Hi, welcome to the You Can Quit Smoking podcast, where we go over stories of success with overcoming smoking addiction. Many people have moved through this radical transformation and use smoking as an opportunity for inner growth, with deeper self-awareness and a greater capacity for compassion. So many have done it and you can quit smoking, too. I'm your host, Jessi Hartnett, founder of Honor Your Heart.

Jessi:

Hi everyone, welcome back. I'm here today with Lynn Louise Larson. Lynn, can you introduce yourself?

Lynn:

Hey, I am a transformational coach. I am the creator of the Evolution 10X method, and a Master Certified Hypnotist. We'll get more into that later because it does play a really significant role in my journey of quitting smoking. I have been smoke-free for over two decades. I haven't kept track. I have been a transformational coach and helping women transform for decades as well. And I'm a happy Gen Xer in central New York.

Jessi:

Wonderful. So, let's walk through your experience with smoking. How did it start? What was it like for you? How did you end up quitting? And what's life been like since?

Lynn:

Man, my generation, we started smoking really early. And I think this is really common with every generation, but I'm not sure. I know vaping's really popular right now. I started smoking when I was probably 15 or 16 years old. And back then, it was really popular to smoke Clove cigarettes. And if you don't know what they are, don't investigate because they were absolutely fantastic. I remember loving them so much. But they're highly addictive. They were like my gateway into Camels, American Spirits, and those kinds of cigarettes.

They were really popular with my generation, especially those of us that were the alternative kids, so to speak, the people that followed Billy Idol and The Smiths and all those bands. That's what we did. Also, underage drinking was huge when I was young. 18 years old was a drinking age when I was young. So, we were drinking at like 16, 17. We were going to concerts. I was living in Colorado. We'd always go up to Red Rocks. We'd smoke and drink and stay out, camp out the night before. It was very much a lifestyle. And I don't even remember enjoying it.

This is really unusual about mine. I was always highly allergic to cigarette smoke. I'd get super congested. And I remember being in the car with my friends when they were smoking. One time I decided to take a puff off of it. And I had less reaction to the cigarette smoke when I was smoking than when I did when I was not. Like it didn't irritate my eyes as much. I think I theorized that I was inoculating myself to cigarette smoke and it just escalated after that. I smoked from the age of 16 probably all the way up to my 40s. I'm not really sure when I quit in my 40s.

I was friends with hardcore smokers. These were people that smoked a pack a day. was more of that friend that didn't buy during the day. But if I knew I was going out with girlfriends, which in your teens and 20s is all the time, I would buy a pack before we went out or a carton. I would go ahead and stock up. I always considered myself a social smoker. That's what I always said to people. And that plays a really big role in how I was able to quit and with such ease. I could go a week, two weeks without smoking. But then I could binge a couple packs in a night with my girlfriends and then feel like ass the next day. And we'd wake up and go to brunch and immediately smoke. It was just part of this thing that I did with my girlfriends.

Things started transitioning when I was probably in my late 20s, early 30s because that's when cities started really cracking down on non-smoking areas and non-smoking restaurants and public and all that kind of thing. But where I was living, you could still smoke in bars. I don't know why that is. Not a restaurant, but you could smoke in a bar. So, we would walk into these bars and they would be filled with smoke. Even though I knew that it was terrible, I would still be part of it. It probably wasn't until I got older that I really started understanding the repercussions that it was having on my life. Like, how old were you when you started smoking?

Jessi:

I was 13.

Lynn:

Isn't that wild to think about?

Jessi:

Yeah.

Lynn:

Like you asked, how did it come into my life? I just remember doing it. I don't remember it even being a choice. Just like, yeah, that sounds good. The same with smoking pot.
I'm going to be totally transparent on this podcast. A little bit about what was going on when I was 15. When I was 15, I was also sexually assaulted by a close friend, an upper classman back in the 80s. And still to this day, we don't talk about it when it's a friend, when somebody we know has done it. So, I internalized a lot of that. And the way that I found as a coping mechanism was both drinking, smoking, smoking pot, eventually doing drugs. I did that for a very long time. I had severe depression. I was in and out of therapy. I was off and on of anti-depressants, you know, the whole game.

I remember it coming to a pinnacle. And I was still a smoker at this time and I was in my late 20s. I was living with a long-term boyfriend in San Francisco. I was still smoking. He was a big smoker. I remember standing in my corner office. I was an executive. I was standing looking out this window and all my friends were always going down to smoke. It was something that we did. I was on the 44th floor. We'd take the elevator down, go outside, have our smoking break, go back up. And I decided not to go that day. And I remember looking out the window and feeling like my world was falling apart and just being like, "Oh my god, what? How did I get here? How did I get to this point?"
I was emotionally eating to soothe. I was shopping for therapy. “If I just buy the right dress to make me feel pretty.” I was drinking at night with my girlfriends and smoking my butt off and over-exercising, punishing myself the next morning. Like it was this incredibly vicious cycle. My journey started there because I really started evaluating. I said to myself, “Therapy is not cutting it. I've been in and out of therapy for decades and I'll be better for a while and then right back in it.” And it was never like a permanent solution.

And I decided that I was going to start this journey to figure out: How can I really fulfill myself on the inside? What does it feel like to be happy, content, fulfilled, have a sense of purpose? I started that journey and through that journey I started reading all the books. Back then there were no online coaches. You pretty much had to do it yourself or it was therapy. So I started reading books. I started exploring different methodologies and dogmas: Daoism and Buddhism and all kinds of different stuff from around the world. I started diving into how the brain worked. And really the first thing that I took on was my emotional eating because that seemed to be triggered. And then I would feel so much guilt and I'd punish myself the next day. I'm a marathoner. I was overrunning, overexerting.
And so I first started with that battle. I started really diving into what is emotional eating? How does it manifest? If I wasn't emotionally eating, I was emotionally smoking. I was emotionally drinking. I was emotionally shopping. I didn't realize it at the time. That was something that looking back in hindsight. So I started with that and I got that under control. I stopped binging. I stopped emotionally eating. And my life felt so much better.

But I still was drinking and I still was smoking. I still had this internal insecurity and let's say lack of self-love. I was really super healthy marathoner, but I was always criticizing. “Just 10 more pounds just this if I can just change this.” And so I dove even deeper, dove into what's going on. It's kind of like I replaced emotional eating with smoking and drinking
.
And then that's when it hit the fan and I lost my first friend, my first close personal friend. And I took a really good look at myself and I was like, “Stuff has to change. Lynn, you got into this because of your drinking.” But guess what? I associated the two. So I really had to get into the deep end of what does the drinking and smoking replace for me? What is the emotional attachment to it? What am I avoiding? What emotions am I trying to bypass with these habits?

It was deep. It was hard. It was hard to look at myself. Even talking about it today, when I'm reflecting on my behaviors in the past associated with those two things, I have a sense of shame. But logically I don't. I love myself 100%, but thinking about those memories, I'm like, "Oh my god, the embarrassment." I remember the good thing now is that I don't overdrink. I maybe enjoy a cocktail here or there. I've never picked up a cigarette since then, but I didn't “quit drinking completely”. I just cut it down massively and walked away from that. I just do it if I'm having dinner or something, but I was still smoking. So, I was still replacing and bypassing emotions.

I began to realize the toll that it was playing on my running, my ability, my lung capacity. I realized that it was affecting my sleep. I couldn't sleep well. Like, I woke up super groggy and congested. When I hadn't drank anything, I would wake up and feel like I had the worst hangover from a cigarette. And that really was the indication to me that I needed to just put it down once and for all. And so I did that a couple decades ago. And I’ve never picked one up since then.

Jessi:

I'm in awe. What an incredible story. And I resonate with so much of what you said, especially navigating how to find what we need within ourselves. It can be very, very difficult and painful to look at the things we don't want to look at. But such an important part of healing in a lasting way, like you said, not just swapping things out. That's kind of what can happen if you're like, "Okay, I'm just going to deal with the smoking." It can show up in a lot of other ways if you're not dealing with what's driving the addictive behavior.

And I think it's just awesome that you've done the work. It wasn't easy, but you stuck with it and you've gotten to somewhere that you're happy with now, right? How would you compare where you're at now to where you were at?

Lynn:

Night and day.

Jessi:

Yep.

Lynn:

Night and day. And you know, it makes me think about my brother-in-law. At one point, he was a big smoker. And he stopped smoking and he took up sucking on suckers. He just replaced the habit. Sugar is just as bad, right? And then I see people gain weight because they're replacing it with food. I think that everyone has that process in today's society.

I think that younger generations than me are more enlightened to this information. You have access to the internet. You have access to all these resources that are out there. And so your awareness is so much greater than what ours was back before all this technology. And so we can hear these stories and it can resonate. You have this awareness like “Oh am I replacing this or how many addictive behaviors do I have?” Because I can guarantee you that if you are smoking there are probably other distracting behaviors to avoid feeling the feelings that need to be addressed.
And the great thing about it is this work, quitting smoking and working with women like you to help people do that. It's not just addressing the smoking, it's addressing all of those behaviors so that you're not going to fall into another destructive habit or behavior that you're going to have to get over down the line.

Jessi:

Yeah. You know, you're talking about the younger generation maybe having some more awareness, but sometimes the awareness isn't enough. It's almost ..… it can be so hard. It's like note-taking. You're like “I'm just watching myself bomb this and make all these mistakes.” And you have this awareness. It can be hard to move out of that phase. So, I'm wondering what kind of tools did you have to come into self-love? I know some of it is just practice of course, but maybe a tool that you even still use to center into yourself to find that calmness, that peace within.
Lynn:

The one thing is you're absolutely right. Awareness is not the key to transformation. Awareness is understanding that you have a problem that you need to solve and being able to see it. It's not that you have the solution through awareness. It's like becoming aware that it's an issue, right? So then it's finding the modality that works best for you.
I have created the Evolution 10X Method. Now, it's not specifically for smokers. It's a transformational program and that's where I have compiled all of the ingredients for success. So I'm going to tell you there's a few things that need to happen.

First, you need to have a basic understanding around how the brain works, Brain 101. I'm not talking about crazy deep dives into how neuropathways work or understanding that you just need somebody to help you understand it so you can move through and make the changes effortlessly. I have the deep understanding. So that people that want to quit smoking, you don't need to understand everything about the brain.

So just having that nice understanding of the brain science and how it works and how you get into that to begin with. How you get into that loop and that cycle is so important and so valuable. And that information can probably be found in a number of places. That alone helps you understand your triggers, the emotions, how it flows through your brain. Why it's a subconscious behavior and not a logical brain, right? It's not a frontal lobe behavior. It's a habit, a deeply ingrained habit, like brushing your teeth.

And the thing to really understand about the brain is that it's going off of your identity. So, your subconscious is going to create the behaviors around your identities. So, if you're identifying as a smoker, you're going to smoke. So, the first thing is to not identify as a smoker anymore. And some people have success saying, "I'm a non-smoker." That's okay. But at the same time, it's not as powerful as not having smoking in your identity at all. Because it's kind of like, “I'm an alcoholic. I'm always going to be an Alcoholic.” It’s what they say in AA. You're going to be fighting against that bottle of whiskey every step you make. So, if you're like, “I'm a former smoker.” Then you're always going to be arguing against that pack of cigarettes. So, there's a high chance that you're going to fall back into smoking.

One of the close girlfriends that I had that I was a big smoker with, she had to quit before me because she had some sinus issues that she needed to have surgery on. And they said, "You’ve got to give up smoking." She gave up smoking for seven years. She was a non-smoker, but she always identified as a smoker. She said it's her best friend. She missed it every single day because on a core level identity, she was always a smoker. She never released that identity. And so 7 years later, I ran into her. And there she was smoking again because she never released that identity on a subconscious level. So that's the one thing that you really need to be able to do is reprogram those neural pathways. So that takes me into the second thing.

The second thing is that you need a strong method. I incorporate the brain science of it all through. I'm a Master Certified Hypnotist teaching you how to create new neuropathways to support that behavior. Right now I'm in the process. I've never done it before, but I'm in the process of building a short hypnosis package for smokers because I know there are so many people out there that want to quit. And it's an immediate, very transformational way to create new neural pathways and not smoke again.

But like everything, it's a habit. So the more consistent you do that hypnosis, the more powerful it will become and then it will be easier for you to leave behind the habit and letting go of self judgment. You just got to let go of it. Like not seeing falling back into that behavior as a failure, but more as being out of integrity. So, let me get back in. Because I know a lot of smokers will start and stop and start. I've started so many times and they'll get 13 days in, 30 days in. And that's what creates that resistance. The truth is when you stop smoking out of external circumstances, meaning when you put down a cigarette and you're like, “I'm going to quit smoking” and you are trying to quit a behavior by not buying or not smoking, you're not getting to the core level habit. You're not reprogramming the habit to begin with. You're trying to work from willpower. Willpower is very finite. I'm just going to break this down really quick.

Jessi:

Sure.

Lynn:

When you are operating from willpower, it is taking brain energy, literally brain energy. So this means your brain only has finite energy. It comes from fueling, hydration, good sleep, exercise, creating a healthy habit. If you are tired, if you are overly emotional, experiencing heavy emotions. If you are drinking, if you are not eating enough and fueling your body, your body is going to use up so much of that physical energy that your brain is not going to have the ability to make a decision for a new neural pathway. It's going to resort every time to the old behavior.

At the end of the day, you're in the car and you've had a really busy day at work. You haven't eaten enough food. You're stressed out and traffic's a nightmare. Your brain is it has expelled all of its energy on your physical life that it's not going to be able to make a decision to stay in integrity to a new neural pathway because it doesn't have the physical energy. So, it will resort back to the old behavior. So, you'll find yourself thinking about smoking and traffic and then you're like, "Oh, I'll just stop and get a pack." I mean, we've all freaking done it.

Jessi:

Oh, yeah.

Lynn:

And no judgment, but this is just the brain science behind it. So when you use hypnosis, it's going to solidify that new neural pathway much easier. It's not going to be expelling as much energy to make that decision because you're going to the core level. Does that make sense?

Jessi:

Totally. Yeah. because this is really deep ingrained stuff. It takes time to change patterns, especially when you're doing it on your own and you just kind of have to drill that into yourself.

Lynn:

And I'm going to tell you, don't waste time doing this on your own, y'all, because it's more expensive. Here's the way I think about it. If there is a coach like you out there coaching this stuff, even if it's like a $300, $1,200 investment, what is it costing you every year that you don't stop smoking?
And it's not just in cigarettes. What is it costing you in your relationship, in your health? What is it costing you at the grocery store? What is it costing you in doctor's visits? It is so much more expensive even than just the financial. But look at that. People are like, "Oh, well, I can't afford it." But yet, they'll go out and buy a carton of cigarettes, right? like do the numbers. What is it costing you?
It is so much easier and so much more successful to have somebody behind you that has already paved the road, that has already gotten through all that to help identify how you're going to get through it. It's such a waste of time, I personally believe, to try and do it alone.

Jessi:

It helps to have outside perspectives because that was a huge part of my journey was just having people paint that picture of what love really is. Because I had no self-love and I didn't even know where to start. And so by surrounding myself with people that cared about me and people that cared about themselves, I was able to learn and see them model it and then learn it for myself. Because it was just so inaccessible to me until I had people that recognized my gifts and my strengths and even loved me with my weaknesses too. They were able to accept me for who I really am because until then it was so conditional. That's why I was stressing myself out so much was trying to, you know, perform. So, it's really nice when you can just like be real with somebody and show your ugly side and you get through it together.

Lynn:

I agree. I don't know if you experienced this, but smoking was so self-deprecating to me. I knew it was disgusting. I knew it was awful and I projected that onto myself. Just thinking back how much that I was disgusted in my behavior. How, like I said before, I felt shame around it. It was embarrassing. There's nothing more inappropriate than getting up from a dinner table at a restaurant and going outside to smoke. Come on. No self-control. There was just so much that I attached to that habit that I took personally.

Jessi:

Yeah. And you're missing out when you go to do that. You're missing out on the moment and that connection with other people and so much more, you know, just enjoying your meal, feeling good. I can definitely resonate with that and the the shame is a huge part of it. So you had mentioned that, because I've gone through this myself even, where I didn't want to talk about my experience because there was so much shame in it. I was like “Oh I just want to move on with life and I never was a smoker.” I think there is some really big value to that like you were saying because then you're not stuck in that identity anymore. But I realized it was something I needed to talk about to process for myself and hopefully set that example for others that there is a path out because stories of people quitting meant so much to me when I was in it. It was that glimmer of hope that I could have something other than this, you know. So, it really made a big difference in my life.

And I've turned how I look at my experience smoking now where I actually see the meaning in it. Whereas before it was just like, “Oh, I'm just a bad person and I made mistakes.” And it had all this weight to it. Where now, I see it as I could only get to where I am now because I did it the way I went. There's no other way to get where I am and I love where I am.

So I'm kind of wondering how you work with that, with that regret, with that guilt? How maybe you've been able to transform that? Of course, there's still a little bit lingering you said but I'm sure it's gotten better with your practices?

Lynn:

Here's the thing about the brain. Your subconscious remembers everything since birth. Your frontal lobe, your logical brain, it has a very finite memory. But your subconscious remembers everything since birth. Your subconscious is where you hold all your memories, you hold all your emotions and your feelings.

So when you are talking about the past, it's going to bring those emotions up. You're tapping into memories and your subconscious speaks in sensory. So it's thinking this is happening right now because it doesn't know the difference between the past and the future. It's okay for me when I'm talking about it to have that shame. That's associated with how my subconscious works. It doesn't mean that I still am holding on to the shame.

The past doesn't exist. It happened, but it doesn't exist. So, I have no attachment to my past. But when I am talking about things from my past and think about it like this. I took my father through in-home hospice to transition through cancer. I can sit here and I can talk about it. I have grieved. I do not hold any attachment to it. But if I were to sit here and talk about it, I would start crying because my subconscious is tapping into that memory. And it thinks that it is happening right now. So letting go of the judgment that you're going to experience those emotions and just understanding that yeah, that's totally natural. That's what my brain's supposed to do. It's supposed to have that shame and regret and stuff, but that doesn't mean it is attached to who I am now.

Jessi:

That makes a lot of sense.

Lynn:

Just going, "Yeah, when I share these stories, when I talk about these things, it's going to bring up all those emotions that I feel.” But it doesn't mean that they are real in the now and you're not attached to it.

Jessi:

So, you're not living that out every day, stuck in that emotional zone. Yeah. And I'm curious when you're talking about all those emotions. So, a huge part of me being able to move forward and to stop turning to smoking to solve all my problems, especially my emotional needs, was me learning how to accept and integrate emotions into my life. And I'm wondering if that was a part of the process for you, too. You know, being able to deal with anger and sadness instead of pushing it away.

Lynn:

Girl, I was just talking about this on my TikTok this morning. I was the queen of emotional bypassing. I never showed anger, resentment, nothing like that. I hid everything. I tucked everything away. It's so bad for your health. I mean, I paid the price. I didn't express I didn't even express love really. If I look back, I didn't know how to express any emotion, not just kind of the deeper, harder ones and more painful ones. I couldn't even express the beautiful light-hearted ones. Being able to understand what the emotional trigger is and then saying, "Okay, I'm in overwhelm." Overwhelm means that I'm trying to do too much and I'm struggling with my perfectionism. So, I'm trying to do everything and I'm trying to do everything well. How do I resolve this? How do I look at that list? How do I prioritize? How do I understand where I am now to move through that emotion and really deal with it? I'm anxious. I'm sad. What am I sad about? What am I doing? You know, and being able to express, you never express an emotion at somebody. Like, you never get angry at somebody. You learn how to work through your anger privately and then move through it and don't get stuck in it. Some people call it, I guess, emotional intelligence. I don't know what I call it.

Jessi:

Yeah, that's a nice way to put it.

Lynn:

I think so many of us and especially women are taught that being vulnerable is bad, that it's dangerous. And so we learn how to wear a very strong mask. And I would say the very first thing to begin to do to overcoming and learning how to connect to your feelings is when identifying having that awareness, I feel sad.
And instead of picking up a cigarette, going up to your bedroom and closing the door and screaming into the pillow and allowing yourself to cry and just let it out. Don't get stuck in it. Don't let it snowball and gain traction. Just allow the emotion to come out and then dust yourself off. Sit up. Start thinking about all the things that are amazing in your life, the things that you do have, the gratitude.
Jessi:

It helps to release it. I think that if you fight it, then you're kind of wrestling with it. You're more intertwined. It's harder to let go. It might seem like it's gone temporarily, but really it's like living inside your body.

Lynn:

Mhm.

Jessi:

Something like that: crying, yelling, physically letting it out of your body. It's kind of like there's an energy to it. It sounds like you were really disconnected from your emotional state, your emotional zone, expressing. There was a cost to it; you weren't able to experience the “good emotions” or you know the ones that really keep us motivated. Even though there's beauty in the tough ones too.
I'm wondering about that with your intuition. You were talking a lot about self-care, the importance of self-care in keeping your body and your mind in a state that where you're able to consciously make choices and feel a little bit more in control. It's not a tight grip kind of control. But just getting a better awareness, knowing what your options are and choosing a choice that actually aligns with what you want in your life. And to me, that sounds a lot like intuition as well. And I'm kind of wondering how intuition has played a role in you quitting and your life since quitting.

Lynn:

I'm going to go back to awareness. So, there's three levels of thought. And the first one is just thinking. That's when you're running on autopilot and you're just doing the habit: smoking, walking around your day, just allowing your subconscious to run the show.

The second level is awareness. So awareness is when you recognize the areas that you're running on autopilot or that this is habit and this is something I have to change.

The third level is consciousness. Consciousness is having the power to see the bigger picture and how it plays out. Not just from your myopic view of who you are, but who you are in a society in a world and how that operates and also outside of this world.

I am non-dogmatic. I don't subscribe to any form of dogma or religion. But I do know that I am more than this physical body. That I am a cosmic luminous being. That this life was not the beginning of me and nor is it the end of me. When you begin to know on a core level that you are more than this physical body and it is just a pinky finger of who you truly are in this vast energetic biosphere, then you can begin to understand the power that you have to create anything that you desire. And you can understand the way the brain works and that it's just another organ. That I don't have to make decisions based on the patterns and predictability that it has programmed for me since birth. That being uncomfortable is okay and I can make decisions and I will make decisions that are scary and uncomfortable. And I will move in that direction because that direction is always going to be the path of love. It's going to be the path of the things that I desire in life. It's going to be the things that I want to manifest in my life.

A lot of people try to escape discomfort by doing stuff like “Oh just meditate your way through it or put your feet in some earth.” The truth is that those are great practices, but true enlightenment is a state of being. Meditation is a state of being. It's a state of inner calmness. And so when we have the ability to do that, then that inner critic and that stress and anxiety is quieted. And you go throughout your day making decisions based on the power of possibility, knowing that anything's possible at any given time. And you don't hold attachments to outcomes, but more enjoy the journey and you're able to just live in a state of calmness.

I want to stress here; that doesn't mean I don't express emotions or I don't have emotions. I still have really hard days. I have stressful days. I have a lot to do on my plate. I take care of my 88-year-old mother. I take care of our house. I have a very successful business I run. There are things that I have to do and sometimes it gets stressful. Sometimes I get overwhelmed. Sometimes I get sad. But the thing is having the tools to be able to navigate it condenses that time where it might have been a day or a week of it into a matter of 10 minutes, maybe an hour at the most where you navigate through that and you learn how to adjust to it, calm and move forward.

Jessi:

I think that going through addiction and coming out the other side really builds resilience and it's so much easier for me to bounce back from things now. I don't stay in that state of stress where I'm just smoking, smoking, smoking, just stuffing it down, hoping it gets better. It's just something I experience. I'm like, "Okay." And then I have some tools to help bring me back and regulate and I'm able to move on. I found that for myself has been such a blessing because I had no way to to balance before. It was extremely difficult to just cope with life.

I think that's really beautifully said. I'm wondering if you have any final words for listeners. Maybe they've tried to quit but haven't been successful. What would you say to encourage them or to just offer some advice?

Lynn:

Well, I know that it's really difficult for a lot of people to envision what they want in the future and to dream like that's kind of a block that society has put on us. So, practicing dreaming, and I mean dreaming like daydreaming, like dreaming about what do I want my life to look like 12 months from now? Do you want to be sitting at a cafe in Paris watching people walking down the street? Do you want to have a tiny house that's off-grid run on solar? What is it that you want in this life? Can you envision that?

Because the way and the path there is not going to be through bypassing your emotions with habits like smoking. I'm just going to be completely honest; habits like that are a trap. It's a loop. It's going to keep you stuck in this dayto-day life cycle that's just keeping you struggling for every breath you take, every dollar you make. It's just like draining every part of your essence out of you. If you can start visualizing what you want 12 months from now, it can create more dynamic decisions today.
So my question would be where do you want to be 12 months from now? Where will you be 12 months from now if you do not stop smoking? Do the numbers. Calculate how much money you will have spent. How many relationships or precious moments will you have sacrificed again? And then multiply that times five and tell me what you get. I would love for them to comment below and share that. Share with us how much money and relationships and happiness would it cost you and then make the decision that this is it. Declare it. Declare it to yourself. And find the help because if you haven't been successful in the past alone, you're going to get the same failed results this next time. So hire somebody to help you.

Jessi:

Inspiring words. Thank you. How can people get in touch with you and work with you? And do you want to talk more about your work?

Lynn:

I think that everyone has probably gotten a good idea of who I am and how I operate. I do have a freebie that if you go to my website, you can download.

Jessi:

We'll have a link below.

Lynn:

The thing is it's about finance, but what I'm going to tell you is it's so valuable because it has concepts in there that instead of listening about money, you can apply to smoking. It's very universal information. So, you can download that.

Jessi:

Well, I can tell that you have a lot to share and a lot of guidance. Especially for someone that is stuck, that knows what's going on, but doesn’t know that step to take forward. You have a clear framework that can help someone move through that with any transformation too because quitting smoking is a major transformation. It's like anything else with that. It's a new phase of life and that's hard. It's hard to change. So, I appreciate the work you're doing.

Lynn:

Thank you. Thanks for having me on.

Jessi:

Thank you so much for your vulnerability. Vulnerability is a strength and you came out here. You poured out your heart in a way that is raw and honest and that really means a lot to those that are in it. And it means a lot to me. So, thank you for sharing your time and your wisdom with us.

Lynn:

You're welcome.

Jessi:

Okay, everyone. I'll see you next week. Take care.

End of interview.

Jessi:

I hope today's story inspired you as much as it did me. When we hear stories like this, it's a powerful reminder that change is possible. If you're ready to start taking those steps for yourself, I'd love to help.

I put together a free minicourse called How to Survive a Craving to help you access tools to get through temporary cravings and hold fast to your true desire to quit smoking. This course is the stuff I wish I knew when I was practicing quitting, and I've put what worked for me in one place for you. You can grab the minicourse right now by visiting honoryourheart.net/craving.

Until next time, remember to treat yourself with kindness and to cherish the gifts of your heart. I'll talk with you soon. Thank you.

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