Ways To Quit Smoking
There are several different ways to quit smoking, from quit smoking hypnosis programs to smokers gum or patches, but most of them revolve around some form of nicotine replacement therapy – and unfortunately, as the statistics show, most of them don’t help you to quit smoking for good. The best ways to quit smoking that do work all involve some form of technique to help you change your habits associated with smoking cigarettes.
So, in order to find some ways to quit smoking that will work for you, you need to understand all your habits that involve smoking. The easiest way to do that is to write down everything that results in you smoking a cigarette.
The habits associated with smoking can be many, and include any habitual behavior or situation linked with the practice of smoking. For example:
- what you do with your hands
- what you do after a meal
- what you do before a staff meeting
- what you do when receiving a telephone call from a particular person
- a time of the day, such as first thing in the morning and last thing before bed
- a place, such as a pub, restaurant, car or waiting room
- any familiar, innocuous aspect of a person’s life.
All sorts of stimuli like these can trigger habitual smoking behavior – so you need to understand them all when looking for effective ways to quit smoking. To be forewarned is to be forearmed, so start to consider these sorts of associations in your own life, and be ready to write them down.
The best ways to quit smoking are centered around changing or replacing your smoking habits with non smoking habits. Smoking-related habits have to be treated differently to the physical addiction to nicotine. Each habit has to be replaced with another habit that provides the same benefits or fulfils the same function or ‘intention’ in a better way.
This replacement habit can be any legal activity that does not reinforce the smoking habit. At one level it may mean sucking sugar-free wine gums, drinking fruit juice, twiddling a pencil or breathing deeply or simply occupying your mind with something else more interesting. At another level it may mean missing out a regular pub stopover with smoking friends, at least for a few weeks. In every case it will mean:
- identification of the associated habit
- and preparation for the period following your last puff.
That should have already started as you read with an open mind and reflect on the reasons why you might have become dependent on cigarettes.
Finding successful ways to quit smoking requires you to understand your habits. Habits are an integral part of the way we live and we don’t like a vacuum, or sudden changes. Hence the need to replace them with different activities – new habits that preferably bring their own pleasure and benefits as well as replacing unhelpful habits.
For example, social smoking time might be replaced by time with your children, enjoying a hobby, or studying for a qualification to help your job prospects.
Smoking-related habits may be numerous and of very different types, but fortunately the methods for changing them and supporting ways to quit smoking are fairly standard. So you can eliminate them one by one, which makes changing the most ingrained habit feasible.
You can start with the easy ones, and gain practice and confidence as you carry on. You can then use these new found ways to quit smoking and your habit-changing skill in many other ways.
For many people giving up smoking opens a doorway to many other possibilities in their life. Smoking is rarely the only habit a person can well do without, so there can be real bonuses in addition to all the benefits of giving up the smoking habit. For instance, you will benefit by an increase in confidence as you start to take control of your behavior and live the life you want to live.
So, to find effective ways to quit smoking, first make a list of everything you do that results in your smoking a cigarette, then look for ways to change those habits and replace them with other more beneficial actions. I’m not saying it will be easy, but the more you understand how your habits affect the many different ways to quit smoking, the sooner you wind a way to quit smoking that works for you.
