Never lose hope. You need to know that you can stop smoking. Millions of people have already succeeded and you can too!
Myth number one: The nicotine addiction stays within your body for life. Also, not true. In fact, if you stop smoking for just 72 hours, yes just three short days, most of the nicotine has already been flushed from your body. The desire you feel for a smoke that lingers past the three-day mark is all in your mind, and the mind is a powerful thing.
Myth number two: Some people absolutely cannot stop smoking no matter what they do or try. This is not true. Anyone can stop smoking. Some people may need to try more than once (in fact, most ex-smokers didn’t make it the first time they tried), and some people need to try more than one method, but anyone can stop smoking. I remember thinking to myself that maybe I was one of the unfortunate souls that just could not stop smoking. Until I got rid of that thought, I didn’t stand a chance. The next time you wake up in the morning coughing and wheezing and thinking to yourself, “I need to stop smoking” you must also realize that you CAN stop smoking.
Nearly all of the urges to smoke you will experience after the initial three-day period will stem from your triggers. A trigger is something that you associate with smoking.
Here are some examples. One type of trigger for a lot of people are stressful situations. I used to work for a guy who thought he was the greatest thing since homemade ice cream, and he loved to let people know it. Whenever that guy got hold of me for one of his little counseling sessions, and they were frequent, all I could think about was getting out of there for a smoke and relax a little. I’m sure, if you are a smoker, you can relate to that.
Other triggers are your daily routines. You wake up in the morning, get your coffee, get your newspaper, have a seat in your favorite chair and have a nice smoke before starting your day. If you do this on a regular basis, you can rest assured that when you try to stop smoking you will feel an intense urge to smoke when you get into that chair with your coffee and your newspaper. Best to change your entire morning routine.
With me, it was my patio. I hadn’t smoked in the house for years, so I had a very nice setup on the patio for my morning routine. When I decided to stop smoking, I had to stay away from that patio for sure!
So, although the drug, nicotine, is out of your system after just three short days, you will still suffer some withdrawal symptoms long after. If you can just remember that these stem from your mind, you can overcome them.
One last word, there are a lot of different methods to help you kick the habit. While one method might work for me, it may not work for you. It all depends on you, your makeup, your personality, etc…Most importantly, when you think, “How can I stop smoking cigarettes”, you need to know that you can. You can, and you will.
