Kick The Smoking Habit

Most smokers sincerely want to quit. They know cigarettes threaten their health, set a bad example for their children, annoy their acquaintances and cost an extravagant amount of money.

However, nobody can force a smoker to give up smoking. It's something each person has to decide for himself, and it’s something that will require a personal commitment from the smoker. Its all in the smoker’s mind believe me. To quit smoking is as simple as making the decision to quit! No smoker reading this believes me, I know, but you only need to come to that crucial point where you know……….. it is now time for me to smoke my last cigarette. And you will be able to make that mind switch! Its only a decision you have to make, but it’s a decision that only you can make. The bonus of this way of quitting (and I speak from personal experience) is that you will not have any withdrawal symptoms, neither will not gain weight! Please do not stop reading, I’ve got something to tell you, some exercise that will help you enormously in your act of quitting.

You therefore need not waste more money on things that is supposedly there to help you kick the habit. It does not work. Neither should you try to smoke less. It does not work either, it only prolongs the agony. Rather decide what kind of smoker you are and what is it that smoking does for you. It is important to identify why you use smoking and what kind of satisfaction you get from it. Address the emotion behind your smoking and you will find it easy to make the decision!

Many smokers use a cigarette as a kind of crutch in rare moments of stress or discomfort, using cigarettes only as tranquilizers in which cases a little bit of nicotine might help. But the heavy smoker, the person who tries to handle severe personal problems by smoking heavily all day long, is apt to discover that cigarettes tend to make him tenser and less able to deal with his problems.

The best tool to help you over any physical or emotional barrier when kicking the smoking habit, is deep breathing. Do a deep breathing exercise for 20 minutes everyday, and you will be free from stress and your health will gain on all existential levels. Here is an exercise that will change your life:

Sit in an upright chair with the spine straight and the eyes closed, feet flat on the floor a few inches apart. Keep your hands relaxed and in a comfortable position in your lap. Take a long, slow, deep breath and hold for a count of three. Exhale and feel how the body relaxes. Repeat three times. After the three deep breaths in which you breathe in slowly, hold for a count of three, exhale and relax, you keep on breathing slowly while you remain in the straight-spine position. Now become aware of how your breathing consciously slows down, relaxing the body more and more as it goes deeper and deeper into a state of deep relaxation. Concentrate only on your breath, breathing deeply until you feel a stillness you have never experienced before. Be at peace with yourself and the world. Breathe deeply for approximately 20 minutes while you think only of your breath and your breathing. And when your mind wanders, which it will, just bring it back to your breathing.

Keeping busy with some kind of physical activity, engaging in healthy eating habits, drinking fruit juice with a teaspoon of honey, or taking part in any social activity will give you back your health.

Smoking is an addiction, and if you try to quit before you have made the decision, you can experience some withdrawal symptoms. These may include headache, light-headedness, nausea, diarrhea, and chest pains. Psychological symptoms, such as anxiety, short-term depression, and inability to concentrate, may also appear. The main psychological symptom is increased irritability. People become so irritable, in fact, that they say they feel "like killing somebody." Yet there is no evidence that quitting smoking leads to physical violence.

Some people seem to lose all their energy and drive, wanting only to sleep. Others react in exactly the opposite way, becoming so over energized they can't find enough activity to burn off their excess energy. For instance, one woman said she cleaned out all her closets completely and was ready to go next door to start on her neighbor's. Both these extremes, however, eventually level off. The symptoms may be intense for two or three days, but within 10 to 14 days after quitting, most subside. The truth is that after people quit smoking, they have more energy, they generally need less sleep, and feel better about themselves.

Quitting smoking not only extends the ex-smoker's life, but adds new happiness and meaning to one's current life. Most smokers state that immediately after they quit smoking, they start noticing dramatic differences in their overall health and vitality.

Quitting is beneficial at any age, no matter how long a person has been smoking. The mortality ratio decreases after quitting. If the patient quits before a serious disease has developed, his body may eventually be able to restore itself almost completely.