Behavior and Change

  1. Smoking Cessation Worksheets
  2. Inventory Story Addiction Management
  3. Before Preparing to Quit                           Free Sample Guided Meditation
  4. Preparing to Quit
  5. Long Term Quitting 

  6. Behavior and Change

Deep down within us is our view of ourselves. In part, it is just us. In part, it is from our interactions with other people. Who we are then, is in part, who we choose to live and work with.

The process that forms our internal, abstract, self is called symbolization: what is good and what is bad (your initial experiences with smoking, for example). The PROCESS starts with a stimulus: your first cigarette.

At some point your BEHAVIOR includes smoking that cigarette. That experience produces a RESIDUAL including: touch, taste, odor, group acceptance, etc.

Each of these can be characterized by their intensity, variety, and cue value to repeat. Each RESIDUAL element can be rated as good and bad by SYMBOLIZATION.

SYMBOLIZATION personalizes these many factors. You share them with others: I like or do not like.

At this point there is the EXPECTATION that the experience is reproducible: I only smoke Marlboros. It is time to light up again. The cycle repeats, a bit faster each time.

When addiction sets in, one part of the structure of smoking has faded away: SYMBOLIZATION. You no longer have control. Nicotine levels fluctuate. Smoking brings relief.

[But smoking brings quick relief in two ways: It can both calm you down when agitated and perk you up when down. It is a high intensity drug addiction. Either way you feel better using a toxic smoke.]

You now need to review yourself as a smoker. Jot down the cost, the time, the illness, and how others view smokers on the past area on the worksheet. Times have changed since you took up smoking and got caught by addiction.

The tobacco cult is held together by ritual as well as habit and nicotine addiction. The ultimate expression of ritual is vaping without nicotine.

Now create a new state of being; leading your way out of the cult by a new set of behaviors. Now view yourself as a non-smoker on the worksheet.

A significant emotional event does this in a split second. A person who can see herself as a non-smoker can work to that image in days to weeks. Always be positive.

It takes through planning and a high emotional engagement. You have to want it to happen. Your friends and coworkers have to want it to happen too.

[Find a friend or coworker to quit smoking with you; to help with the planning and alternate activities. Include a former smoker or non-smoker.]

Happy people think and act in a consistent way such that they can feel good about themselves. Think smoke free, act smoke free, and feel smoke free; and you will become happy smoke free.