A Personal Smoking Journey

By Chris Hoare

May 2nd, 2023

A Personal Journey

Many years ago I used to smoke 20 cigarettes per day. I’m not even sure what brand I smoked back then, although I guess that was pretty irrelevant. My big brother smoked, his wife smoked, many of my friends smoked so it was quite natural for me to do the same. All was well in my little universe as I was able to fit in with my social group quite nicely in a way that I hadn’t when I was non-smoker. Nevertheless something didn’t make sense.

The First Curiosity.

There were some unusual aspects of my smoking behaviour. I never told my mother that I smoked because she wouldn’t have approved. As I worked with her during the day, I didn’t light up until I had left work and was on my way home. So, from 9am to 5pm I couldn’t smoke except on days off. Very strangely I didn’t miss cigarettes during those hours, but out of work it was very different. I needed them.

The Second Curiosity

This wasn’t immediately obvious to me at the time until I went for an interview at the Job Centre on my day off (I couldn’t keep working for my mother forever). I was seated in a waiting area and reached for a cigarette. I asked the only other person there if he minded me smoking. He said he’d prefer me not to, so I obliged. It was only when I stepped outside that it hit me. From the moment I’d asked the question until I finally stepped outside the need for a cigarette had vanished. I even remember feeling relieved when the guy had asked me not to smoke.

The Doubts

I started questioning my smoking patterns and realised that I never actually woke during the night needing a cigarette. Non of this tallied with my belief that I was addicted to nicotine. I realised that something else was causing me feel the need to smoke and it had nothing to do with addiction. Once I started researching I found that others had reached similar conclusions. When I learned how rich some people were getting at the expense of the health of me and my loved ones I got very angry and very determined.

The Decision

My interest and knowledge about hypnosis and the unconscious mind helped me to make a life-changing decision. I had bought a packet of twenty cigarettes, but ended up giving seventeen of them away. I made the decision to never smoke again and to this day I have neither craved nor missed a cigarette. The personal changes that took place over the weeks and months were astounding. I joined a local Judo club, I ran and I went on to eventually cycle thousands of miles. The energy I had was phenomenal. I have one regret about those remaining seventeen cigarettes; the people I gave them to are no longer walking this Earth.

The Present Day

Helping people to stop smoking is one of my key areas of work in hypnotherapy, for reasons that I hope are obvious. If I can walk away from cigarettes, with no withdrawal effects, so can other people.