Effective Ways To Quit Smoking That You Need To Know

When did you start smoking? 

I want you to consider why you started smoking in the first place. Was it peer pressure? Was it thinking you would look cool? Was it because you wanted to feel like a grown-up? Maybe you started smoking as a form of rebellion or to not feel 'left out' around others your age.

As a youngster, there is every likelihood that you took up smoking at least partly because you were influenced by direct or indirect advertising such as sponsorships of sporting or other events. This direct or indirect advertising portrayed smoking as a cool, exciting and invigorating thing to do.

Even the seemingly innocent candy cigarettes that so many people pretended to smoke as children have now been linked to people taking up smoking, and they have been banned in many countries, like Canada and the United Kingdom.

What about all the actors who smoked? In the past, actors seen to be the epitome of cool, from James Dean to John Wayne and Greta Garbo, all smoked, making it seem desirable and fashionable. It was too late for Yul Brynner when he realised the dangers of smoking. Brynner died in his sixties from lung cancer, and his famous last words were, 'Whatever you do … don't smoke.'

It is most likely that you were conditioned to smoking well before you had your first cigarette. If you are old enough to remember, think of Paul Hogan with the 'Anyhow' ads or the "Marlboro Man' on his horse. Gomez Addams smoked in The Adams Family, as did Lucy and Desi Arnez in I Love Lucy. Good old Popeye smoked a pipe. Tom and Jerry smoked and there are numerous characters on The Simpsons who smoke. 

A study that appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine (24 March 1999) looked at 50 G-rated animated films made over the previous 60 years and found that more than two-thirds of animated children's films featured tobacco use in the story plots.

Did you ever smoke those candy cigarettes or candy cigars as a youngster? Did you ever take a pen or a pencil and pretend you were smoking?

One sinister campaign was the old Winston advertisement featuring characters from the animated TV series The Flintstones, with Barney advising Fred about how good Winston cigarettes are. If you would like to view the Flintstones Winston commercial, you can go to YouTube and type in 'Flintstones Winston'.

Mental addiction: triggers and associations

After years of smoking, you will have created powerful associations or triggers that connect smoking with other events. Some people associate smoking with almost everything they do.

Read through the following list and discover which triggers or smoking associations apply to you. Do you smoke:

• when you are stressed?
• when you feel bored?
• when you feel lonely?
• after a meal?
• when driving?
• while drinking coffee?
• while drinking alcohol?
• while watching TV?
• when socialising?
• when you are on the phone?
• as an escape?
• on a work break?
• immediately on waking up?
• before bed?
• at other times?

If you have smoked 20 cigarettes a day for 20 years, this adds up to a total of 14.6,000 cigarettes smoked. If you have ten triggers, then this adds up to almost 15,000 times each trigger or association has been reinforced.

When you say to yourself, 'A meal is not complete without a cigarette', then this becomes a habit and a belief. You have conditioned yourself to think and respond in certain ways. Quit Smoking Today will assist you in disconnecting all the current connections you have to smoking, including the belief that you are a smoker.

Creating new conditioned responses is easier than you think. You will install new associations and new responses in your unconscious mind while being consciously aware of them.

Bear in mind that withdrawal symptoms from nicotine are temporary. With  Quit Smoking Today Program, you will be a non-smoker before you know it. Nicotine, while an addictive substance, is nowhere near as hard to give up as you've probably been led to believe. Also, if you have attempted to stop using the cold turkey method with no real plan, no real change of mindset and no replacement strategies, then it might have been difficult. 

We've all heard the old saying, When you fail to plan, you plan to fail. As you give every exercise in this blog a fair go and fill in your seven-day smoking diary, you will make stopping so much easier. You will have a plan. You will stick to that plan. And success will be yours.

My plan is to quit by smoking electronic cigarette, which is much healthier and safer comparing to traditional cigarettes. And the best thing is, I still can enjoy my nicotine. You can try too! Order your electronic cigarette starter kit today!