Reduce the amount of stress in your life. Many smokers say that “smoking helps calm them down” after they’ve had a stressful day or a troubling event. In reality, just the opposite is true; smoking stimulates the body in a number of ways. It’s the fiddling around with all the smoking paraphernalia that “calms” the smoker down - the cigarettes themselves, the ashtray, the lighter, tipping the ashes off the end of the cigarette, etc. All those patterns of behavior are what constitutes calming routine for the smoker.
Join a yoga class or learn ways to meditate. When the craving for a cigarette arrives, replace it with a stretching exercise or a calming meditation session. Start a daily journal - when you feel the urge to light up, make an entry in the journal instead. There are innumerable ways you can distract yourself from that craving to smoke - find the ones that work best for you.
Smoking has already been banned in federal offices, and many communities are copying that legislation with bans on local, city and state offices. Some communities are even attempting to pass laws that would forbid smoking in the privacy of one’s own home, although at present most of those laws are meeting with limited success.
Next, change the environment in your home or office - wherever you (used to) smoke. Don’t let other people smoke in your house, or office - don’t hang out in places where smoking is almost mandatory - such as bars or nightclubs. Repaint the inside of your house, clean the carpets, wash the drapes - in short, make it obvious that a non-smoker lives here. After all that work of cleaning up, you won’t want to relapse and return to the habit of smoking.
The first step in quitting is not simply throwing out that pack of cigarettes, but preparing yourself mentally to quit. You must begin to think of yourself as a non-smoker, rather than someone who’s kicking the nicotine habit. What’s the difference? By stating that you’re a non-smoker, you’re announcing it as an established fact; it’s a statement of who you are, similar to saying “I’m a banker,” or “I own my own company.” It’s all about mindset.
If you’re quitting “cold turkey” it may cause higher levels of stress, just as abrupt withdrawal from any drug would cause in bodily systems. Because your body no longer has the drug it’s addicted to, the need for the stimuli from smoking can become an overwhelming craving. But by the same token, many people find that quitting cold turkey works better for their personalities because it removes the source of their addiction and they can concentrate on getting through the withdrawal period.
When you take a puff on that cigarette, you’re inhaling approximately 4,000 chemical compounds contained within the smoke. From tar to nicotine, several of these compounds are known carcinogens, meaning they’re cancer-causing. If you ask most people what are the most common diseases caused by smoking they’ll say lung cancer and emphysema - but surprisingly, heart disease is the biggest killer of smokers, at almost twice the rate of lung cancer and emphysema.
Once you’ve overcome the initial withdrawal symptoms from quitting smoking, realize that you’re over the first hurdle - now it’s simply a daily battle to stay away from the source of your addiction. Using these tips and techniques will help ensure that you’re successful at your ultimate goal. Congratulations! You’re truly a non-smoker now.
The bottom line? Smoking is bad for you. Is that a surprise to anyone? I don’t think so.
But smoking doesn’t just affect the heart and lungs - it affects the entire body system from head to toe. If you’re a smoker, smoking will have a destructive effect on your health - there’s simply no way around it.
From minor inconveniences such as smell and staining of fingers, hair, clothing, furniture and draperies if you smoke inside your home to much more serious health effects such as strokes and a multitude of cancers - there is no doubt that smoking is harmful. And it’s not just harmful to the smoker - second-hand smoke also has the same harmful effects on those who live or work with smokers.
Withdrawal symptoms from quitting smoking last a relatively short period of time during the quitting process, but can cause unpleasant levels of discomfort during that time. Symptoms of nicotine withdrawal can include mood swings (anxiety, irritableness, short-tempered or cranky), inability to sleep, extreme fatigue, difficulty concentrating, coughing, headaches, stomach upset and the like. The craving to smoke is perhaps one of the most difficult symptoms to deal with - because if you give into that craving, you’ve eliminated all the effort you’ve put into having a smoke-free day.
The variety of illnesses caused by smoking is amazing - throat and mouth cancer, lung cancer, bladder and liver cancer, brain tumors, macular degeneration (blindness), birth defects from stillborn infants to premature births, COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), emphysema, heart disease and all it’s related complications - the list just goes on and on.
When you quit smoking, you need to change your daily routine that included cigarettes. For example, if you normally had a cup of coffee and a cigarette for breakfast, change that to a cup of tea and read the paper. Or check your email. Or have a healthy breakfast and a quick walk before you begin your daily tasks. Change the environment around you so that it doesn’t include time for smoking.