When quitting smoking being calm is obviously going to be very helpful, as stress and anxiety often surface when a smoker decides to quit.

However there is another meaning to calm. The acronym translates to change achieved by linking minds.

Quitting is a major change, and like any change, there can be a lot of mental and emotional friction and resistance. This can be a major hurdle and contributes to many people failing in their quest to walk away from cigarettes.

To achieve the quit smoking change and to finally become a non-smoker the way forward is to link minds. There are 3 elements to this.

1. Link minds with your quit therapist. It is critical that you have a good rapport, and that you have confidence in their abilities.

2. Link minds with your friend’s family and workmates to enlist their support, and to back you up should a stressful event occur.

3. Link minds with yourself. This is done with the guidance of your calm therapist. Helping your conscious mind, which has chosen to quit cigarettes, to align with your unconscious mind, which in the past has thrown up so much friction, that you failed.

The way to link minds is by activating the calm response. This achieved by having your therapist engage your conscious beliefs and then dive down through the levels of brainwaves.

From high Beta wave which is stressful, to low Beta wave which is focussed and alert. Down to High Alpha wave which is very calm and focussed.

Continue down to Low Alpha wave and high Theta wave where your resistance disappears and new positive feelings and beliefs are welcomed.

A quick return to the fully conscious mind and then repeat the process several times. This is termed porpoising. The feeling of surfacing above the waves and diving just as easily as a porpoise does it.

One goal of the calm process is to help a client avoid living in the high Beta state for long periods. To notice what is happening and to elucidate the calm response, thereby heading off any potential cigarette blowouts.

The main trick or skill is to notice, I mean really notice when you are starting to feel stress, and then shorten the time you take from noticing to wedging the gap between stressor and negative response.

In this case it’s smoking, or better still, not smoking. So become calm and feel calm, you have the choice.