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Are you exploring different ways to quit smoking, because you want a method that will really work for you?

Have you tried to quit in the past but failed or relapsed after a while?

And do you want to stop smoking, but worry it’s too hard and stressful?

Well, since you are here, I believe that at least a part of you really wants to stop this habit.

That much I know.

Maybe you’re here because you want to break free from this addiction and live a long, happy life with your loved ones. 

Perhaps, you are struggling with your breathing and worrying about how smoking might be affecting you.

Possibly, your energy does not sustain you throughout the day anymore.

Maybe you are just sick of the smell. And of having to draw money out of your pocket every day to pay the tobacco companies.

Or maybe, although you have everything in your life under control, cigarettes are the one thing controlling you.

And you hate that.

Right?

I bet you have a dozen reasons to quit. Especially, when knowing what happens when you quit smoking. 

That’s why nearly 7 out of every 10 smokers want to quit for good.

But to be fair, everyone is looking for ways to quit smoking that are easy, permanent and stress-free.

After all, that’s the best way to quit smoking: a way that helps you quit easily and permanently, without any stress, weight gain or feelings of deprivation.

Don’t you agree?

Unfortunately, most people don’t believe there are such easy ways to quit smoking.

They believe they’ve run out of options. Or they believe quitting cigarettes is meant to be hard, so they postpone it indefinitely.

Or even worse, some smokers use outdated ways to quit smoking that make quitting hard.

So they fail, then they blame themselves for it, and they end up believing they have an addictive personality or not enough willpower.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Not anymore.

Nowadays, science has progressed. We understand how our brain and body get addicted to smoking. So we know exactly how to remove this addiction for good.

And after nearly a decade (can’t believe it’s been that long!) of research, my team and I have developed a cutting-edge quit smoking method that tackles this addiction for good: the CBQ method.

The Cognitive Behavioral Quitting method – CBQ – has 94% success rate. 85% of smokers quit permanently on their first attempt, and 9% quit on their second or third attempt.

What makes the CBQ method so successful?

The key here is that you first stop wanting to smoke, and THEN you break the habit of smoking.

Now instead of telling you why the CBQ method is the most effective way to quit smoking naturally, I’d rather show you.

Because no matter what I say, you are the one who will choose how to stop smoking.

So how can I show you?

By comparing all the common ways to quit smoking- nicotine replacement therapy, vaping, pills, cold turkey, with the CBQ method.

Just to be clear. Many smokers manage to quit with stop smoking aids.

• But do they find it easy?
• Do they stay smoke-free?
• Are they stressed and anxious?
• And are they gaining weight?

Let’s see.

The 5 Ways to Quit Smoking: Comparison

1. Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT)

In Nicotine Replacement Therapy you quit smoking by using products – patches, gums, lozenges – that contain nicotine.

Easy

At first sight, it seems that these products make quitting easier by minimizing your nicotine cravings.

But does staying addicted to nicotine make quitting easier?

And do you actually reduce your nicotine cravings?

Nicotine products do not alleviate the nicotine withdrawal. Instead, they prolong it. When you stop supplying your body with nicotine, the cravings eventually end. When you keep taking nicotine, the cravings continue for as long as you remain addicted.

Unless you plan on taking these products forever, you will eventually have to stop using them and go through the inevitable physical withdrawal.

Permanent

Would you advise a heroin addict to stop using heroin by chewing it instead of injecting it?

Of course, not!

But why?

Because how can you overcome the addiction to a drug by taking the same drug you are addicted to?

It’s impossible.

As a matter of fact, it’s easier to relapse if you are already addicted to nicotine. As long as you have nicotine inside your body, you are always one step closer to smoking a cigarette.

This is backed up by the director of the Centre for Global Tobacco Control at Harvard School of Public Health whose research proved that nicotine gums and patches can keep you off of cigarettes only for a few months.

Stress

All of us have used cigarettes to smoke our stress away.

If nicotine had such a relaxing effect, then smokers would be the most relaxed and careless people in the world. And you and I both know that that’s just not true.

What’s true, is that nicotine is the very thing making us anxious. Every time our body is low on nicotine, we experience stress and even panic. This kind of stress is also called “craving.”

When we smoke, we feel relaxed, yes.

However, we don’t relax because the cigarette calmed us down. We feel better because we supplied our body with nicotine and ended the exasperating craving.

Plus, what calms us down when smoking is the familiar, repetitive movement we do with our hands.

In times of uncertainty, it’s the ritual, the habit of smoking that gives us a sense of stability and makes us feel okay. Not the nicotine.

In that sense, we can feel as relaxed by adopting any other ritual, from doing deep breathing to counting sheep.

Why keep the stressful nicotine in our mind and body?

Weight Gain

Substituting cigarettes with other forms of nicotine makes you feel you are making a sacrifice by quitting. This, in turn, makes you feel deprived. And when we feel we’re missing something, we try to find other ways to fill that void.

The easiest, fastest and most comforting way is food.

Right?

That’s why nicotine products are likely to cause you to put on weight.

2. Vaping

Vaping has a short overview. The reason is simple: Vaping is NOT a quit smoking method.

Vaping is a physical and mental addiction. You still make the same hand gesture; you stay addicted to nicotine, and to the idea that you need nicotine to feel relaxed and happy. You’re just using a fancier device.

And remember that at some point, you will have to quit vaping, which is the same as quitting smoking. Because you still have to experience nicotine withdrawal, stress, weight gain, and deal with having your hands empty.

Research that was presented at the American Thoracic Society Conference shows that people who managed to replace smoking with vaping did so for 3 – 6 months.

Yes, most smokers who vape STILL go back to smoking because they want the “real thing.”

But who can blame them? They never even had the chance to overcome this addiction.

In case you are planning to vape forever, you need to know that vaping cause pop-corn lung and damage our vision.

There is countless proof. Unfortunately, this truth is not in the best interest of tobacco companies. (Yes, most vaping devices are sold by tobacco companies).

3. Smoking Pills

Smoking pills cause chemical reactions in your brain that make you feel less enjoyment when you smoke. But for how long? And at what expense?

Easy

The chemicals pills have side effects like depression, hostility and suicidal thoughts, so they make your life nothing but easy.

In fact, they are dangerous. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), has received over 1,513 reports of adverse reactions, including 62 reports of suicidal feelings.

In the UK alone, Champix was the cause of 80 deaths from 2006 to 2011. Half of them were suicides. Some might think that 80 deaths are nothing compared to the thousands of smokers who use this pill, but I cannot accept this, and I believe you feel the same way. Every life matters.

Permanent

Taking smoking tablets decreases your cravings for nicotine…for as long as you take the tablets. Some people manage to stop smoking for a while. Others still smoke while taking this medication.

But here’s the thing. Medication does not remove the reasons why you smoke. Your desire for a cigarette is still there. Plus, you still don’t know how to keep your hands busy or deal with stress and boredom without cigarettes.

You tell me: How easy is it to relapse when a big problem comes up or after a heated argument?

Stress

Since this medication messes up the chemical balance in our body, it can cause an overall emotional imbalance and stress.

So not only we feel stressed because we can’t smoke, but we also have the additional emotional burden that comes with the pills.

Listen. Medication does not alleviate the stress. What really helps, is finding alternative ways to relax, feel happy and cope with life without smoking.

Weight Gain

Smoking pills will not cause weight gain or help you manage your weight.

4. Quitting with Willpower

Using your willpower to stop yourself from smoking is a natural smoking cessation way and the healthiest alternative so far. Let’s have a closer look.

Easy

Here’s what happens when we use our willpower to stop smoking cigarettes: we first stop smoking and then wait for our desire to smoke to fade away and disappear.

But does it disappear by itself?

Unfortunately, it doesn’t. Because time and willpower can’t remove our need to smoke.

What happens instead, is that we feel deprived and the thought of a cigarette becomes even more precious.

When a craving strikes, we can think of nothing else other than smoking. So we either suffer or give in and smoke.

That’s why the willpower way is unbearable for most people.

Permanent

The success rate of quitting abruptly with willpower is 4-7%.

This shouldn’t be surprising.

When you stop smoking while still ENJOYING it, then you feel you’ve lost a friend, a comfort.

And the more deprived we feel, the more we tend to rationalize our thoughts of having “just one cigarette” in times of stress or even in happy times.

We say to ourselves “one puff won’t hurt.”

But this puff becomes a cigarette. One cigarette becomes two, and soon after that, we’re back to our smoking habit.

Stress

When you deny yourself the cigarette you crave… you suffer mentally because you still desire a cigarette, but you can’t have it. That’s when you start getting anxious and overwhelmed.

If you’re like I was, then your anxiety might be increasing just at the thought of not being able to smoke when you are stressed, bored, or when you feel your hands empty. So you live in a constant state of irritation and agitation.

Let me tell you, this is not how smoke-free life is supposed to be like.

Weight Gain

Most smokers who quit and gain weight are the ones who use willpower to stop themselves from smoking.

Trying to resist a cigarette with willpower, can only make you turn to food so you can distract yourself from your craving. Also, cravings feel a lot like hunger, so you get tricked into eating without being hungry.

And the thing is that most of us go for fatty food when we feel down. Because fatty food is comfort food. If we eat chips or chocolates every time we have a craving, then gaining weight is inevitable.

5. The CBQ Method

The CBQ method is a natural smoking cessation method that removes your desire for smoking. You don’t take harmful chemicals, and you don’t stay addicted to nicotine.

So if the CBQ is a natural way to quit smoking, then what’s the difference with using your willpower to quit?

The difference is that with the CBQ method you first stop desiring a cigarette, and THEN you quit.

When you use your willpower, you do the exact opposite. You first stop smoking and THEN wait for your desire to smoke to disappear all by itself.

If you think about it, this is also how nicotine products and smoking pills work. You first try to stop yourself from smoking with these products and then you expect (and often pray) to wake up one day and not feel like smoking anymore.

The fact that the CBQ removes your need to smoke before you quit has some incredible benefits in store for you.

Easy

When you stop craving a smoke before you quit, you can’t possibly feel deprived without cigarettes. Plus, you don’t need to use willpower to resist smoking. Because there is nothing to resist.

Keep in mind that when you use a method that removes your cravings from the core, you don’t experience problems like concentration, headaches or fatigue because there are no cravings to cause them in the first place.

That way, you may not even notice the physical withdrawal from nicotine.

Permanent

The CBQ helps you become a happy non-smoker because it removes the reasons why you smoke. And when we are happy without cigarettes, and we have absolutely no reason to smoke, we don’t relapse.

Besides, the CBQ teaches you new ways to deal with stress, boredom, anger, depression and of course, how to enjoy social occasions, keep your hands busy and manage your weight without cigarettes.

Because if we can cope with the ups and downs of life better as nonsmokers, then we don’t need to ever take another puff.

Stress

When you stop enjoying smoking before you quit, you don’t experience stressful cravings, and you don’t overthink about the situations when you can’t smoke.

So you don’t feel anxious when you don’t have a cigarette. Because there is nothing to miss.

The best thing is that the CBQ method includes exercises and techniques that show you how to relax without cigarettes.

Weight Gain

When you stop desiring a cigarette, you don’t feel the need to replace it with food, because there is nothing to replace. This is enough to keep you from putting on weight.

Some people even lose weight because quitting increases their sense of well being so they make healthier food choices without putting any effort!

Can you see now why removing your desire for cigarettes is the best way to stop smoking?

In fact, removing your desire for smoking before you smoke your last cigarette… is the easiest and most reliable solution.

So now you know what are the 5 most popular ways to quit smoking and which works best.

That’s why, if you haven’t done so already, make sure you watch the free video where I show you how you can stop smoking with the CBQ method. To get the video click here (just add your email address so I can send you the link to your video.)

If you have watched that video, here’s what I want from you:

I’d like you to leave a comment below.

And please share the #1 reason why you smoke and the #1 reason why you want to stop.

If you’ve landed here, on this website, on this article, reading this line… then I believe there’s a part of you that wants to know how to quit smoking and then there’s another part of you that thinks stopping smoking is really hard.

If that’s you, you are not alone.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 7 out of every 10 smokers, want to quit for good.

It’s true.

Most smokers want a healthier, longer, happier, richer and calmer life. A life, where they don’t even miss cigarettes.

So, what happens?

It turns out that from all these people, only 6% actually kick the habit.

Now from the remaining 94% of people, I’m betting there’s someone just like you….

…Someone who believed that resisting one cigarette after the other with all their strength would eventually make their cravings go away.

…Someone who believed that taking nicotine substitutes would kill their desire to have a smoke when they are stressed.

…Someone who put the work in and things just didn’t pan out.

The question is “WHY!?!”

And most importantly, how can you BEAT THE ODDS?

The Psychology Behind Why You Can’t Quit

Most people fall off the beaten path because they waste their energy, hopes, and money on methods that simply don’t give them what they want:

• fewer painful cravings
• less stress
• and 0 feelings of deprivation

When you feel irritated, stressed and deprived without a cigarette, you will naturally feel that you are losing something by quitting smoking.

And that feeling of “something missing” will demotivate the MOST DETERMINED person.

So that’s why most smokers haven’t quit, yet.

It’s frustrating, yes.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

So I have a question for you:

Have you ever felt that quitting smoking is a HARD and even an IMPOSSIBLE thing to do?

Are you worried that you will go through pain to quit only to go back to smoking when you’re stressed or to stop putting on weight?

Are you afraid that you will stop smoking but you will spend your life always missing the occasional cigarette?

Or worse, maybe these things have already happened to you… and you’ve just had enough?

If you said “Heck, YES!” you’re in luck.

Because in this post I’m going reveal the top 3 mistakes that cause even the most determined people to get back to smoking at the drop of a hat.

The good news is that when you avoid these mistakes, YOU CAN BEAT YOUR ADDICTION.

Ready?

Let’s jump in.

Mistake #1: You Think You Need More Willpower

When I was a smoker, I was struggling to quit. I was trying so hard to resist a cigarette but I couldn’t.

I just couldn’t help myself!

There was always something happening that made my willpower evaporate: an argument, a drink with friends, stress, telling myself “one cigarette won’t hurt”…

In these and many more occasions I used to run to the store to buy cigarettes, borrow one from a friend or dig up the pack I’d saved in the depths of my closet.

For a long time, I thought I was weak since I didn’t have enough willpower to stop smoking.

And you might be thinking that too …

This ends here.

You don’t need any willpower to stop smoking. In fact, you SHOULDN’T use any willpower if you want to quit easily.

And I will explain why.

Why We Don’t Need our Willpower to Quit Smoking

When you light up you do it because you genuinely believe that smoking offers you some benefits: it helps you relax, socialize, cope with boredom, keep your hands busy or even control your weight.

Right?

These benefits are the reasons why we think we enjoy, desire and even need a cigarette.

For example, we really want a cigarette when we are on the phone because we believe it will help us relax, concentrate and enjoy our phone call.

Every time we want a smoke is because we believe it will offer us a benefit.

So why can’t we resist that cigarette with willpower?

• Because using our willpower does not remove the benefits we get from smoking.
• Because willpower does not magically remove our desire to smoke.
• And because it’s hard to control our desires with willpower.

Our emotions don’t work that way. Our emotions and feelings are UNLIMITED. And our willpower is limited. 

Behavioral science researchers have proven that our willpower is like a muscle that gets tired during our day.  The more we use it, the weaker it becomes.

So our willpower cannot overpower our desire to smoke.

Emotions > Willpower.

Let’s say you just came back from a stressful day at work. All you want to do is sit on your front porch or your couch and light up a cigarette to relax.

Now if at that point, you force yourself to resist that comforting cigarette… what happens?!

You will want it even more! (we all want what we can’t have, right?).

Like I explain in my TED talk, putting effort into NOT smoking creates more stress. Because it makes you think about smoking more intensely.

How to Quit Smoking and Overcome Your Cravings without Using Willpower

Well, The key here is to stop thinking about smoking.

Easier said than done, I know …

But you can do it. How? When you want to smoke, do something else instead.

But that something – and that’s the important part-  has to keep your mind and hands busy until the craving is over.

Remember this: every craving that comes will go.

Knowing that the craving will fade away in no more than 3 minutes gives you some kind of power over it.

Right?

Ok so here are the 5 best things that can keep you busy during your next craving.

And here’s what some members of the CBQ have to say about this:

Moving on…

Mistake #2: You Only Deal With Your Physical Dependence on Nicotine.

Most of us have tried to quit smoking multiple times. When I ask someone if they’ve tried to quit before and how, they usually tell me:

“Okay, so I tried the gum, but it tastes terrible. And I want my smokes even if I chew.” or

“Umm… Yes I tried the patch, but sometimes I smoke while wearing it.” or

“I was vaping for a few months, but it doesn’t make me wanna quit. So I started smoking again, I prefer the real thing.”

or “I took the pills, but I was feeling too depressed. I’d rather smoke than be miserable.”

And you might have a very similar answer too…

You might be blaming yourself for failing to quit with the above methods.

The thing is, IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT!

These nicotine gums, patches and vaping are nothing but alternative delivery systems for nicotine; the very substance that makes cigarettes so addictive.

So by using these products you only satisfy your physical need to smoke a cigarette.

But … if smoking was just a physical addiction, they why do so we still crave a smoke when we’re stressed- even while using these nicotine substitutes?

The truth is simple: these methods only tackle your physical dependence on nicotine. Not your mental dependence.

But smoking is mostly a mental addiction.

Why Smoking Is a Mental Addiction

The mental dependence on smoking is made up of 2 things:

1. The emotional benefits you get from smoking.
2. The movement you do with your hands.

Think about it.

Most of the times, you probably smoke because:

• You feel anxious
• You need a mental break
• You want to keep your hands busy when you feel bored.

You probably smoke out of habit while watching TV, while driving, while drinking your coffee, while scrolling through Facebook or after a  meal.

If you don’t, you feel that something is missing.

As you can see, the reasons why you smoke are all are mental, psychological, emotional. Not physical.

This is exactly why patches, smoking pills and vaping, rarely work. Because they only deal with the physical aspect of the habit. Not the mental/emotional/psychological one.

They’re simply giving you the momentary illusion, that you are satisfied without your cigarettes, but it won’t last long before you go back to your smokes.

Check what some of our members have to say about this:

The Solution?

According to the British Psychological Society, quitting smoking is effective only when you tackle both the physical and the mental dependence on the habit.

That’s why the CBQ quit smoking method, the cutting-edge method we use, removes your mental dependence on smoking before you actually quit.

If you want to learn how the CBQ method can help you overcome your mental dependence on smoking, click here to download the foundational video & PDF starter guide of the CBQ Method. It will show you how to quit smoking without missing cigarettes ever again.

Ok, let’s go to the NEXT big mistake.

Mistake #3: You Haven’t Made a REAL Decision to Quit.

Making a real decision to quit means making a commitment to yourself to stop smoking – no matter what challenges or difficulties you face along the way.

But we rarely commit to stopping smoking when we start a quit attempt.

We rarely say: “I don’t care what happens, there is no way I’m smoking another cigarette.”

Instead, we say: “I will try and see how it goes.”

“I wish I will make it.”

“I hope it works out.”

And we say these things because we don’t want to put much pressure on ourselves. Because if we commit fully and then fail… we will feel bad. 

But if we don’t commit fully from the beginning, then we are in a better position: we can tell ourselves that our attempt wasn’t too serious anyway. 

Listen…

If you don’t make a firm decision to quit, your mind will always make up excuses, to smoke another cigarette– maybe during your break at work or while watching your favorite TV show.

Your mind will tell you that it’s ok to have the very last cigarette, after the last cigarette, you promised yourself to smoke.

It will tell you, that you NEED to smoke. Otherwise, you will be unpleasant, to those around you.

All these, are very common thoughts, among smokers who want to quit. They are torturing. They fill you up with doubts. And they sabotage your quit attempt.

But these thoughts stop when you decide to quit.

So now the question is…

“How can YOU make an iron-clad decision to quit smoking?”

The SECRET behind making a real decision is as simple as being VERY specific with the reason you want to quit.

When you think about the exact ways quitting will change your life – physically, emotionally, financially – then your motivation increases and your decision to quit becomes stronger.

It might seem a bit silly, but look at it like this: What is more motivating and memorable?

Saying: “I have to quit because it costs me a fortune”?

OR saying: “I have to quit because I can use the money to treat my family to a vacation in Fiji. And enjoy this vacation without having the anxiety of running out of cigarettes.”

????

The second one is much more motivating, right?

(I mean who wouldn’t like a family vacation to Fiji ⛱ ⛱⛱   with the extra money saved from quitting smoking.)

How to Strengthen Your Decision to Quit Smoking EVEN MORE

You will strengthen your decision to stop smoking and increase your motivation to stick with that decision if you make a list of 10 (not 8 or 9) reasons why you want to quit smoking. 

I call this list, the “Golden List.”

You might think, “well, isn’t that obvious?”

And the answer is, “Yes,” but if you don’t make a list, your reasons for quitting won’t stay on top of your mind when you have a craving.

Imagine you’ve just woken up in the morning. You are drinking your coffee and you crave a smoke. But you refrain from having it because you have decided to stop smoking.

A few moments later your spouse comes with their coffee, sits next to you and starts smoking.

As soon as this happens, your craving increases. You even feel you’re missing out. The more you smell the cigarette, the more you entertain the thought of asking for a puff.

At that moment, your decision and motivation to quit start getting weaker and weaker.

All you think about is having a smoke with your coffee.

And it is at that particular moment when you need to have your Golden List quit next to you.

Think about it.

What’s the easiest way to avoid smoking?

If you try to resist the cigarette?

Or if you take your list with all the reasons why you want to quit and start reading it?

You know the answer!

Reading your list will remind you why you’re better off not smoking the cigarette you’re craving.

So write your golden list. And then put it somewhere you can see at all times. (Your bedroom wall, your work desk, or just stick it on your fridge.)

And if you’re worried that this won’t work, just take a look at what some of our members said:

How to Quit Smoking Starting Today

Now that I walked you through the big 3 mistakes that prevent you from quitting successfully, you’ve got ONE goal:

To start your quitting journey… RIGHT

So how do you get started?

There are 4 stages you need to follow if you want to quit easily and for good.

These 4 stages show you not only how to prepare for your next quit but also how to smoke your last cigarette feeling excited.

If you want to learn how the CBQ Method can help you quit smoking easily, you can start by getting the foundational video and PDF starter guide of the CBQ Method.

The foundational video will give you an overview of your quit smoking journey from start to finish and the guide will help you map out your quit, take notes, and remember important tips.

Get the Foundational video of the CBQ Method here.

Imagine being able to avoid smoking for 24 hours. You told your family you’re quitting, slept early to experience fewer cravings, and googled how to keep busy without cigarettes. You’re feeling good, and everything is going according to plan… UNTIL something stressful happens.

The moment you get anxious, you start thinking about having “just one”. Soon enough, smoking is all you think about, and even though you try to stay away from cigarettes, you feel unable to cope and end up relapsing and feeling defeated.

So, how do you quit smoking if anxiety is your kryptonite? Truth be told, you can’t wait for the right time when your life will be totally stress-free. That moment will probably never come. The only viable solution is to learn how to handle stress BEFORE smoking your last cigarette. That’s what Mary did.

Mary is a 48-year-old wife, mother, and accountant who had been smoking a pack a day for 31 years. She had a colorful, caring, and fun personality that was often dimmed by her anxiety. Even though her family was her everything, the toll of her busy life increased her stress, which decreased the quality of her life and affected her relationships.

Mary believed smoking was the only thing that helped her manage her stress (at least the only thing she knew). At the same time, she hated being a smoker. The smell, cost, guilt, and inconvenience made her think about quitting almost every day. Yet, it was only after her doctor warned her that her lungs weren’t functioning properly… that she really felt the pressure.

“I felt it was urgent to quit for my children no matter how much I needed it to relax,” she said, “I wanted just to quit and never think about it again.”

Mary tried to quit, many times, with nicotine patches, gums, and vaping, but she couldn’t stay away from cigarettes for more than a couple of days. No matter how much nicotine or willpower she used, she always ended up relapsing. As she later realized, the reason for all these slips was that she was abstaining from cigarettes. Not quitting them.

And there’s a BIG difference between “quitting” and “abstaining.”

Abstaining from smoking means continuously using your willpower to resist smoking. Quitting smoking means not wanting to smoke any more.

Abstaining from smoking means PAUSING your habit.

Quitting smoking means ENDING it.

When you pause your addiction, you are doomed to resume it. When you end it, you’re free.

Here’s how Mary recognized the #1 thing holding her back from really quitting smoking and how she turned things around.

Why Mary Couldn’t Quit Successfully 

Mary was doing a lot of things right. She didn’t allow anyone to smoke inside her house and she even threw her ashtrays away. But none of those actions kept her from lighting up when she was stressed.

“When I was sorting out our bills, or when I had an argument with my husband or my boss… I wanted a smoke more than anything in the world. I needed it, so I smoked.

The problem is that I was blaming everyone else for not feeling ready to quit. Until I realized that I was obviously doing something wrong. I just didn’t know how to relax without smoking.”

That was Mary’s biggest “aha” moment: Realizing there could be new, better, and more effective ways she could relax that didn’t involve smoking. As soon as trusted in that possibility, she started looking for coping strategies and things to do when she was stressed.

“I spent a lot of time and money on nicotine gums, patches, and vaping- you know, the kind of stuff you can do instead of smoking, but, it wasn’t working, I still felt stressed, still wanted my smokes… and I still felt anxious when I didn’t have a cigarette near me.”

Then “fate” stepped in…

“CBQ Method was a Facebook suggestion based on some other pages I’ve liked”, said Mary, “I followed that to the website where I read all the free stuff and attended the free introductory webinar that leads up to the CBQ Program. After reading many reviews about Nasia Davos and quitting smoking with the CBQ Method, I decided to give it a try.”

My hesitation was you didn’t really know what the flow of an online course would be, and the other side was convincing my husband it was worth that much money!”

“But I convinced him,” Mary laughed, “he could tell that I was really serious about it. I kept telling him that the CBQ method is really good. I needed to find ways to relax from stress while quitting and learn how to cope with my problems without cigarettes in general. And the CBQ method did exactly that.”

“I hope you won’t get mad, but I shared with my husband that video where you give this technique that makes you stop thinking about smoking, and it changed his mind completely. It showed him there was a lot of meat. This wasn’t ‘throw your cigarettes and wake up the next day waiting for a miracle’, it was more like ‘watch the videos, do the exercises, and you will learn how to be a non-smoker.”

Mary said it perfectly! (And no, of course, I wouldn’t get mad! My videos are made to be shared!)

How Mary Smashed Her Anxiety while Quitting Smoking with the CBQ Method

What made the biggest difference for Mary were the lessons from Day #8 of the CBQ Program.

“Whenever I had a craving, I’d think about it in terms of ‘what should I say to myself, what should I do to relax without smoking?’ I kind of knew I have to do something when I have a craving, but before using the CBQ method, I didn’t really know how important it was and how to do it. So I wasn’t doing it. Instead, I was eating. ”

Why does relaxing from stress matter so much?

“Well, when you feel stressed, all you want is to take a puff. And if you don’t see through your anxiety, then you will smoke, or eat and then smoke anyway.

Now I know how to calm down when I have a problem or when my boss is unreasonable and unfair. I can actually prepare and be ready for stress. That was really a turning point for me in my life. “

Mary really committed to learning and experimenting with how to manage her stress while quitting smoking. A big part of that was practicing with her husband and children.

“They’d push my buttons and wait for my reaction. The first time they challenged me I wasn’t that good, but the second time I was way better.”

“I’ve thought a lot about it over the last few weeks,” said Mary, “I haven’t changed as a mother, a wife or a person. I am still alert, caring, fun, loving and sarcastic. What I’ve changed is my ability to shine through the clutter of my stress. Since I quit I’ve been much more relaxed, and I don’t get agitated that easily.”

Mary quit smoking, and when it came to reflecting on how her investment paid off, she realized how far she’d come.

“In terms of money, I saved over $2000 in the last year. As an ex-smoker, I was able to get a better deal on life insurance, and my medical bills have decreased. Funny thing, I also got a raise!”

Also, Mary’s family is enjoying her more than ever.

“I am really proud of myself, and my family is really proud of me too. The odd breathing problems I had in my late 40s, disappeared, and I didn’t put on a single pound because I didn’t miss smoking. Now I can play with my children without coughing, and I can focus better on my work and finish faster because I don’t have to take cigarette breaks!

The most important thing for me was showing my family how much I care for them, and the worry of getting cancer or COPD and becoming a burden to them… is gone.

Ah! And I realized that most of the times I was fighting with my husband, were when I needed to smoke. Now that’s behind me. I am so much better off…”, “I feel free.”

What the Future Has In Store for Mary

Mary isn’t done yet – she’s looking toward the future and has continued using the CBQ strategies to keep her stress levels as low as possible and maintain her smoke-free life.

“Next year I plan to get another raise so I can take my whole family on vacation and support my mother financially.”

“This might be my first year as a smoke-free woman, but I know that whenever I feel anxious, I can check the CBQ exercises.”

Mary realized that the problem with failing to quit smoking was not having the right plan. Once she prepared, experimented, and put in the work, she was able to overcome even the most intense cravings.

The result? A healthier lifestyle, a calmer mind, and a better relationship with her loved ones.

Key Takeaways – Tips

• Nicotine gums, patches and vaping won’t help you quit or protect you from relapse when you feel stressed. Only your mind and your preparation can help you.
• When you have a craving try to do something to keep your hands and mind busy.
• Make a list of all the things that stress you out. Then role-play these situations with your family and friends (or even alone) before your quit date. This will help you be more prepared.
• Breaking free from nicotine WILL improve your health, finances, and relationships. Most importantly, quitting smoking will improve your mental health and decrease your anxiety and depression – this has also been proven by research.

*We always share success stories with permission or use pseudonyms to protect our members’ privacy.

You probably already know that the nicotine addiction is a harmful, expensive, hard-to-break habit.

You may even know what the signs of nicotine addiction are. And how smoking affects your body, health, and energy.

Yet despite your best efforts, you still can’t quit.

Why?

To know why you can’t stop smoking, you first need to know why you’re smoking.

So, “Why do you smoke?”

Knowing the real reason why you smoke, makes it a whole lot easier to tackle this reason and eventually quit.

What (most) People Believe about Nicotine Addiction

Most people believe that smoking is ONLY a physical addiction to nicotine.

Nicotine comes from the tobacco plant and it’s a pesticide. Even though nicotine is an addictive substance, nicotine addiction is not a strong physical addiction, because nicotine has a short half-life and it’s easily metabolized from the body. Nicotine starts leaving your body 30 to 45 minutes after you smoke a cigarette. That’s why you need to smoke regularly throughout the day.

So nicotine may be the reason you first got hooked to this habit, as a teenager maybe, but it’s not the reason why you kept on smoking for all those years.

When you first started smoking, you probably thought you would have quit by now. So why haven’t you?

Well, if nicotine addiction was the real reason…

Then why do ex-smokers relapse back to smoking even after the nicotine withdrawal is over and there is no nicotine inside their body?

3 to 5 days after smoking your last cigarette, your body expels most of the addictive substance (provided that you don’t use nicotine substitutes).

So what can cause someone to have a smoke 1 month or even 1 year after overcoming their nicotine addiction?

And why do most people give mental and emotional reasons for smoking…like I enjoy it, I need it, it relaxes me, it’s my friend or its habit?

When I ask our members: “Why do you smoke?”

…The answers I get, are a spin on this:
“I enjoy it.”
“I need it to relax.”
“I’m afraid of gaining weight.”
“I don’t know what to do when I’m bored.”
“I’m used to it; it’s a habit. Something to do with my hands.”

(You might have answered something similar when I asked you “Why do you smoke?” just a few lines ago.)

All these reasons are mental. Psychological. Emotional.
Not physical.

The Real Reason Why People Smoke

You see, smoking is not only a physical addiction but also a mental one.

Nicotine affects our body but above all, our mind.

To be precise, 80% of the smoking addiction, is made up of the mental dependence on smoking.

Simply put, the mental addiction is your desire for cigarettes.

It’s how much you believe you enjoy and need smoking, how ingrained it is in your life, and the benefits you think you get from it.

Benefits like relaxing from stress or anxiety, taking a mental break, managing your weight, or keeping your hand busy when you are bored, while driving, talking on the phone, or watching your favorite TV show.

And only 20% of smoking, is the physical addiction to nicotine– the substance that first hooked you to this habit.

Think about it. It’s not your body that craves a smoke every time you want to take a break.

It’s your mind that wants it. And your hands that feel empty.

Because your mind has linked certain triggers to smoking and it reminds you to smoke when you have those triggers.

And if you believe you’re too addicted to nicotine… then how do you sleep?

You may sleep 6, 7, or 8 hours without smoking. Your physical cravings for nicotine don’t wake you up.

If nicotine was the real problem, then your physical cravings would wake you up every one hour just to smoke.

But they don’t. Because they make up for only 20% of the tobacco addiction.

On the other hand, what happens if you go 8 straight hours during the day when you’re awake?

Well, that’s a different story, right?

All hell breaks loose. You have cravings, you feel agitated, you think about smoking all the time.

Why does this happen?

Because your mind is awake. And your mind reminds you to smoke when you get upset, stressed, or anxious. Or when you see other people smoking.

As you can see, the REAL reason you’re still smoking is your mental dependence on smoking: how smoking makes you feel and how much you believe you need it. 

Why do you feel you need nicotine in the first place?

Because nicotine has hijacked the dopamine pathways in your brain and it makes your brain believe it needs nicotine to survive, the same way it needs food. Of course, you don’t need nicotine to survive because nicotine is poison.

So even if a part of you hates smoking, the way it makes you smell, the cost, how it harms your health, and all the worry and the guilt that comes with it… there is another part of you that is afraid not to smoke.

Because you’re used to smoking in many moments in your day and all these situations have been linked so closely with your smoking habit, that on some level you’re afraid that if you quit your cigarettes will magically take away with them your capacity to enjoy life and cope with your problems.

So what keeps you stuck, is fear.

Fear of change, fear of failure, fear of cravings, fear of the unknown, or the fear that you will turn into someone else. All this fear is caused by the mental addiction.

Do You Smoke Because You Enjoy It?

Sometimes people tell me “I smoke because I enjoy it.”

If you think you really enjoy smoking, let me ask you this:

If you could wake up tomorrow and never smoke again, no cravings, no memory of smoking, not miss it, not desire it, nothing – would you do it?

Most people would gladly take that opportunity.

And if you would also do it, it means that you don’t really enjoy smoking. Because if you really enjoy smoking then why stop? And if you really, really enjoy smoking, then why read quit smoking related articles like this one?

You do that because a part of you knows that you don’t want to be smoking. A part of you knows that smoking offers you nothing. But as long as you believe it does and as long as you believe that smoking adds some kind of value to your life you will keep craving cigarettes.

So basically what you see as enjoyment or love or friendship, in reality, it’s an abusive relationship based on lies and fear.

You smoke because you’re afraid of what will happen if you don’t. Because you think you can’t live without it.

But that’s an illusion, that’s a lie, that’s what addiction is.

Addiction makes us believe we can’t live without the thing we’re addicted to. But of course, you can.

The truth is that you will be better off as a non-smoker because smoking offers you nothing. What you do as a smoker you can do better as a non-smoker.

For example, your anxiety decreases when you stop smoking and this has been proven by research as well. Just think about it. Being addicted, worrying, having cravings, having health anxiety is a source of stress all by itself. All this goes away when you stop smoking.

Or you can concentrate better as a non-smoker because you don’t have your craving mind interrupting your train of thought all the time.

And you can cope with boredom better as a non-smoker.

If smoking was so entertaining that it relieved boredom then people would buy tickets to go watch other people smoke. Just stare at them, the same way they watch football or theatre. But people don’t do that because smoking is not taking away our boredom.

On the contrary, smoking causes boredom because it drains our energy to do things.

So to sum up:

Most people think they smoke because of the physical addiction to nicotine. But smoking is a mental and a physical addiction, and the reason why you smoke is the mental addiction. The real reason why you smoke is that you believe smoking offers you something and you worry about losing that. So you are going to quit easily and never miss it again when you realize that smoking offers you nothing at all.

The Only Way to Stop Smoking Successfully

The only way you can stop smoking successfully without any feelings of deprivation is as simple are removing the 80% of the smoking addiction – the mental addiction.

Then why only 6% of smokers quit successfully?

Simple.

Because most stop smoking methods and aids out there tackle only the physical part of the nicotine addiction: the nicotine dependence.

Which is only 20% of your addiction.

In that perspective, it makes a lot of sense that only 6% of smokers end up breaking free from smoking.

Here’s how:

Nicotine substitutes– gums, patches, lozenges, and vaping- feed your body with nicotine. So they’re simply giving you the momentary illusion, that you are satisfied without your cigarettes. Apart from that, some people end up with a dependence on nicotine substitutes such as nicotine gum addiction.

Plus, nicotine substitutes do not show you how to manage stress, boredom, and keep your hands busy without nicotine. That’s why smokers go back to smoking when they get stressed.

The same goes for smoking pills. These chemicals decrease your nicotine cravings. But they don’t show you how to feel good and enjoy life without nicotine.

That’s why many smokers relapse the moment they’re off the pills.

Not to mention all the side effects.

Now using willpower to resist smoking does not keep you addicted to nicotine. And that’s great.

But pure willpower can’t remove your desire for a cigarette either.

Instead, it makes you want to smoke more.

Because when you can’t smoke, the thought of a cigarette becomes even more precious. So you eventually smoke again. (I know I’ve been there in the past – more times than I would like to admit.)

Now does that mean that quitting is hard and that we are doomed to smoke forever?
Not at all.

It just means that we’ve been trying the wrong way.

The right way to quit, and the easiest one, is to remove the 80% of your addiction BEFORE you stop supplying your body with nicotine.

Here’s why:

When you’re no longer mentally dependent on smoking, you also no longer:

• experience stress, boredom, food cravings, or irritation when you don’t smoke.
• feel that “something is missing” when you don’t smoke after your meal, or with your coffee or when you’re driving.
• feel your hands empty without a smoke.
• get tempted to smoke if your husband, a colleague, or a stranger is smoking next to you.

Best thing, when cigarettes are out of your mind, then your nicotine withdrawal symptoms are hardly noticeable.

… so quitting becomes EASY.

That’s why in the CBQ method, you first stop wanting to smoke, and then you quit.

And you do that naturally, by changing how you think about smoking.

To learn more about how to quit smoking and overcome the mental dependence on cigarettes with the CBQ method, make sure you get the foundational video of the CBQ method.

It’s free, just enter your name and email address so I can send you the video.

Click here to get the foundational video of the CBQ method so you can beat the smoking addiction once and for all.