Get rid of smoking/drinking

One smokes or drinkers with good intentions and they seem to be of help to you.  You will be getting some obvious benefits by indulging in any one of them or both.  Smoking for instance gives you a macho feeling, you feel like the gallant guy on horseback with a Marlborough dangling between your lips like in the advertisement. Or it takes you to a higher level of confidence unattainable otherwise. It may seem to help you cope up with or manage  a stressful situation better. Remember you almost always tend to smoke when you face a problem or when you have to take a difficult decision.  Drinking does all these and more; it takes you to a fantasy realm where you feel extremely courageous and confident to do anything. It makes you forget pain, sorrow and despair temporarily. It is another thing that when the ‘kick’ is gone you revert back to your original state and suffer more.

There are certain triggers which prompt you to smoke or drink. You feel like smoking after waking up, when you go for your ablutions, after a good meal, when you gamble, when you drink, when you see a match box or a pack of cigarettes or when you feel bored. Thus smoking does fulfill some emotional needs of yours. You drink when you are happy sad, in tension, or every evening (by the force of habit). There are good intentions when you indulge in either of them.

How could you derive the same pleasures or good results by other means?  Ask your mind to create alternatives behaviors to satisfy your good inattentions.  Once the alternatives are in front of you, ask the creative part of your mind to accept them as substitutes. To get you into a more confident state, you can for instance start dressing and grooming  up in the best way possible. To get a good feeling help someone without expecting anything in return, or try to achieve a small success (in anything) each day.   
  

Simultaneously do this simple mental exercise too:  Keep a bright big picture of your poor, sick dying self smoking or drinking enlarged in the centre of your mind.  Keep a dull small picture of you in a confidant healthy state (without the habit) at the right hand bottom side of your mind.. In a matter of seconds let the small dull picture at the right hand corner expand, become brilliant, go and smash up the big picture of your present state you saying ‘swish’ as it happens. Again bring the big present sick picture of your drinking or smoking state at the centre of your mind and let the small dull confident picture at the right hand corner become brilliant and smash up the big one in a matter of seconds, you saying ‘swish’. Repetition and speed are important to get results.  You may repeat the same a few more times tomorrow and perhaps the day after.  Your desire to indulge in the habits must have been lessened if not altogether gotten rid of once you complete these.