Quitting smoking is not a easy thing to do. In fact, it can be very difficult. The psychological and physical addiction to nicotine makes it very difficult to just quit. But this can be done, and it was dome by millions of people who regained their health as a result.
There are no easy solutions to quitting the smoking habit. The withdrawal symptoms as well as the psychological need will be there and make it hard for you to quit. But there are quite a few ways to make it easier to go through those first few weeks of being smoke free. If you make if past the first month, your chances of quitting for good are much higher.
Let’s take a look at a few of the most valuable tips we can offer:
Go cold turkey – Don’t reduce the amount of cigarettes you smoke each day. Just stop totally. This seems counter-intuitive, but it’s much better to quit all at once that to reduce the amount. Reducing the amount of cigarettes will not help you quit, it will only make it harder, and claim a heavier price from your health.
Replace your smoking with another habit – this is a useful way of coping with the habit itself. You can replace smoking with eating carrots, for example. Another way is to replace it with physical activity, or drinking water. The important thing is to create new and useful habits instead of the smoking habit.
Quit with a friend – If you have a friend that wants to quit smoking, you can quit together. This will force you to watch each other’s backs, and make sure none of you gets back to smoking. Work out a support system that includes meetings once a day, phone calls etc. so that you keep supporting and encouraging each other.
Use nicotine replacement – There are plenty of products out there that make quitting smoking much easier, as they replace the nicotine fix smokers are used to getting. Taking a nicotine chewing gum, pills or patches makes it easier to deal with the withdrawal symptoms. When the physical side of the quitting process is handled, it’s easier to cope with the psychological side of the addiction.
Use breathing exercises – Learning to breath correctly and to the full capacity of the lungs makes it easier to cope with the withdrawal symptoms and the dizziness and nausea you might feel. Yoga breathing techniques will do fine for that purpose and you can learn that from every book that deals with the subject.
Quitting smoking is not easy, but the price you might pay with your health is a lot more difficult to handle. Start planning your smoking quitting today, and set a date to do it. In 10 years time, you will greet yourself for doing so.