I was never a real smoker. What I mean by this is I did not always keep a pack of cigarettes with me. I went for days without smoking, but when the weekend hit, I went out with my friends and smoked and drank myself to death. Smoking cigarettes seriously made me feel awful and I remember waking up with the worst taste in my mouth. Yuk! I knew how nasty smoking was, but smoking is a tough habit to break. I unsuccessfully tried to quit all together about fifty times, and then I started envisioning not being a smoker. 

This is how I started. During my daily envisioning sessions, I saw myself feeling great while jogging uphill. Jogging up a steep incline was something I could not do very well after a weekend of overindulging in Marlboro Lights. When I was too tired or hungover to exercise, I gained weight, so my weekend habits impacted me negatively in more ways than one. In addition, the people that surrounded me were smokers and they were not supportive of my efforts to quit. They made fun of me for trying to quit and preyed on my weakness for wanting to smoke after I cracked open a cold beer. 

It took about one year of envisioning how it felt to be smoke-free, and I finally kicked the habit. I did not focus on my behavior, just my thoughts. Within one year, I no longer wanted to smoke, and I felt so much better. I also did not want to be around smokers, and guess what? That alone eliminated a lot of toxic people from my world. 

Now, do NOT get me wrong here. I am NOT saying all smokers are toxic people, but a majority of the people surrounding me were smokers and they were toxic. Making a natural separation from toxic personalities was an unintended consequence, but when you partner with the Universe it works in mysterious ways to get you where you need to be at the right time, at the right place, and with the right people. 

I still have several friends that smoke, and it does not seem to bother them the way it did me. But these people would never pressure me to smoke, and they have told me on numerous occasions how proud they are of me for quitting. This exercise is for you if you want to quit smoking. Try this exercise if smoking makes you feel like death. Give this exercise a whirl if you hate the taste in your mouth from cigarettes. However, do not pay one ounce of attention to this if you love to smoke and if it does not negatively impact your life. 

With me, smoking was associated with many self-destructing behaviors. I loved to smoke, and sometimes I even miss it. But it was a self-defeating behavior that opened doors to other problems. If you feel bad, you attract in more bad things, so since smoking made me feel bad, it became less and less important when I started envisioning how great I was living a non-smoking lifestyle. 

A healthier weight naturally accompanies a healthier lifestyle. Since the binge drinking and binge smoking has stopped, maintaining my weight is not as difficult. Plus, the people around me live healthy lifestyles, so there is no negative influence to overeat, binge drink, binge smoke, or skip working out. Remember you are what you eat, but you are also who you associate with. 

Every one of these positive changes started with a simple thought. If you want to rid your life of a habit that is causing you problems and haunting you, try this effortless exercise. 

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