When you decide to quit smoking, you are making a conscious effort to improve your life. But, like going to the gym and changing your diet, quitting smoking is something that has to be done as a lifestyle change every day, and the nicotine withdrawal isn’t always easy to fight.
The secret is to control your habits instead of letting them control you. When you use these 4 smoking relapse prevention tips, you are more likely to be successful permanently in quitting this dangerous habit.
4 Tips to Never Smoking a Cigarette Again
1Stay away from your smoking “scenes.”
There are some places that are more conducive to smoking and some things that you do that give you the urge to light up. There are even some people who make you feel like you have to smoke to hang out with them.
Avoid these scenes while you are newly quitting. You don’t have to stay away from them forever. Try to hang out with non-smokers instead, and avoid places where alcohol is flowing regularly as drinking often goes hand-in-hand with smoking.
Until you feel like you have control over the nicotine, tell your friends and family (and even your employers if necessary) that you are quitting smoking and can’t do those things just yet.
2Turn to e-cigarettes if necessary.
If you can’t quit cold turkey because that urge to inhale has you out of control, avoid the tobacco cigarettes and try vaping instead. It’s not perfect. The healthiest thing for you is to quit smoking altogether, but vaping is a safer option than cigarettes.
With vaping, your mind gets the feeling of smoking, which helps calm the habit urges. There are also intense flavors offering intense satisfaction, so you might find that you prefer the taste of vaping over tobacco cigarettes.
3Stay busy.
When you are surrounding yourself with situations and places where smoking is not allowed, you take away the option of smoking anyway. Stay busy, keep plans in place with friends and family even when you don’t feel like it, and avoid sitting around in situations where you can easily get bored and think about smoking.
4Have a plan in place for when those urges get the best of you.
Write yourself notes of encouragement and hang them around the house in places where you will see them frequently. Research the long-term effects of smoking and print out pictures and facts that scare you.
Talk to a loved one and create a code word and a plan of action in case you are starting to feel like your cravings are too much. Let them know what will and won’t work for you since their best intentions might not be what you need.
Above all, remember that a lapse is not the same as a relapse. You can slip occasionally as long as you are using those lapses as lessons learned rather than an excuse to give up completely.
Control Your Habits
With these smoking relapse prevention tips, you can get your body back under your control. Any habit takes a long time to develop, just as they take even longer to break. Control your habits and make them healthy ones instead of deadly choices.
