Tips To Help You Quit Smoking

                                                             The Habit of Smoking

Smoking is a choice. This needs to be remembered before we go any further. You choose to smoke each day. You can also choose not to smoke. Either one of these choices can become habit.

The habit of not smoking is inherently good. The habit of continuing to smoke is not.

That being said, the fact is that people smoke out of habit. Why? Well, because smoking is not something we do naturally. Look at human nature. A new born infant will search for its mother shortly after birth for food and warmth. You can see the bond forming between mother and child in moments. That's human instinct. Is this how you began smoking? Was it instinct?

Instinct Or Culture?

Instinct is not how we begin smoking. It's culture. It's advertisements. It's peer pressure. It was introduced to us by some external means. We didn't all wake up one day saying "I need to start smoking today!". No. Smoking never starts like that. My first cigarette was smoked at 14 years of age watching a movie the local cinema. The cigarette tasted awful but peer pressure was sufficient to make me smoke another one and another. I smoked thousands of more cigarettes this way. It was never my instinct to smoke. Ever.

Is it easy or hard to break somebodys instincts? I would say instinct is almost impossible to destroy. You need to change a person at a genetic level to change his instincts.

Are habits easy to break? I won't say that they're easy to break but they most definitely are breakable. If you picked your nose as a child that was a bad habit (and I'm not accusing anybody here of doing that - honest). Being verbally corrected by your parents in this situation was enough to stop that habit. Verbal correction was enough to change a habit! Smoking takes a bit more work than that but smoking is still just a habit that you can choose to correct if YOU really want. The operative word is YOU. You need to make the choice.

Tips For Quitting Smoking

Here's some small tips for quitting that may help you on your journey:

Make the decision to quit. This has to be your own decision and not your partner demanding that you quit.

Read Allen Carrs Easy Way to Quit Smoking. This is your bible.

Pick the cigarette that you enjoy most during the day - be it after a meal or during a coffee break. Do without that cigarette for just one day. Observe how you feel at that time.

Do not avoid other people who smoke. This will make you miss smoking more. Your desire to distance yourself from smokers comes naturally.

Do avoid excessive alcohol consumption while trying to quit smoking. Being drunk lowers your inhibitions and makes you more likely to smoke.

Start exercising. The side effects of getting healthier will actively encourage you to quit smoking.

Make a list of the Pros and Cons of smoking in two separate columns on a sheet of paper. Read through them. This is your Quit Smoking Balance Sheet. It gives you a visual chart of just how little smoking does for you.