We are constantly wired.   Constantly on the move.   Telling someone not only to sit and do nothing, but that it's actually exercise for your brain, can be a hard statement to swallow.

Yet it's true.   And now the same skills that have helped people succeed in life for thousands of years can help people quit smoking.   

Developed by Dr. James Davis in concert with top mindfulness and addiction researchers in the country, Mindfulness Training for Smoking or MTS does exactly what standard treatment has failed.   

Let's do the math.  Go to your local drugstore and purchase nicotine gum, lozenges or patches and the six month quit rates are only 3-5%.   Get a patch and pep talk from your physician and the rates go up to 10-12%.   Still not impressed?   Participants who completed MTS and received individualized medication from their physician had six month success rates of 39-59%.  Let that sink in.

In MTS participants are taught to meditate.   Even those who never meditated before are able to learn how to sit and see there thoughts, their cravings, urges, triggers and withdrawal symptoms as something temporary.   They learn to pay attention and with nonjudgmental awareness and allow symptoms and thoughts to pass without reacting to them.    

I'm excited to begin offering MTS in the Cincinnati area for the first time.  Combining my passion for mindfulness and helping people quit smoking is a natural fit for me.   I know sitting will take on a whole new meaning for the participants in my MTS groups.

SMOKING, MINDFULNESSJULY 3, 2018