Mark Stephens is my new guru. I spent almost an hour on the telephone with Mark on Monday morning – his enthusiasm and genuine commitment to helping people to quit smoking, was just what I needed to get back on track.
After speaking to Mark Stephens (pictured), I have no doubt his desire to help people to live healthier, happier lives is genuine. While it is true that he has turned his passion into a business, he is also conscious of the fact that not everyone can afford the $297 price tag attached to the Think Quit MP4 (previously MP3) player.
“Even though they might spend $100 a week on cigarettes or $400 a month, some people still can’t afford $300,” said Mark. “Where $24.99 for a book to help people to prepare to stop smoking, with a few hypnosis session downloads and a whole lot of motivation strategies included, will help many more to stop smoking.”
Mark Stephens is himself an ex-smoker. He started smoking in his teens and quit after he coughed up a golf ball size lump of tar from his lungs during an asthma attack. Later he would build a career out of counselling smokers one-on-one, before realising he could help more people with the Think Quit MP3 player and even more with a book.
Since the author of The Road Less Traveled, M. Scott Peck passed away in 2006 (oddly enough from lung cancer), I have been searching for a new guru/mentor – and Mark Stephens certainly has all the credentials required of the job.
In 1990 Mark was diagnosed with a rapidly growing lymphoma (a type of cancer) and at one point doctors told him he only had six months to live. Using conventional medicine and his knowledge of Ju-Jutsu, Tai Chi, Chi Kung, Shiatzu, Hypnosis and Neuro Linguistic Programming, Mark made a complete recovery and has remained fit and healthy for almost twenty years. He now devotes his time to helping others to live a healthier and happier life.
A few years ago Mark created the Think Quit MP3 Player based on the one-on-one counselling sessions he’d been providing for quite some time to individual clients. Like all the ‘think’ programs – Mark is also the creator of Think Slim, Think Sleep, Think Calm and Phobia Free – Think Quit is an audio program which comes preloaded on an MP3 (now MP4) player. Some of you may remember Mark’s infomercials which appeared on Australian television.
During our telephone conversion, Mark offered to send me the Think Quit, Think Slim and Think Sleep programs on MP4 free of charge. After I mentioned my 21 year old son also has sleep problems, Mark offered to send an additional copy of the Think Sleep program so we wouldn’t have to share – that’s over a thousand dollars worth of life changing programs free of charge and with no obligations whatsoever. But that’s just the type of guy Mark is – after I took it upon myself to road test the Think Quit book and write about it, he wanted to say thank you.
Although Mark told me I’m under no obligation to either use, or write about any of the programs he’s offered to send to me free of charge, I’m looking forward to test driving all of them over the coming months. And yes, I will be writing about my experiences with each of these programs on Australian Women Online.
For reasons which I will not go into here, I spent the first 40 years of my life neglecting my health and well being – but not anymore. If I can inspire just one or two people to also start caring about themselves, then I would have achieved my goal.
It’s all very exciting really because come September (my 41st birthday) I could look and feel like a brand new woman – healthier, calmer and happier than I’ve ever been! Thank you Mark Stephens.
After speaking to Mark yesterday, I actually cut back on the number of cigarettes smoked on Day Three to just 15, which is about half of what I usually smoke. I even went out for a couple of hours around midday and left my smokes at home. If you’re a smoker you would know how unthinkable it is to even contemplate leaving the house without your packet of cigarettes. But by using the deep breathing exercises in the Think Quit book, I was able to stay calm the whole time. This was an experiment to see if I could manage without the smokes and I was surprised to learn that I could.
But make no mistake, smoking is a powerful addiction – psychologically it’s possibly the most addictive habit there is. There are all sorts of nicotine replacement therapies available these days to deal with the physical addiction to nicotine. But it’s the psychological addiction that has sabotaged all our unsuccessful attempts to quit.
“That’s the hard part for a lot of people,” said Mark. “The habit has been reinforced again and again, and if you’ve had ten thousand cigarettes with coffee and then all of a sudden you’re sitting there without a cigarette, you feel like something’s missing. But the reality is your body’s not meant to have cigarette smoke in it. It’s highly toxic and everybody knows that. Part of the message in the book is trying to drive that point home without spending pages and pages on it.”
For the first time since I started this whole thing, I’m actually looking forward to what tomorrow brings. Please do join me for DAY FOUR.
Related Posts:
Think Quit: smoke free forever by Mark Stephens is published by Allen & Unwin and is available now at book retailers across Australia (RRP $24.99). ‘Think Quit’ will be released in the United States in June 2010.
Photo credit: www.thinkquit.com.au
YOU CAN BUY THIS BOOK ONLINE AT:
Amazon.com – release date June 2010
Print This Page
I honestly think 40 is a turning point for people. Suddenly, we feel ‘older’. Our bodies and minds don’t cope with the rigours of a substandard lifestyle and begin to turn to a) mush b) lethargy and c) serious disease.
I think most of us live a substandard lifestyle in our early twenties and even thirties – and come 40, we have the ephipany that health is EVERYTHING and we just can’t keep going on with an unhealthy lifestyle. Our bodies just start packing it in on us, and along with that – our minds.
Living a healthy, happy, disease-free life is a CHOICE and although I’m by no means insinuating it’s easy, it is WORTH every single (sometimes agonising) step.
Applauding you all the way, Deb. Great to hear you are feeling so positive and well done on the ciggie cut!