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10 Powerful Tips to Stop Smoking
by: Adam Eason
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.
Dangers Of Smoking
by: Michael Sneed
Almost everybody knows that smoking is bad for the health. Images of blackened lungs line
school hallways and hospital waiting rooms, but despite this people continue to take up smoking.
This may have to do with the pervasive romantic image of smoking -- an image that has nothing in
common with reality.
There are many ways to take tobacco. You can chew it, inhale it through the nose, and smoke it in
the form of cigars or cigarettes. No matter how it's taken it is dangerous, but because smoking
is the most popular way to consume tobacco it has also received the greatest attention from the
medical field and the media.
When a smoker inhales a puff of cigarette smoke the large surface area of the lungs allows
nicotine to pass into the blood stream almost immediately. It is this nicotine "hit"
that smokers crave, but there is a lot more to smoke than just nicotine. In fact, there are more
than 4000 chemical substances that make up cigarette smoke and many of them are toxic.
Cigarette smoke is composed of 43 carcinogenic substances and more than 400 other toxins that can
also be found in wood varnish, nail polish remover, and rat poison. All of these substances
accumulate in the body and can cause serious problems to the heart and lungs.
Cancer is the most common disease associated with smoking. Smoking is the cause of 90% of lung
cancer cases and is related to 30% of all cancer fatalities. Other smoking-related cancers
include cancers of the mouth, pancreas, urinary bladder, kidney, stomach, esophagus, and larynx.
Besides cancer, smoking is also related to several other diseases of the lungs. Emphysema and
bronchitis can be fatal and 75% of all deaths from these diseases are linked to smoking.
Smokers have shorter lives than non-smokers. On average, smoking takes 15 years off your life
span. This can be explained by the high rate of exposure to toxic substances which are found in
cigarette smoke.
Smokers also put others at risk. The dangers of breathing in second-hand smoke are well known.
Smokers harm their loved ones by exposing them to the smoke they exhale. All sorts of health
problems are related to breathing in second-hand smoke. Children are especially susceptible to
the dangers of second-hand smoke because their internal organs are still developing. Children
exposed to second-hand smoke are more vulnerable to asthma, sudden infant death syndrome,
bronchitis, pneumonia, and ear infections.
Smoking can also be dangerous for unborn children. Mothers who smoke are more likely to suffer
from miscarriages, bleeding and nausea, and babies of smoking mothers have reduced birth weights
or may be premature. These babies are more susceptible to sudden infant death syndrome and may
also have lifelong health complications due to chest infections and asthma.
It is never too late to give up smoking, even those who have smoked for 20 years or more can
realize tremendous health benefits from giving up the habit.
Do You Really Want To Stop Smoking? Or Do You Use The Weight Gain Excuse?
by: Keith Watson
I do not smoke, never have, and admit to being one of those 'pain in the butts' (OK, bad pun!)
that go on about the foul stench, and anti-social behaviour of smokers, especially in public
places.
You can imagine my joy when one of my local pubs recently banned smoking. Shortly after the ban
had come into force I spotted a guy poised with cigarette in hand, and was about to get huffy and
even confrontational. Fortunately I held back and continued my beer - but was puzzled. The
cigarette was unlit and yet he was putting it near his mouth, flicking the imaginary ash and
generally acting as if he was smoking it. Curious about this I eventually enquired, only to find
out this was his own rather unorthodox approach to keeping his hands busy and therefore, as he
put it, keeping his weight down.
Although everyone knows that smoking is detrimental to health, it's surprising how many smokers
cite fear of putting on weight as a reason to not quit smoking.
The simple fact is that it is not quitting smoking that affects your weight, but the change of
habit can result in you increasing your food intake.
But there are plenty of ways to ensure this does not happen to you.
There is no need for a special diet when you stop smoking, but you must use your common sense. If
you eat chocolates instead of smoking then you are very likely to gain weight!
Monitor your diet for a fortnight before you stop smoking - write a food diary, noting everything
you eat and when. You simply use this to make sure that what you eat post-quitting follows a
similar pattern.
In a similar way, note how much exercise you can do as a smoker. When you stop smoking, you can
begin to compare how much more exercise you can do with ease. This will inspire you to the
possibility of becoming fitter in other ways, and will actually help you through the tough period
of giving up the addiction.
Even moderate amounts of exercise can reduce tobacco cravings. A recent study found that women
that maintained a rigorous exercise regime coupled with a stop-smoking programme were twice as
likely to succeed as those who didn't. Frankly, exercising is incompatible with smoking, and you
are also more likely to be mixing with non-smokers.
Let's face it, if you smoke 20 cigarettes daily, you are putting your hand to your mouth at least
200 times a day. When you quit, you need to keep your hands busy. How about peeling fruit for
snacks, doing jigsaws or maybe even knitting.
Keep visualising yourself as a fit non-smoker, especially when your motivation starts to flag.
You can always get help with this through the use of hypnotherapy. As in so many behavioural
issues, it is simply a matter of re-programming our mind. Giving up smoking is tough, and
self-hypnosis is a method that many are discovering as a simple way to help keep the mental
attitude and motivation on course.
Like the chap in the pub, you may find your own method of coping with your quit smoking
challenge, and well.. if it works - great!
Good health!
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