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When you decide to stop smoking the most difficult part is to resist
the urges. It doesn't matter that each craving lasts only 3 - 5
minutes. It's still the whole five minutes to battle with your
willpower! These seven tips will help you to resist the urge to smoke
one urge at a time.
1. Remind Yourself Why You Quit
Every time you experience a craving remind yourself why you quit.
It's the excellent idea to take a blank index card and list all the
reasons why you decided to quit smoking. List as many as you can,
the more the better. If necessary, take the second index card. Carry
them with you all the time. Every time you feel the urge to smoke
take the index card and slowly read all your reasons why you decided
to stop. After you finish reading your urge will pass! (If not, read
them one more time or come up with more reasons.)
2. Reward Yourself.
Make it a habit to reward yourself at the end of each nonsmoking
week. Think of something you want (it doesn’t have to be something
expensive, a nice home made meal or hot bath will work). Take the
index card and write down what would you give yourself at the end of
the week. When the urge comes take a look at the index card with
your reward. Isn't it worth coping for 3 minutes? :)
3. Be prepared for your urges!
Get
yourself prepared for the urge to smoke in advance. In most cases
something triggers the craving (certain feelings, people, or
places). You have to know what triggers the urge.
Lets do a really quick exercise. Take a blank piece of paper and
divide it into 2 columns. On the one side list your triggers (like
“stuck in traffic”, “drinking morning coffee”, “arguing with
colleague”...) and in the second column write down the alternative
course of action.
For
example, instead of smoking while drinking your morning coffee you
could read a newspaper. Instead of smoking after the hot argument
with your colleague you can take a walk around a block or write down
everything you think about this person, then tier this piece of
paper in shreds and throw it away. Don't be lazy, write it down!
This exercise really works!
4. Call your friend.
This method works great. Call someone who can support you, who can
talk with you for a couple of minutes. You can call your nonsmoking
friend, or someone who's trying to quit smoking too.
5. Distract yourself with a quick task.
Think of a small task you have to do, something what would take you
5-10 minutes. Make a call, send a fax, make yourself a cup of
coffee, water the plant in your office. Anything! Your task is to
distract yourself until the urge will pass. (Hint: Try to find
activity that makes smoking impossible!)
6. Drink a Glass of Water.
Take a glass of water and drink it with a straw. First of all having
something in your mouth to chew on will help, second it will take
you a couple of minutes to drink the whole glass and the urge will
pass. Plus, don't forget that you're supposed to drink 8 glasses of
water every day!
7. Power Tip.
That’s the disgusting one, but it often works. Print a small picture
of smoker's lungs (you can find one here:
/www.quitsmokingsupport.com/lungphotos.html ) and put it somewhere
in your wallet. I know the view is not pretty, but something like
this can stop you dead on your track from lighting up. Take a look!
Really! THIS could be your lungs! You love yourself, and you respect
your body. Why harm yourself?
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