Quitting Cigarettes

If you don't want to read the blog, that's cool. But honestly, if you or anyone you know smokes cigarettes, then Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking is a book that made quitting smoking for me easy. I don't know how to fully explain how, but I'll try.  It really is an easy way to stop, it's been over three weeks since I've had a cigarette and the entire process was easy, and relatively craving free. Honestly, it was kind of fun.

For the past four years of my life, I smoked about a pack a day, consistently. Then, after reading a book, I was able to stop. I know it sounds crazy, but here's really what happened.  Rarely did I ever manage, in that time frame, to ever go more than a day without a cigarette.  I found it difficult to cut down, difficult to quit, and continually frustrating as I knew that it was the worst part of my life.  It really was.  When I think about it now, it confuses me to no end.  It had been over a year since I had taken any pharmaceutical medication, not even so much as an Advil, yet I continued to smoke a pack of cigarettes daily.

Then, as weird as this sounds, I came across a file on my computer that had "quit smoking" in the name, and I decided to open it.   It was about 2 AM, and I didn't have anything else to do, so i started reading it.  The file was a PDF file of a book called "Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking." I was pretty interested right away and read about 60 or 70 pages of the book before I turned off my computer.

 The most interesting part about this book was that he didn't focus on why cigarettes were harmful, etc. Nor did he focus on how much money you would save, etc. These were all aspects of the book, sure, but his focus was on why it's difficult to quit. Essentially, he explains that we become brainwashed into thinking quitting is hard, etc. and explains the truth behind many aspects of smoking. I know this sounds kind of like a hypnotist thing, but I promise, it isn't.

Also, he encourages you to continue smoking as you read the book, because once you have finished the book, you'll have grasped the concept and no longer want to smoke cigarettes, and quitting will now be easy.  I know that sounds crazy, but really, what the book does is allow you to have a conversation with yourself (and I guess Mr. Carr) about cigarettes, and really reach the truth, which, once you realize, will make cigarettes the easiest habit to quit. Think of it this way, running a 4 minute mile is hard, you have to train for it, etc. But quitting cigarettes is easy, all you have to do is not do something.