One Simple Trick to Control Any Addiction

About the Author:  Lela Bryan is founder and Chief Learning Officer of Nicotine Solutions. Lela quit smoking—happily and permanently—on June 4, 1978. She has been successfully teaching others how to quit smoking and chewing ever since!
Originally a high school teacher, Lela found her true calling when—after 16 years of smoking—she finally discovered a way to quit that actually worked. Determined to spread the word, Lela decided to leave the school system and use her teaching skills to help people quit smoking instead. Since then, she has taught smoking cessation classes all over the world.
Nicotine Solutions program is taught as a teleconference so Lela can help anyone, anywhere quit smoking or chewing. The Nicotine Solutions program uses a multifaceted approach to quitting smoking or chewing by changing behavior and routines, learning to deal with stress, dealing with emotions and detoxifying from nicotine without using drugs or gaining weight. Students smoke while they go through the program so they do not experience the horrible side effects of cold turkey.
You can attend a free Tele-Seminar learn to quit smoking calmly, comfortably without drugs, or side effects at  www.TheQuitQueen.com
If you would like to contact Lela, you can reach her at 425-444-6616 or easeout@nicotinesolutions.com .

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  A big red flag goes up for me whenever I hear someone say a phrase like “I am giving up drinking, smoking or drugs”. What’s the difference between saying I am “giving up” something or I am “getting rid” of it? On the surface it doesn’t seem like a big distinction between giving up and getting rid of something, but it is.
 
 Let’s say that you had a big bag of rat infested, slimy, smelly garbage that had been sitting out in the sun for a while. When you were finally able to throw away that garbage, you wouldn’t say, “I gave up the garbage”…no you would say, “I got rid of the garbage”, or “I no longer have the garbage”.  The garbage was not precious or important to you so you wouldn’t be giving up anything, you would be getting rid of it.

  When you give up something that is important to you, will you get it back? Yes, because it was important to you. So from now on when you are coaching a client or if you are working on getting rid of a habit or an addiction, say I am working on getting rid of this habit or I no longer have that addiction rather than say I gave it up.

  There are other words that have power as well.  When you say words like “I had a craving for a cigarette” or “I had an urge for a drink” or “I need a certain drug”, it sounds normal on the outside of your brain.  On the inside of your brain you hear those words very differently. I call these words “punch words”.  Inside of your brain you hear punch words in a booming, evil, controlling voice that sounds like Darth Vader! When you hear those words inside your head you are powerless and your control and willpower are overtaken and you have the strength of a rag doll. 

  How can you quit being controlled by punch words? You need to stop using words like urge, craving, need, desire and want and substitute the word ‘thought’. So you had a thought of a cigarette or taking a drink or a pill. Big deal….so you had a thought.  Thoughts don’t grab you and shake you or control you or throw you on the ceiling and then drop you on the floor. You can say to yourself I had a thought of a cigarette or I had the thought of having a drink. Thoughts are random. Thoughts are like a butterfly. You can’t predict when or where a butterfly will land, just like you can’t control or predict when and where you will have thoughts of an addiction.
 
  When you first change an addiction, a thought about that addiction will come unexpectedly. Remember It’s just a thought and will probably only last a couple of seconds.  So if you aren’t going to use punch words and you are going to substitute thoughts what happens when you are trying not to think thoughts about something like having a cigarette.  If I tell you don’t think of blue elephants, you know that you will think of blue elephants, right?  So when you are dealing with an addiction such as quitting smoking and I tell you “don’t think of smoking”, what are you going to think of? If you said smoking, you are right, that’s all you can think about is smoking.

  How do you deal with random thoughts of smoking when you don’t know when you are going to have the thoughts? Let’s say that when the butterfly lands that’s the thought of a cigarette. What you can do is to acknowledge that thought and say, “yes I had the thought of a cigarette”.

  First you acknowledge that I did have the thought, and then you ignore the thought. What happens to any person or garden or thing that you ignore?  It goes away or it dies.  You can also acknowledge the thought and then laugh at it and make fun of the thought and then ignore it.

  So if you are dealing with an addiction, quit using punch words like need, urge, craving, desire or want and instead say “I had a thought.” Then, when the thought shows up acknowledge that you did have the thought and then ignore it or laugh at it!
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 Lela  has set up 6 private Facebook groups that you can ask to join for free.

They are:
1. Learn How To Quit Smoking
 No relapsing

• No cold turkey
• No weight gain
• No drugs or pills
• No painful side effects
• No nicotine replacement

  
2. How To Quit Smoking During
    Menopause Without Side Effects
 
Learn how to quit smoking without side effects
 
 Get help with symptoms of menopause and reduce the side effects of quitting smoking
 
3.   I have Quit Smoking!
And Help With Dealing With The Side Effects Of Quitting Smoking During Menopause
 
  Help with the symptoms of menopause & side effects of quitting smoking
 
4. Dealing With The Side Effects Of Quitting Smoking
 
5. I Quit Smoking But I am Still Using:
Chantix/Champix
Wellbutrin/Zyban
Vaping/e-cigarette
 
Nicotine
  Patch
  Gum
  Lozenge
 
6. Learn How To Quit Smoking When You Are Pregnant
 No relapsing

• No cold turkey
• No weight gain
• No drugs or pills
• No painful side effects