How to quit smoking by making peace with your emotions
Let me invite you to read this article that really helps being smoke free, but mostly - Free.
Article here - https://medium.com/@joannna/how-to-quit-smoking-by-making-peace-with-your-emotions-2d7bd5d4dddb?source=friends_link&sk=377b0f86b0878a4b2535356b3c97ace6
I did not find the link to work. Instead I typed in my search bar.......How to quit smoking by making peace with your emotions. The page i managed to find was helpful suggestions on an array of issues which arise from our quest. A couple of things that I learned was that top of the list for relieving anxiety and/or stress is green tea. If you have insomnia, a medicinal herb Valorian (I couldn't find it again but think that is right) or a tea for nighttime use are both good. Apparently eating banana and other foods high in potassium help to relieve anxiety. Lots of interesting information, some of which is even new to me.
The good and evils of Vaping. Know the facts.
Why you Shouldn't Quit Smoking (flowing zen) I found this particular piece very informative but found that it was a pitch for his Qigong videos for purchase and his wife's acupucture. The first part goes on about how some are just not ready to quit smoking and to make qigong their two minute a day good habit for 3 months before quitting smoking. I totally agree with that concept in parts. However, he says to enjoy smoking during that time where as I suggest taking the time one on one (as he does) but think of the reasons why you hate it. Learn about nicotine and want to quit. We both agree that you WANT to quit.
Some good reading i think. Even i learned some things, and as i keep saying Knowledge is Power! I am also a firm believer that learning does raise dopamine. Get your dose today.
The last line in the second paragraph above should of course read....We both agree that you have to WANT to quit.
I can't click the link but in defence of the OP Medium is actually a blogging site where people can post articles or blog posts written by them or others. It's merely another kind of WordPress or blogspot site.
Hi everyone and thank you for your comments.
My apologies if my article looks like a click/bait or some kind of scam. My goal is to share what I've learned by smoking for 10 years, obsessively. My article talks about the emotions we want to hide from ourselves and, to do that, we find coping mechanisms (in our case, we chose cigarettes) to deal with our pain. I'm smoke-free now thanks to the exercises I explain in my article. This is the result of a years of trying to quit cigarettes and trying everything I could find. This is my journey. Yes, if you read my article in this platform (Medium) I will get more followers and perhaps, one day, a paycheck. Which would be great. But this is, essentially, me sharing my story. Hopefully, it will help others, as it helped me.
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To the ones who can't access my link, I leave you with something to read from my article and, if you wish, search for it on the web to read it entirely.
Allow yourself to feel uncomfortable
Our brains evolved in a way that, to survive, we must keep doing things that make us comfortable and in the case of the uncomfortable stuff, we must run away and never look back. To know which things are comfortable or uncomfortable, we tend to label everything we know as good or bad, and we learn that from the time we are little. For instance, a child is playing with fire for the first time, not knowing that it can get burned. Once the child burns his or her hand, he or she instantly feels the burn sensation which causes pain and perhaps fear, and immediately takes his or her hand away from the fire. The child cries, knowing now that fire can cause these uncomfortable feelings and in this scenario — fire is labeled as bad. From now on, and through the rest of this child’s life, he or she will naturally know that one has to be within a safe distance from a fire, thus avoiding to be burned — and thus avoiding to feel uncomfortable. Evolutionarily speaking, this is good and necessary. It’s how we keep ourselves alive.
The same happens with cigarettes.
When we feel emotions that we previously labeled as bad and thus uncomfortable (like feeling anger, sadness, fear, stress, anxiety, rancor, distrust, bitterness, frustration, resentment, guilt, despair, annoyance, loneliness, disappointment, boredom, etc.), we want to “run away”.
We do that because what we really want is that uncomfortable emotion to vanish as fast as possible and feel ok, safe and comfortable.
Every time a smoker pulls another cigarette to lit it up and drag an average of seven puffs within maybe 5 minutes, what the smoker is doing is trying to avoid one or more uncomfortable emotions.
What you have to do is to welcome them. All of them.
Hubby and I both disagree with your last sentences. First off maybe an average of 5 drags per minute for the duration a smoke lasts, about 7 minutes. You are what we would call a very light smoker.
While quitting smoking one might light up to alleviate the craving (which smoking in itself causes (nicotine)) which is very uncomfortable. Would you have us believe that every time we had a coffee or finished a meal we were running away from an uncomfortable feeling for all those years that we smoked?
If your theory is correct, why did we continue to smoke after a very awful tasting, and choking first experience with smoking. Because we wanted to fit in is why. Especially decades ago when it was in movies and glamorized.
We continued to smoke because nicotine is addictive and the act of smoking became an ingrained habit. The nicotine fooled our brains into thinking it did something for us. We have now learned that it did not relieve stress but rather the main cause for many of our stresses such as money and health issues. We only thought it relieved stress because it felt good to feed the nicotine monster or endure the cravings. And so the never ending cycle began.......
Cravings are not nice to continually have, but we can control our thoughts to positive ones. We are strong enough to fight for what we want. Our minds can be changed to see the truth and we most certainly can quit smoking.
Again, I shared my journey with you. Stop being so critical with everything and take with you what will help you, if you actually read my article. And if it doesn't help you, just leave it. And that's fine :) Have a good life :)
https://medium.com/@joannna/how-to-quit-smoking-by-making-peace-with-your-emotions-2d7bd5d4dddb?source=friends_link&sk=377b0f86b0878a4b2535356b3c97ace6
So it seems the link does work and it is a decent video with merit. Just another way of saying you can't have a craving and think but i have quit smoking , I can't have one. Here on iCanQuit we try also to get people to have positive thoughts of wanting to quit, not feeling like they are depriving themselves of something. Once you understand nicotine and how it altered your way of thinking, how you came to even talk yourself into thinking that you liked smoking you start to understand what we are trying to tell you. When it becomes something that you really want to do it enables you to believe that it actually is possible for you to do. Positive thinking is the way to go. Choose to quit smoking, choose to put the journey in a positive light and choose to believe in yourself. It is a battle won in the mind and you can be in control.