The belief that smoking is relaxing is not, and cannot be true. It is the first and possibly most common excuse smokers have for smoking. Nicotine is a powerful stimulant. Once it has entered the blood stream it has an almost immediate effect. One of its side-effects (usually noticed within 30-90 minutes) is a pharmacologically induced sense of fear.

This artificial fear can only be reduced either by another cigarette, or allowing the nicotine to leave the body. It is only this feeling of anxiety caused by the nicotine that is being reduced, not real anxiety. Because of the time delay in the anxiety effects of the nicotine on the body, the subconscious mind makes the mistake of believing the stress is real. Not so. We must now remove the subconscious mind's belief that smoking helps relaxation, not perpetuates stress.

'Even though I belief smoking relaxes me and could never be the cause of the tension in my body, I deeply and completely accept myself'

'Even though I need to smoke to relax, I love and respect myself and forgive myself for needing to'

'Even though my subconscious mind is unable to make the connection between smoking and its delayed affects of stress, I love and accept myself and choose to realize the truth'

Breathing is the best form of relaxation, but we will look at this in a later section. For now just do a few rounds on each of the above statements, and then continue to the next page.