Throughout The Sessions we refer to addiction in italics. This is because addiction is one of these servants that calls themselves 'I'.

You should consider addiction as a separate entity, a rebel servant that needs a kick in the behind and out of the house for good. And since we are now focusing on your smoking addiction, let's make things simple forget about the other servants and deal with only two entities: you and addiction.

Please realize that addiction would like you to maintain your smoking habit, and it will do anything within its power to enforce its will on you.

Stop identifying yourself with addiction. When you say, for example, 'I enjoy smoking', be aware that this 'I' is not really you.

Start viewing addiction as a separate entity that is different from you, otherwise you will be torn from within. One part of you will give full support to your noble effort of quitting, regaining your health and control of your life. But another part will give you hell and convince you to take to smoking again.

You will be hearing conflicting messages from within, and it may very well be confusing.

Dissolve the confusion by realizing that these two different messages are coming from two separate entities, addiction and you.

Once you have accepted this, there is no longer any real conflict. You know what's good for you. You want to quit smoking.

Smoking is a premature death wish.

Life is what we have: we all want to live, and the survival instinct is incredibly strong. When our life is challenged by a real and immediate peril, extraordinary strength is unleashed from within. We fight for dear life like a beast - if it is necessary we can grow the razor-sharp fingernails of a jaguar, the tusks of a boar, or the swift feet of a deer. We are trained by nature to fight or take flight.

We are programmed to survive - to stick to dear life no matter what, even in the most unlikely of circumstances and against all odds.

You must have heard different stories about people surviving after they were lost in deserts or forests or the vast oceans. The physical body can endure an unimaginable toll and the human spirit will never give up. We are a die-hard species, which is why we are still here.