You want to stop smoking. Perhaps you’ve never tried but are convinced you could stop if you did. Or perhaps you have tried to stop several times – and failed. Why did you fail? Possibly you did not prepare yourself for the mental challenge of stopping – and it’s a massive mental challenge. To quit smoking successfully, you need adequate mental preparation. The more prepared you make yourself, the greater your chances of succeeding and staying cigarette free.

Are you really prepared to stop smoking?

Why do you want to stop smoking? There are many reasons you might be trying to stop. You might be trying to kick the habit because you have heard about the diseases it causes and the threat to your health. It might because you find yourself wasting a lot of money. Maybe your husband or wife or children are putting pressure on you to quit smoking.

Unfortunately, it’s been found that quitting smoking because of some external reason or someone else rarely works or rarely works for long. The only way you’ll stop is if you do it for yourself – not for others. You have to stop smoking for YOU.

What makes you to smoke?

You started to smoke (and keep on smoking) for a variety of reasons. There are both physiological (addiction inducing chemical substances in cigarettes) and psychological (emotional) reasons.Some smoke for the taste, some because it makes them confident or calms them down. Some people find it relaxes them in tense moments. For others it numbs feelings and reduces stress. Alleviates loneliness, gives something to do. Gets rid of boredom. Kills time while waiting etc. Basically, smoking fills a void, fulfils a need you have.

Make a written record of the reasons you smoke or how it makes you feel when you smoke compared to when you don’t.

You need a substitute for your smoking

To successfully stop smoking, you need to find some replacement therapy for the nicotine you breathe in when you smoke. What can you substitute for smoking in your life? It is easy to find a substitute for the nicotine which causes the physical symptoms and craving, but to succeed in quitting, you also need to find a substitute for the emotional void you feel when you quit.

Next to the reasons you’ve listed, think of and write down some activity you can partake in that will help you develop similar sensations or feelings.

Other things you can do are:

Hang out with people or make new friends who will support you and help you feel good – preferably non smokers!

Get yourself a new hobby that keeps your mind and your hands busy. It could be doing a course, teaching yourself a new skill, a sport or exercise. Do something that gives you a daily sense of achievement.

Try to exercise for a short while everyday. It could be several short walks, a jog, a session in the gym, swimming, tennis, dancing or any other exercise. It will probably be more fun if you make it a group or family affair. Once it becomes routine, you’ll be surprised how it helps you reduce stress and improves your mental and physical fitness and sense of well being.

By Adam Eason

Powerful Hints to Stop Smoking

Whether you are using Nicotine Replacement Therapy, Hypnosis or just Cold Turkey, these strategies and hints are for aiding you to stop smoking and are sure to assist you in helping your neurology change and thus enable you to stop smoking with ease. It is up to you to ensure that you do these things to really enhance what you are doing, the more effort you put into these exercises, the easier it is to stop smoking for good.

Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 1.

Being a smoker is like cycling with stabilisers attached to the wheels, you can find it hard to be balanced without smoking. Now, when you cycle freely again, the natural balance returns.

When people smoke, more than half of what they breathe is fresh air – pulled through the cigarette right down into the lungs. So if you feel any cravings you can instantly overcome them by taking three deeper breaths. Imagine breathing from that space just below your belly button. Whenever you do this you put more oxygen into your bloodstream. This means you can use deep breaths to change the way you feel instantly and give you power over the way you feel and help you let go of those old cravings and thus making it easier to stop smoking.

Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 2

Next, think now of all the reasons you don’t like smoking, the reasons that it’s bad and the reasons you want to stop smoking. Write down the key words on a piece of paper. For example, you experience breathlessness, it’s dirty, filthy and your clothes smell, your friends and family are concerned and it’s expensive, unsociable and so on. Then, on the other side of the paper, write down all the reasons why you’ll feel good when you’ve succeeded in stopping. You’ll feel healthier, you’ll feel in control of your self, your senses are enhanced, your hair and clothes will smell fresher and so on. Whenever you need to, look at that piece of paper.

Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 3

Next, we are going to programme your mind to feel disgusted by cigarettes. I want you recall 4 times when you thought to yourself “I’ve gotta quit”, or that you felt disgusted about smoking. Maybe you just felt really unhealthy, or your doctor told you in a particular tone of voice ‘You’ve got to quit’ or somebody you know was badly affected by smoking. Take a moment now to come up with 4 different times that you felt that you have to quit or were disgusted by smoking.

Remember each of those times, one after another, as though they are happening now. I want you to keep going through those memories and make them as vivid as possible. The more vivid you make those memories, the easier it will be to stop smoking. See what you saw, hear what you heard and feel how you felt. I want you to take a few minutes now to keep going through those memories again and again, overlap each memory with the next until you are totally and utterly disgusted by cigarettes.

Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 4

Have a think to yourself about the consequences of you not stopping smoking now, if you just carry on and on. Imagine it, what will happen if you carry on smoking. What are the consequences? Imagine yourself in 6 months time, a years time, even 5 years time if you do not stop smoking now. Think of all the detrimental effects of not stopping right now and how a simple decision you make today can make such an impact on your future.

Next, imagine how much better is your life going to be when you stop smoking. Really imagine it’s months from now and you successfully stopped. Smoking is a thing of the past, something you used to do. Keep that feeling with you and imagine having it tomorrow, and for the rest of next week. In your mind, imagine stepping in to that non-smoking version of you and feel how it feels to be a non-smoker.

Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 5

Also, your mind is very sensitive to associations, so it’s very important that you have a clear out and remove all tobacco products from your environment. Move some of the furniture in your house and at work. Smokers are accustomed to smoking in certain situations. So, for example, if you used to smoke on the telephone at work move the phone to the other side of the desk. Throw away ashtrays, old lighters and anything that you used to associate with smoking. Make your environment conducive to stopping smoking.

Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 6

Smokers sometimes use their habit to give themselves little breaks during the day. Taking a break is good for you, so carry on taking that time off – but do something different. Walk round the block, have a cup of tea or drink of water, or do some of the techniques on this programme. In fact, if possible drink a lot of fruit juice. When you stop smoking the body goes through a big change. The blood sugar levels tend to fall, the digestion is slowed down and your body starts to eject the tar and poisons that have accumulated. Fresh fruit juice contains fructose which restores your blood sugar levels, vitamin C which helps clear out impurities and high levels of water and fibre to keep your digestion going. Also try to eat fruit every day for at least two weeks after you have stopped.

Also when you stop, cut your caffeine intake by half. Nicotine breaks down caffeine so without nicotine a little coffee will have a big effect. Drink 8-10 glasses of water (ideally bottled) to help wash out your system.

Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 7

You were used to using cigarettes to signal to your body to release happy chemicals, so next we are going to programme some good feelings into your future. Allow yourself to fully remember now a time when you felt very deep ecstasy, pleasure or bliss, right now. Take a moment to recall it as vividly as possible. Remember that time – see what you saw, hear what you heard and feel how good you felt. Where abouts in your body were those feelings, imagine turning them up and spreading them through your body to make them more intense.

Keep going through the memory, as soon as it finishes, go through it again and again, all the time squeezing your thumb and finger together. In your mind, make those images big and bright, sounds loud and harmonious and feelings strong and intensified. We are making an associational link between the squeeze of your fingers and that good feeling.

Okay, stop and relax. Now if you have done that correctly when you squeeze your thumb and finger together you should feel that good feeling again. Go ahead do that now, squeeze thumb and finger and remember that good feeling.

Now we’re going to programme good feelings to happen automatically whenever you are in a situation where you used to smoke but now you stop smoking.

So, next I’d like you to squeeze your thumb and finger together, get that good feeling going and now imagine being in several situations where you would have smoked, but being there feeling great without a cigarette. See what you’ll see hear and take that good feeling into those situations without a need for a cigarette.

Imagine being in a situation where someone offers you a cigarette and you confidently say ‘No thanks, I don’t smoke’. And feel fantastic about it!

Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 8

Get social support. Your commitment to stopping smoking for the rest of your life can be made much easier by talking about it to friends and family and letting them support you. They will congratulate you on doing so well too! You really did stop smoking.

Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 9

Be aware of making excuses for yourself. Some people talk themselves into smoking, especially if they encounter a stressful situation and in the past they used to deal with it by smoking. If those old thoughts pop into your head, shout the word “STOP” in your head, to stop the thoughts from progressing. Nicotine just stresses your body more and is like that itch that can never be properly scratched; the more you smoke, the more you have to. So say “STOP” and steer clear of old slippery slopes.

Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 10

Reward yourself. Congratulate yourself. Feel how good it feels to stop smoking and be a non-smoker. Treat yourself each time you get past a certain milestone; the first week or first month, the six month target. Let yourself know that you did something really special here.

Keep on using your brain, stretching it and helping your self, by running through these exercises time after time; you are sure to be able to make it easier and easier and successfully stop smoking for good.

Copyright 2005 Adam Eason All Rights Reserved.

About the Author: Visit Adam Easons website today to have an amazing free mini series of information, tips, techniques and strategies on how to stop smoking; all delivered to you by email. http://www.adam-eason.com

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By: Allen Jones

Congratulations on your decision to stop smoking. Identifying your smoking triggers (reasons that cause you to crave a cigarette) will help you out when you are experiencing the toughest times. Always remember that your strongest cravings will only last a few minutes.

Getting through these few minutes is vital to your success at becoming an ex-smoker. These 2 tips will help you get through them. Note: Utilizing the tips below will probably not be enough for you to stop smoking. They are intended to be used in conjunction with a proven stop smoking plan.

Identify Your Triggers

Cigarette cravings come from two sources, physical and psychological withdrawal. Physical withdrawal happens when your brain realizes that your body does not have nicotine in its system. Seeking equilibrium, your body sends you a craving so you will give it the nicotine that it thinks it needs.

Psychological withdrawal is basically your body trying to act on a habit it has developed over the years. The act of smoking the cigarette and gaining pleasure from it (in many different ways) has ingrained itself into your everyday life.

The first step in handling these cravings is identifying what kind of craving it is, physical or psychological. It’s important to realize which type of craving you are having because once you do; you can handle it much better.

If it is a physical craving, think about the actual process that is happening. Your body is simply trying to seek equilibrium. Knowing that this equilibrium could be slowly killing you, you can take a deep breath and realize that you are doing something that is good for your body, not bad. I can tell you first hand that merely knowing what is happening inside your body will ease your craving. Close your eyes, breathe deeply and think about it. The craving will soon pass.

If it is a psychological craving then you must quickly identify the trigger that is causing the craving. Is it boredom, anger, routine or something else? Once you realize the cause of the trigger then you will be able to act upon it by using an alternative to that specific trigger. Chances are, once you have thought about the craving, identified it as a psychological craving and then acted with an alternative action, the craving will almost be gone already! As the days go by, your cravings will become shorter, less strong and farther apart.

Find Alternatives to Triggers

As you become better at identifying your psychological smoking triggers, you will quickly be able to see those triggers coming. Realizing that a trigger is about to happen will greatly increase your chances for success. So what do you do when a trigger hits? You act on it. Instead of giving in and lighting up, you should have a pre-planned alternative to the trigger that is happening, or that is about to happen.

Sit down with a pencil and paper and list as many smoking triggers as you can think of. Skip a line between each trigger. Here is a short list that will help you get started:

• Driving your car
• After a meal
• After an argument
• During a break at work
• When you are bored
• When you are anxious

Now that you have written down all of your triggers, go back to the beginning of your list and think of at least two alternatives to each trigger. For instance, when driving in your car and you get a craving, you can turn up the CD player and sing loudly, play the drums on your steering wheel, chew 2-3 pieces of gum or call a support buddy on the cell phone.

Once you have completed your trigger/alternative list, carry it with you at all times. Any time you realize a trigger that you don’t have in your list, write it down and come up with alternatives for it. If you are having difficulty finding an alternative, you can find hundreds of them online by doing a web search on your favorite search engine.

Tying it All Together

Now that you have a (very) basic understanding about what causes cravings when you try to stop smoking, you will have an easier time with them. Just knowing this information will allow you to endure the cravings a little bit longer. Physical cravings will subside in a matter or days, usually 3-4 days. Psychological cravings, however will last much longer. Some people experience psychological craving for months. Although they are not as strong as physical cravings, they can easily get you smoking again even months after you have smoked your last cigarette.

This is why most people stop smoking successfully only to start smoking again weeks or months later. The physical addiction was broken. It was the psychological addiction that did them in. For this reason, you must identify and act upon your smoking triggers for the rest of your life. It is important to know that you must never take even one puff on a cigarette for the rest of your life, not one. The very next puff you take will have you completely addicted again, both physically and psychologically.

About the author: Allen Jones is the owner and administrator of http://TheStopSmokingGuide.com and an expert in nicotine addiction. Visit his website and discover the proven stop smoking plan that eliminates both physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms. Download their free Stop Smoking Guide ebook today and find out!

If you have developed a smoking habit and ever tried to stop, then you probably know how hard it is to stop smoking, not only because your body craves the nicotine you are trying to deny yourself but also because there is an extremely powerful psychological aspect to smoking in terms of how it makes you feel better, more relaxed etc.

Indeed this craving for these effects is so strong that you probably didn’t last very long on your first attempt to stop – otherwise you probably wouldn’t be reading this article. It can be quite painful to try and break the habit, but while the cravings may make it seem impossible for you to stop smoking, it is however possible to stop with a little help.

Since there is a mental aspect to quitting smoking, lets deal with that. The first mental problem you will face is the fact that because you are thinking about stopping and denying yourself your favourite pleasure, cigarettes (or whatever you smoke) are constantly on your mind – so the first thing you need to do is distract your mind from thinking about them. How? By both thinking about other things and keeping yourself active with other things especially during those periods you would have sneaked off for a smoke break.

You will need to identify the factors that lead to you having a smoke – is it pain, anger, frustration, boredom, a particular time you are used to going on a smoke break? Identify what they are and schedule some other positive activity for that period.

Obviously, you mustn’t have any smokes with you or be around colleagues, friends or family who have them and will give them to you on demand or when you are weak. So you will need to endure the loss of your smoking buddies until you can break your habit – at least in areas or places where they smoke. The very last thing you want is to be able to smell cigarette smoke. If your partner smokes inside your home you will need them to smoke elsewhere for the duration and perhaps from now on.

If you can go a day without smoking, you can go 3 days, a week, a fortnight, a month etc. Don’t kick yourself if you fail, think of it like a sportsperson who can only do 3 minutes of exercise on the first try. They don’t give up rather they bounce back and try do more or get better next time. Similarly, you need to develop endurance. So if your effort fails after 2 days. Try again and again – and again, improving each time and reinforcing your ability to withstand the cravings both psychologically and physically as your body gets more and more used to not getting the nicotine.

Also combine your will power with other methods such as patches etc.

Once you are able to break these cravings, both chemical and psychological, you will be much better positioned to quit smoking. The cravings may not disappear completely so don’t let your guard down. You are still likely to miss smoking or desire them at points where they fulfilled a need or you had programmed yourself for a smoke e.g. after a nice meal at a restaurant.