I Haven't Smoked in over 365 Days--Want to Know How?
To Smoke Or Not To Smoke
My New Years resolution was to stop smoking. When my husband heard, he decided to quit with me. We are both on day 19, and haven't slipped up yet. It really wasn't that hard, do you want to know what we did do quite?
The first thing we did was to challenge one another. Although we didn't make any bets or anything like that, we just challenged each other, with things like, if I decided I wanted to smoke, he would say to me, well, I'm not going to......and vice verse.
The other thing that we did was to write on a piece of paper, three times a day, I hate the way cigarettes taste. I hate the way cigarettes taste. I hate the way cigarettes taste. After writing this enough days, like four or five days, you really do hate the way cigarettes taste....It is a lot like self hypnosis, as a matter of fact, that is exactly what that is. Self hypnosis goes a long way to helping yourself quit doing a self destructive behavior. Any behavior whatsoever that you would like to quit, self hypnosis will give you a good 85% boost towards achieving your goal.
Another thing that we did to help stop this disgusting habit, is to realize that it is an oral fixation. Having something in your hand as a substitute also helps some people. It seemed to help both of us to have a cigarette in our hands, and in our mouth, without lighting it. Just something that we could have to play with instead of actually lighting it.
We also knew that actually making up ones mind, and not be wishy-washy about actually doing it had to be a must. Saying that you want to quit, and then allowing yourself to give in does not work. You have to make up your mind and stick to it.
I think the thing that we did the most, and the thing that has hit the nail on the head so far as being a key to not lighting up, is this. When you really get the urge, don't lie to yourself, but just tell yourself later. You can have one later if you want. Just by putting it off, not telling yourself that you cannot have one at all, but just telling yourself that you will have one later, and then just forgetting about when that later comes. When my husband wanted one, he would tell me and I would tell him OK, but later? Alright? and he would do the same thing to me, tell me OK, we can have one, but let's smoke later. The fact of the matter was that later never came. That was OK, later was not supposed to come.
About six months into this, I began smoking only one or two smokes a day. I kind of got stuck there, and even though it was not a complete success, I felt good about it. When I went to see my doctor, I rather bragged about my success thus far and this is what he had to say. He said that even though a smoke or two a day is better than a pack, that it wasn't good enough, for when you stop smoking altogether, your body has a chance to clean up your lungs. When you smoke even one smoke a day, it keeps those tars and chemicals there and your body cannot clean out those things that have been caught in your lungs for a very long time. Your body cannot heal itself unless you go all the way and give it a proper chance.
I am not going to say that it is a perfect system, but so far, and up to day 19 it has worked. Not one puff, and we even have cigarettes laying around the house just in case we decide we want to not quit. It is not something that we are forcing each other to do, but something that we are encouraging each other to not do.
We are going to continue with what we are doing so far, for it seems to be working for us so far, and in another few weeks, I will write another hub, whether or not it is a success. I will let you know how far it worked and where it fell through if it does not work. But continue to cheer us on in our endeavor.....
other helps
day 30 and all is still good
I am happy to report that here we are on day 30, and I still have not even thought about smoking anything. All the helps that I wrote about previously have held me, and at this point I can say it was not hard at all. The hardest part was the first 8 hours, and after that it was nothing at all.
Another thing that I did that helped as much as the self brain washing, was whenever I wanted a smoke, I would not lie to myself by saying that I will never smoke again, so I just tell myself that I will have a smoke later on. Later on never comes, and I forget. It works, They are all little tricks that convince your mind that it will all be good, and will work out as planned. Brainwashing yourself. It's a trick that works.....
