Fear will Not Motivate You to Quit

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Cheryl Hanson

Fear is a word we all can understand, as even predatory animals fear other predators, and prey lives in a constant state of fear.  The reality of fear is that it will trigger your flight or fight response, and thus begin your natural stress hormones to course through your body.  No amount of reasoning then, will stop the flow, just a bit of time to the end of the process completes.  With anti smoking campaigns in full swing, the marketing manager will often create a campaign of fear and logical scientific data.  This never works for a non-smoker who is trying to emerge, as the fear is already gnawing and growing in them, they need less fear not more.

Fear Campaigns Create a Block

ashtray reusedStop smoking campaigns that create fear by explaining death is on its way, are not good resources for smokers who want to quit.  The fear associated with the quit is not helpful as it only creates a feeling of loss, and pain.  When you are quitting, you need to be assured that the days ahead will be positive and full of value due to your quit.  Without a loss of fear, and empowerment to the smoker, there is no value in showing organs in stages of disease, jaws or facial abnormalities, or even a cancer survivor from smoking.  The best campaigns are those that show freedom, happiness, contentment, empowerment, beauty in being a non smoker, and complete understanding of value in the quit.  When a smoker sees the quit and the future as a loss, any kind of loss, especially during a parade of fear laced images and stories, they will never quit.

Why Quit When Fear Proves Loss

Any story of fear and loss from a quit only showcases the fact that a non smoking future is in fact that, a loss of much, and a place of pain, sadness, anxiety, drama, and tension.  When you build on a feeling of this, with a story of ultimate gore and pain, it is not a good response.  Only good forecast ahead will create the right frame of mind you need to become the non smoker you are, once again.  Stop looking at the future as bleak, and it won’t be.  Stop seeing the loss of smoking as a giant tension and stress monger, and it will not be.  Keep your mind in the frame of beauty and finally complete control of your life, and it will be.  Keep loss as the truth that it is, by stopping the control of nicotine, and the control of smoking strain on your life.  When you find the beauty of peace and quiet empowerment of holding on to your life as one that keeps you happy without a cigarette, you have made the path to fulfillment.

Fear will stop you in the end

If you consistently rely on fear as your excuse, you will never move forward into the person you want to become.  Being in fear will only begin your day as it was, and you will never be able to change into the butterfly you hope and aspire to be in the end.  If you have a will to be the motivating and loving person that acknowledges fear, but never lets it win, you will be allowed to become the beautiful creature that you intend.

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Why Smoking Kills More than Your Lung Tissue

Posted on December 23, 2013 by Cheryl Hanson

Smoking kills more than just your healthy lung tissue, it also is a leading killer of initiative and productivity in the world.  Many smokers spend more time chasing the time to spend smoking, versus focusing on the wonders of their skills, talents and positive gains in life.  If one week can prove to you, as a smoker, that smoking kills your initiative more than you may realize, would you try it?  In other words, if you would quit for one week, and see how much time you capture back from your smoking schedule, would you take the change and see the results?  Smokers are really not aware of their lives and the time they spend together as a wasted amount of time. The time spent smoking, is in fact, a relaxing and quiet time, to break and refresh one-self, and one’s soul.  The goodness of this break allows a smoker a chance to “breathe” more or less, and take some time to just be.  This is a wonderful gift that we all can create-without letting nicotine and the time being wasted on a loss of awareness.

Smoking Kills your Dreams

When you were little, you didn’t tell adults when they asked you, that you wanted to be a banker, or a assembly worker, or a smoker.  You told them you wanted to be a doctor, a fireman, a singer, an actor, or a rich race car driver.  You dreamed you wanted to chase a career of fulfillment and action.  You wanted to make a difference.  You were ready to do more, and become a positive person, who knew that smoking kills.  You were taught to avoid the crush of cigarettes, and nicotine.  You were always telling other adults around you that smoking kills.  You knew it!  Now, as an adult, you had some past challenges, and you never got to try out for the comedy club, or the cooking school, or the audition at the theater.  You had some challenges, and you got stuck.  You found out that life was not only a challenge, but that it was really hard.  Who cares that smoking kills, you tried it as an young adult, and you liked it.  Your mind liked it a lot.   Why did they ever try to stop you?  Everything they told you about you could do anything you wanted, turned out to be untrue.  You certainly could be right about the fact that smoking kills is a lie too, right?

Wrong.  Dead wrong.  Not only did you give up far too easily, but now you feel bad about it.  Yes, you have dropped your dream.  Why not drop your health and your initiative too?  Why not just enjoy the ride?  Who cares about the consequence?  It is your body, and the fact that smoking kills is a marketing scheme.   You keep telling yourself this story, and ride through your youth, smoking and learning to spout out the excuse whenever it is convenient.  Your body is suffering, but so is your soul.  Your soul is the biggest loser in the fact that smoking kills.

Smoking Kills your Chances to Change

When you smoke, you are stuck in a lifestyle of chasing the chance to keep your nicotine levels at a decent happy spot or marker for your addiction.  You never are loose or away from this crush of need.  Your life is driven to keeping your nic fix at a point of reassurance.  At some point, you knew that smoking kills your healthy lung tissue, but also, now you are realizing that it kills your ability to keep up and do what you want in life.  Your class schedule is active and busy, but not too busy so you can keep up with just a smoke here and there.  You are spending time and money to keep this trigger on your life, and to have a small stop sign here and there to evade your real goals and dreams.  Begin again, by realizing that smoking kills not just your health, but your opportunity to shine.  It is a wall, a fence on your positive self.  Begin again!

Smoking Kills your Ability to Love

When you are constantly chasing something, you can’t begin to become aware.  Your change in life always is broken by the fact that you must continue to finish your current path, and keep up with the status quo.  Your current path will lead you to realize that smoking kills not just your life, but your goals and any goodness that you can bring to human kind.  Be yourself, but do not continue your path of loss of control. Become a winner of sorts by realizing how much smoking kills in your life and in your ability to love yourself.

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To Chantix or Not to Chantix : This is the Quit Smoking Question of Our Modern Life

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Cheryl Hanson

My husband is quitting smoking after smoking for over 30 plus years, and he is on Chantix.  With the help of his cardiologist, he is on this very impressive medicine, and it is helping him stay away from cigarettes, and is not tempted to switch back to smoking.  It is a huge step, but one I hope you take sooner than he did, as his Chantix prescription was from his cardiologist or heart doctor.  Your decision to quit, should be soon, and if you are not ready to quit, keep smoking, but keep reading too!

What is Chantix and How Does it Work

Chantix On the First Four Weeks

Chantix is a drug called Varenicline tartrate, that works to block the cravings a smoker may have during their quit.  The drug works for at least 12 weeks, and then may continue for 24 weeks.  The prescription comes in 4 week packs, and you have to visit your doctor to start this smoking cessation prescription.  In more detail, each 4 week period costs around $200, and although expensive, it is close to what a pack a day smoker spends on cigarettes.  It is a cost to many, but think of it this way, you will not be on Chantix forever, and cigarettes are an ongoing addiction, so in this argument, you are saving thousands over your life in many ways.

The drug works to stop or prevent, the pleasure centers of your brain from feeling your perceived nicotine happy feeling.  You can smoke during the first week of your treatment, and then you should quit on your 6th or 7th day.  This is your quit date, and from then on, you can ditch the cigarettes.  Keep taking your Chantix, for the required 12 weeks, and see your doctor on your path to being smoke free once again.  It will depend on your progress, if you continue Chantix for a longer period of time.

Skeptical and Stubborn Chantix Users

My husband is a die hard smoker, who has been on Chantix for three weeks.  He is at the end of his third week, and has not smoked for over 14 days.  This is huge, as he is a stubborn and resistant to change smoker, who smoked over 1 pack a day.  He sometimes was a 2 pack a day smoker.  The costs on our family have been enormous, as he is now going through many drugs to keep his heart working, as he has severe coronary artery disease.  He has one 100% blockage in his heart, and two other severe blockages of 70%.  He has made giant changes, and despite his stubborn Norwegian brain, he is nothing but a new man.

The effect that Chantix has had on him, is impressive.  He is able to go each day, without smoking.  He has never had one day, that I knew him, where he was not outside holding a cigarette.  Not used to all the time on his hands, he has now gotten into thinking about a gym membership, and has taken on some healthy eating recipe books with gusto.  The low salt diet he is on, is helping too, as he is discovering that vegetables and fruit are actually very tasty.  He made a strawberry-blueberry salsa with jalapenos the other day, that was great!

He has had some crazy dreams, and one night, he insisted that there was someone in the back yard, and that the security light was on.   I kept reassuring him, over the next 2 hours, that nope, no one in the backyard.  He would settle back to sleep, and continue with the dream.  It kept us both up that night, but he has had pretty nice results otherwise.  I know that he would not be able to keep smoking away, without the drug, as he and I have had some stressful days recently, and he went through the stress, and didn’t stop for smokes.  We are hoping the next few weeks will be just as effective, and there will be news coming from us as he continues his smoking cessation plan.

Chantix has some Side Effects and Is Serious Medicine

The following side effects list comes from the PubMed Heath Website, and is something you must discuss with your doctor.

Chantix should only be taken after serious consideration, and with careful review with your doctor.  If you do not have insurance, do not have a doctor, you should contact the manufacturer of Chantix, at www.chantix.com  There is no reason, no excuse, no story or situation to stop you from trying Chantix, other than a medical reason that you and your doctor feel are too risky for your health situation.  Only you and your doctor can decide if Chantix is right for you!

 

 

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Smoking Cessation Begins with a New Life

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Cheryl Hanson

The family that I belong to always was a smoking family, and it is not uncommon for us to remember the days fondly before smoking cessation.  The group of us that believed in a smoke free life grew slowly, but now we are all smoke free!  I am so proud of the fact that we made it to our smoking cessation goals.

Steps towards Smoking Cessation

The only way to begin a smoking cessation program is to actually want to begin your life again.  You were not born a smoker, you were just in practice smoking, and need to return back to your natural state of enjoying life.  Without the nicotine monkey on your back, your life will begin again, and you will find your smoking cessation is successful.

The Steps To Quitting Smoking Begins with Smoking Cessation

Nicotine is the chemical that keeps you smoking, so removing this chemical from your daily life is important to create successful smoking cessation.  Once you stop your smoking, you will find the first two weeks difficult, but possible if you have the right mind set.

The second step to smoking cessation is to believe and know in your heart that you will not lose anything by embracing smoking cessation.  If you believe that the statement above is not true, then you are not approaching the problem correctly.  The nicotine is not the primary reason you smoke, the one reason that keeps you smoking, is the stubborn thought that you will lose more if you quit.  The fact is, you gain everything by not smoking.

Gain Everything By Smoking Cessation

The third step is all the small things you used to do smoking, must be new and improved as a non-smoker.   Smoking cessation will continue and prosper as you constantly evolve back in your non-smoking self.  Why fight your smoking plan when you can embrace your non-smoking self once again?

Your health will improve, your finances will find a face lift, and be eased by your lifestyle change.  Smoking cessation will continue when you find ways to go bowling and not smoke between games.  A new event will occur, and you will find ways to make that smoking time even better as you continue your path to smoking cessation.  I can’t tell you want that will be, as only you can find the things you love to do, and make them more of a priority.  Smoking is not a love, but a large wall to happiness.

The times you find smoking comforting, now need to be reviewed.  Why is it comforting?  Analyze why you smoke when you do, and you will find when you smoked, you were actually in jail by nicotine, and not free to be different, unique, spontaneous, or happy.  All the times you thought before that you must smoke, are now open windows of time where new possibilities can be explored.  Your smoking cessation must continue with positive changes, as the quit is always not losing anything, but gaining back your life.

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How Cigarettes Increase Cardiovascular Disease in Your Heart

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Cheryl Hanson

Yesterday was a really scary day, as my husband was diagnosed with acute cardiovascular disease, with blockages of plaques in his coronary arteries that feed his heart.  It is not fun when a loved one is given this kind of diagnosis, but then, I knew he was getting sicker.  It has been a long journey for him, and it all is because of his smoking.  It prompted me to review my scientific research, and review how cigarettes and smoking causes cardiovascular disease, and share my findings in order to continue my quest of helping smokers quit and do it on their own terms.

Cardiovascular Disease is a Vessel Disease

Any time you are hearing the terms “blocked coronaries”, “heart disease”, or “blocked arteries”, the reference is to the cardiovascular disease of the arteries that supply the heart itself with blood.  The majority of the arteries that feed the heart are tiny, and important.  Unlike the tiny arteries in your hands and feet, that can be blocked as well, there are many other capillaries and fellow arteries that can take on the extra challenge.  In your heart, there are only a few arteries that feed the oxygen and nutrition that your heart needs to beat and keep you alive.  The heart is nothing more than a really reliable pump, that just is a monster muscle, and as such, needs its oxygen and food at a regular rate.  When one of these arteries becomes clogged with plaques from cholesterol or triglycerides, the heart cannot be fed, and the muscle dies, and a heart attack occurs.  The heart attack that killed NBC Anchorman, Tim Russert, is commonly called the “Widowmaker”, as the left Anterior Descending coronary artery can be often occluded in coronary artery disease, and the heavy deposits burst the vessel, causing a fast and killing bleed.

All of this detail is frightening, and may make you cause you to turn your head, or click off this page, but I beg you, keep reading.  For my husband, the artery that was found to be 100% blocked, was in fact, the left anterior descending coronary artery.  Luckily for him and for us all, his heart was noticing early loss of nutrition and oxygen, and was creating a new network of arteries to his heart called coronary collateral circulation, and this is why he had not experienced a heart attack yet, and was still alive today.

Why Smoking is The Main Cause of Cardiovascular Disease

The most trying thing about smoking, is how it can create a short life span, no matter how determined you may be that it is not occurring.  If you are certain that after smoking for years, this will never happen to you, I understand.  The hope is always with each and every smoker, that they can be that winning smoker who never develops coronary or cardiovascular disease.  I am living with such a person, and it is just amazing that he is still alive!

That being said, I really wanted to find out why smoking is so bad for you once again, and why it causes heart arteries to clog up so effectively.  How can the smoke do this?  It is just such a long way from your everyday drag, to the little important vessels on your heart.  So, in review, I found a great reference from Webmd, that brings the story more insight.

 

 

 

 Cardiovascular Disease Can be Repaired by Your Quit

As we went through the day at the hospital yesterday, and received the diagnosis after a length angioplasty procedure, and after much discussion, we know now what arteries are blocked, and what medicine will repair the areas, and increase blood flow to the heart.  But first and foremost on every doctor’s consultation we had yesterday, was the repeated request that smoking cession be the key focus.  Now with a constant diagnosis pattern, and the fact that he will die without the quit, he is resolved.  Of course, it will be a long process, and I am here to help, but the most important thing we discovered from yesterday, is that quitting smoking is very important for solving cardiovascular disease, and being able to be alive.

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Quit Smoking Stress

Posted on June 14, 2011 by Cheryl Hanson

The most stressful part to your quit smoking plan, is the decision to quit.  The step is very much a scary and large stress filled component of your quit.  No matter how hard you have had to envision yourself as a non-smoker, the smoker in you is really hell bent on staying afraid, and the fear is the stress that creates more anxiety and pain than any other emotion for a smoker.

Stress can be Used In Your Quit Smoking Pledge

As crazy as it sounds, the more you are running from the quit, the more you are going to succeed.  Your quit will be unlike any other smoker’s quit, so make no comparisons.  The best thing you can do is envision your quit, and let the fear float around you, with the cloud that it produces, and all the questions that it creates.  Your anxiety and stress comes from the fact that you may not have the crutch that has been your stronghold for so long.  The living you have had with your cigarette is not actually really living, but it is the decision to include your cigarette.   When you separate your cigarette from your life in this way, you are on your way to fully proceeding with your quit.

Smoking is an evil addiction that takes your body over with nicotine, and your brain over with propaganda and stories from marketing and cigarette manufacturers.   They create the most beautiful drama in your mind, that creates an even more powerful story about why you must smoke.  The most amazing thing is, it is different for each and every smoker, and the story is always something very unconscious that you as a smoker build in your mind.  The most amazing part to the process is, that it is created by your brain with the help of the nicotine and the final straw is the propaganda that you have been used to hearing from advertising and other smokers who have been led astray.

 

When you realize that the story you have growing in your mind is really only a creation and not a reality, it is easier to envision a smoke free life.

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Smoking The Entire Cigarette

Posted on February 13, 2011 by Cheryl Hanson

When you are smoking, you often drift off into thought.  It is easy to do, as the act of smoking really is simple and easy.  You do not really think about what is occurring during the act of smoking, you just do it.  It is not a relief until you get the first drag.  So, why is it that you continue to smoke the entire cigarette?

Unsure why, but the nicotine you need to feed your nicotine addiction, is actually really small.  The rest of the cigarette is really there for your smoking brain, and all the excuses you build upon.  When you think about it, it is kind of like a donut hole.  Sometimes, all you need is the small donut hole.

I am not saying you should skimp on your cigs, but more so, just giving you some objective perspective.  The fact that the cigarette is longer than it needs to be, is just one of those propaganda moves by the cigarette companies.  It keeps you smoking longer, and even when your nicotine addiction is fulfilled, you still feel like you need to finish the cigarette.  It is your smoking brain at work.

When you decide you are really ready to quit, I do not want you to change any of the long standing traditions you have with your smoking.  You should smoke just as you always have.  Do not make cigarettes any more powerful than they already are.  Just understand, the nicotine addiction, though powerful and strong, is nothing in comparison to your smoking brain’s excuses and reasons.

Break Through Moments

When you are really ready for your smoking time to end, be sure to monitor your existing smoking with an objective mind.  There should be no momentum other than your complete revision of yourself.  In this manner, you are watching yourself, almost from a scientific point of view, when you smoke and when you are not.  The observation period is different for everyone, but if you really are in the moment, and not lost in your thoughts, you will realize that being on auto-pilot, you are not really needing your smoke.  You are thinking you do, but really, you already achieved the nicotine fit fulfillment.  Your mind is still catching up.

It would be like, if you were hypnotized, to believe you smoked already, would you really have a craving?  Maybe not.  Most smokers, hit their nicotine happy limit early in the day.  They need cigarettes only for the fact that their smoking brain tells them so.

What are your reflections in your observational point of view?   Have you tried this method, and found it to be worth-while?  Others who will follow in your footsteps, need your help, so be sure to leave a comment!

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Your New Life Ahead!

Posted on February 7, 2011 by Cheryl Hanson

Becoming a Non-smoker is more than just quitting smoking. If it was just tossing your cigarettes or pipe into the garbage, your quit would be automatic.  Unfortunately, you can not just decide to quit, and expect all the smoking garbage to stay in the garbage.  It is a true new life initiative, and requires your best effort.  Your quit evolves each day, and to be successful it needs to be a process, or a true new life.

Find your New Life and Adopt It

Beginning any new project or objective is rough.  It takes some trial and error, and you need to be very kind to yourself, and let it grow on you.  Eventually, the newness wears off, and you become an expert.  There is one day, where your new project is now yours, and you are actually able to reinvent what the experts have told you.

You are ready to move from novice to expert, and you love talking to everyone about it.  It has happened, you have adopted your new lifestyle, and it is fully integrated into who you are.  This is a tricky process, and sometimes it does not happen for a long time.  If you have tried to quit, and failed many times, I want to ensure that you keep trying.  You just have not found the reason that you and you alone continue to smoke.

If you are looking for a quick fix, it will not be that easy.  I wish I had a magic switch I could turn off for you.  And take you back to your non-smoking days.  But, to be honest, would you be better off?  Probably not!  It needs to be thought of realistically, and take the lessons learned from smoking, and use them in other parts of your life.  The fact you were smoking means you are supposed to learn something from this life.  What benefit would it do you to have total amnesia?

Take the lessons learned, and objectively analyze every emotion, thought and pattern.  Take your time to fully love and support your quit.  It is a bit like a tiny baby right now, it needs to be cared for, fed every few hours, and put to bed once and awhile while you recover from the smoking brain corruption.

If you find the solution for you, share it with us all.  It is important that you bring your efforts forward, and let other know what worked for you.  Often, it not something you can really pin on the wall.  It is more a movement, and a full realization that your new life is beginning.

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Friends or Enemies

Posted on January 29, 2011 by Cheryl Hanson

Becoming the new Non-smoker in your social group is hard.  It is especially hard when you are one of one, and everyone else is trying to understand why you have made the decision to quit.  Often, you will have one person who speaks for the group, while they hold their cigarettes and stare at you.

Stand Up for Yourself

You should know, first off, this is not a fair situation.  It is truly mean that you have to be caught in the middle of being in this position, with your hands tied behind your back, so to say.  When you have many people who do not understand your non-smoking life, you need to let them grow into the idea, and simply stay where you are, for you.  Do not moan and groan about how unfair it is, but simply understand that it is.  You are going to have to be the strong one here, and it will take some effort on your part to stick with your guns, and let them get used to the new path that you have chosen.  There is no reason to become someone other than who you are, and the group will have to learn how to adjust to your new life.

Soon, one of the pack will decide to be brave, and attempt to understand why you are quitting.  It is your break, and you now have the chance to explain what you know, and what your friend does not.  Remember, you have learned the most valuable thing about life, that you were not gaining anything by being a smoker, and it will be very alluring to your friends.  They will want to learn more, and it will be confusing to them.

Use this time to explain how you are tired of chasing the demon, and letting him rule your days and nights.  That you have expired the notion that you enjoyed smoking, when you never really did.  The fact that you have quit, you now have no nicotine cravings, just the mental challenges, will be another reality that your friends will need to understand.

All of this is very sexy to smokers.  They can not understand often the basic premise of the quit.  Or the fact, that you really have to want to quit to make it happen.  It is not a journey, or a path, but a stand against the past mental processes, and and a new way of thinking.  A new way of life, and a greatness that is growing within you.

Do not stop, do not cringe or regret, and you will encompass something your friends will have never seen from you before, a powerful and new person.

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Quit Smoking Aids and Patches

Posted on January 27, 2011 by Cheryl Hanson

You can lock up a pack of cigarettes in a safe, and ask someone to change the combination, buy some nicotine gum, get a prescription from your doctor for some medicine, or patch your arm each time you feel a craving, but you are only covering up a gaping open wound.  Your smoking brain will be creating excuses, reasons, and rational reasons to try to get back into the game, but do not let it win!

The worst thing you can do is try to just replace your cigarettes with some other kind of nicotine.  Hands down, as long as you are tied to nicotine, you are not going to be a happy soul.  It is a mean and evil slave driver, and will keep you busy with smoke-free nicotine, cigars or any kind of nicotine gum.  It is not a friend, it is a fiend.

I do think that the prescription path is a good one at the beginning of your new non-smoking life, and it will help you tremendously at the beginning, but, it will need to end.  What will do you do once you are off the medicine?  How will you deal with your smoking brain and all of its propaganda.  That is the real evil part to nicotine, it drives you to addiction, but it also keeps you chained to its thought of having to excuse its bad behavior.

Often, smokers have intricate lies and excuses about their smoking.  You can remember a few I am sure!  The biggest, by far, is that you enjoy smoking.  What the heck, how could you really enjoy it?  It is not a truly enjoyable activity, it is an addiction.  The addiction and constant need to fulfill the addiction is the thing that you enjoy-the fact that you are getting it off your back, time and time again.

WOW!  If you do not have to feed the addiction, you can break this chain, and toss the cigs into the toilet.  They are not your enjoyment, only your pain, as you are not in control of them, they have been in control of your life for so long.

To beat this thing, you have to beat every single lie and excuse your smoking brain created, and tear each one down.  It is really important to understand yourself, from an observational point of view.  Do this, and you will beat this thing, cold turkey or with a prescription.

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