Isolate Smoking Situations If You Want To Stop Smoking
I think that many would agree that the reason why many smokers start smoking is because of friends and social situations. If you think about it, the reason any of us smoke cigarettes is because of something “social”. At some point in our lives we need to experience smoking socially if we are going to accept. We might see our parents smoke, we might see our friends smoke, we might see people smoking on TV…the types of social smoking encounters goes on and on. So, what is the point to all of this talk? The point I am trying to drive home here is the issue of smoking situations. Smoking when around friends or in social situations is an obvious trigger for a smoker. If you are with friends that smoke then you are are going to smoke yourself. It’s just going to happen. Social activities are one of the many triggers of smoking. There are many other situations where we find ourselves wanting a smoke and this is what I’d like to discuss in this article.
If you’re a smoker and you would like to stop smoking then you absolutely need to identify “your” smoking situations. What kinds of situations do you find yourself smoking in all of the time? When do you find it natural to smoke a cigarette? These are the types of questions you need to ask yourself. You need to dig into that head of yours and really analyze all of the types of situations you regularly find yourself smoking in. Obviously, this alone will not allow you to stop smoking. Simply identifying situations that you regularly smoke in isn’t the actual active part of this technique. I’ll get to that in a bit. Now, if you really want to get serious about things and are truly committed to quitting then I highly suggest that you literally write down different situations you find yourself smoking in regularly. Yes, this means carrying a pen and paper with you throughout your day and writing down all of the situations you are smoking in. If you find yourself smoking a cigarette at breakfast along with some coffee then write it down. If you have a smoke to kill some time before your bus arrives then write it down. If you are smoking…then write down the situation! The whole point of identifying your own smoking situations is to remember them and to become aware of them. If you are just tell yourself that you are smoking while having some coffee then it isn’t going to stick. Writing things down allows you to have a physical copy of your smoking habits which in turn will make your smoking situations stick in your brain. This is what you want.
When you have begun to see your smoking habits you can start acting on them. Becoming fully aware of your smoking situations is the first step towards acting on them. This is what allows you to take your smoking situations on and correct them. I realize that it isn’t this easy but it is a formula that works if you can work with it. Once you have begun to realize that you are always smoking in the morning with a cup of coffee, always smoking when you’re bored, always smoking when you’re with friends, always smoking after a stressful event, and so on, you will be able to compensate for these events. The issue of eliminating your smoking habits is still there but it is there in a much more manageable way. When you begin to see that you are always smoking in certain types of situations then you can prepare yourself for them. For example, if you are someone who tends to smoke a lot when you are anxious or stressed out then you know you are using cigarettes as a vice. If this is the case then you can prepare for this type of smoking situation by using another vice. Instead of smoking a cigarette you could open up to a friend, workout, take a nap, and so on. The goal in this type of smoking situation is to find another vice, preferably a healthy one, for your stress and anxiety. It is all about swapping out the smoking for something else. This applies to all smoking situations. You need to identify what is causing you to smoke in certain situations and either totally eliminate the factor or deal with the cause in a non-smoking manner.
