Chapter 20

YOUR FINAL CIGARETTE

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Why Are You Doing This? • Choose Your Moment • Your Checklist

And so the moment has arrived. You stand on the brink of becoming a happy non-smoker – completely free from nicotine – a tremendous achievement that will bring you huge benefits. All that’s left is for you to complete the ritual of the final cigarette or dose of nicotine. I’ll specifically instruct you exactly when you should do that in a moment.

WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?

That may strike you as an odd question at this late stage, but it’s a question many smokers ask themselves as they face the prospect of smoking their last cigarette. It’s important to check that you are quitting for the right reason. There are many good reasons for not smoking – health, money and guilt about your loved ones and dependents, for example, but these reasons alone are not enough. If they were, nobody would continue to smoke. You need to be clear that you are quitting because…

There is absolutely no reason to continue to smoke or take nicotine in any form

To the non-smoker, this statement seems glaringly obvious, but for nicotine addicts it’s possible to go through life without ever realizing this simple truth: that smoking does nothing for you; it

gives you no genuine pleasure or crutch and you will not miss it. Allen Carr’s Easyway has changed the lives of tens of millions of nicotine addicts by opening their eyes to the reality of the situation. When the penny drops, the feeling of relief is fantastic.

It is also essential that you have not made the decision to quit for the benefit of someone else. Many smokers say they want to quit for the sake of their children or their partner. If you do that, there is a danger that you will feel you are depriving yourself for someone else’s benefit and sooner or later you will be tempted to ‘reward’ yourself with just one cigarette. That one cigarette may well be enough to set the whole vicious circle in motion again.

Quit for the best reason of all: your own happiness. It’s you who is getting free, you who is rediscovering the genuine pleasures in life, you who is shaking off the shackles of slavery. As a smoker, you lose your grasp of many of the feelings that make life a joy: feeling healthy, energetic, guilt-free, unstressed, in control, happy. As a non-smoker, you will rediscover all these feelings and you will wonder how you ever feared life without cigarettes.

Seventh instruction: do it for yourself, not anyone else

Quit for the simple, selfish reason that you’ll enjoy life so much more as a non-smoker. All the other specific things involved – the health benefits, release from the slavery, saving of money, freedom from guilt and fear, and the pleasure and relief that your loved ones will feel – are just fabulous extra bonuses for you to enjoy.

Smoking traps you in the slavery of addiction. It twists your perception of reality and fills your head with myths and illusions that keep you in the trap

.

Some people die from doing dangerous things that they find exhilarating: climbing, sky-diving, hang-gliding and motor racing, for example.

They choose that way of life and they accept that it might result in their death because to them the thrill is worth the risk. They believe in the sentiment ‘die doing what you love’.

Some smokers adopt the same attitude to smoking, but they’re deluding themselves.

There are no thrills to be had from smoking. There is no pleasure at all; it was all just a confidence trick. Is that really a feeling worth dying for? And if you did, could anyone honestly say you died ‘doing what you love?’

Smokers and vapers, in fact all nicotine addicts, hate it and wish they could be rid of it. There is nothing more miserable than being dragged into an early grave by nicotine addiction. Despite all the bravado, all of nicotine’s victims know they’re doing something stupid and if they could find an easy way to quit they would.

Happily for you, you have found an easy way to quit: you’ve found EASYWAY.

You are now equipped with all the knowledge you need to escape from the nicotine trap easily, painlessly and permanently.

Someone gave me the [Allen Carr] book years ago… I found it very useful. It’s a great book.

Lou Reed

Allen Carr’s Easyway is the best method to stop anything. I truly think if I wasn’t a comedian, I would want to be an Allen Carr seminar leader!

Nikki Glase

r

CHOOSE YOUR MOMENT

A lot of people reach this point in the method feeling that they already have no need or desire to ever smoke again and ask whether it’s essential for them to go through the ritual of the final cigarette or having the final dose of nicotine. If you don’t feel that way, don’t worry, even if you feel sceptical. You’re in for a fabulous surprise.

The ritual is important.

This is a momentous occasion, a huge achievement in your life and one that you will always look back on with a sense of pride and elation. It’s important to mark the occasion indelibly. The final cigarette or dose of nicotine is your opportunity to focus one last time on the vile, pointless reality of smoking and then draw a line under it. That said, if you haven’t smoked or taken nicotine for a few days, there is no need for you to go through this ritual. Just confirm to yourself that you’ve already taken your final dose of nicotine when I issue the instruction to light your final cigarette – or take your final dose – and vow never to let it enter your body again.

So all that’s left is for you to choose your moment. You may not have realized it, but you chose your moment when you first picked up this book. It will enable you to make the transition from unhappy smoker or nicotine addict to happy non-smoker and happy non-nicotine addict. All you need to do is finish the job.

Are you ready now? Of course you are. When you picked up the book, you made the decision that you would become, or at least hoped to become, a non-smoker. In fact, you’re all set to be a HAPPY non-smoker.

That time has arrived. There is no reason to put it off.

This time, right now, is right for you.

Most attempts to quit smoking are timed to coincide with a particular occasion. New Year’s Day is the classic example. New

Year, new start. Sadly, attempts to quit on New Year’s Day have the lowest success rate of any specific day.

Have you ever tried quitting on New Year’s Day? You’ve smoked so much over Christmas that you’re feeling sick of it. Your motivation to quit is high and the New Year seems like the perfect time to make a clean start. So you go through the ceremony of smoking one final cigarette as the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve and throw the rest of the pack in the bin.

So far, so good, but then a few days pass by and the excesses of Christmas are forgotten, your health has improved because of your abstinence from smoking, but the Little Monster is crying out for its fix. The motivation for not smoking has gone, you’re feeling strong and, because you don’t understand that smoking will do nothing but guarantee that the fidgets keep returning, you take the offer of a cigarette. It feels good to relieve the craving, so soon you’re smoking another, and another.

Specific days like New Year’s Day or a birthday are meaningless when it comes to quitting. They crystallize the motivation to quit, but the effect doesn’t last. The feeling of deprivation replaces the desire to quit and we soon find ourselves making excuses to smoke again. Having started smoking once more, we’re left with a miserable sense of failure and a reinforced belief that quitting is hard.

If you just so happen to be reading this at New Year or on your birthday, don’t worry…you have the benefit of Easyway and in spite of, rather than because of, New Year or your birthday you’ll find it easy to quit. Our intention here is to ensure that smokers don’t delay quitting until one of those days rather than necessarily suggest that they avoid them.

Then there are those occasions that we had always told ourselves would be our cue to quit, like a health scare. The shock

is often enough to make us bin the cigarettes immediately, but after the initial shock come the stress and anxiety, two feelings that typically drive us to our little crutch. As long as you believe that smoking will help to relieve your anxiety and stress, it’s inevitable that you will smoke again before long.

Some smokers choose a time when they can get away from the usual temptations, such as their annual holiday or a quiet time on the social calendar. The trouble with this approach is that it leaves a lingering doubt: ‘OK, I’ve coped so far, but what about when I get back into the usual routine?’

If finishing this book just happens to coincide with one of the ‘special days’ I’ve mentioned above, don’t worry. You’ll succeed in spite of that, rather than because of it.

You need to be certain that you have no need or desire to smoke whatever the circumstances. Don’t change your lifestyle: go out and enjoy social occasions, enjoy meals and handle stress from the start. When you’ve killed the Big Monster, you have no need to give yourself time to adjust. You can start enjoying life as a happy non-smoker the moment you stub out your final cigarette.

You made the decision to stop smoking the moment you picked up this book. The time has come.

Your time to stop is now – just a few moments away

YOUR CHECKLIST

I’m sure that you have absolute certainty about your reason to quit and about the truth that there is no reason whatsoever to continue smoking or vaping or using nicotine in any form. You may not yet be able to imagine just how great you’re going to feel when you get free, but you should be feeling the excitement of something wonderful about to happen, like a parachute jumper standing in the open door of the plane. The wonderful truth is that there isn’t even a moment of danger in this instance.

CHECKLIST

R: Rejoice!

This is a momentous day. There is nothing to give up but there are many fabulous gains to make.

A: Advice

Smokers and non-smokers alike offer it all the time. Ignore it if it conflicts with anything you’ve learned in this book.

T: Timing

Why wait to get free? The ideal time to quit is now.

I: Immediate

There is nothing to wait for when you quit with Easyway. You become a happy non-smoker the instant you stub out your final cigarette.

O: One Cigarette

There is no such thing as ‘just the one’. One cigarette is all it takes to drag you back into the nicotine trap.

N: Never Again

This is the absolute end of your addiction. Never again will you feel the need or desire to smoke.

A: Addictive Personality

Even if you had one, you became an addict because you took an addictive drug. You can just as easily become
a non-addict.

L: Lifestyle

There is no need to change it to avoid smoking situations, unless you want to, of course.

I: Intake

Never again subject your body to anything containing nicotine. The drug is the tyrant; how you take it is irrelevant.

Z: Zero Sacrifice

There is nothing you’re missing out on.

E: Elephants in the Room

There’s no need to avoid thinking about smoking. Try to shut your mind to it and it will become your obsession.

D: Doubt

Have none. You are making the most rational decision you’ve ever made

.

A few butterflies are completely understandable. You are taking a big leap, but you’re not leaping blind. You are completely certain that what you’re leaving behind is nothing but misery, degradation, filth and slavery. I can assure you that the feeling once you’ve stepped out towards freedom is nothing short of incredible. Nothing bad is going to happen; only an amazing, exhilarating taste of freedom.

As a final confirmation that you’re completely ready, take a look through the RATIONALIZED checklist and make sure you have no doubts about any part of it.

Use the word ‘RATIONALIZED’ to remind yourself of everything you know, so that you never doubt your decision to quit and never again succumb to the feeling of ‘I want a cigarette.’

Eighth instruction: I would now like you to have your final cigarette/nicotine shot, please

At the beginning of this book I asked you to smoke a cigarette, paying careful attention to every aspect of the process. I’d like you to repeat that exercise now.

Likewise, if you use e-cigarettes, go ahead one last time. The same goes for snus, dip or any nicotine product. Relate what I say now to those items accordingly.

What does the nicotine product look and feel like as you take it out of the pack? And how do you feel?

Hold it under your nose and take notice of how you feel as you sniff it. How is your heartbeat?

Continue applying this level of attention as you place the cigarette between your lips, light it, inhale that first drag of foul

smoke and blow it away from your face and eyes. How does it smell? How does it taste?

What is the sensation on your tongue? In your throat? In your nose? In your lungs? How does the cigarette look between your fingers?

Do the same if you’re using e-cigarettes or any other nicotine product. Observe what’s involved in consuming it. Analyze it as you do so.

If you’re smoking, look at the filter tip. Notice the discolouration appearing already.

As the cigarette burns down, remind yourself that this is one of those rare occasions in life when you are losing nothing and gaining so much. There is no price to pay for this joy; you won’t feel any deprivation because you’re not ‘giving up’ anything. You’re ridding yourself of a deadly enemy. So rejoice.

As you reach the end and stub out the cigarette, look at it in the ashtray and see how filthy and pathetic it looks. Be aware of the taste it has left in your mouth.

Now close your eyes and make a solemn vow, a commitment to yourself, that you will never smoke again and that you will never let nicotine into your body again.

Hold that thought. Never again will you have to subject yourself to the filth and degradation.

Remove all traces of the cigarette and any other cigarettes or nicotine products you may have left over and get on with life as normal. With the added bonus of…

Feeling incredible!!