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A few days ago I was enjoying my favourite beach in the early morning. There are walkers, runners, cyclists and coffee drinkers.

But one lady stood out from the morning crowd. She looked kind of fit, was wearing yoga pants like many of the younger women, but the difference was she was smoking.

I notice smokers because of my work, she was sitting to the side of the walking path, holding her cigarette down low and nearly out of sight-, and when she inhaled she did it quickly and then blew the smoke out of the corner of her mouth hoping the breeze would whisk it away quickly.

I’m not a mind reader but I have spoken at length with enough smokers to realise a few things.

1. She likes to feel fit and healthy, and be a part of that morning healthy cohort.

2. She is embarrassed to be seen as a smoker especially in front of the morning exercising people.

3. She couldn’t help but smoke, even though she didn’t appear to be enjoying it.

4. She would feel much happier just exercising and strutting around in her yoga pants without smoking.

As a hypnotherapist I see a person who is conflicted. And internal conflict causes a great deal of stress for most people who experience it.

It feels as if you are being pulled in two different directions emotionally.

It can feel as if you are unclear about your identity, on one hand she is a yoga pants wearing person who is a part of the morning fitness world.

But her other identity is that of a smoker, a person who is doing something daily that is harmful to her health, and she knows she would be judged harshly by the healthy people she wants to be aligned with.

She has three options.

1. She can keep doing what she is doing and hope that not too many people notice her.

2. She can hang up her yoga pants and embrace her life as a smoker.

3. She could quit smoking, and hold her head high in her yoga pants.

The best choice seems obvious, but in order to arrive at that choice she will need to make a clear decision and take a long hard look at her life and decide what is really important. Then all that is left to do is to see a hypnotist to help her break her old habit and set her free emotionally and from cigarettes.

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Source by Ian Newton