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I'm Almost Ready to Quit Smoking (Part I)

© T. Darlene Cheek

I am an ex-smoker. I'm not going to bore you to death telling you about Heart Disease and Cancers of all types. I'm not even going to tell you about any of the many health factors that smoking destroys. I won't give you a list of the over 700 chemicals that they use in cigarette tobacco. I'm not going to tell you how smoking effects your family, your friends, or people you work with. I'm not going to tell you you're going to die if you don't stop. You're a smoker, so you must know all of this already.

What I am going to talk to you about are the first steps to learning to quit. That seems to be the obscure information, after all. There are people out there that know how, have the information; but if they aren't going to make any money telling you, they certainly won't. The sad thing is that it is absolutely so easy! Anyone can quit. This week, we'll talk about the things that everyone can start doing right away. Next week, we'll go in depth into hypnosis, which is the easiest way in the world to quit smoking. I know, because that's how I quit. It's also the way that I've helped so many other people quit.

I guess the first question to ask ourselves is "Why?" Why do you want to quit: For yourself? Your family? Because you wake up every morning unable to breath? Is the cough making you crazy? Are you simply tired of how smoking makes you look and smell? Perhaps it's a little bit of all of this, and more. The first step is to know why you want to quit. It's so important that the answer be "I want to quit for me."

The second step goes hand-in-hand with the first one. One morning, first thing when you wake up, take a pen and paper and write down how you feel and why you want to quit. Why are you going to do this? Quite simply because once you quit smoking and start feeling better, you "forget" what it was like to wake up every morning hurting. You "forget" all the reasons you quit. This letter to yourself will be there to serve as a reminder.

The third step is to change your habits: i.e., a) if you smoke a light cigarette, go to the strongest brand you can possibly stand, even go as far as smoking non-filtered brands, b) if you smoke with your right hand, change to your left, change your smoking style, c) change where you smoke (I'll cover this more in step four).

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