The Growing Worldwide Team – Israel

We are so fortunate to have such an amazing group of people within Allen Carr’s Easyway organisation across the world. People who want to find out how to stop smoking easily sometimes find it really hard to imagine that it is possible. They are so used to attempts to quit smoking ending up feeling like a never-ending fight that leaves them feeling miserable and deprived of cigarettes. In their search for a way to stop smoking it can often be inspiring for them to hear how our team around the world has been brought together. This is another installment in a series of features that look at the journeys taken by members of Allen Carr’s Easyway To Quit Smoking Facilitator team; from being some of the most prolific smokers on the planet to becoming happy non-smokers and world-leaders in the field of stopping smoking.

Ramy Romanovsky, Allen Carr’s Easyway Israel writes:

I can only really remember myself being a smoker. At the age of 9 I convinced my Mum to give me a drag because I was so fascinated by the cigarette. Naturally I coughed and she was pleased thinking that I will never ever touch it again but at age 14 I started smoking full time.

As time passed by, as any smoker does, I promised myself to quit one day… but that day never seemed to come. When I joined the army my excuse was that I’d put off the day I’d quit until after I left the army. When I left the army I decided I should wait until I meet and fall in love with a girl that doesn’t like cigarettes before deciding to quit smoking. But all my non-smoking girlfriends started smoking under my influence. Later on I promised myself that when I reached my 30th birthday I would quit smoking, but that didn’t happen either. As I turned 31, 32, 33 I was ridiculed by my family members that said that I’m stuck at age 30 and I refuse to grow up so I won’t have to quit my filthy habit.

Although once I did manage to quit for a while, it was about 2 months. I took part in a 10 day meditation retreat in Australia where you were not allowed to speak, smoke or have any engagement with other participants. I was so carried away by the experience that the smoking cessation wasn’t really hard, and after that I enjoyed the semi-enlightened and healthy feeling and I didn’t want to ruin it with a cigarette. But…after a while that feeling went away and I felt deprived by not being able to smoke at all. In a special occasion in a luxurious dinner with 2 good friends one of them offered me to celebrate the occasion with one Marlboro at the end of the meal. And after that “only one” came another and another and another, the rest is history.

I first heard about the Allen Carr method from an Irish friend, she told me that “there’s this book you just read and at the end you just quit”. Well it sounded too good to be true, I didn’t do anything about it back then but then when it was translated to Hebrew and I read the great reviews I gave it a try. The truth is that I didn’t really wanted to quit at the time, I thought that I enjoyed smoking (about 30 a day) but to my surprise when I finished the book I smoked my last cigarette and…that was it.

My biggest surprise is that after that nothing happened, no cravings, no anxiety, or feeling of deprivation, something had changed in the way I think about smoking for good. My biggest surprise was that my wife kept on smoking a year after I quit and although I had the same brand I used to smoke available at our house on a daily basis it never even tempted me.

Three months afterwards I decided to leave everything I do and to bring the method to Israel, I felt like I had an amazing revelation and I wanted share it with everyone I know. Since then 4 years have passed and we helped thousands of people in Israel to break free and live a happier healthier life.

I think that the greatest thing about Allen’s method to stop smoking is that it focuses on the real problem – getting rid of the will to smoke. For a smoker it’s hard to imagine what it means to lose the desire to smoke, but it’s like finding out that you’ve been fooled for years living in a trap, and one day someone unlocks the chains and open the doors of your prison and sets you free for good. If you’re still trapped give it a try – you’ve got nothing to lose and so much to gain.

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For more information about how to get help to stop smoking with Allen Carr’s Easyway To Quit Smoking Clinics and how stop smoking easily rather than feeling like you have to give up smoking (and feel deprived) click on your country’s flag at the top of this page.
Did you find it easy to stop smoking rather than feeling like you had to quit smoking or sacrifice something? Maybe you could help to spread the word?
Do you know of anyone who you would like to help stop smoking? Tell them about this feature and if they mention it when they book a session at any one of our stop smoking clinics across the world they can obtain a 10% discount (not valid in conjunction with any other offer or promotion).