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Yale graduate student Michelle Morgan started smoking at age 12. When the 35-year-old wanted to quit she tried everything from cold turkey to medications, but nothing worked.

Then Morgan saw a flyer for a research study on mindfulness-based smoking cessation. She qualified and enrolled.

In weekly sessions Dr. Judson Brewer, associate professor of medicine psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, taught Morgan to smoke mindfully by keeping a journal about how she experienced the taste of the cigarette, its odors and her bodily sensations and cravings while she smoked.

Morgan thought this was ridiculous.

I remember thinking this is hokey and its not going to work, she recalled.

Yet, when prompted to quit several weeks into the trial, Morgan smoked her last cigarette. That was 4 years ago.

According to Brewers research, Morgan isnt alone in her success.

In randomized controlled trials, mindful techniques were more than twice as effective American Lung Associations Freedom from Smoking treatment, the current gold standard. And Brewer claimed he has demonstrated that mindful awareness training is at least as effective as current treatments with helping patients quit alcohol, cocaine, and gambling.

However, Dr. Peter Shields, the deputy director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at Ohio State University is skeptical.

Read more:
How One Woman Used Meditation to Quit Smoking