Health care information – Health Darkdaughta

Quitting smoking may not be easy and might be a stressful time, BUT for only 7 to 10 days. That is a very short time to cry and scream when compared to the rest of your life. Nothing of true value comes without effort. Smoking cessation will allow you to be free from nicotine addiction.

Most addictions are habits or duties we lack the courage to end. “Courage is not the absence of fear, but the conquest of it” – (Anon). It takes courage to grow up and become who you really want to be. Before smokers eventually quit smoking, they often try 5 to 10 times to overcome the deadly habit. Finally, though, they do succeed. Winston Churchill said “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm”. Hopefully the No-More-Cravings Quit Smoking Program will be your final step to success.

Consider pregnancy. The poor woman goes through nine long months of nausea and discomfort and pains, but there is rarely resentment associated with the period of turmoil, and once the bubby enters the world all the grievances are quickly forgotten. The 9 month journey was worth it. The discomfort of Quitting Smoking could be likened to a pregnancy with a 10-day duration.

What about the baby? Confined and restricted. At the end of the “pregnancy” you will be reborn. Like a rebirth you will have to grow and adapt to the new surroundings. You will feel uncomfortable in the new environment. The nicotine-filled supportive and protective amniotic fluid you were bathed in has been drained. Your umbilical cord to your nicotine supply will have been severed, but you will finally be able to breathe fresh unpolluted air for the first time in a long time. Like a newborn you will have to get over the former comfort zone that you were so used to during the “pregnancy”, and adjust to new and unfamiliar surroundings. Like a newborn, it may be uncomfortable and you may feel like crying and yelling because you are laying in the poo and feel damp and uncomfortable, wishing you were being nursed and comforted with your nicotine soother. Just as babies cry because they are hungry and craving nourishment in their tummy, to a small degree you will crave the nicotine to soothe your “hunger”. But this will only occur for a short time. Will you really miss laying in the poo and feeling hunger pangs?

Which adult never went through the aforementioned turmoil before they matured and stood strong and confident? But in spite of the messy and undignified beginning, how many adults remember or even think about the inconveniences of hunger and pooey nappies of their babyhood? Isn’t it ironic that the adult cravings of nicotine-withdrawal have so much in common with a helpless newborn? Quitting smoking is all worth it. Once you have quit, eventually you will not miss lying in the poo and feeling the hunger pangs for nicotine. You will have been liberated for the rest of your life from the nicotine cravings and the desire to smoke cigarettes.

If you are a cigarette smoker and want to be free from nicotine addiction, carefully consider why you want to quit. Choose a few good reasons that apply to you and you alone, not what your partner or loved ones have said. It is absolutely essential to know very accurately why you want to quit. There are all the obvious reasons – the money you would save, the improved health, the freedom from nicotine addiction and so on. But that was not enough for you to take the leap. Having a clearly defined list of reasons that are specific to you will incite you to be brave and concentrate your efforts on those reasons alone to quit smoking, and to empower yourself to finally stop smoking and become victorious, liberated and personally empowered.

Remember when you were younger how much you wanted to get a license but were not sure about the road rules and how to perform parallel parks. Well, you kept your mind on driving your first car and you managed to get through all the hoops, didn’t you? It is not enough to just think about the reasons you want to quit smoking. Write down your list of reasons three times and place one on the bathroom mirror with Blue-Tack, one on the fridge using a fridge magnet, and one around your packet of cigarettes with a rubber band, so that every time you reach for a cigarette you are constantly reminded of your endeavour, and that in your mind the quitting journey has already begun. In this way you are helping to nurture and remodel your Shen (see Chapter 19 of the book No More Cravings Quit Smoking Program”). Wars are never won without elaborate, written down plans before the battle begins. Start your battle plan now and you will ensure that your journey to quitterdom has already begun.

Just as each element of war games has a practical purpose, make your reasons for quitting smoking practical and very specific for you and your life and goals and aspirations. The time will come when every time you reach for one more cigarette you will feel less inclined to have a cigarette and hold out a little longer, until when the time is right for you, you will surely say “no, never again”.

If you are truly serious about changing your life like you have wanted for so long, then make sure you write down a personal “Pledge of Commitment to Quit Smoking” to yourself and sign and date the legal agreement with yourself. If you are not prepared to do this simple thing, then you are NOT ready to quit smoking just yet.

Many smokers would not agree that they could do anything without a cigarette. In fact many can’t imagine going for more than a couple of hours without nicotine, let alone managing a crisis without a smoke to calm them down.

A question I frequently ask smokers is what do they think non smokers do when they are stressed, bored etc.

Mostly the smokers look a little blank and admit they really don’t know. They are so locked in to using cigarettes to manage all kinds of situations ranging from the bad to the good to the boring, they lose perspective and understanding of how a person manages life without some kind of brain altering chemical.

This fact accounts for why many smokers are fearful of quitting. It’s not just quitting that is the problem it’s having to face the reality of life without their nicotine support system.

If you are a smoker and you can relate to this then the first thing to acknowledge is that if millions of non smokers can manage their ups and downs in life
then so can you.

When you are down you smoke, when you are up you smoke, when you are bored you smoke and when you are trying to concentrate you smoke. Someone from another planet would think that cigarettes have a magical quality to be able to do all these amazing things.

But if you look closer at the science of nicotine you will see that smoking causes anxiety so it can’t help when you are stressed or anxious.

-Smoking when trying to concentrate doesn’t work either, imagine using 4000 toxic chemicals to try and clear your brain.

-Smoking makes food and drink taste like burnt offerings.

-Smoking makes you, your clothes, hair and car smell like a garbage dump fire.

-Smoking reduces blood flow, and affects the entire cardiovascular system so sex surely isn’t likely to be enhanced.

-Smoking attacks the pancreas making blood sugar balance difficult, therefore your moods will suffer.

Are you still thinking that you can’t do anything without a cigarette, or maybe you have softened your stance, and realise that non smokers can and do manage life just fine without having to light up.

Of course many non smokers can turn to alcohol or drugs or other forms of destructive behaviour, it would seem that stopping smoking doesn’t make us perfect, just healthier, if not wiser.