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10 Steps for Quitting Smoking
By Brandon | Last edited: July 13, 2008
It is common knowledge these days that smoking is one of the most deadly habits that anyone can pick up. With the thousands of chemicals present in each cigarette, each one consumed shortens one life a little bit more. Yet, despite these dangers, many continue the habit. Whether it be due to simply not caring about the side effects or the fact that the nicotine is just too addictive varies between individuals. For those looking to put this habit to the curb and quit smoking, this guide has ten steps that will help you on your way.
Here are 10 basic steps to kick the ghastly habit from your life, forever.
1. Inhale and breathe deeply. Every time you reach for that stick, pause for a mini deep breathing session. Take lung fulls of air and slowly exhale. You might even enjoy doing this after a while when you gradually increase the time for each breath. In fact, this method can help you combat other types of stresses like depression.
2. Destroy all those white sticks of trouble. Make a bonfire of all the cigarettes in your home and buy only one stick when you have strong desires to smoke.
3. No sugar, coffee or even alcohol. Foods like these will boost your desire for a cigarette. You have to be extra cautious with what you eat because your whole metabolism will undergo a change.
4. Drink like there will be no water tomorrow. You must take as many fluids as you can every single hour of the day because they help a lot to curb your smoking habit. Fluids also help in flushing toxins and nicotine from your system.
5. The more time you spend being idle, the more will be your urge to smoke, so always keep yourself occupied with some activity that you enjoy. Cultivate hobbies if you do not have any like reading, musical instruments, or play a sport. The urge to take that puff lasts for a few minutes and if you are occupied elsewhere, it passes.
6. Exercise. Exercise and Exercise! A healthy and tiring fitness regime can go a long way to even out all those winkles in your lifestyle. Join a gym and work out religiously. Play a sport with friends and family. These will also keep you occupied and focused. Not only does it relieve your body from stress, it helps it recover from the damage caused by smoking. The strain and exhaustion will strength your lungs too.
7. Eat throughout the day. Take in low calorie foods like apples and celery which you can chew. Also, increase time you take to finish one meal. Eat slowly so that the day passes and after the meal, don’t treat yourself to a cigarette, choose a pepper mint or a chewing gum.
8. Tell all your friends, family members, and even your colleagues at the office not to smoke in your company. This is much more important than you think because it is quite tempting to smoke when you see others smoking in your presence. As long as there is no cigarette smell around, it becomes much easier. This support is really helpful in times of depression and bursts of temper which might arise when you reach your limits.
9. Visit a hospital once a week and see the condition of all those patients who are suffering from smoking related ailments. Ask the doctor for x-rays of the lungs of smokers. Believe me, these will really shake you every time and smoking will then not seem as important. You could also write down ten to fifteen adverse effects of smoking cigarette every day.
10. Believe in yourself!! – This is perhaps the most important step because unless you learn to believe in yourself, you will not be able to face the extremely difficult hardships that you will face on your way to a smoke-free life. Until and unless you keep telling yourself that you can do it, it will not work. The main idea is that you have to be consistent and patient with yourself because no one can quit in a day. Climb the graph smoothly, not sharply. Tell yourself many times a day, things like – “ I am a non smoker!” or “Smoking kills 500,000 people a year, I will not become a part of that figure!”. You have to keep affirming yourself because in the end, it is your life.
These ten techniques are not the only methods that can help you to quit smoking, these are several other ways. But deciding on those ways can be troublesome and a really mammoth task. However, these steps are vital to begin the process at least. Not only these, you can even take advice from people you know, doctors, counselors, family members, and friends. It is not that you will not be able to quit, there are thousands of people who quit smoking every day (Sadly, thousands more who begin). You can even take advice from people who were smokers but due to various reasons quit the habit. Their experiences and how they managed to kill the habit from their lives can also give you an idea of how to go about this important task.
Some people may find these ten steps, not simple steps but really difficult hurdles to climb. These people have a success rate of ……well! Such people usually are not successful. What is more important is that the majority of smokers wanting to quit fall into this category. But this does not mean that they cannot quit smoking. What they can do is follow a really simple, though long and time-consuming strategy consisting of minor changes in the life of that person.