Happy New Year! 2011, Year of the Yin Rabbit
I am really happy to be heading toward the year of the rabbit as it is such a friendly animal rather than the year of the tiger which will be exiting here in a few weeks. I thought it would be a good idea to start off the new year with some wellness postings and include my personal triumph of quitting smoking some twenty two years ago. My mother actually bought me my treatment of cold laser therapy to stop smoking and although at the time I thought it was right up there with some of her other unusual gift ideas I am eternally grateful.
On the Rachel Ray show a long while back Rachel had four different people trying to stop smoking and the success story belonged to laser therapy, or cold laser therapy, and is also known as laser acupuncture, photon stimulation (PST) or low level laser therapy (LLLT).
My personal story of laser therapy was that my mother purchased it for me as a gift and all I had to do was show up. I was pretty much hooked on nicotine and just could not imagine quitting but inside desperately wished I had never ever started. I showed up at the clinic and the clinician sat me in a chair and showed me the laser pen and she pointed it on my hands in a couple of different locations (I think it was red if I remember correctly) and then some points behind my ears and head. That was pretty much it, less than half an hour and I remember leaving thinking it was the hokiest thing I ever experienced.
A few hours passed though and I felt different, like kind of a calm different and I could never remember feeling like that before. I liked the feeling; I liked it a lot. It was actually that immediate and as crazy ass as it sounds I had no craving for a cigarette, zip, nada, nothing.
I did have withdrawals however and was quite unprepared for that part of it all. I know some people say that withdrawal takes about five months, but seriously for me it was like two years. Pure insane torture, on such a subliminal monkey scratches your back level that it really defies a logical description.
That treatment was in the month of June. My life was pretty hectic then and between June and November I broke up with my boyfriend and I got really mad and picked up a cigarette and started smoking again.
I was smoking for a few days, and I remember talking to my Mom humiliated and upset not about breaking up with my now ex boyfriend, but that I had started smoking again and I was a failure. I can still hear my Mothers voice, "Don't worry dear, its guaranteed, I am going to phone over to the clinic right now." I got off the phone and shaking my head to myself in disbelief thought to myself, sure Mom only you could buy something to quit smoking that is guaranteed.
Mom phoned me right back and explained that the clinic was so happy she called and I should go over there immediately. Oh man, 32 years old and having my Mom call over on my behalf- let me tell you I have had better days. So when I got to the clinic it took the same short amount of time for the treatment, and the clinician asked me when I started smoking again and what was going on in my life.
I explained I had broke up with my boyfriend and was really mad. She pointed out that the number one trigger for restarting smoking is anger and to pay attention to those vulnerable moments in my life for future reference.
The same lovely feeling floated over my body again within an hour.
I have never had another cigarette since. That was 1989.
It almost sounds surreal to tell this story because I am still so amazed that cigarette smoking is not a part of my life, and I really did feel hopeless about it all. The fact that I had Elsie in one corner of the ring pulling me to safety and the cigarette company product in the other corner pulling me back to the other direction, is right up there with the movie, The seventh Seal. A game of chess of light over darkness.
Peope I knew had never heard of laser therapy, and I thought my Mother's money was going to a great invention that didn't have enough clients and probably folded years ago - probably the day after I left.
I got pretty excited when I saw the Rachel Ray show since I knew exactly what the successful non smokers were feeling like.
I googled laser therapy and found a clinic in Florida called Healing Laser Clinic,. They have a 1-800 number for other locations, but what caught my attention the most was that they had as an unusual gift ideas on their site-gift certificates to quit smoking.
Then I got thinking some more, because the pop up ad at the top of their site was for Groupon and I thought, "hey you Groupon advertising execs., why don't you approach all the laser stop smoking clinics in the U.S. and Canada and have one big coupon party approach for quitting smoking.
If you are looking to quit smoking or know of someone who wants to quit smoking this is a wonderful solution.
Here are some of my favorite afformations by Noah St. John:
Why is addiction to nicotine no longer part of my life?
Why am I so happy being free of cigarettes?
Why did I finally stop smoking?
Have a beautiful day,
photo: PKM
joy,
Rena
www.talktotheturtle.com
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