| p>Cigarette smoking is a personal choice. However, if | | | | level of good feelings. Cigarette smokers are aware |
| you are considering stopping smoking, you may | | | | when nicotine levels and good feelings begin to |
| already realize that quitting requires more than | | | | decrease, and light up quickly enough to stay in their |
| willpower or scaring yourself with statistics of why | | | | personal comfort zone. However, they may not realize |
| smoking is bad. | | | | that avoiding their feelings is not the same as taking |
| Conventional smoking cessation systems often don't | | | | positive steps to create a life of greater potential and |
| work in the long term because they do not address | | | | meaning. |
| the real reasons that people smoke. Listed below are | | | | The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) reports |
| five often unidentified reasons that people smoke. | | | | that people suffering from nicotine withdrawal have |
| These reasons might surprise you. | | | | increased aggression, anxiety, hostility, and anger. |
| Before you engage in your stop smoking process, | | | | However, perhaps these emotional responses are due |
| take some time and identify the important underlying | | | | not to withdrawal, but due to an increased awareness |
| motivations of why you choose to smoke. By | | | | of unresolved emotions. If smoking dulls emotions, |
| understanding those real reasons, you can generate a | | | | logically quitting smoking allows awareness of those |
| personalized stop smoking plan that incorporates new | | | | emotions to bubble up to the surface. If emotional |
| strategies of coping and dealing with life. | | | | issues aren't resolved, a smoker may feel |
| 1. Smoking Is A Lifestyle Coping Tool | | | | overwhelmed and eventually turn back to cigarettes to |
| For many people, smoking is a reliable lifestyle coping | | | | deal with the uncomfortable feelings. |
| tool. Although every person's specific reasons to | | | | 4. Smoking Makes You Feel Calm and Alive |
| smoke are unique, they all share a common theme. | | | | Smokers often say that lighting up a cigarette can |
| Smoking is used as a way to suppress uncomfortable | | | | calm their nerves, satisfy their cravings, and help them |
| feelings, and smoking is used to alleviate stress, calm | | | | feel energized. Indeed, nicotine in tobacco joins on to |
| nerves, and relax. No wonder that when you are | | | | receptors in your brain that release "feel good" |
| deprived of smoking, your mind and body are unsettled | | | | chemicals that can make you feel calm and energized |
| for a little while. | | | | all at once. Smoking acts as a drug, inducing a feeling |
| Below is a list of some positive intentions often | | | | of well-being with each puff. But, it's a phony sense of |
| associated with smoking. Knowing why you smoke is | | | | well-being that never produces a permanent satisfying |
| one of the first steps towards quitting. Check any and | | | | or fulfilling result. Smoking lures you into believing that |
| all that apply to you. | | | | you can escape some underlying truth or reality. |
| ___ Coping with anger, stress, anxiety, tiredness, or | | | | However, smoking doesn't allow you to actually |
| sadness | | | | transform your day-to-day life and live connected to |
| ___ Smoking is pleasant and relaxing | | | | your deeper hopes and dreams. |
| ___ Smoking is stimulating | | | | Instead, when you smoke, the carbon monoxide in the |
| ___ Acceptance - being part of a group | | | | smoke bonds to your red blood cells, taking up the |
| ___ As a way to socialize | | | | spaces where oxygen needs to bond. This makes |
| ___ Provides support when things go wrong | | | | you less able to take in the deep, oxygen-filled breath |
| ___ A way to look confident and in control | | | | needed to bring you life, to active new energy, to allow |
| ___ Keeps weight down | | | | health and healing, and bring creative insight into your |
| ___ Rebellion - defining self as different or unique | | | | problems and issues. |
| from a group | | | | 5. You Are In The Midst Of Transition |
| ___ A reminder to breathe | | | | If you previously quit smoking, and then resumed the |
| ___ Something to do with your mouth and hands | | | | habit once again, consider the idea that perhaps you |
| ___ Shutting out stimuli from the outside world | | | | are in the midst of some "growing pains." Perhaps you |
| ___ Shutting out emotions from the inside world | | | | were feeling dissatisfied with some aspect of your life |
| ___ Something to do just for you and nobody else | | | | and contemplating making change. However, |
| ___ A way to shift gears or changes states | | | | developing spiritually, emotionally, and physically brings |
| ___ An way to feel confident | | | | with it the experience of discomfort. Old beliefs rise up, |
| ___ A way to shut off distressing feelings | | | | creating sensations of hurt, pain, sadness, anxiety, and |
| ___ A way to deal with stress or anxiety | | | | uneasiness. You were feeling dissatisfied, restless, |
| ___ A way to get attention | | | | ready to change, but then felt the fear that change |
| ___ Marking the beginning or the end of something | | | | often ignites. |
| 2. Smoking Tranquilizer | | | | Smoking provides an escape from those |
| The habit of cigarette smoking is often used to | | | | uncomfortable feelings. However, smoking also brings |
| tranquilize emotional issues like anxiety, stress, or low | | | | an abrupt halt to personal transformation and the |
| self-esteem. In addition, smoking provides comfort to | | | | evolution of self. Although painful, these feelings are |
| people with conditions of chronic pain and depression. | | | | necessary in your personal development. Learning to |
| Smokers with emotional stress or chronic pain often | | | | accept feelings in a new way can help lead you out of |
| turn to smoking as an attempt to treat their pain. For | | | | disempowering or limiting beliefs, and into a life filled |
| instance, they may use it to reduce anxiety, provide a | | | | with greater happiness, satisfaction, contentment, or |
| sense of calmness and energy, and elevate their | | | | purpose. When you stop smoking and start breathing - |
| mood. | | | | conscious, deep, smoke-free, oxygen-filled breaths - |
| Some evidence does suggest that nicotine has some | | | | your evolution will start up once again. |
| pain-relief benefits. Nicotine releases brain chemicals | | | | Why Do You Smoke? |
| which soothe pain, heighten positive emotions, and | | | | If you smoke, then you do so because the act of |
| creating a sense of reward. However, any benefit | | | | smoking is personally meaningful to you. Therefore, if |
| from smoking only eases the pain for a few minutes. | | | | you are considering quitting, take some time and |
| Cigarettes contain many other chemicals shown to | | | | explore the reasons underlying your decision to smoke. |
| worsen healing ability of bone, tooth, and cartilage. | | | | Become interested, observe yourself, and get curious. |
| The mental association between smoking and pain | | | | Allow yourself an opportunity to turn into a smoking |
| relief can make quitting quite difficult, as can the | | | | journalist, ready to uncover an intriguing mystery. |
| increased short-term discomfort that quitting smoking | | | | Before lighting up your next cigarette, ask yourself:a. |
| adds to a person already suffering with chronic pain, | | | | What positive functions do I believe smoking provides |
| depression, or emotional distress. What are effective | | | | me?b. How will smoking help or change the situation?c. |
| ways for people with chronic pain - whether physical | | | | What situations make me smoke the most?d. What |
| or emotional - to make the decision to quit smoking? | | | | emotions or feelings am I trying to avoid or deny?e. If I |
| First, evidence shows that in people who suffer | | | | didn't smoke right now, what would I feel? How would I |
| chronic pain, smokers have more pain than | | | | handle that feeling?f. What would I do with the energy |
| nonsmokers do. Also, accept that smoking cessation | | | | that is freed up from smoking cessation? |
| may indeed make you feel worse in the short run, but | | | | The most important factor in stopping smoking is a |
| may be key to regaining enough vitality to live fully with | | | | genuine desire to stop smoking. You were not a born |
| pain. | | | | smoker; it's something you learned to do. Learning new |
| 3. The Feel Good Syndrome | | | | ways of coping with stress is possible, as is learning |
| Smoking is a way to avoid feeling unpleasant emotions | | | | new ways to relax and raise confidence levels. Use |
| such as sadness, grief, and anxiety. It can hide | | | | the reasons presented above as clues to uncover the |
| apprehensions, fears, and pain. This is accomplished | | | | underlying reasons why you smoke. Then, in addition to |
| partly through the chemical effects of nicotine on the | | | | making a firm decision to stop smoking, also make a |
| brain. | | | | firm plan to address your underlying needs. You're not |
| When smoking, the release of brain chemicals makes | | | | only kicking the habit, you're also creating a new |
| smokers feel like they are coping and dealing with life | | | | balance with your body, mind, and self! |
| and stressful emotional situations. Nicotine brings up a | | | | |