Use Self-Talk to Successfully Stop Smoking

When I was about 20 years old, I began to have terrible pains in my chest. I struggled for breath and felt like I was going to die. I rushed to the doctor's office and he immediately had me admitted to the hospital. My left lung had collapsed.

I'd like to say that I quit smoking right then and never touched them again. After all, I couldn't breathe without a machine for 10 days. And it took weeks for my lungs to heal completely.

Sadly, I was such a compulsive smoker that three short months later I was back to smoking nearly three packs a day. Boy, can humans do some stupid things!

When I became a Christian a few months after that, I surrendered my cigarettes, and I made the commitment to quit once and for all. By God's grace, and through learning how to talk to myself, I did what I could never have done on my own.

I discovered a technique that I've since learned more about. It's called self-talk. Self-talk is just what it sounds like. It's what we say to ourselves. It's what we say internally, not audibly. It also takes into account what others say about us that we hear because that affects us very deeply on a subconscious level just like self-talk does. The two are very tightly interwoven.

Self-talk is more than thinking. Self-talk is truly conversations we have with ourselves. We say things like, "That was so stupid! Why did you say that?!" Or, "You look really good today." We can say good things or bad things, but self-talk is that internal conversation that we carry on within our psyches throughout much of the day.

We are influenced greatly by our self-talk. It seems that whatever we say within ourselves, or whatever we hear someone say about us, we believe. We aren't as apt to believe what someone says to us - only what they say about us.

Self-talk is very powerful stuff.

When we want to quit smoking, or change other behavior, our self-talk can make or break our success. We can dramatically increase our degree of success by simply changing what we say to ourselves.

Consider this... Instead of saying to yourself, "Oh, I'd love a cigarette right now!" Say, "I feel so much better not smoking. My lungs are clearer and I'm actually able to breathe better today."

Or, instead of saying, "Man, that cigarette looks good!" Say to yourself, "I am so glad I quit smoking. That cigarette smoke stinks and makes my clothes smell bad. And it makes my teeth yellow, too. I'm really glad I quit smoking!"

Sometimes we will say things to ourselves that the little voice inside of us doesn't quite believe. We may say to ourselves, "I'm so glad I quit smoking." And deep within us something says, "Yeah, right. You're dying for a cigarette and you know it."

But if we keep saying the right thing to ourselves, keep using the right self-talk, before long we'll begin to believe what we say and it will become real and will manifest itself in our lives. Truly! You'd be amazed at how powerful this is.

A good example is the story of a woman whose husband was a real crank. He complained about everything. He didn't like her cooking. He didn't like her friends. He didn't like the way she managed the house.

One day, she decided she was going to do everything she could to change his behavior. She had read a book on self-talk so she decided she would influence him for good through her words.

From then on, whenever he would complain about something, she would say, "Honey, you know that's not you. You don't complain like that."

At first her husband would give her this incredulous look, like "Yes, it is me. Who are you trying to kid?" But gradually, he began to change.

One day, her husband started to complain about something and he stopped. "That's not me," he said. "I don't complain like that." The influence of her words had changed him!

Self-talk and what others say about us affects us on a very deep level, in very real ways. If we want to change our behavior, we can do it with self-talk.

I know it works. Self-talk, along with prayer and commitment, helped me quit smoking over 25 years ago. And I'm still smoke-free today. Better yet, I'm not even tempted by cigarettes. Self-talk is a tremendous tool you can use to quit smoking, among other things. Give it a try... but be prepared to be amazed.