by CJ Puotinen
Anyone who's tried to quit smoking knows how very, very hard it can be. Even when you really want to stop, cigarettes sneak up on you and the next thing you know, you're inhaling. Or worse, you realize that you just smoked a cigarette and put it out without even noticing.
For many, stop-smoking programs are a battle of wills in which the conscious mind remains constantly on guard, intercepting signals from a well-established habit that doesn't want to die.
That's the problem. Resolutions, contracts, and commitments always involve the conscious mind, and as anyone whose New Year's resolutions have fallen by the wayside can tell you, when it comes to cravings and addictions, the conscious mind is seldom in charge at all.
The subconscious or unconscious mind, which can sabotage any resolution in a nanosecond, is the force to reckon with.
Consider, then, a method that approaches smoking and other addictions by bypassing the conscious mind altogether. It's a do-it-yourself energy therapy called EFT, which stands for the Emotional Freedom Techniques. In EFT, you weaken a craving by thinking about it while you gently tap with your fingertips on key acupuncture points, most of which are on the face and torso.
Sounds weird, doesn't it? But an amazing number of smokers have felt their very strong cravings disappear in less than a minute while they tap. So have people with cravings for food and other substances. In fact, over 50 case studies describing cravings and addictions that disappeared as a result of tapping are posted on the official EFT Web site.
One of them is a report by Dr. Alexander Lees, who treated "John" (not his real name), a 47-year-old former athlete and successful businessman who started smoking when he was hospitalized after a serious injury.
"Some of the guys used to wheel themselves up to the roof garden," he explained, "and I eventually joined them. All four of them smoked and after a while, I did, too. I went to quit-smoking programs, bought tapes, and tried the cold-turkey approach. Each time I tried to quit, I smoked even more. I hate losing, Doc. Can you help me?"
In his report, which is posted at the EFT Web site, Dr. Lees describes step by step how he introduced John to EFT and helped him focus on the core issue underlying his addiction, which was John's conviction that his failure to quit made him a loser in life.
Dr. Lees cleverly borrowed John's own descriptions to reframe this belief in a way that helped him feel confident and resourceful.
In that single session, John kicked his habit. "We booked an appointment in two weeks," says Dr. Less, "but John cancelled it eight days later. He said he didn't need it -- he hadn't had a cigarette since the last appointment."
Was John's response unusual? Dr. Lees doesn't think so. Like other EFT practitioners, he has found the technique to be 50-80 percent successful, an impressive record by any standards.
Complex issues can be resolved faster with the help of a trained practitioner, but many smokers have quit on their own after reading the EFT manual or simply watching a demonstration DVD.
In addition to eliminating cravings for cigarettes as well as the cravings' underlying causes, EFT has been a consistently effective healing tool for hundreds of other physical, mental and emotional ailments. For more information, explore the EFT Web site and its numerous success stories regarding fears, phobias, emotional traumas and physical ailments.
While a complete description of EFT is beyond the scope of this article, you can learn the basics from the free EFT Get Started Package on the EFT Web site. This includes a free download of the 79-page EFT Manual. Those wishing to save time and dive right in can get the affordable five-star training DVDs.