Using Tapping to Quit Smoking – Dr Peta Stapleton

We all know that if you quit smoking, you will experience the following benefits:

• Feel better physically
• Breathe easier
• Save money
• Smell better on clothes, face, hands and breath
• Improve circulation
• Be less winded when exercising

However, despite these known benefits, people have difficulty quitting their smoking habit. What stands in their way?

Cigarettes as Tranquilizers?

Clients wishing to quit smoking admit that they use cigarettes to avoid, numb or suppress a variety of feelings that are uncomfortable. Some people use cigarettes to relax and calm down, some use them to give them an energy boost, while still others use them to feel safe or protected.

When using EFT for smoking cessation, you need to investigate and address any underlying emotions that cause the person to reach for cigarettes. EFT can be aimed at feelings of loneliness, emptiness, rejection, anger, fear, etc. Once these underlying emotions are detected and treated with EFT, a person’s cravings to smoke and numb these feelings is reduced or eliminated. If EFT is new to you, check out ‘About EFT’ on our page here before you go any further.

Withdrawal Symptoms

One of the biggest fears clients share before we begin the quit smoking treatment is their fear of painful or uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms. We interpret withdrawal symptoms as the body’s way of expressing anxiety, physically or emotionally, about giving up the drugs and chemicals in cigarettes. The body literally craves the drugs and nicotine, and war stories from friends who have gone “cold turkey” abound. EFT can be used for each specific symptom as well as the fear of the future and what withdrawal may feel like.

Favorite Times of Day to Smoke

When people quit on their own, they fail to honor the intensity of physical and mental associations they have with cigarettes. These associations are so powerful that they can lead a person to sabotage and failure as early as the first few days of quitting. Classic associations that must be addressed and treated are (1) smoking while on the telephone, (2) smoking while in the car, (3) smoking after a meal, (4) smoking during stressful times, and (5) smoking before going to bed.

All of these emotional links can be eliminated with EFT while stress in general is being neutralized. Ex-smokers feel quite confident that they can handle formerly difficult scenarios or times of day after learning the EFT procedure.

The Essential Questions!

1. What is the downside to quitting smoking?
2. What is the upside of remaining a smoker?

The answers to these two questions must be uncovered and treated in order for smokers to successfully quit. Examples of answers to question #1, What is the downside to quitting smoking, are as follows:

• I won’t know what to do with my hands
• I need the cigarettes for my identity
• If I quit, I won’t know how to relax
• If I quit, I will have to achieve more
• If I quit, “they” will expect too much from me
• If I quit, I’ll probably gain weight

Examples to question #2, What is the upside of remaining a smoker are as follows:

• If I remain a smoker, I can hide from others
• If I keep smoking, I will remain thin
• If I stay a smoker, I can get away from people when I smoke
• If I keep smoking, I can clear my mind on a regular basis
• If I keep smoking, I will be like my father
• If I keep smoking, I’ll feel better

Let’s Get Started! 

Even though I can’t quit as no one in my family has ever successfully quit, I deeply and completely accept myself  

Even though no one in my family has ever quit for good and therefore I can’t quit,I deeply and completely accept myself  

Even though I think it’s my destiny to be a smoker…..    I deeply and completely accept myself  

Reminder Phrases –

I can’t quit
No-one in my family has quit
It’s my destiny
I’m stuck with it

Even though I’m afraid to let go of this problem, I deeply and completely accept myself    

Even though I don’t believe in myself, I deeply and completely accept myself

Even though I don’t believe I can reach my goal, I deeply and completely accept myself anyway    

Reminder Phrases –

Don’t believe in myself
Can’t reach my goal
Afraid
Don’t believe

Be creative! Tap around with whatever presents itself. Pull out the cigarette and do some exposure therapy – whatever strikes you about the cigarette, tap on it!