THE WAY TO QUIT

Yes, there are plenty of people who really manage to quit smoking. This is how they do it.

     Amresh Patel is a CEO of a large multinational company. Used to smoke 20 cigarettes a day, and had been doing this for past 30 years. At 47, he decided to quit smoking. Today, at 49, Patel is still here with stick. He stands out amidst 100 who decided to quit, stay off for a few months and pick up the habit again. So what did Patel do that others can’? “I made up my mind, “claims the erstwhile smoker. He says he followed a four-pronged strategy: making up his mind was the first step; then gradually he got used to deprivation and started treating his urge to smoke as an unfulfilled desire. Finally, he renewed focus on his health.

     MAKING UP YOUR MIND.

In Patel’s case, his chronic cough, raspy voice and low levels of immunity led him to consider quitting. Moreover it was disturbing to see his 13 year old daughter aping him with a pencil dangling in her mouth and walking around the house. And that’s when, during one of his trip to the UK, he tried hypnosis to quit.

We all know that hypnosis is concentrated relaxation and is the key to reach the unconscious by removing the barriers of conscious mind. During hypnotherapy, the therapist slips past your conscious mind recommending you to reject your craving for tobacco. Your mind builds up new neutral tracts triggering new ways of thinking and you begin to look at yourself as a non-smoker. As hypnotherapy directly worked with Patel’s habits he did not feel deprived or unhappy.

     DEPRIVATION

Patel started by reducing the number of cigarettes from 20 to six or seven a day so that he didn’t feel he was being deprived. Another way, Patel says, is to start thinking of yourself as a non-smoker. This will make the urge a little more bearable.

     UNFULFILLED DESIRE.

Here is Patel’s advice to all smokers: we all have secret desires. Do we fulfill all of them? If we did a lot of us would be in trouble. Similarly treat the desire to smoke as an unfulfilled desire similar to wanting someone else wife’s, job, money, body, hair or looks. The moment we know that we are in the state of “wishful unfulfilment” our mind accepts it more readily.

     GET HEALTHIER

A few months after Patel quit, his cholesterol level were back to normal his high density lipoprotein levels (good cholesterol that protects the heart) increased, his triglyceride levels (a type of fat found in blood) came down, and his cough vanished. Earlier, smoking was robbing his body off the nutrients that would make his body healthier. Now his body absorbed nutrients from food more efficiently and he looks younger. He gained 3 to 4 kilos which he start losing once he began to work out regularly and have healthier food. Two years on, Patel has a healthy glow on his face, and that raspy voice has been replaced by an even-toned one.

      As for his now 15 year old daughter, her article on how her dad quit smoking just got printed in her school magazine, and her young girl roams around with a cheesy grin on her face. Time for you  to follow Patel?

The author is a wellness coach.

Taken from the outlook Business India.