. Its all here if you care enough to look for it and seriously want to quit. I will always be available to comment however should you need any help. If you care enough to search you'll always find light at the end of the path even if it seems a bit cold on the way!

Happy new year!

How long did the resolutions last?

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Bird) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 11:12:00 +0000

Happy new year and I hope this year brings all you hope it will.

By now a large proportion of smokers who made that new years resolution to quit will be back on the evil weed. It's the same every year. There is however a big glimmer of hope for those who failed but really want to quit. You see quitting is only as hard as you make it yourself. There is a big percentage, around 45% who find quitting very easy and never go back to cigarettes ever again. Smokers 'trying' to quit however rarely hear about these. And why should they, there is no money to be made out of them, but they are there all the same. You probably know someone in this category. The overwhelming consensus amongst the general public is that it's hard to quit. They even tell you that in all those hideous nicotine patch ads and NHS information broadcasts. Why is this the case? Well there is still money to be made out of the poor smoker even when he decides to quit, if he believes it is hard to do. i.e he'll need some kind of 'help'!

Just remember this, around 45% of smokers who quit, find it easy. If you really believe this and it is a fact, then you too will find it easy. A simple formulae in therapy states, expectation+belief=your experience. Don't be fooled by the drug companies or the nationalised health services they serve! Pick a time when you want to quit, find an alternative coping strategy to help with stress utilise some form of habit breaking technology (my habit buster on the left will do) and you can quit easily.

Resolution Madness

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Bird) — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 11:55:00 +0000

THE HARDEST TIME TO QUIT!

It’s that time of the year again when many smokers who want to give up smoking choose to do the deed and banish the evil weed. We ask, is this the best time to do it?
Statistically 50% of New Year’s resolutions have been broken by the end of the first week. There is some very sound reasoning why this is the case and particularly with smoking. According to government figures only around 7% of smokers who rely on willpower will succeed in quitting on the first attempt. New Year’s Day is perceived by many to be a time to make a fresh start or turn over a new leaf, but in actual fact it’s quite probably the hardest time to quit smoking.

By the last week in December the days are at their shortest and cases of Seasonally affected Disorder (SAD) are coming to a peak and the cold is starting to bite. Christmas is a welcome fillip to the gloom with celebrations and indulgence being the order of the day. However as the year draws to a close, the festivities are over the decorations come down and the unwelcome credit card statement drops on the door mat, merriment can in some turn into less uplifting mood states. Add that to the still long dark nights at the coldest time of the year, it’s a recipe for a dose misery or worse a bout of depression. This is the time of the year when any coping strategies (tobacco, alcohol etc) would be most needed by those who have adopted these behaviours. Hardly the best time to consider quitting! However as stopping smoking is almost certainly the single best thing a smoker can do for their health, stopping at any time is most certainly a positive step. I recommend that should you decide that this is the time when you’re going to quit smoking then you really need the best advice about the easiest way to go about it. One thing is for sure if you rely on willpower alone then unless you now how to use it effectively, statistically there is around a 93% failure rate. In my book and CD I show you how to use your willpower effectively which alone can increase your willpower up to five times. This even without any other intervention would give you a statistical chance of success of around 35%, nearly double the success rate of the NHS stop smoking service!
You need not only get the best advice about how to use your willpower but also new coping strategies which can be installed using effective hypnotic intervention and NLP.( the change technique that is used by mind game TV personalities. These techniques are highly effective and work) All this gives you a far higher chance of success.

To get a copy of my Book and CD, leave your details in my secure comments section and I'll attach them in an email to you. Your details will not be on view as my comments section is regulated . If you really want to quit smoking now, do yourself a favour and make it easy on yourself, use an effective method!

Have a very happy new year....

Nigel.

You are being conned by cigerette producers

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Bird) — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 12:02:00 +0000

Are you addicted to nicotine?

Most smokers believe that they are and if you are one of these then let me ask you another question. If you were not addicted to nicotine would it be easy for you to stop? The belief that nicotine is a very addictive chemical is a common one and fuelled partly by the government and partly by the tobacco manufacturers. I believe they want you to think this. I totally disagree with this notion! Before you say ‘well I am addicted and you can say what you like’ just listen to my reasoning. In America a few years ago a Large Law firm commissioned a study to find out whether nicotine was an addictive chemical. They were taking a large cigarette producer to court on behalf of clients with tobacco related diseases They commissioned the leading experts in the field of chemical addictions and these experts produced a 600-page report. None of them said categorically that nicotine was an addictive chemical! Kind of interesting eh? As a therapist I look at people from a behavioural point of view, so if I want to find out if something is addictive I compare it with a proven addiction. So let’s take heroin, (generally accepted as a strongly addictive chemical) as an example. An average Heroine Addict suffers terrible physical withdrawal symptoms, (sweats, shakes, heart palpitations, vomiting, nausea, hallucinations and more). Now when was the last time you stopped smoking and suffered such horrible physical symptoms? You might get grumpy and lose your temper more easily you might even over eat but you don’t get such horrible symptoms. Also your average heroine addict cannot make it through the night without their body waking them up for more heroine. The only heroine addicts that get full nights sleep are also alcoholics (because the Alcohol numbs their brain). The only trouble being that when they get up in the morning they have to take all of the Heroine that they would have taken during the night just to get out of bed! Now When was the last time that you had to smoke all the cigarettes that you would have smoked if you were awake all night? It never happens. You might wake up and smoke one or two but you don’t have to smoke all those that you would have smoked if you were awake. So why do you only want a cigarette when you’re awake? Because if you were an addict that means your body requires the chemical, so why does it only want it when you’re awake?

Now here’s the low-down, the proof that what I’m saying is true. Have you ever tried to stop using Nicotine replacement therapy or NRT? (Patches Gums lozenges) These all contain huge amounts of Nicotine. The average regular strength cigarette contains around 1 milligram of Nicotine, (low tar and ultra lights even less), you can check if you like by looking at the box. Nicotine replacement treatments vary in the quantity of nicotine they supply your body with and contain up to114 milligrams! Now That is a massive dose, that's more nicotine than 2o boxes cigarettes! And you use the same amount every day. For at least six weeks! That’s 210 boxes of twenty. Now if nicotine was such an addictive chemical why don’t you get addicted to patches, I've never seen a private patient asking for help getting off patches. Call me cynical but where do you think the patch manufacturers get their nicotine? Do you think it could be the tobacco manufacturers?

Now One of the ‘traditional’ ways the experts get a heroine addict off the heroine is to give them a replacement drug called methadone (very similar to heroine in nature). This is more safely available at special clinics set up for the purpose. The idea being to gradually wean the addict off this replacement. These same experts are saying ‘one of the ways were going to get you off the cigarettes is to give you a patch that contains more nicotine than you’ve ever had in your entire life’! That’s like saying to a heroine addict ‘have some more heroine’. That really is crazy. And why are there no clinics to wean you of the patches? And what’s even crazier is that the government has been funding nicotine replacement therapy with millions of pounds every year! Now here’s the thing, according to the governments own statistics, if you’re trying to give up smoking using willpower alone then around 6% of those trying will succeed. Of the people trying to stop using the nicotine gums then around 10% of those trying will succeed. Of the people trying to stop using nicotine patches then around 16% of those trying will succeed. What that really means is that at least 84% of people trying to stop smoking using Nicotine replacement DON’T SUCCEED! Which means it doesn’t work! Because it’s not a nicotine addiction! The people who managed to stop using NRT (16%) only did so because they were convinced that it works, it became a self fulfilling prophecy, commonly known as the placebo effect. This is an effect caused by the belief that something is going to work irrespective of the actual content. So basically if you really think something will work then it will !

Why smoking makes you feel good

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Bird) — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 12:40:00 +0000

That's of course if it still does!

Smoking is a coping strategy. Every time you feel stressed or bored, or hungry, or any negative feeling the unconscious will try to make you feel better. That's it's job.... cast your mind back to the first ciggie that you ever had... Was it because all of your peers were smoking and you felt left out? Cos if it was, that is why you smoke. Feeling left out is the worst thing in the world, especially during your formative years. Fitting in is the best feeling in the world at that time. The cigarette then gets linked via the process of anchoring, ( chaining certain feelings to certain things), to that best feeling. Fatal... from that moment on your unconscious has an easy root to a good feeling. You have been conditioned essentially like sheep! Now it might not have been your peers, it might have been your parents who smoked, or an elder brother or a sexual partner, whatever, the mechanism is the same. Something about the actual act of smoking linked you to a pleasurable experience. IT WAS NOT THE NICOTINE. Nicotine addiction is a myth A persons first cigarette always make them feel physically unwell, a human does not need nicotine at all. In fact every time you have nicotine in your body your unconscious is doing it's damnedest to get rid of it, even if you 'Want to smoke and have no intention of quitting!!

If you want to quit then all you have to do is find some other convenient healthy activity that makes you feel really good, chain some type of harmless action to that activity, then every time you feel bad, fire off that action, or every time you would 'normally' smoke fire off that action. this really does work. Some smoking cessation specialists utilise this in their clients to brilliant effect.

Quitting smoking therefor is for all intents and purposes much easier that the drug companies and health organisations would have you believe.

Are drugs really the answer for quitters

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Bird) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 11:29:00 +0000

The Logic seems plausible; using chemicals to interfere with the brains nicotine habituated receptors. and the percentage of people still quit after six months has increased but where is this leading us?

More and more smokers are being prescribed the 'wonder quit drug' Champix or one of it's many sister drugs, but ultimately the habit will still need to be broken and taking drugs to help with the initial quit is in my view still akin to sweeping the dirt under the carpet. And for what my opinion is worth I am not convinced that there has been nearly enough testing of this group of chemicals and analysis of the side effects. My feeling is that all these drugs will be proved more harm than good. Its only a few months ago that the government has started to back pedal about the 'right category' for cannabis having discovered that it can cause psychosis. Common sense will tell you that replacing one drug with another cannot be the way forward.

The psychological effects of habit breaking are what essentially makes quitting difficult for around half of people who quit. Understanding the psychology of smoking is the real secret to quitting, don't believe the hullabaloo about nicotine addiction, it's over egged hype, mooted by the tobacco companies and government health organisation to frighten people into using there products. Nicotine is gone entirely from your body after 48 hrs. Stopping smoking is for all intents and purposes no more difficult than stopping going to school or stopping biting your nails. If you go about it in the right way, utilising a positive outcome as your reference, illicit a new healthy coping strategy,and eliminating negative harmful self talk and visualisation, then it is actually ridiculously easy to quit. Obviously you will need some kind of help toward these ends and there is plenty of help available. Here I am bound of course to mention my product ...
'1-2-Free', which you can find out about by clicking the words or going via my link buddies. But there are lots of other effective programmes to choose from.

Smokers who want to quit do need help finding out how to quit without drugs and without traditional side effects. My system uses a variety of technologies proven in private treatment based upon Hypnosis and NLP (the relatively new science of change using language and representational systems). A crude form of which was used by The Koreans to psychologically trick and convince their American Prisoners of War to become communists and Anti American, without any torture or truth drugs. They just got them to change the way they saw themselves using simple suggestions and then got their fellow prisoners to see them differently but utilising what they had said... Very simple But highly effective.

Legal age to buy cigarettes increases to eighteen.

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Bird) — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 12:31:00 +0000

But will it help?

It is always amusing to me how the Government go about reducing the numbers of people smoking. As far as I can see from my experience of dealing with smokers who want to stop, everything the Government does is likely do have a polarity response .i.e. making people smoke more or encouraging people to smoke. And being a bit of an old cynic I could interpret this as a deliberate elicitation.
Anybody with teenage children will tell you if you tell them not to do something they're more likely to do it. So raising the age at which children can buy cigarettes is doing what?
Well first of all it's throwing down a challenge to 'get away with looking older'. Secondly those that do manage to con the 'innocent' shopkeeper will appear more of a hero to their peers and therefore more likely to be copied. And of course the proposed age increase only affects the actual buying capabilities, as the legal age at which smoking is allowed remains the same! What hypocrisy!

The Government claim to have studied models from other countries and these show mixed results. The trouble with studies is that you tend to find what you’re looking for. The big question we need to be asking ourselves as a nation is; What are we doing that is making smoking still appear so attractive to young children. Well a number of factors appear to be in play. Children basically begin smoking because their friends or parents smoke or because it makes them feel older or rebellious. We as a society need to question ourselves as to why being grown up is so attractive to children. Most teenagers tend to be repelled by anything that would make them appear remotely 'sensible or grown up' like their parents. However smoking and possibly drinking seems to be an exception.

Before the teens a large amount of children aspire to be like their parents. Hence little girls dressing up in Mums clothes and make up and little boys playing with Fake tools like Dads. If children could experience being grown up and all its problems they would soon realise that the state they are in really is the most appealing. How many adults actually want to appear to be older? It seems that both groups are suffering from 'grass is greener syndrome'. Children smoke to appear older, what do adults do to appear younger? They spend a fortune on cosmetics, surgery and numerous regimes but ultimately the clock cannot go backwards and ageing is an unfortunate by-product of life that adults do there utmost to avoid. Stopping smoking is one of the single most effective things a smoker can do to prevent premature ageing.

Clearly just telling children that they will regret starting smoking when they are older is futile as any parent will tell you. Telling them not to smoke is even worse. Like waving a red rag to a bull. Even showing them what tobacco does with actual tar infested body parts seems not to be enough. There is a vast amount of information available at schools advising of the terrible effects of smoking. This still fails to significantly reduce the number of young smokers. It would appear then that they quite probably take up smoking with the knowledge of the harm that it can do. Why would they do that? Surely they don't think that they are immortal? Well this may well be the case from their point of view. How long did it take for Christmas to come around as a child? Well I remember it seeming almost forever! So could it be that children think that they will be able to try it and stop at will, 'some time in the future.....' regardless of the damage? This is almost certainly the case; they have an inbuilt mechanism that makes them braver when they are children. Just go to Disney World and see how many young children 'don’t' want to go on the scary rides. Further there is also conflicting advice because adult smokers are always told how quickly they will experience better health when they stop. A presupposition that they can stop! This of course reinforces the belief in the youngster that they will be able stop. What they fail to see is that it can be much harder to do when the time arrives. (It’s actually very easy to stop but only if you understand the mechanism behind the habit forming part of the brain, or if you are by nature a positive thinker) Unfortunately the Government and the NHS bombard adults with negative messages about how difficult it will be to stop. So by the time the child arrives at the adult place where they want to become non smokers, they have been conditioned to believe that it will be hard to quit smoking. This is why only 7% of smokers quit just using will power. It has become a self fulfilling prophecy.

So what is the answer to the question of reducing the numbers of young smokers? In an ideal world leading by example can usually set young people on the right path. So this means not smoking as a parent as a bare minimum. Making children more aware from a young age (below six) that putting foul tasting chemical laden smoke in their mouth is a bad experience. Even actually letting them taste it would also most probably be enough to turn them away from it when they're older. That’s how Phobias work.... personally I see nothing wrong with giving them a phobia of tobacco. Not very PC of course, but an idea that could be adopted by the government anti smoking campaign designers. The same idea is used by traffic safety organisations!! In other words teach them younger. Don't wait until they start.They also do it with sex education. The nation needs to understand what role peer pressure, fashion and the media have in developing a healthy population. This means quite literally blanket banning of all smoking in any image in all media. This is in place to a certain degree but not by any means far reaching enough. It also means removing any possibility of children seeing adults smoking. Pie in the sky? We to have a blanket ban in public places?? Why not go the whole hog and have an outright ban on the sale? After all what we are talking about is saving around 350 lives every day, when you think about it tobacco is the only product on general sale that Kills people when used as designed. Guns kill far less people and are much harder to get hold of.

What would happen if cigerettes were banned from sale completely?
Well most probably the whinging freedom of choice pro smoking action groups would be up in arms initially. Freedom of choice? Are they really saying that they think people should be allowed to kill themselves anyway they see fit? And in doing so set a great example that will lead many children along the same path? It is my experience when dealing with people who defend freedom of choice that it's only their choice that they defend vigorously. Would they also defend the choice of those who wish to exist in a society that doesn't allow children to become embroiled in a habit likely to kill them when used as designed? Because until the problem item is totally removed the wheels of disease and death caused by smoking will continue to turn. Of course we now slip into the realms of the world of politics where the Government of a democracy is supposed to enforce the wishes of the majority. Mr Spock from tv.s 'Star trek' espoused the view where the need of the many outweigh the need of the few, and was prepared to die for it. I know its fiction on TV but That’s how it should be. Why is there urgent policy not in place to get rid of tobacco outright, instead of their target of a two percent reduction by 2010! That's another 638750 deaths!! The majority of the population do in fact want that? Well does Government really work that way? Could it be so influenced by big business or huge tax revenues that it allows itself to be dragged into the mire of hypocrisy? Are we really able to do without the eight billion pounds generated by tax on tobacco? A tax on something that makes people feel good but also kills them! Is the government the ultimate Drug dealer? Is Gordon Brown the man on the corner with the bling and the gold tooth?

Where else would he get the money from?
Well as far as I can see the only reason people smoke tobacco is because it makes them feel good. Nicotine addiction is a myth. This then presents the question what else could people be doing to make themselves feel good? The sky really is the limit. Let’s just say that instead of spending five pounds on a box of cigarettes every day you could spend five pounds on something else to make you feel good that doesn't kill at the same time? What did people do before Walter Raleigh brought back the weed? And let’s hope that G Daddy Brown doesn't then put in place a feel good tax because at the end of the day that's what he's getting from smokers. Smokers are paying the government to feel good. And in the big picture of things the loss of the revenue could be absorbed. On the other hand he could raise taxes (shock horror) to cover the loss or cut back arms spending. Wouldn't a responsible society want to pay for our children’s future health?
According to the Royal College of Physicians A ban on smoking in public places would save the British economy £4bn a year, according to latest research. Most of the savings identified in the study, would come from increased productivity as workers took fewer cigarette breaks. The report, 'Going Smoke-Free', also refutes the "myth" that banning smoking at work would increase smoking in the home. An outright ban would also save around 1.4 billion in anti smoking advertising and the cost treating smokers in the NHS. Of the 12,000 deaths caused each year by passive smoking, just 500 are due to smoking at work. Professor John Britton, chairman of the college's Tobacco Advisory Group, said: "The big problem with passive smoking is the number of people affected by smoking at home." How do we address that? The evidence shows that, if you make public places smoke-free, a lot of people who smoke quit. "You become used to the idea that smoking is not normal and you don't do it in front of other people. To have loopholes or exceptions is illogical and counterproductive," he said. Prof Britton said children who passively smoke face increased risks of cot death, asthma and other respiratory problems. The £4bn predicted savings to the UK economy would come from increased productivity, lower NHS costs and reduced insurance, cleaning and fire-related bills. Prof Britton said the impact of a smoking ban in Ireland and other countries had been examined and added: "Wherever smoke-free policies have been introduced they have been very popular and very successful, with no policing or compliance issues to speak of." The popularity of the measures increase substantially between the government announcing them and implementing them and then still more after it happens. So really revenue cannot be used as an issue.

The simple facts are raising the age where children can legally buy tobacco will have very little effect on reducing the number of young smokers. The other government technique in practice at present on TV in NHS backed campaigns of trying to frighten or humiliating people into stopping is equally useless. When smokers are frightened or worried or stressed or unhappy it's a negative state which makes them feel bad. What do smokers do to make them feel good again? That’s right ..........smoke.
By now the answer to the question of how to get people to stop smoking and how to stop children from smoking should be clear. Teach people other strategies to make them feel good. Remove tobacco completely from society so children cannot be led up the garden path by peers and role models and for goodness sake let’s start realising that good feelings can happen without narcotics. It's not that hard, in fact feeling good is remarkably easy, something we teach in our booklet . Individuals, who find good feelings hard to come by, need to address the question of what it is that they are not coping with that necessitates anesthetizing. And what about the freedom of choice brigade? Well sadly they are the poor individuals without freedom at the end of the day, they only have two choices....to smoke or not, having only two choices is not my idea of freedom!

Blind leading the Blind

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Bird) — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 08:04:00 +0000

If you are trying to give up smoking then getting help from an expert would appear to be a sensible move. It is however very dependant upon whom you go to for advice. There is a plethora of stop smoking agencies on the Internet and available through national health organisations like the NHS who would appear at first to have your best interests at heart plugging away with NRT or champix or zyban... just more drugs.

Why Support groups don't help!
While these groups do provide sympathy and understanding they do generally not greatly increase the percentages of success amongst people who want to give up smoking. It’s true that many of them are organised by former smokers but statistics point to the fact that the group therapy route isn’t as effective as it could be. I believe there is one main reason for this.

People who try to give up smoking using group therapy have usually already exhausted all the choices they have as individuals in terms of ways to give up smoking on their own. This is obvious as they are now at the group stage. They are then confronted by a number of other people who are trying to give up smoking who are suffering from the same problem and/or a mentor who is 'experienced' in dealing with this type of issue.

The one important thing that is often overlooked is that people who are trying to give up smoking are learning nothing from people who are trying to give up smoking! There is a strong tendency to 'compare notes' with sufferers of the same lack of choices. The individuals in the group just become experts in having the same problem, as opposed to finding out how to make or use new choices and strategies to become a non smoker. When individuals compare notes with others suffering from the same problem, it tends to compound the problems they have. This is due to a reinforcing of beliefs. The person trying to stop smoking usually believes that it will be hard to do. (A commonly held notion partly fuelled by the government and partly fuelled by the tobacco manufacturers). When this notion is backed up by others of the same ilk, it tends to reinforce that belief by strengthening the neural pathways to that belief in the brain. I was researching a popular Internet support forum the other day and was astonished by the horrible sense of negativity amongst 'fellow sufferers'.

Of course this makes the whole issue of finding it hard to become a non-smoker, a 'self fulfilling prophecy'. I didn't see any comments from ex smokers who found it easy to stop. (Of course not, why would they be there? They found it easy and didn’t need any help.) All these poor individuals are doing is reinforcing their belief about what a sorry time they are having. And yes its 'nice' to have a shoulder to cry on, but shoulders don't teach you much. In reality shoulders used in this way become an anchor for bad feelings! For goodness sake do yourselves a favour and lighten up! The body and mind can and does function perfectly well without the horrible cigarette and nicotine poisons.
Stop telling yourself that , "you’re going up the wall" or "I really need a cigarette" or all the hundreds of negative self pitying internal suggestions that you are delivering. Nothing is going to 'happen to you' if you quit smoking. (Apart from you becoming very much healthier, having more spare cash, extending your life etc. etc) Allow the part of you that is able to stand on its own two feet, to actually do just that, without needing something to act as 'An old friend' to look after you.
And as for this old friend, have you ever had a friend who you thought was the bees knees that you really got on well with? Then one day you found out that they had been saying bad things about you or doing stuff which a friend wouldn't do. Supposing this so called friend was slipping cancer forming poisons into your food, telling your family that you really stink, stealing your money, saying that you couldn't cope without them and that you were weak willed with no back bone. How much would you want to have them as a friend? Have you ever had a friend like that?
As far as I am aware there are no support groups run by smokers who found it easy to stop. This is a great shame as there are thousands of people who really did find it easy to give up smoking. This Begs the question: How did these people find it easy to give up smoking? The reason they found it easy is because they believed it would be. I know this is the case as I have experience from both sides of the fence. Being an ex 45 a day smoker. My Father gave up a similar habit easily and his wife (My step mother) gave up easily as well. I found giving up very hard at first until I discovered (years later while researching new ways) how my folks actually gave up and what they were thinking when they gave up smoking. Unfortunately many people, me included, tended to blank out what their parents said. If only I’d really listened way back then, it would have been so much easier to quit. I see hundreds of clients for smoking cessation therapy, and the more I see the more convinced I am about why they have found it so hard, even though I now know it is easy. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that they are finding giving up smoking hard, but it is clear to me why they are having this experience. If you are trying to give up smoking it would be immensely valuable for you to contact any of your friends who managed to quit smoking easily without any help, and ask them how they did it and what they believed would happen to them. Listen to what they say and start to structure your own internal dialogue in a different way.
Unfortunately this may sound ridiculous if you already have a belief system that says that it is hard to give up smoking. This is where a little tweaking can come in handy. In the useful booklet available as part of the 1-2-Free system there are some really cool tips and exercises that really do help with this. If you could change this belief in some way so as to destabilize its influence over your decision making, with regards to stopping smoking, then you will find stopping smoking much easier. Changing beliefs is a key way to accomplish change. In his book "Using your Brain for a Change" Richard Bandler gives some extremely useful exercises to help change beliefs which work very effectively. All you really need to know is that if you change your belief, that it's hard to stop smoking, into a belief that it's easy, then your experience of becoming a non smoker will be much easier. Because as I said before it really is easy if you learn how to do it, thousands upon thousands have found this to be the case. None of them however go to support groups of forums. It's easy to change a belief; do you still believe in Santa? Most children below the age of six really do believe. Get out of yourself; stop hanging around people who don’t know how to give up smoking and really be one of the thousands who know that it was easy. There really is nothing different about them, they have the same physiology and bio mechanical make up. All they do different is they ‘know that they can stop’, and knowing this and believing this is easy, because it’s true!! Everything else is just excuses!

Only the drug companies are winning!

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Bird) — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 11:41:00 +0000

Now hooked on another drug?

With over eleven million smokers wanting to stop smoking in the UK alone it would seem that there would be a massive supply of customers clambering to get their hands on stop smoking products. Not so! The vast majority of smokers who seek help in quitting try products recommended by Doctors and Government programmes. These products are either greatly subsidised or free to the smoker. Great! I hear you say. Well is it?

Most group practices and health trusts are funded by central government and as such are bound to meet targets and have to make a profit or break even to ensure their grants are maintained. I was only yesterday speaking with my practice nurse who also overseas care of the smokers who want to quit. I was seeing her for my annual check up and she was asking about what methods I used and how successful they had been. She was very surprised that my success rate was nearly three times higher than hers. I asked her about her methods and sure enough she was now prescribing Chantix and reported that it was giving better results than NRT( patches,gums Inhalers). When I asked what the actual success rate was she thought around 25%. It was not surprising to me. Most of my clients have tried these products with little or no success. Their first option of course as it is free. She then asked me how I was achieving around a 90% success rate. I told her how, describing in detail how we approach each smoker as an individual with their own particular 'method' and triggers for smoking. I went on to explain that we then show smokers what really causes them to smoke, and how we convinced people that the nicotine was not the problem. This really surprised her she said she found our approach really sensible and enlightening but said, "My trouble is I only get 15 minutes with each smoker. I see them for fifteen minutes and then give them Chantix if they feel they need it." !

What a joke I thought. I told her that we see smokers for around an hour and a half and then they go away and the vast majority never smoke again. Around 10% come back for a free boost but that is about it. We use simple psychological techniques approaching the problem at it's root cause. When I asked how many she sees again she said, "Nearly all of them".

It was clear to me that the route favoured by the government just meant that the poor smoker was going around and around in circles being prescribed drugs that essentially didn't work. The the only winners were the drug companies like Pfizer (who even state that their products 'May help' and that willpower is still required) and The Practices, who are seen to meet the target set by government. These targets achieved whether or not the smoker quits! It's all about turnover.

The methods I use are sensible non invasive and chemical free and rely upon harnessing the persons own inner strength and resources to help them escape the ridiculous habit cycle that they feel stuck in. We use a combination of relaxation therapy, positive reinforcement and Neuro Linguistic Programming(NLP). A fancy sounding name for the simple process of installing new habits and behaviours. The smoker essentially gets to choose between feeling good about being a non smoker and feeling bad about being a smoker, when confronted with a situation that would have resulted in smoking before. The brain will usually choose a good feeling as opposed to a bad one. It's not rocket science. Only trouble is there is no revenue for the drug companies and no tax going into the chancellors coffers.

I know that if all smokers who want to quit used the methods we use in our practice then we would be doing ourselves out of a job, but there are lots of other habits people need help with! As there are only around four hundred practitioners using our method we could never even hope of helping 11 million people, but for those who really want to stop we keep on helping. That's why we developed the online version of the system we use. Much cheaper than one to one but essentially the same process. Give it a try you might be surprised !

(For one to one help you can contact the practice at info@12free.org)

The Voices

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Bird) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 10:11:00 +0000

I was dealing with a heavy smoker last year. He was one of the few that come in for a second session. He came in and said that he had been having a hard time. When I asked him to tell me what he was finding hard, he said. "Well most of me wants to stop, but there's a little voice in my head that says, Go on you know you want one, and it makes me smoke". So I said to him, "What does it sound like"? His reply being, that it sounded like a little Irish leprechaun sitting on the other side of the fence." Well I replied, "What does 'most of me', sound like"? As he had said that most of him wanted to stop. He said that he couldn't really tell as it spoke very faintly. So I said back to him, "Where about in your head do you hear the little fella"? He said, gesturing over his right ear, "over here". So I went on to ask, "where is 'most of me' whispering from" he said putting his hand over his heart, "Here". How interesting, I thought, so I said, "Tell me, what do you think 'most of me' would look like if you had to put a face to the whisper... He said, he would look like a really healthy fit and strong looking version of me with a calm peaceful look. So I said to imagine 'most of me' but with a very clear loud voice instead of whispering, he said that that was hard to do. So I said to him, "say out loud right now in a strong calm voice, 'I'm a non smoker and I feel great! He could do that, so i said "now imagine 'most of me' saying it just like that". He smiled and said oh he can do that now. Now I said move the new 'most of me' with the loud voice to the other side of the fence but in front and louder than the leprechaun. He closed his eyes, and took few moments to do this, then turned quite flushed, opened his eyes with a smile and started to weep..he then said, "I'm never going to smoke again".. I checked up with him yesterday and he has never felt better and is a non smoker still. It reminded me of what my teacher had told me, sometimes you just have to tear up the script and go with what you've got. Not all smokers are the same, but all smokers can be non smokers if they really want to!

With love Nigel

Should have gone to an expert!

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Bird) — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 09:22:00 +0000

I have been helping smokers for the last five years using the 'Phoenix system' developed by DR Barry Neale PhD. This system was ten years in development and has one of the highest success rates of all methods. IN A STUDY CARRIED OUT OVER A TWO YEAR PERIOD, OF 300 SUBJECTS WHO WERE CONTACTED 1 MONTH AND AGAIN 6 MONTHS LATER BY TELEPHONE 95% HAD NOT RETURNED TO SMOKING. This makes it one of the most effective stop smoking systems in the world! '1-2-Free' is the only version of this system available in print and on CD and now downloadable. I Have developed this system for download as I know how effective it has been for my clients. And I have been asked by many smokers if there is a cheaper alternative to a private session. As I signed on the dotted line when I paid for the training to use this system, I was reminded me of a nasty experience I had years before, but also filled with a sense of relief...

It was with a horrid feeling of revulsion that I recall the experience of my first and last attempt at plumbing. It was when I moved into a small apartment, I had just signed the lease, which was quite a big step for me, and a little scary as there were so many rules I had to stick to. There were some shared facilities, the toilet and the kitchen being used by two other people. I had no idea that I was about to make foolish mistake. I had just graduated from university with hardly any money, just enough to pay the rent and eat. One day I came home a bit stressed and became irritated by the dripping cistern in the toilets flusher unit, so I decided to 'have a go' and fix it by trying to do it myself. I stood on the toilet and before I knew what had happened, it started to wobble and I cracked the seal around the out pipe. This meant that whenever it was flushed 'stuff' started leaking onto the floor. Now what? I didn't want to get in trouble so I went to local store and bought some filler to seal it. I read the tube and it said, “remove all lose material and clean down before applying”. OK, so out with the few tools that I had. A hammer a screwdriver and a small multi-purpose gadget. I got behind the WC and started chipping away at the seal. Once I had a few bits out it really started to stink, YUK! Anyway I soldiered on, braving the horrid smell, then disaster! One too many chips... the tube itself smashed and all of its contents went over my hands and onto the floor. Luckily it was mostly water but the pipe inside was coated with god knows what! By now I was cursing myself thinking,

I SHOULD HAVE GONE TO AN EXPERT, BORROWED SOME MONEY FROM MY FOLKS, AND GOT IT DONE PROPERLY... WHY DIDN'T I GO TO AN EXPERT ?

I think panic had started to set in, what was I going to do. What would the landlord say? Would he kick me out? That's when I made the decision to sell my graduation present, a TAG Chronograph watch, then buy a new WC to replace the old one. Nobody would notice and I had a week before my room mates got back from Holiday. I went to a watch dealer and got two hundred for my watch, way below what it was worth. I felt really upset about it but hey what choice did I have? Yes I know ...

I SHOULD HAVE GONE TO AN EXPERT PAID HIM THE MONEY!!

I took the money to the local plumbers merchant and bought the exact same WC and lugged it home strapped to my bike. When the coast was clear, I got it up to the third floor, I was absolutely exhausted, it was so heavy. What the hell had come over me to make me try to fix it on my own....?

WHY DIDN'T I GO TO AN EXPERT PLUMBER?

The next day after the landlord had gone out I started chipping the old WC out well I say chipping it was really just a case of smashing the bend and undoing the screws around the base. I wish! I got the horrid smelling old WC off after about five hours. But then more problems.... once it was off, I looked into the pipe which was thick with, well lets just say it was brown and slimy and smelt like your worst nightmare. I had to clean off some of this awful stuff, I had no gloves and only a kitchen knife would move it. It took me about an hour to scrape the stinking sludge away, Finally the join was clean, but the whole room smelled like a dead animal mixed with garbage. That's when the landlord decided to come home early.. Oh my God I couldn't do any banging or screwing a until he was out again. That was about a day and a half.! A day and a half spent in what could only be described as an open sewer. The whole room was foul smelling. How was I to go the the toilet, I had to use a bucket and carefully tip it down the hideous brown hole. I think by now I had learnt an important lesson. If you want a job doing properly.....

GO TO AN EXPERT!!

Once the landlord had gone out again I fitted the new WC to the filthy brown pipe and sealed it up replacing the screws from the old base and putting the seat from the old WC back on... now all I had to do was get rid of the old WC... how was I going to do it without being seen. There was only one way. Smash it to small bits and dispose of it in various bins. The last insult was the smashing, the first whack made a splat of the brown sludge fly right in my face...I thought that I was sure to die from some hideous disease, I don't think I felt clean again for a month after! I'm not sure if anyone ever noticed the change but I sure as hell learnt a big lesson. If you want an important job doing then whatever you do ....

GO TO AN EXPERT!

Which brings me back to my system. Now there are lots of different methods for stopping smoking. And if you are really lucky then you might stumble upon one which works. But statistically only seven percent of people who are having trouble stopping smoking will manage it on there own by doing it themselves. The rest need help! There is a multitude of stop smoking advice to choose from, ranging from ridiculous patches,drugs to plastic cigarettes to weird gel to help forums and support groups,NHS clinics etcetera. Now I was a heavy smoker around twenty years ago. I was desperate to give up smoking as my fitness was starting to suffer and I was at quite a high level in Athletics. How mad was I to smoke? But I started with a bunch of my friends when I was around eleven and by my twentieth birthday I had been hooked into around forty a day. It was on April the 9th 1985 that I was shocked into making the decision to quit smoking . My Mother died aged 49 from the result of smoking. I was heart broken. That was the final straw, I knew I had to quit. Little did I know that I was to spend the next eight years trying... I tried everything , patches which were useless, I had a patch on and still wanted a cigarette! NHS group clinic, I found depressing which made me smoke more. Cold Turkey which seemed to work until I got stressed out. Plastic cigarettes, what a joke. I think I tried pretty much everything with out any real expert help, just doing it myself. "You know what that can lead to", I always thought! Finally a friend of my Mothers told me about a guy she had been to see to help her quit. I knew she had been a non smoker for about eighteen months since seeing him. He was a specialist using a system called "The phoenix system", I went to see him paying his £250.00 fee. The morning before that session I chain smoked fifteen. They were the last cigarettes I have ever smoked.! He was brilliant. He showed me why I had found it so hard to quit and implanted some great techniques and suggestions which completely changed that old habit. I knew that day that I've finally quit smoking and cigarettes were a thing of the past. I rang home and told my Dad I've wiped out my smoking habit. He was over the moon too.

Now forget about that horrible toilet thing just remember, you don't need to go down the lengthy route that I went down because you of course are totally free to choose which method you use to stop smoking you could try to do it yourself and good luck to you if you do, or you could.....

Go to an expert, get some effective advice and quit with specialist help!

That was an important lesson for me way back then. It kind of changed my life, I wish I had applied it a bit quicker!!

Only click here to get the expert advice and one of the world most effective on line stop smoking methods, if you really want to stop smoking .

Many warm regards

Nigel

Just good feelings

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Bird) — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 08:46:00 +0000

That's it, nothing more nothing less.
Smokers smoke because it makes them feel good. The irony being when they realise that they do not want to smoke anymore, smoking also makes them feel bad. So it makes you feel good then makes you feel bad. Most people don't like feeling bad but because the habit of smoking is established in the unconscious, stopping can become quite tricky unless a positive approach is used. Don't believe all the nonsense about nicotine addiction, this is a notion proliferated by drug companies and some ill informed medical professionals who tend to believe what they are told by drug companies. This notion has prevented many people from quitting merely because they think they are addicted. Well as a smoking cessation specialist having helped thousands of smokers to quit I can tell you that the problem has nothing to do with nicotine, It's just a habit!

Nicotine is a poison that the body does all it can to remove from the system. Your body does not 'need' nicotine. This is the reason why when you have a lung full of tobacco smoke you get a rush to the head, especially if you haven't had a 'dose' for a while. The rush to the head is caused by your brain sensing that there is an unwanted poison inside of you. To remove this, it increases your heart rate by about ten beats per second, to flush the poison out of your body. Because your heart rate has increased, you are getting more blood flowing through your brain and consequently more oxygen. It's the oxygen that gives you the head rush, in the same way that it would if you started breathing faster than you needed to for a few seconds.

So we come back to the feel good factor. You smoke because it makes you feel good. So why does it make you feel good. The reason is simple. It's because smoking is linked psycho physiologically to a time when you also felt good before. Like when you first started smoking with all your friends or when you are out socialising or after you've had sex or feeling grown up or any number of reasons. The Mechanics are the same. You think you are stressed, or upset, or tense.. brain says, "don't feel bad, have a good feeling," and offers the link, via a cigarette, to previous good feelings.

If you really want to stop smoking then one of the best things you can do is to start doing something healthy that also makes you feel good and focus upon what you want from being a non smoker. Then all you need to do is to break the habitual link. This is really easy to do if you are prepared to to approach this from a new direction. If you really want to then just click here for a neat pattern that will break up your habit. It's free and it will work... just do it!

With love ...Nigel

Keep on Smoking

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Bird) — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 11:20:00 +0000

That's right, keep on smoking.

It's not and never has been my intention to 'make people,' stop smoking. If you want to smoke then that's your choice and it's fine by me. The purpose of this blog is to help people who want to stop smoking in a way that makes it very likely that they will. Making the decision is the biggest step, once that has been taken you will find becoming a non smoker a whole lot easier if you get as much informed opinion as possible about how to do it.

When I say informed opinion that means getting advice from people who have stopped smoking easily and people who help them do it. So please, if you don't want to stop then carry on smoking because nobody will ever stop you from smoking except you, when you decide.

Just do me a favour, when or if you do decide, please don't be conned into thinking that it is hard to do and don't try to do it when it is most likely you will need to smoke. Like new years day for example. Statistically 50% of New Year’s resolutions have been broken by the end of the first week. There is some very sound reasoning why this is the case and particularly with smoking. According to government figures only around 7% of smokers who rely on willpower will succeed in quitting on the first attempt. New Year’s Day is perceived by many to be a time to make a fresh start or turn over a new leaf, but in actual fact it’s quite probably the hardest time to quit smoking. By the last week in December the days are at their shortest and cases of Seasonally affected Disorder (SAD) are coming to a peak and the cold is starting to bite. Christmas is a welcome fillip to the gloom with celebrations and indulgence being the order of the day. However as the year draws to a close, the festivities are over the decorations come down and the unwelcome credit card statement drops on the door mat, merriment can in some turn into less uplifting mood states. Add that to the still long dark nights at the coldest time of the year, it’s a recipe for the blues or worse a bout of depression. This is the time of the year when any coping strategies (tobacco, alcohol etc) would be most needed by those who have adopted these behaviours. Hardly the best time to consider quitting!
However as stopping smoking is almost certainly the single best thing a smoker can do for their health stopping at any time is most certainly a positive step. I recommend that should you decide that this is the time when you’re going to quit smoking then you really need the best advice about the easiest way to go about it. One thing is for sure if you rely on willpower alone then unless you now how to use it effectively, statistically there is around a 93% failure rate.This is a shame as if you get good advice and use correct techniques your success is pretty much guaranteed.

You need not only get the best advice about how to use your willpower but also new coping strategies which can be installed using effective psychological techniques including hypnotic intervention and NLP. All this gives you a far higher chance of success.
If you really want to quit smoking now, do yourself a favour and make it easy on yourself, use an effective method!

You will find everything you need to become a non smoker easily, in this blog, it's down to you to find it.

With love Nigel

A Poem for 'Jeremy Fisher'

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Bird) — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 13:22:00 +0000

To A dear fishing buddy who recently shuffled off.

"How am I going to kick this horrible weed" ? He'd often ask, not really wanting to hear my answer; "Come down and see me, I'll do you for nothing, We'll find you something better to do instead" this would make him laugh one of his filthy 'Sid James' laughs, muttering something like " I bet we would, Tapping his Whisky flask in his hip pocket!..... Seems he's found his own thing to do instead....

Can you see them too

They hide underneath the mirror
they'll see you first .. can you see them too?
matching clothes to their homes they feel a heavy shoe
sliding away long before they'll give you a view,
for they see you first ..can you see them too?

They can hover motionless, invisible to the untrained eye
unleashing breathtaking power with ease they fly,
to the place where they hide in the mirrors side,
when disturbed by a hunter,feathered or furred,a man or a bird...
the largest of their kind are few ...can you see them too?

when the eye becomes skilled through watching and time,
or by the awesome wonder near, in the beauty of seeing
through the looking glass moving, of figures that ghostly appear,
at first maybe one but once seen they stand out,
the beautiful creature, spotted and stout,
but one false move, one glimpse, one clue,
with a flick they're gone ...can you see them too?

On learning their habits, their likes and their haunts
through the mirror you'll see them in crystal so pure
feeding at ease, their white gape they flaunt
stationary, to them comes their food or your lure,
but the story's not over yet, as they taunt,
for they know what is what and with consummate ease
they'll reject all that's not right as speedy as light,
and another dry net ,an empty belly too
they're really not daft...can you see them too?

but once every year an opportunity draws near
around May if you please when on one thing only they'll feed
the Mayfly, Hurrah, makes them bold, foolish, reckless no fear,
and then my friend you might get your chance to fulfill your need
to outwit this quick monarch behind the mirror
and if you can handle their power their speed

their uncanny ability to find buried weed
and if you appreciate how lucky you've been
and you'll give them their due
then the finest meal that God gave to you

will mean at last ...you'll see them.... and taste them too!

Habit Buster

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Bird) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 08:33:00 +0000

Escape your Habits

How do you know you've got a habit? You have a habit when you stop noticing you're doing it. The mind is a clever bit of kit. The habit mechanism, which is part of the unconscious mind, functions perfectly well without any conscious intervention. Smokers will tell you that they sometimes don't even remember lighting up, as the habit is so well integrated with their daily ritual. This is the only reason in my opinion why people find it hard to quit. Habits run themselves unconsciously, so trying to consciously stop a habit tends to be quite tricky unless you go about it the right way. In fact trying consciously can make it even worse. As I said before in an earlier blog, trying not do do something reinforces that something in your mind. For example: Try not to think about a nice slice of soft gooey chocolate cake...ummm. You see what I mean!

The way to get a habit is to repeat something over and over again consciously. Just like when you learn your times tables parrot fashion. Once your unconscious picks it up through this repetition, you'll know it forever! You'll have a habit! If you want to stop doing a habit then you have to focus upon the benefits of not having the habit by repeatedly focusing upon these benefits until they becomes the norm. Then what you have is a situation where the mind has the choice of two behaviours where before it only had one. Now with smoking, the habit has been reinforced so many times, (even a twenty a day smoker will be putting their hand to their mouths 200 times a day), that to repeatedly focus on the benefits would be quite a task even though there are many. The old Tony Robbins system of affirmations with visualisation can help, but not always. There are many different ways of doing this, some very effective some not. So for convenience here, another exercise is needed. The brain needs a mechanism in place that leads you towards the new behaviour.

So here's your chance to re direct your brain towards what you really want in a way that should make it impossible to think of the old behaviour without being pulled toward the new behaviour instead.

The following is an exercise that will work for any habit. I'll describe the exercise and then give a pictorial example. First read it through to get the idea, then do it with your eyes closed at the start, it may take a wee bit of practice but trust me this works.

It works because your unconscious really does want what's best for you, and will lead you in the right direction, if you give it specific instructions that it can positively follow. If you have a habit, then at the moment your unconscious believes that this habit serves some purpose that benefits you, it's not trying to harm you. Give it something better and it will follow, because that is the way of the universe. You may need to change some beliefs about your habit but that is easy. Do you still believe in the tooth fairy?

Step 1. Form in your minds eye what it is you do or feel just before you do the unwanted behaviour. It could be a feeling or and image or an internal dialogue. To put it another way, find in your mind what it is that brings up the urge to do the behaviour. When you have this image, make it big and bright, adding sounds and feelings if you find that easier. Now the most important part of step 1 is that when you bring up this image it must be associated as if you are really there, looking out of your own eyes. When you have this image, add to it in words or feelings all the things that you hate about the behaviour and it's effect upon you. If you find this hard, then it can sometimes help to actually do the behaviour. This is now your 'ready' picture

Step 2. Put that image aside for a moment.

Step 3. Now I want you to think about how you would be if you didn't have the problem. If you no longer had this habit, how would your life be greatly improved? So form an image of how you would see yourself differently if you were completely free of this habit and how that would make you feel. If you find this tricky, just imagine how you would be. It's important that you are dissociated in this image (as if you are watching yourself as an observer) Keep on adjusting this image until you have a picture in your mind of an image of a new you that really draws you towards it. Take your time and form that image. When you have it, it should be making you feel good, as if you want to smile. If not keep on adjusting it until it does... This is your 'steady' picture

Step 4. Now , Starting with your 'ready' image big and bright and colourful, put a small dark image of your 'steady' image in the lower right hand corner. Now have the small dark 'steady' image explode big and bright and colourful and cover the ready image which will simultaneously shrink and fade small and dark as fast as you can say"GO". Then open your eyes. Repeat this sequence five times opening your eyes after GO every time. Ok so to run through step 4 it's (eyes closed) two images together,GO.(open eyes) and repeat five times. It's important that you do this quickly. As quickly as you can say the word GO!

Step 5. Test it. Try in vain to picture the 'ready' image. What happens? This should be hard to do without your new 'steady' image cutting in. If it doesn't, go back and do it again even faster. You could even test it out with the old behaviour, it will feel somehow wrong. For many people this will wipe out the habit completely!! This will be permanent!

Below is a pictorial representation. It might not be your particular stimuli or ideal but you will get the rough idea. Don't do it with these images, use your own unique images in your mind.... this is just a representation to give you an idea.

If there is no change at all, then describe what you did in the comments section on this blog and I'll find out what you need to change to make it work and return to you.

with love

Nigel

Let your Brain take you by the hand.

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Bird) — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 09:44:00 +0000

Use your Brain to Gain.

For the vast majority of 'smokers', smoking just accomplishes good feelings .i.e. Smoking makes you feel good. This is why many people who smoke, tend to smoke more at times of stress and upset. The cigarette is a quick tool to a good feeling, and we all like good feelings! People who smoke have made a habit out of using tobacco as a coping strategy.

This is the reason why becoming a non smoker fills many people who smoke with a sense of dread. Thinking how will they cope without that good feeling...it really is nothing to do with nicotine, nicotine addiction is a myth.

If a smoker can come up with a strategy that gives them the same benefit as the cigarette on an conscious and unconscious level then giving up smoking is very easy. When I say the same benefit, I mean something else that makes you feel good. If you can't actually think of anything that would make you feel as good, because sadly some people can't, then astonishingly, just imagining something that would make you feel good can work too, if utilized correctly.

It just becomes a matter then of overcoming the mechanical unconscious habit and that is even easier as long as you point your brain towards what it wants and not what it doesn't want.

Habits are just 'programmes' in the brain and just like a computer the program will work over and over again until you replace it with a different program or in cyber geek language overwrite it with a better one. The only difference being that you cannot entirely delete a habit like you can a programme. It has to be that way or you would be able to forget how to drive or forget how to count. That's why when you become a non smoker you have to stay a non smoker !

Coming up with an effective strategy then becomes a matter of using your brain to get what you want, and it is always a very personal thing. That is why it is impossible to take a group of people who smoke and use the same technique on all of them. Every one of them will have a different set of strategies to elicit good feelings. However the same psychological model can be used by all people who smoke, who want to be free of this destructive habit, by incorporating their own unique set of strategies. A simple NLP swish pattern can easily achieve this. This is where a skilled NLP practitioner can be very helpful. It can be done amazingly quickly, and the change is permanent. The only things that can limit the effectiveness is if the person does not want to be a non smoker, or the person is not prepared to make the changes required to enable a cessation in their coping strategy.

With love

Nigel

Dont think about a pink elephant.

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Bird) — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 09:42:00 +0000

Most people are not aware that there unconscious minds do not easily process negative suggestions. The word “not” or any of it’s derivatives only exist in the world of language. Therefore, you can’t not think about what it is you don’t want to think about. This has important implications for the smoker trying to stop smoking. So if we say “don’t think about a cigarette” what do you think about first……think about that…………or not! This means your unconscious functions far more smoothly when you concentrate on what you want as opposed to what you don’t want.

This principle is closely related to a universal law in the field of Hypnosis called “the law of reverse effect”. This law states that the more you try not to think about something, the more you think about it. Further , it’s useful to consider for your goal whether the internal representations, or self talk or imagery you use is empowering to you or defeating your efforts. In other words is the way you see yourself stopping smoking helping you to achieve that outcome?

In the course of my work with people from all walks of life I have found that every spiritual system teaches it’s followers to see God or the goodness in everyone, and our aim is to do that. Therefore we must also assist others in doing that for themselves. We urge smokers who want to stop smoking to seriously practice focusing on what they want and not what they don’t want. Really concentrating on the benefits of being a happy healthy non-smoker daily will rapidly clear the mind of the negativity commonly associated with tobacco cessation.

It is a valuable experiment as a therapist to hold on to the internal representation of exactly how we want a smoker to be when we’re helping them become a non smoker. Therapists often see their clients fully experiencing their goal as the client discusses their smoking problem. We ask the client to discuss the problem, inviting them to “try” and hold onto it as we just listen and hold a totally positive, resourceful image in our minds. The most common experience is that as client talks about the problem, they begin to run out of steam and are left a bit bemused that what they were talking about even seemed like problem in the first place!

Positive thinking is the single most powerful thing a human being can learn to assist them in all aspects of there lives. Focusing on a problem will do nothing other than amplify the problem. The old brain storming technique where people just gather around and throw any ideas to solve a problem works for this reason. So for a smoker a good personal brainstorm to assist in becoming a non smoker can have tremendous results. When it is understood that the only reason people smoke is to make them feel good, then a few brainstorms about what else could possibly make a smoker feel good usually throws up a number of other pleasurable activities.

Shocking tactics

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Bird) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:03:00 +0000

Give them a phobia of cigarettes?

I think that even hardened smokers would admit that they wouldn't want their children to copy their habit. But the truth is the children of smokers are far more likely to become smokers than the children of non smokers. What can we do avoid this?

Well, as I see it, the way that Governments and health organisations are approaching the matter is not helping. Even today with all the information about the harm smoking can do, the take up rate amongst children remains about as steady as ever. The reason for this is simple, they're leaving it too late...! Once a child passes the age of about six, they can start making there own decisions, convincing them otherwise is much more problematic. So here's some tips, some a bit radical if you don't want your kids to follow you down the smoking path:

Don't let them see you smoking!
Subtly arrange for them to chew an unlit cigarette good and properly before the age of six. When they go, "Yukky" and splutter, copy there responses and say, whilst also tasting a cigarette, Eeeew, yukky,nasty,cigarettes!" being as dramatically offended and frightened as possible, and throw them (the cigarettes) out the door, preferably into the dark...
Become a happy healthy non smoker.

The second tip may offend you, but it will pretty much guarantee they'll be non smokers. Exactly in the same way that many people have a phobia of spiders or any other fear inherited from their parents. People with phobias, who don't know why they have a phobia, have usually had it installed before the age of six by their parents, before they develop a critical faculty. It's just like sowing a seed...

with love

Nigel

P.s. If you want to be a non smoker and you want an experience of what your lungs are going through, have a good chew on an unlit cigarette yourself, I mean really give it a good chew, for a minute or so, until you can't bear it anymore. While your chewing think about what you do the moment before you light up....as if you are really there...

Radical indeed !

What would happen if you became a non smoker

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Bird) — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:22:00 +0000

All this will be yours if you can change your mind.

Pretty good news I think !

Have you ever changed your mind before... think about it,

when was the last time you changed your mind...?

What did it feel like? Where do you feel that feeling? Is it an internal dialogue or an image that you're getting about changing your mind before. Well just step inside that thought for a moment and hold on to it, and while you're there....

Here are the facts.

You will live a longer life and see your family grow up.
You will be more healthy.
You will get back your sense of smell and taste.
You will feel proud of yourself.
You will have more money.
You will get fresh breath and whiter teeth.
You will be in control.

So what stopping you from getting all this?

LIES and...

FEAR

That's all! Its the fear of what you believe will happen, either because you've tried it before and failed or you believe the myth about Nicotine Addiction. If the former is the case then chances are you also believe the latter. Beliefs drive your behaviour. Well, let me tell you some facts which may go against your beliefs:

About a third of all smokers who quit smoking experience no discomfort at all.
Becoming a non smoker will cause you no harm.
Nicotine is not an addictive chemical,Tobacco manufacturers just want you to think that.
You most probably know somebody who has quit without any help at all.
They are no different to you.
Most smokers who have trouble trying to quit smoking thought they would have trouble.
The third who quit without discomfort thought they would have no discomfort.
You have been a non smoker before, no worries at all.
you will be physically more relaxed when you become a non smoker.

So the facts are you can have everything at the top of this section and whats more you will feel great. Because you can change your mind, Just believe the facts not the lies. Remember there are multi million £/$ organisations and big Government revenues at stake, they want to keep you smoking. Who do you trust most, an outspoken crazy woman like me who has found out the truth about smoking through years of experience, or these multi national organisations who have to answer to their share holders. All I can tell you is that I have no axe to grind and I am making no money out of letting you know how to be free.

With love

Nigel

I'm A Smoker

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Bird) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 10:41:00 +0000

It always makes me giggle when I hear people describe themselves as a smoker. One of the fundamental of flaws in human psychology is that people who have a problem that they would like to change, have a feeling of being 'stuck'. This is shown by the way they convert an action into a thing. So for example the statement,

" I started smoking, (action) when I was twelve and I have been smoker, (thing) ever since."

So what does this mean?

Well in therapy talk one of the ways to change smokers is to make them aware of this conversion in some way. One to one counselling, NLP, groups, cognitive behavioural therapy, hypnosis, and any other form of help can do it with varying results. But the thing to understand is that you cannot 'be' a behaviour. Smoking is a behaviour, therefore you can only be a human being that smokes because really, there is no such thing as a smoker...

What Am I trying to tell you?

The great thing is of course when this process is understood then the event is turned back into an ongoing process. This means that it is not fixed and can be changed, therefore smoking can be stopped. This all sounds too simple but people who smoke can by default be people who are non smokers..

The great thing about this!

A lot of people who smoke really do think that they could never become non smokers for fear of the consequences. This is a shame as everyone was born a non smoker and for the vast majority spent at least ten years as happy healthy non smokers.....

What about the Nicotine addiction?

Well in my opinion there is no such thing! This I believe is a myth proliferated by the tobacco companies, drug companies and Governments. Believing that one is addicted to something becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Smoking is just a habit. The Brain just becomes accustomed to tobacco as it does any other habit. I like my long grass Analogy:

If you walk through a field of long grass and turn around you'll see where you have been as the grass will be flat, come back four days later and you will not be able to see, as the grass will have straightened. However if you keep on walking down the same route everyday eventually there will be a bare track. The brain is a bit like this, if you think of the neural pathways in the brain as the long grass, keep on doing the same thing everyday and you get a 'bare path' in the brain so to speak, or in other words a habit. But just like any bare path, stop going down that route and the grass will eventually cover it up again, with no harm to the ground!

Change the way you think and you really can stop smoking.... harmlessly.

Warm regards

Nigel

Great news about Jo

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Bird) — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 08:46:00 +0000

It was Christmas 2005 when I last met my Friend Jo. What a meeting that was to be for both of us! That was when she told me that she had been diagnosed with cancer. I was very shocked and deeply saddened. She seemed to have accepted the news quite well and was preparing herself for the treatment which was to be surgery followed by chemotherapy. She has always been stronger than me when it comes to this sought of thing, she has an

extremely positive outlook on everything.

We had been at school together and lived in the same street and were as near as you could be to being sister and brother. We are Godparents to each others children. We both started smoking at the same time after stealing some of My Dads cigarettes and going into her cellar. I remember being quite sick at the time but the sense of rebellion felt great. It was incredibly spooky when we spoke to each other on the phone about five years ago and revealed to each other that we had decided to quit on the same day. We hadn't seen each other for about two months! Little did I know that we would both spend the next three years trying to quit. I eventually found out how to quit effectively using the power of my mind and some other techniques but Jo was struggling. She had always seen alternative stuff as hocus pocus so she never really noticed how I had quit even when I told her how I did it... Still, she finally woke up to the fact that the NRT route was just not helping and the zyban was making her sick.. and she asked me scathingly for the address of the guy that had helped me! Within a week phoned saying she 'knew ' that she had stopped for good! I struggled not to say "I told you so", but really I think I was more pleased than she was!

I think the news of her illness really effected me in a profound way as I went for a check up at the doctors and started running again as I was convinced I would be next...Thank God I was given the all clear. The wonderful I am delighted to say is that Jo called me yesterday and has been given the all clear on her final routine tests. So it's party time at the weekend!!!

If you are trying to quit read some of my post about changing the way you think. There are some links to http://www.12free.org/ and if you need any further help look up an Hypnosis/NLP practitioner near to you. Pure hypnosis is effective but when combined with the NLP it makes a huge difference. Neuro Linguistic Programming or NLP was invented By two guys called Richard Bandler and John Grinder and for want of a better turn of phrase is really like new software for the brain. As I understand the brain can learn really fast and just needs help in showing it which way to go... I recommend it strongly...

with Love

Nigel

Licenced to Kill

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Bird) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 08:13:00 +0000

Tobacco Giants and Government killing even more people

The Government really should be appallingly ashamed of itself now in 2007. A few months ago British American Tobacco announced more increases in sales with the cynical eye of a cold hearted killer as it predicts that the number of smokers over the next ten years will hold steady at around 1 billion. I feel feel this is a disgraceful and alarming confirmation that hypocritical Government Smoking policy is a total ass. The governments own target is for a reduction in smoking of 2% by the year 2010. These figures and the corporate boasts from the gloating tobacco manufacturers only fuel the case that it is highly unlikely that there will be anywhere near that kind of reduction given current smoking policy.

How long are the people going to allow the fat cat Murderers of the Tobacco companies to profit from the deaths of thousands upon thousands of people every year? And you can keep your freedom of choice arguments where they belong. Tobacco is the only over the counter product sold that kills people when used as intended. Would the freedom of choice brigade advocate allowing the sale of crack cocaine or heroin behind the supermarket checkouts? As far as I can see there is not a lot of difference between selling those drugs and tobacco. And if you're in the mindset that, 'ok everybody should be able to do what they like to themselves' then where does it stop? Why is euthanasia not allowed? Who knows, but at the end of the day smokers are killing themselves ...albeit slowly and apparently helplessly, leaving the misery and heartache of their families behind.

I am seriously considering fronting a campaign for a total ban on the sale of tobacco. If you would be prepared to support such a campaign and help save the lives of thousands of people leave your name and comments. It would drastically reduce the number of smokers and therefore save lives because at present 350 people die every day in the UK from smoking. That’s over six times the amount killed by the 7/7 terrorists on the underground, look at the fuss the Government make in response to those deaths. Any members of 'Forest', the oxymoronicly named pro smoking action group, laughingly backed by Tobacco manufacturers, can go take a hike. Likening yourselves to a clean green fresh thing like a forest... pathetic! My mother died as a result of smoking over twenty years ago and as far as I can tell many thousands of mothers have died since because the Government has refused to show a bit of spunk and do what the large majority of people really want. If a total ban started today we would have saved 2450 lives in the UK by this time next week. So I say to you Mr Paul Adams boss of B.A.T. I hope you sleep well tonight given that your company has just killed another 350 people in the UK, God knows how many in the US and thousands all over the world. And George Bush and Tony Blair think Bin Laden is the problem.....Nobody in the world including the most well known dictators in history have killed more people than your company!

If you want help stopping please don't let them fool you into thinking it's hard to stop, find out how to do it easily.

There are many ways to stop easily using the power of the mind. I found stopping easy when I went for private treatment with Nigel Bird at his practice. He now has a website http://www.12free.org/ where he can be contacted and an on line system for helping smokers to quit.

Much love

Nigel