This is going to seem extremely random. I’ve been wanting to post about this for years, but I didn’t want to call attention to something that I then couldn’t deliver. So I’ve had to bite my lip while people have talked about struggles with giving up smoking.. until, finally, now.
On the 24th of this month, my book, ‘Zen and the Art of Giving Up Smoking and Vaping’ will be published. The book contains a process which, if you read it carefully, will help you overcome your nicotine addiction at a root level, so that you won’t relapse. You won’t suffer from challenging pangs. You will reset, to where you were before you ever considered smoking/vaping. I can’t guarantee this obviously, but the success rate so far is very high, and people who have read it tend to become quite evangelical about it. I have even had someone read the book, who didn’t want to stop smoking, who then immediately stopped! The story behind how I came to be able to do this is briefly dealt with in the book, so I won’t go into it here. But suffice to say it’s the most unusual aspect of my life. The book is short, but it’s taken me a long time to get it right, because the process is very specific, and every word counts. It isn’t a Zen text, but there’s an informal stylistic association that runs through it, and the title has some relevance to the process, which is also addressed in the book. But the process is grounded in fact and rational thinking, not spirituality, albeit with a nod to the latter.
The book is available now for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes & Noble (possibly other outlets, I’m not sure). If you want to stop smoking or vaping, permanently and easily, hand-on-heart, this can help. This is a difficult field to penetrate, as it is entirely dominated my Allan Carr’s very well-known book, and despite securing one of the biggest literary agents in the business, I was unable to secure a major publishing deal due to no major marketing department being willing to go up against the bestseller. However, the feedback I get is that my book is orders of magnitude more effective than Mr Carr’s. So I have ended up going with a niche Cornish publisher run by someone who I really respect and am very happy to be working with. However, we are very much working from the position of the underdog.
On that level then, if anyone can help in any way, I would really appreciate it. We are currently at the stage of trying to garner reviews. What we really need is a mainstream reviewer or someone famous with reach, to read it and quit smoking, and be willing to shout about it. If you know anyone who fits this description, please let me know and I will get a copy to them. Also, if there are any regular posters here who are in genuine need, please PM me and I will send you a review copy gratis. I would love to just offer it to everyone, but obviously we are trying to launch something and sales drive algorithms, so if you can afford to wait a bit and buy it, then thankyou enormously.
Also if anyone has an influential contact in the NHS, it might be worth reaching out. I’m not in any way wanting to dump negativity on the NHS (I am receiving treatment myself at the moment, and am completely in awe of the people I am dealing with) however it is very clear from even a basic examination of what they have to say regarding smoking, that there is nobody in the area of that organisation that deals with nicotine addiction, that actually understands fully how it works. I’m sorry if that comes across as arrogant, it really isn’t meant to, but most of the quitting advice in the world completely misses the point, and comes from a flawed direction. You can forcibly wean people off a thing, but addiction is first and foremost a psychological issue, and if you leave the psychological framework by which the addiction took hold in the first place, intact, then you haven’t really achieved anything truly meaningful. They could do a lot worse than to pull all their current advice and simply give everyone a copy of this book.
Anyway, I don’t want to get too TLDR. That’s it. If you seriously need this now, PM me and I’ll get it to you. Otherwise, the Amazon link is below. If you can help in any way, thanks in advance. And if you have managed to stop, but staying stopped is even slightly challenging, I also recommend reading it, and this will sort that out.
Thanks!
A testimonial from someone who read an earlier manuscript:
“It’s not often, if ever, that you can honestly say that a book literally changed your life… This book has most certainly changed mine! Having smoked for 34 years and in that time attempted to quit a number of times, with mixed success, using a number of methods – including cold turkey, Alan Carr’s book (twice), drugs and childbirth! At no point however, during any of these attempts, did I ever become a non-smoker, I just stopped smoking for various lengths of time – and if I’m honest I never once stopped thinking about it during all those times.
In just short of 80 pages Nicholas Holden takes you step by step through every ‘addict deal’ you have ever made with yourself and deftly invalidates the lot of them. Don’t misunderstand me however this book is neither patronising nor sanctimonious in its approach… it is reasonable, blindingly clear, down to earth, funny and disarmingly effective.
Nothing is ‘given up’ with this method in the sense is there is not even the tiniest sense of loss; quite the opposite in fact, there is a huge sense of gain, of winning; overcoming nicotine addiction has been a big deal for me and now, 3 months on, you couldn’t force a cigarette on me if you tried. I feel great about having done it, great in myself and have Nicholas and his brilliant book to thank for that.
The absolutely pure logic with which explanations are presented means even the most determined of smokers (of which I was certainly one) would have a hard time sidestepping the eventual outcome of becoming nicotine free. His allegorical approach to tackling a thorny and extremely emotive subject also makes it very simple to see what’s going on as he breaks down the complex nature of addiction, tackling it from a 360 degree perspective in bite-size chunks.
What also made a huge difference for me was how Holden explains how to use the book to greatest effect and I would hugely recommend you follow his instructions. Despite quitting before I’d finished the book I continued to read and re-read it during the first days post-quitting. Not only is this book the prompt and facilitator but also the support group and aftercare.
This book is probably the most valuable investment I have ever made in myself and to say ‘thank you’ doesn’t really seem to cover it… but Mr Holden, your vision and insight is awesome and I thank you from the bottom of my lungs for taking the time to share it with the world!”
Poppy Kinloch, extremely happy non-smoker
