Stop Smoking
 

Lifestyle Changes to Help Stop Smoking

Giving up smoking requires an immense amount of will power and as the addiction is both physical and psychological then the difficulty in fighting your addiction when you quit smoking will be reflected also in many aspects of your social life. I know that when I quit smoking there was so much temptation in all that I used to do that I just had to apart myself from certain situations and entertain myself with other activities just so as to avoid the great temptation of being amongst others who were cigarette smoking.

Your will power is very important to your giving up smoking and without it you would obviously not last very long without cigarette smoking. The will power can be helped along by making a few alterations to your lifestyle can be a great way to stop smoking removing a lot if not all of the temptation to smoke. This can serve you greatly and should be seriously considered as when you quit smoking and then you fail and return to cigarette smoking you will be far more reticent to attempt to give up again knowing that you have failed once and knowing how difficult it can be. It is very important that you do not fail because you will find it psychologically much more difficult to do on the second or third attempts (although in reality it will be the same).

A few minor lifestyle changes therefore when you quit smoking, especially at the beginning will help your efforts no end. You should aim at avoiding social situations which will present temptation to smoke and substitute them for situations where it is impossible to smoke. When I quit smoking I used to really enjoy going to the movies where it wasn't permitted to smoke and non-smoking cafes and bars were a great attraction for me. I used to remember when I dreaded these places as after a short time in there I would start to feel so uncomfortable at not being able to smoke. To frequent typically no-smoking venues and attending events where smoking is not permitted will make you feel like as if a whole new world is opening up for you, it will make you feel a sort of pride and enthusiasm at your new status as a 'non-smoker'.

Other lifestyle changes to make might be to break any associations you might have with smoking. Giving up smoking is a major lifestyle change in itself, after you get used to the initial cravings and emptiness at not being able to smoke you will begin to feel like a new person as you adapt to your new role as a non-smoker.

Most of the time, when a person smokes they do so without even thinking about it. Waiting for a bus… a cigarette. With a coffee... a cigarette. Waiting for your computer program to load... a cigarette. These become unconscious moments where we smoke because of some psychological trigger that we have developed. These times are the absolute hardest to conquer... it is at these times that you will be most tempted and when you will crave the most. As stopping cigarette smoking is a major lifestyle change in itself then a few minor adjustments to what you do when waiting for a bus, how you take your coffee or how you what you do when waiting for your computer to complete its loading will not be very difficult to make.

The changing of your lifestyle and slowly eliminating the things that you do that you associate with smoking will be the key to fighting your psychological addiction to smoking. It will really be like a brand new phase in your life, a phase without smoking and so there will be many changes anyway in your lifestyle so one or two more will not be very difficult to arrange.

When you quit smoking it does not necessarily mean to say you don't have to loose all your friends and social life but a few minor changes will definitely help your attempt at quitting cigarette smoking an easier one and a more effective and lasting one, I know when I quit smoking it did.

When you quit smoking some minor lifestyle changes will occur without you even trying as the did when I quit smoking because cigarette smoking is a very social and lifestyle oriented pastime.

Return to the top of Lifestyle Changes to Help Stop Smoking