Reply To: Aftermath from quitting smoking
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Hi Clearingman,
Thanks for your post. I am sure Brian will reply and hope you are OK with me chipping in for now.
I sense that, in this particular case, smoking was your solution to a problem. Perhaps it was a coping mechanism or a way to block something out. This is not unusual.
On the Advanced track (http://bit.ly/pstecadvanced), Tim talks about “symptom substitution” and, while not mentioned in the context of smoking, there may be a parallel here. You have eliminated a coping mechanism, so have developed a new habit and, in a way, a new coping mechanism.
Questions: when did you smoke? What emotions triggered you to smoke? What emotions or circumstances are present when you are biting your lips?
Also, which modality did you use to quit smoking? Was it via the Stop Smoking package (http://bit.ly/pstecstopsmoking), hypnosis, another modality or willpower? This may be instructive.
There is more than one way to resolve issues with PSTEC so, if you feel a bit “Clicktracked out”, you may wish to try the belief route – using Belief Blasters and/or PSTEC Negative.
There will be beliefs feeding the pattern and you may well have the belief “It is dangerous to have negative thoughts” and “It is bad for things to not make sense.
I am sure you have other beliefs that can be eliminated and would make a huge difference to how you feel and behave.
Once eliminated, you could layer in some positive suggestions with PP or PP Extra Power.
So, by all means, see how you get on when you eliminate the beliefs.
Please keep us updated too and, if anything is unclear or proving challenging, let us know so that we can help you troubleshoot it. There's ALWAYS a way.
All the best,
Paul
Hi Paul,
Thanks for taking the time to respond. I have been thinking over what you have said the last few days and have noticed a few things. I actually had been vaping for around 2-3 years after I stopped smoking, so I'm going to go with that (although I know both habits are pretty much the same on a habitual level). I would vape all the time to be honest, in the car, at work, after meals times. Thinking about the lip biting and the other thing, its destructive, like I want to damage myself (I think). It's also a feeling of lack of control, I noticed myself biting my lips today and felt irritated and an inability to control my frustration led me to bite my lips. I think these are the same feelings I had when I quit smoking the many other times. I used the stop smoking, and some meditation. Another thing that popped into my mind yesterday (that i am wiser about now). I used pstec positive a lot around the time of quitting to help me accept change, at the time I had a lot of intrusive thoughts (some of which tie into the issues I am having now). I then went onto get positive secrets, and realised listening (or somewhere else, I cant remember) that its not wise to use positive with intrusive thoughts. I'm concerned, have I messed with my thinking? made things worse? If so how do I heal that? I now read out a loud while opening/closing my eyes and counting to 5, so I'ts not a problem to use pstec positive anymore. I know this is going to sound silly, considering the circumstances. Technically I am dealing with intrusive thought/thoughts in the issues I am talking about right here. But, really they have cooled down a lot more then what they used to be. I am hoping I can use pstec positive more soon without worrying about it.
How do you deal with the complexities of issues paul? I am really fed up of going round in circles of feeling better about myself to then finding myself in another heap of crap. Whats the method of finding out the cause of my problems? I have really tried picking this to pieces, when I think I have found the cause of this problem I go and clicktrack it out and think its gone, to then find myself back into it again with the same or another feeling/belief/problem, what ever it is. As i said before, everything just has to be so hard with me. I wish things were more simple, so I could begin feeling better about myself now, i really don't want to feel like this anymore. I don't want to be in this position in a year, 6 months, or a month even. I'm not saying I want everything to switch up, and have everything fall into my lap now. I just want relief so I can feel naturally happy about myself, and those around me now.
Thanks for your help.