Use these tips to help you learn how to recognize thoughts that don’t serve you as you move through recovery from nicotine addiction and reprogram your mind with thoughts that do.
3 Quotes to Help You Quit
The first quote is from Terry Martin. It’s a catchy little phrase, and very appropriate to quitting smoking. Or, it’s another meaningless expression that do-gooders like to chant. The choice is up to you. Your quit can be a horrible, difficult, torturous period of penance that may end with you becoming a smoker again because you really want to be smoking but feel you can’t. Or, your quit can be a somewhat uncomfortable but exciting path leading to new opportunities and higher self-esteem. You know you won’t smoke because you’re already feeling the freedom of living without chemical dependence. That too is up to you.
Smokers Are Experts at Mind Games
You have to be, to continue to do something as self-destructive as smoking and still sleep at night. If you allow those old mind games to continue, you are going to be facing a “horrible, difficult, torturous period of penance,” so take the easy way. Make a mental change, and try some new, fresh mind games. Don’t quit smoking because you have to. Rather, embark on a challenging and rewarding adventure of teaching yourself how to be a non-smoker. The second option is more pleasant and, thus, easier. That is not to say it won’t be without some effort on your part, but embracing the process instead of head-butting it is the best way to go.
14 Mind Tricks to Get You Started
Here are some tricks to get you started:
Mantras
Have a few “mindless mantras” that you can fall back on when you’re just too tired to think anymore today. They’re things that are too obviously true to argue with, and catchy enough to remember. You can often find them in people’s signature lines. They include:
If I smoke one, I’ll be right back to where I started. Where I started was desperately wishing I could be where I am today.What if you abandon the journey today and the peace would have come tomorrow?It is not a matter of if you will go to war with quitting smoking, but a matter of when you will go to war. Will you go while you are healthy and in control or when you are dying?We own our quits
In times of stress, ask yourself, “WWND?” (What Would a Non-smoker Do?) Try to picture someone you know who has never smoked in the situation you’re in and try to imagine them reaching for a cigarette to get through it. The absurd notion that a cigarette would help them will help you see that the notion a cig will help you is absurd, too. Congratulations to everyone who will not smoke today.
