My First Day Of Counseling To Teach Us How To Quit smoking.

 How To Quit Smoking:

I had written about an alternative of cigarettes in my earlier post what you can read by clicking below:
http://bodyfitnessmyths.blogspot.co.nz/2013/05/are-you-smoker.html

However, now I realize that there no alternative to smoking and I decided to go for counseling to learn how to quit smoking as recommended by my doctor.
Last Tuesday was the first session of six sessions long counseling which are distributed over 6 weeks. I was nervous and excited at the same time.
Our team of counselors comprised of a nurse and a psychologist. There were 8 ladies /girls and three men attending the session.
We were given warm welcome and we introduced ourselves. All were amused and surprised to know that I am passionate about blogging on the topics related to body fitness.
The real session after the introduction started with a short presentation by the nurse and the psychologist. Then we were asked to discuss with the person sitting next to each of us regarding how we started smoking and under what circumstances we turn one casual cigarette into a terrible habit.
Then we swapped seats to discuss with the person sitting next to each of us about when and under what circumstances we get cravings to smoke.

Click Here for The Original Picture

After a few such discussions we were asked to write at least 2 points that we will try to do for the next 7 days. I wrote that I will not smoke in my car hence making the car smoke free and I will try to stretch duration between two cigarettes.
It was a one and a half hour session and we came out after a brief concluding remarks by the counselors.
Now I will write about my next 7 days and how the remarks given by the psychologist entwined by few of my blog posts that I had written about meditation. The analogy was mind boggling.
Normally I smoke in the car only if I am alone. But if a non smoker is sitting in the car with me I don't smoke and surprisingly not smoking because of his/her presence doesn't bother me. I can continue driving for hours without smoking. But the catch is, as soon as the person is out of the car, next second I light up a cigarette. I must have that cigarette else I feel tense. Now, since my target was not to smoke in the car, I did not light up my cigarette after dropping my daughter to college. Alternatively, I stopped for a cup of coffee (I am not a regular coffee drinker) and that time I smoked my first cigarette of the morning. My rest of the day was very normal but I was stopping my more than usual.
Real drama within my mind and heart started when I was driving towards Petone Seaview. I suddenly recalled the psychologist's remark that most of the time we pick up the cigarette mindlessly and we don't even think about it. If we think about it, may be we don't even need cigarette at that moment. And she gave an analogy of driving that when we become expert in driving, our level of expertise reaches so high that we don't need to think when w need to apply break, when we need to accelerate etc. and when we are driving on our regular route, we don't even realize when we turn left, when we crossed the tunnel etc. It just happens. And, we have taken our habit of smoking to the same level. We don't think about it. It just happens. I was thinking about her dialogs when all of a sudden I got a trigger. She was telling exactly the same thing that I wrote in one of my blog posts when I was writing about meditation. I wrote that we need to feel the flow of energy when we breathe in and breathe out but we are so used to it that it just happens. We don't think about it. And after this I had given the same example that the psychologist gave about driving. I had written that when our level of expertise goes too high, it gets transformed from conscious level to subconscious level. And if we need to feel the flow of the energy during breathing in and out, we will have to bring that expertise back to conscious level before we try to take it to super-conscious level. Then in the same very moment I realized that my smoking habit has gone to my subconscious and if I need to break this habit, I need to bring the habit to the conscious level. What all I wrote in view of meditation, I never thought about it from the perspective of my smoking habit. Why? Because it was on subconscious level. Well, it was a moment of triumphant for me. Although, it is just the second day after the first session and I have not yet given up smoking, but at least, now I have some food for thought. At least, I can feel my smoking habit on the conscious level. I will continue this post after my second session.