The Easy Way to Stop Smoking

By
Allen Carr
The key concept of this book is that people DO NOT smoke for the
reasons we all think they smoke. Once you fully grasp this concept, Carr assures
you, quitting smoking is easy. His concepts, are applicable to other addictions,
not just smoking. If you have a problem with caffeine, overwork, shopping,
chocolate, cell phone overuse, etc., this book just may help you too.
Allen Carr speaks from the smoker’s side, as someone who smoked for 33
years and found it hard to quit. He eliminates any excuses a smoker will give
for continuing to smoke, and then highlights the benefits of ‘escaping’ from the
slavery of the cigarette.
Easy Way to Stop Smoking is based on the premise that quitting smoking is
possible for anyone. But it will require a radical mindset change.
This book is designed to help you quit smoking immediately, permanently,
without willpower, or suffering withdrawal symptoms, or feeling an initial
period of misery. I know it sounds hard to believe but it works. The EASYWAY
method doesn’t work by telling smokers it is a disgusting habit with health
hazards.

“In order to quit, it is necessary to remove the reasons that we smoke.”

Your first cigarette

Our first cigarette tastes awful, our young minds are reassured we will
never become hooked, and we think that because we are not enjoying them
and we can stop whenever we want to. You dare not inhale, and if you
have too many you start to feel dizzy and then sick. It is our body telling us
“you are feeding me poison, stop doing it”.
With woman, the aim is to be the sophisticated modern young lady – looking
absolutely ridiculous. The boys are trying to look tough. When we are hooked
we wait for a period of no stress before stopping. But as we
leave the protection of our parents, the natural process is for more stress,
home, mortgages, babies more responsible jobs etc. – making the timing never
OK.

Nicotine Addiction
Every puff on a cigarette delivers via the lungs to the brain, a small dose
of nicotine that acts more rapidly than heroin in our veins. There is no physical
pain from the withdrawal from nicotine. It is merely and empty, restless feeling
that someone is missing. The enjoyment that the smoker gets from a cigarette
is the pleasure of trying to get back to the state of peace, tranquillity, and
confidence that his body had before he became hooked in the first place. As
soon as you extinguish the cigarette, the craving starts again. The whole
business of smoking is like wearing tight shoes just to obtain the pleasure you
feel when you take them off.
Although nicotine is a powerful drug because of the speed you get hooked, you
are never badly hooked. In reality, 99% of the nicotine leaves your body within
3 weeks of quitting. So why do people going through their whole lives craving
for a cigarette at odd times?
The brainwashing
The worst aspect of smoking isn’t the injury to your health or pocket, it
is the warping of your mind. The classic example of the brainwashing is
in the term, ‘giving up smoking’: this implies a genuine sacrifice. The beautiful
thing is there is nothing to give up. On the contrary, you are freeing yourself
from a terrible disease and achieving marvellous positive gains: health, energy,
wealth, peace of mind, confidence, courage, self-respect, happiness and
freedom.
Stress
You will light one up during a stressful period and it
appears to help. What actually happens is this: without being conscious of it,
you have already been suffering aggravation, by relieving the aggregation at
times of normal stress, the total stress is reduced and the smoker gets a
boost. The smoker will feel better than before he/she
had the cigarette. The cigarette is not calming your nerves, it is slowly but
steadily destroying them.

Boredom
When you’re addicted there is always something missing. When you are
bored, there is nothing else taking up your mind, but that little addiction
monster. Cigarettes tend to increase boredom indirectly, instead of
undertaking some energetic activity, smokers tend to lounge around bored,
relieving their withdrawal pangs. Observe smokers who
are smoking because they are bored, they still look bored.
Concentration
Cigarettes do not help you concentrate, that is just another illusion
– they ruin it. Because after a while, even while smoking a
cigarette, the withdrawal pangs cease to be completely relieved.
As the smoker increases the intake, the problem slowly increases. It is affected
for another reason. The progressive blocking up of your arteries and veins with
poisons starve the brain of oxygen. Your concentration is greatly improved
if the process is reversed.
Relaxation
Most smokers think it relaxes them, but nicotine is actually a chemical
stimulant. One of the favourite cigarettes time for smokers is that after a meal.
A meal is when we sit down, relieve our hunger and thirst and then are
completely satisfied. The poor smoker cannot relax, as he has another
hunger to satisfy. He thinks it is the icing on the cake, but it is the little monster
that needs feeding. Smokers aren’t relaxed, they have forgotten what it feels
like to be completely relaxed, that is one of the many joys to come.

So what are you giving up? The fear of being deprived of the pleasure, the fear
certain situations will not be the same, the fear we will be unable to cope with
stressful situations. Cigarettes do not fill a void. They create it! The truth is you
have nothing to give up. Once you purge that little monster for your body
and the brain washing from your mind, you will never want cigarettes nor
need them.
Quotes:
“The whole business of smoking is like forcing yourself to wear tight shoes just
to get the pleasure of taking them off.”
“There are people who can make love standing on a hammock, but it is not the
easiest way.”
“Responsibility becomes stressful only when you don’t feel strong enough to
handle it.”
“The cigarette gets the credit for everything and the blame for nothing.”
“Eight hours after putting out a cigarette, you are 97% nicotine-free. After just
three days of not smoking, you are 100% nicotine-free.”
“Quite simply, the key to being a happy non-smoker is to remove the desire to
smoke. With no desire to smoke, it takes no Willpower not to do so.”
“Smokers do not smoke because they enjoy it. They do it because they are
miserable without it.”
“The moment you stop smoking, everything that goes wrong in your life is
blamed on the fact that you’ve stopped smoking.”
“The only reason any smoker lights a cigarette is to try to end the empty,
insecure feeling that the previous cigarette created.”
“Get it clear in your mind: CIGARETTES DO NOT FILL A VOID. THEY CREATE
ONE! These bodies of ours are the most”
Sources:
https://www.whatyouwilllearn.com/book/theeasywaytostopsmoking/
https://medium.com/@sarahcy/millions-used-this-method-to-painlessly-
quit-smoking-and-other-addictions-overnight-easy-way-to-b2be1da93816
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/9875-the-easy-way-to-stop-
smoking