Tip #8 - Stay Positive

Tips To Quit Smoking

Quitting smoking will be a very difficult ordeal. Having a positive attitude will help you overcome cravings, urges and frustrating days. Positive attitudes will improve your mood, health, limit stress and heighten your focus.

Be aware of when you start to become negative or pessimistic. When you catch yourself having negative thoughts, stop and ask yourself if this is truly a negative moment or is this just my first reaction. Most situations are not nearly as bad as people think they are.

Once this positive way of thinking is adopted you will notice the little things not bothering you anymore, you will become much happier and coping with hardships will become easier. 

Optimists enrich the present, enhance the future, challenge the improbable and attain the impossible. William Arthur Ward

Next Installment Tip# 9

Tip #7 Make A Plan

Tips To Quit Smoking

As with any goal in life, a well thought out plan will increase your odds of success dramatically. Without a plan of action you may never reach your goal. Plans give you stability and direction. If you wanted to make $100,000 a year you would have to map out a daily, weekly and monthly tasks to finally achieve your ultimate goal of earning more money. Just wishing for it will not make it so. So start planning.

First part of the plan should involve creating a support system. Tell friends and family that you are quitting smoking. Make a doctors appointment. Join a support group. Enlist all the people you think you will need to get you through what will be a difficult process.

The next step should include a list of your "triggers" and places that have a high risk of enabling your cravings. Adjacent to this list should be alternatives to smoking. You should have done this already if you've read Tip #1.

Third, obtain everything you will need for enacting the alternative to smoking. If you want to go to the gym to curb your cravings, make sure you have a workout schedule and routines. If you want to ride your bike, ensure that it is in good working order. Don't go in blind.

Once everything is in place, then you can pick the day you will quit. It is imperative that you have all that is needed at your disposal. When those cravings come you will be happy that you did so.

The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score. Bill Copeland

Next Installment - Tip #8

Tip # 6 Join A Support Group

Tips To Quit Smoking

Join a an online or in person support group. Support groups are an important step in a successful long term quit smoking strategy. There are plenty of online quit smoking forums and most cities have local support groups that meet weekly or monthly.

Support groups offer many benefits to someone trying to quit smoking. Groups offer encouragement, understanding, strength, and a place to be exposed to new ideas. Support groups are a great way to meet people that are experiencing the same struggles as you. After belonging to a group for a time you may start to feel very connected to people in the group as you help each other. Many times good friends are made through these groups. You may feel a great sense of community or accomplishment as you assist others with their strife.

Online forums and groups can be especially helpful as you can log on anytime you feel weak or have a craving. You will also have access to people all over the world that are going through similar experiences.

Always remember, you are not alone.

Next installment - Tip #7

Tip #5 Meditation

Tips To Quit Smoking

Meditation is the ancient mental practice of going beyond reflective thinking and into a profound state of consciousness and relaxation. It is thousands of years old and has be practiced by many civilizations. Meditation can be used for not only spiritual but psychological reasons as well.

Stress is one of the typical reasons (besides spiritual) people choose to meditate. Stress is also one of the principle reasons people smoke. Because of this, meditation can be an invaluable tool to reducing and controlling your stress levels, thus controlling your cravings.

Meditation is easy and doesn't require much time. All that is needed is a quite and comfortable place to sit and only 10 minutes a day. Start with concentrating on your breathing. By doing this, your mind can let go of the daily clutter. As time passes let thoughts enter and emotions go. There are numerous websites and books on meditation for a better understanding.

Along with stress control, meditation has numerous other health benefits. A few include:

-increase blood flow
-stress reliever
-detachment, you will begin to let go of the "small things" in life
-increase concentration
-lowers blood pressure
-builds serotonin levels which can combat depression, insomnia and headaches
-can resolve physical ailments due to mental agitation
-sense of well being
-resolution of past emotional troubles

Meditation has the power to improve your life in immeasurable ways.

Next installment - Tip #6 Join A Support Group

Tip #4 See Your Doctor

Tips To Quit Smoking

When undertaking anything involving your health it is always a good idea to consult your doctor. He can be a wealth of information and has your complete medical history. He will have insight to anything that might affect you in an adverse way and will be up to date on any new treatments for quitting smoking.

Your doctor can suggest treatments you may not have considered such as: the patch, nicotine gum like Nicorette, going to a specially trained counselor, enrolling in local programs, quit smoking hot lines, prescribing medication such as Zyban, or other methods.

The more information you can gather the more successful you will be.

Next installment - Tip #5 Meditation

Tip #3 Reasons For Quitting Smoking

Tips To Quit Smoking

Why do you want to quit smoking? It's an important question. Is it for your kids, for your health, to save money, to reclaim stamina so you can beat your friend at squash? What ever the reasons are, they are important.

In the beginning of the process of quitting smoking all the reasons are clear. As time goes on and the cravings grow, it is easy to lose sight of those reasons. The key is to constantly remind yourself of why you choose to quit.

One of the best ways to achieve this is to put pictures or quotes up to remind yourself as to why you quit. It could be a picture of your child or a picture of a diseased lung. It may seem extreme, but seeing that image every morning can be a powerful motivator.

Obtain a small cork board and pin pictures or quotes to it. It is imperative that you place it in a area where you will see it everyday. Add to it. Your reasons my grow as to why you want to quit. Distribute these pictures where ever you think you will need them. Put a motivational picture in your wallet or purse so if you ever feel weak you can look at it anytime.

" Nothing worthwhile ever happens quickly and easily. You achieve only as you are determined to achieve... and as you keep at it until you have achieved."
Robert H. Lauer

Next installment - Tip #4 See Your Doctor