Cheryl Rezek - Quit Smoking: Sheldon Mindfulness

Sheldon Mindfulness
Quit Smoking

Dr Cheryl Rezek is a consultant clinical psychologist and mindfulness teacher who brings a fresh and dynamic approach to how mindfulness and psychological concepts can be integrated into everyones life as a way of managing it in the most helpful way. Her work is engaging, accessible and, most importantly, realistic, and her writing easy to read and follow, giving it a broad appeal to all audiences. Her model (affectionately known as Life Happens) is based on academic knowledge and her extensive clinical experience, and it is regarded as an emerging mindfulness-based approach. It encourages awareness of oneself within a context, the development of resilience and skills, and the use of mindfulness. She has a long-standing clinical and academic career; shes lectured, supervised, developed programmes, appeared on radio and TV shows, as well as run workshops nationally and internationally. She is the author of a number of books, including Life Happens: Waking up to yourself and your life in a mindful way (Leachcroft) ; Mindfulness: How the mindful approach can help you towards a better life (Pearson) ; Mindfulness for Carers: How to manage the demands of caregiving while finding a place for yourself (Jessica Kingsley) ; Monkey Mind and the Mountain: Mindfulness for 812-year-olds (and older) (Leachcroft); and Sheldon Mindfulness: Anxiety and Depression (Sheldon Press). Dr Rezek also has a highly rated app entitled iMindfulness on the Go (Android and iOS).

Visit her website at .

Sheldon Mindfulness

Selected titles

Anxiety and Depression

Dr Cheryl Rezek

Compassion

Caroline Latham

Keeping a Journal

Philip Cowell

Quit Smoking

Dr Cheryl Rezek

Stress

Philip Cowell and Lorraine Millard

Sheldon Mindfulness

Quit Smoking

DR CHERYL REZEK

First published in Great Britain in 2016 by Sheldon Press
An Hachette UK Company

Sheldon Press

Carmelite House

50 Victoria Embankment

London EC4Y 0DZ

www.sheldonpress.co.uk

Copyright Dr Cheryl Rezek 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

The author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that the external website and email addresses included in this book are correct and up to date at the time of going to press. The author and publisher are not responsible for the content, quality or continuing accessibility of the sites.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 9781847094209

Thank you to Tom Davey for his help with this project.

To access the audio downloads that accompany this book, go to: .

Do not listen to the audio download material while driving or operating any machinery or item.

Disclaimer : This book makes no claim to act as a cure or treatment of any conditions, nor does it advocate discontinuation of any intervention or treatment.

Life Happens

Life is not a simple existence but more of a curiously complex experience. Many of us will have felt at some stage that life is going faster than we can keep up with it. What this book will provide are suggestions as to how you can discover calm amid what may feel like chaos. Putting mindfulness into practice will supply the groundwork for you to acquire a greater degree of stability and choice in how you live your life without smoking.

Life happens to all of us. Sometimes it is good or wonderful and other times decidedly awful. No matter what, we have a choice on our view of life and how to respond to situations in which we find ourselves, even when they are challenging.

We all know that there can be difficult situations in life, whether physical or psychological. When the downs are experienced, smoking can be used as a coping method to manage stress, pain or anxieties. The trouble is that smoking is often enjoyable, so who wants to give up something that is pleasurable, even if its harmful? Some of you may feel as though smoking is the only way you are able to relax. Mindfulness can be useful if you are looking for an alternative to smoking that can help you develop a healthier management of your behaviour and life or if youre stressed, tense or anxious. Its also for those who realize smoking is an addiction and want to stop.

What use could this book be for me?

Reading through this book will introduce you to the concept of mindfulness and how it can be applied to help you kick the smoking habit and control your thoughts and emotions in a more balanced, accepting way. A summary of the history of mindfulness will be presented, as well as of research that has been published on how mindfulness can specifically aid people who smoke and how it also helps in other areas.

Throughout the book there are practices for you to use and assistance with doing these through step-by-step guides.

To download the guided meditations, go to . Whenever you see this symbol it indicates that there is a guided meditation in the form of an audio download that you can listen to.

Try all the written practices as well as those on the audio download at least once . You will then get to know which practices work best for you. Do these practices frequently enough for them to have a positive impact over the future days, weeks and even years. If practised enough, mindfulness can offer you support and strength in your resolve to stop smoking, both now and in the future. Realistically though, it can only help if you do the practices on a fairly regular basis and if you at least try to integrate the mindset of mindfulness into your life.

There is no magic wand but there is a solution.

The truth of it

Here are a few things that need stating before you start.

You dont need facts and figures on the percentage of people who do or dont develop illnesses or die from smoking you know how harmful it is.

The art of self-deception alternates with guilt and fear in addictions.

We play games with ourselves and put up barriers to avoid doing what needs to be done Im too busy; This stuff is silly; Ill take my chances. Youve said it all before and others have heard it all before.

Addictions are addictions but that doesnt mean you have no control over them.

If you really want to stop smoking, you will, no matter how hard it is.

If you want to stop you need to make this personal. This is about your life, and if you quit smoking it needs to be because you want to do it at a gut level, for yourself, not for anyone else.

If youre stopping smoking, or any other addiction, for someone else then youre trying to make them responsible for your life.

You are your responsibility not your familys, your doctors, your childrens, your bosss.

When you take responsibility for yourself you take back control.

Youll stop smoking long term only when you change your mindset. Its about shifting from Im trying to stop smoking to I dont smoke (and all that goes with it).

Substitutes are exactly that they dont shift or alter your mindset, attitude, feelings or behaviours.

You will relapse if you dont shift the attitude, behaviours and associations that come with smoking.

If you do what youve always done, youll get what youve always got. If you dont want to get your hand burnt then dont put it on a hot stove. Theres no point in placing it there and hoping it wont get burnt it will, the stove is hot. Make the links.