Mindfulness and smoking

[Kath]

Thankyou Jonw and Gareth for your replies. Thank you for helping to regain my focus. You're so right Gareth - mindfulness is so simple - yet so difficult! In a strange way I am quite glad of this experience - it has given me an opportunity to explore more. I believed I had the acceptance thing sorted out - but clearly not so! This experience is showing me really clearly hat acceptance really is.

Thank you jonw for suggesting I re-read this thread, and for saying such a kind thing about my post. At a time when I do still have attachment to my ego, it did give my confidence a boost at a time when I was/am quite.

I have meditated this morning - thank you for the music suggestion. I do use music but it was good to use something different. I began with huge expectations that this time all my questions would be answered, so went through a process of accepting there may be no such reward. That was liberating in itself. I then spent some time 'playing' with how it would feel if 'I' was in a different body with different thoughts and thus reactions and behaviours etc. It helped me to see more clearly what is awareness, and what is thoughts and body . . . . . . really useful.

I then spent some time on compassion - both for myself (very hard), then for my poor husband who I am treating really quite badly due to this whole thing. That helped me too. It felt 'true' - certainly more true than the thought quagmire I was previously in.

As always - I now need to practice patience again - and more! With patience, everything changes. It already has.

Thank you both again - for your advice, and for being there.

[Jesy_par]

Hi all,

I am a former smoker. 29 of October 2010 is my another birthday, the day I stopped smoking after full 24 years.

I did not discover mindfulness at that time so I can not say anything about my experience with smoking and mindfulness.

I can do two things:
1. Recommend a book "The Easy Way to Stop Smoking: Join the Millions Who Have Become Nonsmokers Using the Easyway Method" by Allen Carr. This book worked for me, I have no idea if it will work for you.
2. I have understood method from that book very well, and it can be somewhat translated into mindfulness practice. This is a good idea for my blog, I will definitely make a post. Here I'll lay out some thoughts