Congratulations on your decision to quit smoking. It is a very positive change that you bring to your life and you will be amazed at the quality of life you will be able to enjoy without your dependence on nicotine.However, nicotine is a very addictive symptom and can make quitting smoking difficult. It is important for you to know what to expect when you quit smoking so that you are able to handle it effectively. Don't be surprised if you suffer from withdrawal symptoms for up to 10 days after you quit. It is normal for you to feel the symptoms of flu, upset stomach, etc. when you quit smoking. You are also likely to be irritable, anxious, angry and even depressed soon after you quit smoking. These symptoms will pass. You may want to consult a doctor if you are concerned about the effects of these symptoms on your health.[]
There are a number of quit smoking aids available that can help you give up your smoking habit. These aids include nicotine patches, hypnosis, counseling, herbal and non herbal medication. You may want to consult your physician and choose one of the aids that suit you the best.
The chain smoking. All the name suggests, smoke a few cigarettes consecutively, without stopping. Once you are done with the first stick, go on to the second, then third, etc. You will feel so terrible after the third stick (or more) that you would want to quit smoking immediately! The idea behind this is to create a horrible taste in your mouth that you feel that that would be the last stick in your mouth!
Start exercising. This will help channel the excess energy you feel and make you fit as well. This should also lead you to drink some water, that is a great cleanser for your body.Stay busy. This will help you keep your mind off smoking and getting tired by the end of the day will help you sleep better. There are countless activities if you take the time to think about them. What can you do at home ? What can you do outside ? Even the smallest task needs focus, and you are not thinking about smoking during this time.
If you have stopped smoking in the past and not felt much of a desire, then you may well fall into the same pattern whenever you make an attempt to stop.The best way to help yourself when quitting smoking is by deliberately inducing your desire to smoke, so that you can retrain yourself to manage it and consciously accept it. This might look as though you are making things more difficult for yourself, but in fact you are simply facing up to a difficulty that already exists.Inducing a desire to smoke is a conscious mental exercise. It means deliberately interrupting your thoughts about the other things in your life, and, with your cigarette packet in front of you, focusing on the feelings inside you of wanting to smoke.There is a reason you are avoiding feeling your desire to smoke: you are no doubt afraid of it because you think it might make you smoke. You see it as an enemy, a nuisance and an unnecessary pain. When you deliberately induce it, you break down this negativity and fear, and turn the desire into something you have power over.
Whenever you find yourself having a craving, give yourself something to do. This can include anything that is healthy, from drinking water to exercise.Remember, you did not always believe that you were a smoker, but you still believe it at the moment. NOW, you can reverse this believe again and start to believe that you can again become the non-smoker that you have been before.As a smoker wanting to stop smoking, you are in a state of conflict. On one hand, you have an addictive desire to smoke. On the other, you want to stop satisfying it by smoking.Stopping smoking and staying stopped depend on how you resolve this conflict.As soon as you have smoked your last cigarette with the intention to quit, the conflict you feel could be deep and last for several hours. You may question yourself over and over again, asking yourself if you really do want to stop smoking, and whether this really is the right time to do it. You may spend hours trying to figure out a good excuse to justify smoking for just a little bit longer, or just one more...
Sometimes people flirt with smoking, testing their limits to the point of putting a cigarette in their mouth and lighting a match. It's not necessary to go this far: just looking at cigarettes in the pack should be enough for you to get in touch with your choice and desire to smoke them.
Out of Sight, but Not Out of Mind.Some people avoid resolving this conflict by ignoring their desire and quite often feel confident that they have conquered their addiction. One of the more unhelpful things about repression is that, at the time you use it, it appears to be effective, and is therefore rarely perceived as being a problem.You can see from your own experience that it is a problem, though, if you have ever stopped before. The first cigarette you smoked when you went back to smoking was preceded by a desire to smoke, even though you may have only been dimly aware of that desire at the time.
For other people, repression only becomes a problem a few days or weeks after stopping. What happens is that the desire is so persistent at first that it is impossible to repress it, but as it fades in strength and frequency, it becomes increasingly possible to ignore it altogether.After a few weeks into quitting smoking, you might need to induce your desire to smoke only once or twice a day. But it's important to do so because it's only while you stay in touch with your desire to smoke that you can stay in control of it.
Take advantage of familiar situations where you would have smoked, such as the end of a meal, as opportunities to induce your desire. Instead of jumping up from the table to get on with the washing-up, sit there for a while, as you would have done, let yourself feel your desire to smoke and think through your choice not to smoke - for now.Later on, as you become more familiar with these methods of how to quit smoking, your desire may only last a few seconds, but making a deliberate effort to acknowledge it by inducing it can make the difference between success and failure in the long term.If you lead a very busy life, inducing your desire will be especially important. Busy people can stop smoking for days or weeks, barely aware of their desire to smoke in the background of their crowded minds. But just because you don't take the time to deal with it properly, the desire doesn't vanish; it keeps coming, like a nagging child demanding attention. Or it can suddenly and unexpectedly explode, perhaps at a time of crisis, arid, because your conscious mind hasn't practiced dealing with it, you can suddenly find yourself on the verge of smoking.If you stop to induce a desire - and this only takes a few moments - you give your desire the attention it requires. As a result it becomes easy to live with and, most important of all, you are in control of it.
There are a number of quit smoking aids available that can help you give up your smoking habit. These aids include nicotine patches, hypnosis, counseling, herbal and non herbal medication. You may want to consult your physician and choose one of the aids that suit you the best.
The chain smoking. All the name suggests, smoke a few cigarettes consecutively, without stopping. Once you are done with the first stick, go on to the second, then third, etc. You will feel so terrible after the third stick (or more) that you would want to quit smoking immediately! The idea behind this is to create a horrible taste in your mouth that you feel that that would be the last stick in your mouth!
Start exercising. This will help channel the excess energy you feel and make you fit as well. This should also lead you to drink some water, that is a great cleanser for your body.Stay busy. This will help you keep your mind off smoking and getting tired by the end of the day will help you sleep better. There are countless activities if you take the time to think about them. What can you do at home ? What can you do outside ? Even the smallest task needs focus, and you are not thinking about smoking during this time.
If you have stopped smoking in the past and not felt much of a desire, then you may well fall into the same pattern whenever you make an attempt to stop.The best way to help yourself when quitting smoking is by deliberately inducing your desire to smoke, so that you can retrain yourself to manage it and consciously accept it. This might look as though you are making things more difficult for yourself, but in fact you are simply facing up to a difficulty that already exists.Inducing a desire to smoke is a conscious mental exercise. It means deliberately interrupting your thoughts about the other things in your life, and, with your cigarette packet in front of you, focusing on the feelings inside you of wanting to smoke.There is a reason you are avoiding feeling your desire to smoke: you are no doubt afraid of it because you think it might make you smoke. You see it as an enemy, a nuisance and an unnecessary pain. When you deliberately induce it, you break down this negativity and fear, and turn the desire into something you have power over.
Whenever you find yourself having a craving, give yourself something to do. This can include anything that is healthy, from drinking water to exercise.Remember, you did not always believe that you were a smoker, but you still believe it at the moment. NOW, you can reverse this believe again and start to believe that you can again become the non-smoker that you have been before.As a smoker wanting to stop smoking, you are in a state of conflict. On one hand, you have an addictive desire to smoke. On the other, you want to stop satisfying it by smoking.Stopping smoking and staying stopped depend on how you resolve this conflict.As soon as you have smoked your last cigarette with the intention to quit, the conflict you feel could be deep and last for several hours. You may question yourself over and over again, asking yourself if you really do want to stop smoking, and whether this really is the right time to do it. You may spend hours trying to figure out a good excuse to justify smoking for just a little bit longer, or just one more...
Sometimes people flirt with smoking, testing their limits to the point of putting a cigarette in their mouth and lighting a match. It's not necessary to go this far: just looking at cigarettes in the pack should be enough for you to get in touch with your choice and desire to smoke them.
Out of Sight, but Not Out of Mind.Some people avoid resolving this conflict by ignoring their desire and quite often feel confident that they have conquered their addiction. One of the more unhelpful things about repression is that, at the time you use it, it appears to be effective, and is therefore rarely perceived as being a problem.You can see from your own experience that it is a problem, though, if you have ever stopped before. The first cigarette you smoked when you went back to smoking was preceded by a desire to smoke, even though you may have only been dimly aware of that desire at the time.
For other people, repression only becomes a problem a few days or weeks after stopping. What happens is that the desire is so persistent at first that it is impossible to repress it, but as it fades in strength and frequency, it becomes increasingly possible to ignore it altogether.After a few weeks into quitting smoking, you might need to induce your desire to smoke only once or twice a day. But it's important to do so because it's only while you stay in touch with your desire to smoke that you can stay in control of it.
Take advantage of familiar situations where you would have smoked, such as the end of a meal, as opportunities to induce your desire. Instead of jumping up from the table to get on with the washing-up, sit there for a while, as you would have done, let yourself feel your desire to smoke and think through your choice not to smoke - for now.Later on, as you become more familiar with these methods of how to quit smoking, your desire may only last a few seconds, but making a deliberate effort to acknowledge it by inducing it can make the difference between success and failure in the long term.If you lead a very busy life, inducing your desire will be especially important. Busy people can stop smoking for days or weeks, barely aware of their desire to smoke in the background of their crowded minds. But just because you don't take the time to deal with it properly, the desire doesn't vanish; it keeps coming, like a nagging child demanding attention. Or it can suddenly and unexpectedly explode, perhaps at a time of crisis, arid, because your conscious mind hasn't practiced dealing with it, you can suddenly find yourself on the verge of smoking.If you stop to induce a desire - and this only takes a few moments - you give your desire the attention it requires. As a result it becomes easy to live with and, most important of all, you are in control of it.
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