What are you doing?

[Thomas3.20.2010]

Last Saturday I published an article about how smoking effects your mind’s

(1)  working memory

(2)  prospective memory

(3)  executive control

We often found ourselves smoking a Sickerette without even realizing that we had gone through the motions of getting the thing lit!

We were like robots or puppets being controlled by our Addiction!

Executive Control is the very part of your Brain that you need the most to help you decide to Quit Smoking and to protect your Quit. Executive Control “helps us plan tasks, pay attention to current activities, and ignore distractions.”

One of the most effective tools in my Quit Smoking Toll Box restores Executive Control – Mindfulness.

Mindfulness is described by Jon Kabat Zinn as:

 “The awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment.”

So why should I believe him?

Jon Kabat Zinn is Professor of Medicine Emeritus and creator of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He graduated from Haverford College and went on to earn a Ph.D. in molecular biology in 1971 from MIT, where he studied under Salvador Luria, Nobel Laureate in medicine.  The stress reduction program created by Kabat-Zinn, mindfulness-based stress reduction, has been  offered by medical centers, hospitals, and health maintenance organizations since 1993.

I digress.

There is only one time and place where you can be and have any control over – now! The whole principle of BecomeanEX Smoking Cessation requires us to make the decision to protect our Quit moment by moment. But some of us have to reclaim that ability to decide each moment.

If you have difficulty focusing and you feel this may have a negative effect on your quit then maybe you want to learn to live more in the present moment.

Here’s an article to get you started:

http://www.rd.com/health/wellness/10-steps-to-mindfulness/

Now, I’ll admit that when it was first suggested that I could use some mindfulness, I had some big objections!

-         First, I said, “I’m Christian – not Buddhist!”

But mindfulness isn’t about belief systems and religion. It happens to be a practice that some Buddhists use but they aren’t the only ones and there’s nothing mutually exclusive in paying attention. Actually I found out that Monks have practiced mindfulness for centuries. Why throw out the baby with the bath water?

-         Then I said, “I don’t like hippie stuff.”

Now, you tell me, what’s so “hippie” about paying attention?

-         And I used my favorite excuse for everything – “I don’t have time!”

There’s the beauty of mindfulness – it doesn’t take any other time than now! What are you doing this moment? Are you aware of living in your own skin right now?

Unlike smoking, you have nothing to lose and Recovery to gain. Practice, practice, practice!

The bonus is you’ll find mindfulness not only helps with stress, depression, anxiety and other mind discomfort – it also helps with physical pain!

When you know what your mind and body are up to you have more say in your own decision-making and can break the puppet strings of Addiction!