QUIT SMOKING IN THE NEW YEAR

About 2 million people in the United States will quit smoking this year.  Are you going to be one of them?  How many of you made the resolution to quit smoking starting January 1st?  If you are still going you have made it about 60 hours and are almost at the finish line.  It takes only 72 hours to remove all of the nicotine from your system.  Don't give up now!!!!

If you didn't make it past the first day, or the first hour, this article is for you.  Please take the time to read through all my posts on this blog.  I suffered the addiction to cigarettes for over 20 years and the only way I was able to quit was to inform myself of how the addiction works and why I continued to smoke.

THE REASON YOU ARE STILL SMOKING

There is only one reason you continue to smoke, you are addicted to nicotine and you don't understand how to break the addiction.  Step 1 is to understand that the only reason you crave a cigarette is because you had a cigarette a short time ago.  If  you never started smoking you would have no desire to smoke.  And no, you do not receive pleasure from smoking, you only satisfy a need for a drug which feels pleasurable.  If  you  were addicted to heroin you would get pleasure from jamming a needle into your arm and you would crave that sensation all  day every day. 

The principle of addiction to nicotine is very scary.  Your mind has been hijacked by a drug that now controls every move you make.  You get in the car and you smoke.  Take a break at work and you smoke.  Have a cocktail, have a cigarette.  Do anything and you believe you enjoy it more with a cigarette.  That is what this drug has done to your mind, it has twisted your subconscious thought into believing it wants and needs a cigarette.  If you are thinking of switching to electronic cigarettes, remember they still have nicotine in them.  Here is a list of nicotine content by brand http://ecigfacts.blogspot.com/

REPROGRAM YOUR MIND

You are now aware what cigarettes have done to your mind.  Now you have to undo the thought process.  Simple logic will tell you that it is very bad for you to smoke and that you should quit smoking or you will likely succumb to one of the many deadly diseases provided by smoking.

The trouble is when you wake up in the morning, grab a cup of coffee, all you can think about is that wonderful cigarette you are about to enjoy.  By the way, which part do you enjoy the most, sucking smoke in to your chest and lungs, or blowing the smoke out into the air?  Think about it, what to you is so enjoyable about smoking that you would give your life for that sensation?  Don't just think about it now, think about it every time you smoke a cigarette.  Is that sensation worth dying for?

Understand that the only thing you have to do to stop smoking is to do just that, stop smoking.  Once you stop, within 72 hours the nicotine is out of your body and the physical cravings will subside.  Don't believe me?  Try it.

The 2nd and last set of cravings are all mental.  Everything you did in your smoking life, you did with a cigarette.  Driving, golfing, walking, after meals, with coffee, with friends, at the bar, etc., etc., etc.  You have to deal with each of these psychological cravings one at a time.  So the first time you get in the car, your mind will tell  you to pop in that lighter.  Don't do it.  Next time you get in the car, you will think about it a little less.  By the third or fourth time you won't think of it at all.  You will have to go through this process for every activity you ever did while smoking.  It takes a little time, but once you get through all of these hurdles, you will never think of smoking again.  And you'll be glad you don't.

Beware, there is a hurdle out there that you will not hit for weeks, months or even a year.  It could be sitting on a beach on a family vacation or going to a casino.  Don't let your guard down, you just need to cross that hurdle when you get there.

Remember one thing as you travel the road to freedom, remember how hard day 1 was and how much you never want to return to that day.    Remember how hard it was, and never take a puff  of a cigarette again, because you will quickly return to that awful place that you escaped.

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Best of luck in 2013.  I know you will be one of the 2 million successful quitters!!!!

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