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How To Get Motivated To Quit Smoking Utilizing Neuro-Linguistic Programming

By: Alan B. Densky, CH There are two psychological states that must be fulfilled before a smoker will freely quit smoking. These essentials are called "Desire," and "Decision."

DESIRE: A want, crave or a wish for

DECISION: Making up of one's mind / a verdict or judgment

In order to stop smoking, a smoker must have a DESIRE to kick the habit. You probably want to stop smoking, at least some part of you does, or you wouldn't be reading this article.

In addition, in order to stop smoking, you have to DECIDE to quit. Since you haven't stopped smoking, it simply means that you have not DECIDED to stop yet.

So what you need is to feel motivated to make a "DECISION" to stop.

MOTIVATION, we all require it. The foundation of each of our motivations is what we accept as true. Think about it, if you didn't think it was true that you could get hurt if you walked in front of moving traffic, then you would not feel motivated to be cautious. If you did not believe that the gnawing sensation in your stomach meant that you were hungry, you would not feel motivated to eat.

When it comes to giving up the smoking habit, people who are addicted to cigarettes need to feel a great deal of motivation to make the DECISION to break the smoking addiction. Motivation is based on the thoughts that we believe. So you will need to DECIDE what ideas would motivate you if you believed them. Because when you feel powerfully motivated, you will stop smoking.

Thanks to NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and self-hypnosis for motivation, it's a lot easier to learn how to believe these new ideas than you probably think it is. However, you do not believe the ideas that will motivate you to stop smoking at this point, or you would have already broken the smoking addiction.

For the purpose of this discussion, we need to define a few words.

DOUBT: Uncertain/distrustful/dubious - "maybe it's this way, and maybe it isn't."

BELIEF: Trust/faith/tenet - A state of mind free of all doubt. In other words, belief means, "this is the way that it is."

HIGHLY VALUED CRITERIA: What is most important to you, as an individual.

When you totally believe that if you continue to smoke cigarettes your highly valued criterion is jeopardized, you will feel the motivation that you require to break your cigaratte smoking habit. We call this is a negative motivator, because it's a belief that motivates by providing you with dire sensations. Negative motivators are great for getting you to make decisions.

When you believe that if you do stop, that which is most important to you will become enhanced, you will also feel the motivation that you require to stop smoking. This is a positive motivator, because it motivates you by promising good sensations if you stop.

The first assignment is for you to DECIDE what the most important aspects of your life happen to be. Your most highly valued criteria are usually intangibles. For example: Money would not be highly valued criteria, but the freedom, fun, or security that money can purchase would be. Write your list of highly valued criteria down on a piece of paper.

Next you need to conclude what you need to believe to feel motivated to break the habit. Here is the good news, sort of: Logic has nothing to do with belief. Things don't have to be logical for you to believe them. As a matter of fact, they rarely are. So forget logic!

The format for your negative motivator beliefs will be: "I believe that if I continue to smoke cigarettes, something horrible will happen to my most highly valued criteria."

Make sure that you frame your motivators in the positive. In other words, always state what you want or what will happen. Never state what will not happen. Eliminate the "not" word from the beliefs.

In this example we will say that your children's health and welfare are your most highly valued criteria.

WRONG: "I believe that if I continue to smoke, I won't be doing my kid's health any good."

CORRECT: "I believe that if I continue to smoke, my secondhand smoke will give my children cancer."

Next, create a list of positive motivators. "I believe that if I stop smoking: (something very important will be enhanced)."

WRONG: "I believe that if I stop smoking, I won't give my kids cancer."

CORRECT: "I believe that if I stop smoking, my kids will be safe because I will eliminate their contact with the dangers of my secondhand smoke."

The next step is to change the computer codes in your brain to make yourself actually believe these motivational ideas. Now for a revelation: Belief has nothing to do with real logic. Instead, your beliefs have everything to do with your perception of reality. In other words, it has a lot to do with the way that you see things.

Our belief systems are located in our subconscious mind. The subconscious is like a computer. Computers do not reason. What goes in controls what comes out. To demonstrate, I want you to think of anything that you already believe without the slightest bit of doubt. So come up with a belief that gives you a good feeling.

For instance, it's easy for most people to believe that they love their kids. If that is true for you, make a mental picture that makes you experience that feeling of love.

I'm going to ask some questions, and there are not any right or wrong answers.

Is your mental image a moving picture, or a still?
Is it in color, or in black and white?
Is it close or far?
Is it focused or fuzzy?
Is it normally bright, overly bright, or dim?
Is there a border on it?
Is it borderless?
Is it a panorama?

Whatever your answers are, just write them down on a piece of paper. These are the computer codes that your unconscious uses to make you feel your feelings of belief. In this case they are the computer codes for positive belief, because you have chosen a belief that gives you a positive feeling. You've just calibrated your positive belief.

All positive belief pictures are bright and focused. If yours are not, then you probably do not really have total belief. An element of doubt is probably present. So find another belief from which to calibrate.

If you think of something that you doubt, and you make a mental picture of it, one or more of these computer codes will probably be different. Similarly, if you have a belief that gives you a negative feeling, (a negative belief): one or more of those codes will be different.

In NLP we call these particular computer codes visual submodalities.

Now you will need to calibrate a negative belief. So repeat the same exact process, but do so using an idea that you already believe, that makes you feel terrible.

Once you've calibrated both your positive and negative beliefs, it's a simple issue to manipulate what you believe so you can motivate yourself to DECIDE to quit smoking cigarettes.

So, to summarize, using the above example: "I believe that if I continue to smoke, my secondhand smoke will make my kids sick."

1. Become aware of how motivated you feel to stop smoking.

2. Make a mental picture that illustrates the above belief.

3. Adjust the codes (visual submodalities) of the picture so that they match the submodalities from your calibrated negative belief picture.

4. If you are right handed, move your eyeballs (and your mental image) up to your left and hold it there for five seconds. If you are left handed, go up to the right. This will make you quickly memorize the belief.

5. Now become aware of how motivated you feel to stop smoking. Do you feel more motivated? Do you feel less motivated? Or are your feelings the same?

By using this method you can make yourself believe almost anything by making an image in your mind that illustrates your new idea and then adjusting your mental picture to make it match your calibrated belief images.

And if you have a belief that is holding you back, you can use the same technique to change that belief to doubt by changing one or two of the submodalities and memorizing it that way.

Now that you can motivate yourself to DECIDE to quit, you will stop smoking. A DECISION to quit means: I'm quitting no matter what. If you are similar to most, you will not want it to feel the pain and you do not have to. Because there are several hypnotic and NLP methods that can greatly reduce, or even completely eliminate all of the discomforts of withdrawal from the smoking addiction. And you can read about them in my library of unique and original hypnosis articles.

(c) 2007 By Alan B. Densky, CH. This document may be re-printed as long as it is not altered and the author's name and clickable web address are retained.