Cognitive Quit Smoking

Welcome to all of you who have recently joined the group. I hope you’ve
had a chance to look through some of the material on the sites that make up
our cog quitting community.
Cognitivequitting is a fairly simple program made up of 2 parts: concept
and practice.
The concept is: we experience some event (happening, sensation, ect),
usually attach some established beliefs to the event, and, based on the
beliefs, we follow through with a response.
The practice is: one or a few statements that define your foundation, a
few lists, and a bunch of ABCs.
An understanding of the concept is often enough to allow a quitter to
carry on from day to day and deal consistantly and comfortably with most of
their smoking related thoughts. However, this is only an effective tool
for dealing on an ongoing basis. In order to move past the stage of
‘ongoing dealing’ to a state of ‘not needing to deal’ with urges any

longer, you must do the practice. Think of it in terms of reading a really
excellent book on golf. We may have understood all the info (concept) re:
grip and stance and swing …. but until we’ve trained (practice) the
muscles and the mind to work in just the right way time after time, we’re
not going to be golfers. In a similar way, our quit isn’t entirely complete
without the practice.
Here’s some homework for the next couple of days, foundation statements.
This is important, it’s a first step in becoming consciously aware of what
you’re thinking regardless of what and how you feel. In a few days, we’ll
start on a few lists but first, get your foundation set up.
This is a repost of some material on our yahho site in the files section -
Regardless of how a person is going at their quit, whether it’s CT or
with NRT or any other quit aids, I think it helps to establish some
‘foundation statements’. Foundation statements are a set of statements that
are ALWAYS true regardless of what emotions we may be feeling at the moment.
The following questions will help define those statements:
1- Is this a calm, rational moment where I can ask myself some questions
and answer those questions honestly without the answers being influenced by
any emotion or physical sensation? If the answer to this one is ‘yes’
continue, otherwise wait until a more appropriate time.
2- Do I want to be a smoker? meaning do I want to respond by lighting up
to all the stresses that are life? If the answer is ‘no’ continue,
otherwise, spend some time thinking about why you’re attempting to do
something that requires ‘total’ commitment at the same time that I don’t
have that commitment.
3- Having stated that “I don’t want to be a smoker.”, can I think of any
exceptions? Don’t confuse the desire to relieve discomfort, a perfectly
normal and natural desire, with the thought(s) that a cigarette is the
appropriate tool for relief. The question here is
simply, “Is a cigarette ever an appropriate response?” If I can think of
situations where it would be valid, then we need to examine those in detail
and refute them.
4- Am I prepared to stay aware of these personal truths and stand by
them regardless of how rough I may feel at any point in the future? That
there will be many points in the future where I will be uncomfortable is a
given. To not accept that as a fact of reality is to be intentionally blind
and will cost me in terms of effort required to deal with that discomfort
when it happens.
Based on answers to the above questions, I might write out my foundation
statements as follows:
“During a moment of personal calm, I rationally determined that…
1- I do not want to be a smoker.
2- There is NO situation where behaving as a smoker would be appropriate.
3- That I’m prepared to re-affirm this to myself each morning; to write
it out and carry it with me if necessary; to trust completely that no
matter how uncomfortable or cranky I may be, these foundation statements
will ALWAYS be my personal truth and that I will respond accordingly.
The reason I believe ‘foundation statements’ are important is because
most of us respond to life based on our emotional state at the moment. Our
initial ‘choice of response’ is based on what we’re feeling rather than
what we know to be rock bottom, dispassionate truth. Once that choice based
on ‘feeling’ is ‘on the table’, our brain must work extra hard to try to
refute that first choice. This is exactly where all the internal arguing
takes place.
Using our foundation statements, we have a tool that focuses our
thinking on what we know with certainty is true, honest, accurate, and is
actually, when all is said and done, really what we want.
Work out your own statements or use these if they fit.
Please try to create a statement or two. Post them here, write them on
your fridge. If you have questions ask, there are lots of us who will help
you. This is probably a very different approach to quitting than anything
you’ve tried before. Relax, try it, you’ll likely come to enjoy it.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 23rd, 2004 at 2:45 am and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.