So at the weekend I spoke to my first smoke-free “victim”, who I helped about a month or so ago to stop smoking. She’s still going strong and is finding it easier every day. It seems that at the session we pretty much killed her smoking habit and her challenge has been to find new things left by the void previously occupied by the habit.
Her big challenge is in dealing with new situations “smoke free”. That is, when she thinks about something that she is going to do, she wonders whether it will be as much fun without a cigarette. Sounds daft to many and to her it is reality. I did point out that she could indeed wonder how much more fun she will have in those new situations with more money and not having to stand outside every fifteen minutes… after all it is only her internal map of the world that suggests that she needs to think about it at all.
She also noted that it’s had a knock-on effect on some of her friends. One of her friends seems to have cut back or quit completely, whilst another smoked considerably less when he was with her. This makes her feel even better about herself, which is great by me.
And I must say this makes me very happy, firstly in that it really is quick and painless to break a long-time habit, and secondly that I’ve been able to apply my newfound skills in such a way as to help someone achieve that.
It’s been a couple of months now since I completed my NLP prac and far from forgetting it all, I’ve since helped two people quit smoking, cured an arachnophobe and had great results coaching people on self-confidence, motivation and public speaking. I guess I ought to start charging soon… 
