If I told you that I had a foolproof, side-effect free method to quit smoking naturally, what would you say? If you’re here, my guess is you’d jump at the opportunity.
Most people know that smoking is bad for them, and for the people around them. I know you’ve probably heard a lot of this before, but just to put this into context, let’s review. According to the CDC, cigarette smoking kills nearly 480,000 Americans each year, with more than 41,000 deaths attributed to secondhand smoke exposure.
If scare tactics were enough to make you quit lighting up, you would have done that a long time ago. Unfortunately, they’re usually not.
There are 3 common ways people go about trying to quit smoking:
- Nicotine replacement therapy. This includes things like patches, gum, inhalers, and lozenges. The idea is, you continue to get the nicotine your body craves, without using tobacco. While this method is effective for giving up cigarettes, your body’s addiction to nicotine continues. Along with this, there are numerous potential side effects of these methods. These side effects include:
- Mouth, jaw or tooth discomfort
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Dizziness/Weakness
- Diarrhea
- Rapid or pounding heartbeat
- Difficulty breathing
- Blisters or sores in the mouth
- Blurred vision
- Medication. Buproprion and varenicline are prescription medications that can help reduce cravings and withdrawal symptoms. Common side effects of these medications include:
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Dry mouth
- Headaches
- Constipation
- Trouble sleeping
- Joint aches
- Unusual dreams
- Blurred vision
- Strange taste in the mouth
- Diarrhea
- Dizziness
- Quitting cold turkey. While this is technically a way to quit smoking naturally, it’s not one that is easy, nor is it highly effective. In fact, only between 4-7% of people are able to quit cold turkey without any type of outside support or use of other methods.
I’m going to be honest with you… Giving up something you’re addicted to is hard. Really, really hard. And I’m not just speaking from secondhand experiences with clients here. For years, I was a high-functioning addict. The method I’m about to teach you – Thought Field Therapy – helped me kick a 20-year addiction, in 4 days. That’s right – I was able to quit smoking naturally, in less than a week. And I made it my life goal to share this method with as many people as possible!
The truth is, for many people smoking is tied to emotions. And often, it’s hard to recognize our own triggers. However, if the thing we’re addicted to has gotten us through hard times in the past—been a ‘friend’ of sorts—it’s common to view it as a security blanket. One of my clients actually suggested this exact thing.
Robbie had been a client of mine for awhile and he fully understood Thought Field Therapy and its power. He had seen the positive influence tapping had on his life, from pain management to traumatic stress recovery. Yet, he had not quit smoking despite my repeated attempts to convince him of the impact doing so would have on his mental and physical well being. For Robbie, Thought Field Therapy worked well every time he tried it – until he smoked again.
It is common for smoking a cigarette to cause the benefits of TFT to decrease or go away. Every time Robbie smoked a cigarette, it reversed the benefits of TFT in other areas, include pain management and physical healing from a crash in which he lost his left leg. Frequently during our sessions, we would eliminate Robbie’s urge to smoke entirely, only for him to later pick up a cigarette out of habit, and within days return to his normal smoking patters. While he was honest with me about the events and his continued addiction, Robbie was unwilling to make quitting smoking a priority. At the end of one of our sessions, I made it clear that his stopping smoking was the most important change he could make to improve his life.
As we talked about this, I could see Robbie’s anxiety level getting higher. Since we had only a few minutes left, I asked how strong his urge was to smoke a cigarette as soon as he left he session. The urge was high, so we tapped for the urge, and Robbie was immediately relieved and able to sit back calmly with no urge to smoke and no anxiety apparent. I asked him if he was ready to use TFT to quit smoking for good, and he told me that while he knew it was the right thing to do, part of him kept putting it off.
So what was really happening? Well, Robbie had been smoking since age 12. It was how he relieved his upset after seeing or hearing his father beat his mother and older brother. Smoking was the friend that was always there when things got rough. Robbie knew he should quit smoking but when it came down to it, he just couldn’t make it a priority. There were too many other things that were more important and he couldn’t bring himself to fully give up this “old friend”. He simply didn’t value himself and his own life enough to cut that tie. I asked him to say, out loud, “I am a worthy human being, deserving of being a nonsmoker.” That statement made Robbie feel uncomfortable, so we tapped to ease his upset. After a couple minutes, Robbie was able to repeat the statement with no distress. He left my office that day with a renewed hope that he could, and would, give up smoking for good.
I would love to say that day was the last time Robbie touched a cigarette. Unfortunately, the truth is that over the next few months, he continued to turn to his old friend in times when he felt isolated and out of control. We continued to tap for those times and each time we tapped for the upset and the urge to smoke, he went longer and longer without picking up a cigarette until one day, he simply couldn’t remember the last time he’d had one.
If you are anything like Robbie, you have probably tried just about everything to quit smoking – and nothing has worked. Or you find temporary success and then the next major crisis hits and you find yourself back in the arms of your old friend, Nicotine. Well I’ve got good news: the pattern ends now! Today, I want to suggest a new way to quit smoking naturally, once and for all.
Tapping To Quit Smoking Naturally
The next time you get the urge to grab a cigarette, instead of reaching for your lighter, watch this video and follow along with the instructions, or simply follow the steps below:
Step One. Rate the strength of your urge to smoke. 1 would be no craving at all, 10 means the cigarette is already in your hand.
Step Two. Tap around 10 times each:
- Side of hand
- Under nose
- Under eye
- Under arm
- Under collarbone
Step Three. While tapping continuously on the gamut spot:
- Close your eyes
- Open your eyes
- Keep your head level and look down with your eyes to the left
- Keep your head level and look down with your eyes to the right
- Roll your eyes all the way around one way
- Roll your eyes all the way around the other way
- Hum a couple bars of any song
- Count 1-4 out loud
- Hum again
Step Four. Tap around 10 times each:
- Under eye
- Under arm
- Under collarbone
Step Five. Rate your urge to smoke again, 1-10.
- If your urge to smoke has gone down to a 0, 1, or 2, continue to step six.
- If your urge to smoke has reduced, but hasn’t gone away completely, go through Steps 2-4 again.
- If your urge stayed the same, it doesn’t mean Thought Field Therapy can’t help you quit smoking naturally – it just means we need to try another technique. Download my iPhone/iPad app, in which you’ll find another tapping algorithm specific to smoking. Give it a try, and if you still don’t experience a decrease in your urge to smoke, contact us to set up an appointment where we can begin to work through what may be preventing you from experiencing freedom from this addiction.
Step Six. While keeping your head level, point your eyes toward the floor. Then slowly roll your eyes up from floor to ceiling (should take at least 6-7 seconds).
Keep in mind, this may not be a “one and done” thing for you. Over the next week, every time you get the urge to light a cigarette, take a few minutes to do this same tapping pattern. You may need to do it once a day, once an hour or even once every 15 minutes. There’s no such thing as too much or too little tapping, so give yourself permission to do as much or little of it as necessary. Over time, you will probably notice that the urge to smoke starts to dissipate until one day, you no longer have the urge to smoke at all.
We would love to hear about your journey to quit smoking naturally. To share your story, and to hear other TFT success stories, join our Facebook Community now!