Giving up cigarettes is hard; the understatement of the century? Possibly, as it’s well documented that people have enormous difficulties when they’re trying to kick the habit for good and live a smoke free life, either for the sake of their health or for the people around them. Even with these strong motivating factors, many people lapse when they’re trying to give up – but why is that? Well, certain one telling factor is craving. We all know about how extreme cravings can get for cigarettes, and it’s these cravings that cause people to come back and smoke more.
Knowing how difficult they are to deal with, we’ve come up with some ways that you can avoid cigarettes, beat your cravings and rid yourself of smoking cigarettes for good. Here are our top six methods for getting rid of your cigarette addiction forever.
Top Tip 1: Delay
Now, this tip might seem a bit strange, but it really works! When your craving feels like it’s going to overcome you, tell yourself that you must wait another ten minutes before you can have a cigarette. This period of time often means that you’ll be distracted by something else and you’ll forget about your desire to have a cigarette. You can then repeat this as many times as you need to beat the habit.
Top Tip 2: Don’t have ‘just one’
Don’t try to trick yourself by thinking that if you’re craving, it’s a good idea to just have one solitary cigarette to help you get over it. This tactic simply does not work – one leads to another, and then another, and then another, and so on. It’s a much better idea that you force the idea into your head that you’ve got to give them up for good. And that means no exceptions!
Top Tip 3: Think about triggers
One of the best ways to help you avoid cigarettes is to think about a time where you find yourself smoking. Do you do your smoking at parties, in the car, on your lunch break, or any number of other occasions when you might find yourself dropping into the habit of sparking up without thinking about it? It’s these times when you have to be extra careful and go to special lengths to stop yourself being able to smoke.
Top Tip 4: Get active
Exercise and physical activity is a great way to help you avoid your cravings. It doesn’t even need to be anything strenuous, you could just go for a walk or a light jog and it will help to extinguish those flames of craving inside you.
Top Tip 5: Practice ways of relaxing
Relaxation techniques can really be a big help to you in this situation too. Deep breathing exercises, yoga and meditation might not sound like the perfect thing for you, but they can really help you out in terms of mastering relaxation and ensuring that you aren’t stressing out too much. After all, trying to give up cigarettes can be very stressful.
Top Tip 6: Enlist the help of family and friends
Your family and friends will want to see you give up smoking as it will be good for your health and lengthen your lifespan, so they will be more than happy to help you stay on the right track for ensuring you’re smoke free. There are many different things that they can do to help you including distracting you from your cravings by arranging activities or just sitting down for a chat whenever you feel like you might want to smoke again – they’ll provide you with plenty of reasons not to.