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How to Stop Smoking
Want to stop smoking? Then you'll want to read this. Smoking used to be something I would look forward to at the end of the day. During times of stress, like my divorce, I smoked more often simply because it somehow helped with anger and anxiety - or it seemed to. But having gotten through that situation I realized that smoking was not something I wanted to do. However, I was already hooked and not necessarily because of the craving for a cigarette as much as how it relieved the times when I would just sit and think or read. It had become a way to fill up time, a habit, if you will. Although I was not a pack a day person I somehow really looked forward to having that end of the day cigarette - or three.
Thinking about quitting smoking made me realize that I really didn't want to quit because I liked to smoke. So, how do you quit something that you like?
Like anything else in life, brain waves play a part in anything you do. When I started smoking my brain told me I didn't like the taste of a cigarette but I would get used to it the more I smoked. The pathway in my brain was being forged for smoking. Much like someone clearing a path through a forest with a machete, the brain clears a memory path whenever something new is introduced into a conscious being. So as at the beginning of anything new that is put into action, smoking felt strange until my brain accepted that it was normal.
It is just like the first time you drove a car. When you first start to drive everything is new, exciting, and unfamiliar and you don't know what to do first. You step on the gas instead of the brake and the car jumps when you least expect it, or you brake when you should hit the gas. You have to remember where the lights and turn signals are, where the wiper switch is when it rains, and, of course, how to operate the radio, and, oh yeah, I need to be looking at the road because I'm driving!
Well, all that goes away after your brain has cleared the pathway that says driving has now become familiar. Until that happens, your brain goes into sensory haywire.
That is the same for anything we do that we are not familiar with. The brain is going to say, "what am I supposed to do with this?" Until your brain has cleared the pathway for the experience that says, "Okay, I have done this enough times that I am now experienced and therefore confident that I can do this", the body is going to feel lost and afraid and want to cling to its old routines.
Knowing how the brain works, I told myself that I was going to be smoke free in six months. Six months worked for me because I liked to smoke and I didn't really want to quit. I further stated that when six months had passed, I would not like the taste of cigarettes and they would be disgusting to me. I thought of this every day and after a while I knew my brain would accept this new thought.
Six months passed and I still liked to smoke, so I said that in another six months I would not like the taste of cigarettes and they would be disgusting to me. I still thought this every day and knew my brain would someday accept what I was telling it. It took three more months before I picked up a cigarette and felt disgusted. I lit it up anyway and it tasted awful and I said, "Ugh!", and put it out. I haven't smoked since. I look at a cigarette and don't even want to smoke. The smell of smoke is disgusting to me.
That is how I quit smoking and that is why I will not smoke again. Even in times of severe stress I am not drawn to smoking a cigarette. The thought of it makes me sick. The pathway in my brain had been forged for not smoking. It works! Try it.
If you don't want to wait six months or a year, but you need help with quitting, try Tobacco Detox. This is good because all it requires is that you put drops under your tongue and the craving goes away. It also comes in Tobacco Detox Tablets for under your tongue. They're called Homeopathics when you put them under your tongue.
E-mail me with any questions and I'll be glad to help you!
This information has not been evaluated by the FDA and is for information purposes only. When needed, consult a qualified health care professional.
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