Stop smoking with Jedi mind tricks


The main difficulty in tobacco withdrawal is a generalized feeling of anxiety or tension. You cannot find any precise location of your discomfort or cause for your anxiety but you know tobacco will fix it.

One way to answer this difficulty is not with tobacco, but with a relaxation protocol that reduces tension regardless of the cause of that tension. Instead of sneaking off for a smoke, take a ten-minute meditation break. Get the tension out of the way and you have less to cope with in quitting the leaf.


One way of doing that is with the Relaxation Response method. I recommend that one, of the various meditative relaxation methods available, because it is well researched to make it as simple as possible and to ground it in Western science as opposed to Eastern mysteries. You can learn about it from the above free video or from the best-selling book, below.

Here is the mind trick: When you are in the Relaxation Response mental state, you do not crave tobacco, even if it has been a long time since you had some. When you are not in the Relaxation Response state, you might crave tobacco,  but can remind yourself that you do not crave it when you are relaxed, so the craving cannot be very serious or important, after all.

Because you know the craving goes away so readily, you can dismiss its importance and know that it will disappear next time you take a meditation break. Continue this strategy until you are over the addictive effects of tobacco and no longer have the craving.

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