DO you smoke? Do you want to quit? Why do you smoke? And why do you want to quit?

I have been reading a brilliant book by Julia Cameron, called The Artist's Way: a Course in Discovering and Recovering your Creative Self (Pan Books, 1993).

Written for people who long to be able to draw or paint, write or compose music, it aims to unlock latent creativity. It's a 12-week course guiding you through a process of getting in touch with your creative self.

It struck me that a similar course for smokers might help them to get in touch with the parts of themselves that hate smoking and find the inner resources to quit.

Just as there are repressed creatives who have lost touch with their creativity, my hunch is that smokers have a creative power within themselves to stop smoking. In her book for blocked creative people, Cameron suggests two basic tools. The first is what she calls the morning pages: writing three pages of stream of consciousness every morning. Just write down whatever comes to mind.

Cameron reckons it is a magnificent tool for grounding you in the here and now. Your thoughts, your feelings, that ache in your shoulders, your relationships, complaints, griefs and joys. You show it to nobody. It's only for you. It is a "grounding" tool, helping your authentic self to emerge, undisputed, on the page.

The second tool is a weekly "artist date". You take two hours each week on your own - no hangers on - to enjoy yourself. You could have a sauna, climb a hill, walk by the sea, browse around a curiosity shop, go to a movie or listen to a lunchtime concert. I suggest that smokers might also use these tools: three pages of stream of consciousness writing each morning and a weekly "smoke free date" for two hours, during which time you explore new ways to treat yourself. (I'd be interested in hearing from people who try this how they get on.)

Since reading Cameron's book and wondering if its methods could be of use to smokers trying to unleash the hidden power within themselves to stop smoking, I have been astonished by the conversations I've had with people. It seems to me that a cigarette is like a key into a person's life. Like the non-smoker who suddenly took up smoking after a sporting injury. The self-employed man who went back on smoking during a time of intense work pressure. The old man who was told to choose between a cigarette and one of his legs. He chose the leg.

If smoking sometimes seems like a smokescreen behind which some people attempt to hide their true selves, by probing a bit into smokers' smoking habits, their attempts to give up, their successes and failures, whole lives can be laid bare in a few minutes. That smoking is a self-destructive habit is evident, most of all to smokers. "It's killing me," one man in his thirties said recently, but he keeps smoking. "I love smoking," said a man in his twenties, admitting that he coughs horribly every morning. "I'd love to stop smoking," says a mother. But her last attempt to quit scared her due to the physical and psychological effects of nicotine withdrawal. Initiatives to prevent or reduce smoking in the workplace not only make for a healthier workplace. They also help smokers to smoke less. Smokers tend to be able to cope with not smoking when smoking is not an option.

www.ash.ie/quitting.html

The Irish Cancer Society Quitline: 1850 201203

marms@irish-times.ie