Stopping Smoking Tips

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14 Stopping Smoking Tips by Jane Thurnell-Read

• Make a list of everything you hate about smoking, and everything you'll gain by giving up, and put copies all round your house and suitable places at work.

• Create a vibrant image in your mind of how you will be when you stop smoking - healthier, happier, more in control of your own life.

• When you smoke your last cigarette, concentrate on everything you hate about it. Commit the negative feelings and thoughts to your memory. Visit those memories often.

• Don't kid yourself that low tar cigarettes are safe. There are no safe cigarettes. You need to give up if you smoke, however many that is and whatever type of cigarette that is.

• Learn about the health benefits about giving up, e.g. after 1-2 years without cigarettes you will have halved your chances of having a heart attack.

• Change the routines that are associated with smoking, just for a while, until you've got this 'giving-up-smoking' thing under your belt. Avoid situations, if possible, where you know you will really want a cigarette.

• Get help: research suggests that you are 4 times as likely to give up if you use formal support (such as NHS smokers' clinics) as if you go it alone.

• When you want a cigarette, remember that smoking increases your chances of getting diabetes.

• Learn about cigarette filters. These are usually made from cellulose acetate, and studies have shown that you usually ingest and/or inhale some of these fibres. That can't be doing your health any good, can it? Yet another reason to quit.

• Dying For A Cigarette? Smoking is a major killer - not just lung cancer but heart disease and strokes too. Deaths associated with smoking are not necessarily quick and easy. If you smoke, do yourself a favour and quit now.

• Smoking affects your eyes - smoking doubles your risk of getting cataracts.

• Smoking damages your skin and makes you look older than you are. Look at yourself in the mirror, would you like to look younger?

• Smoking triples the risk of dying from heart disease among those who are middle-aged. Whatever your age, if you smoke, do yourself a favour and quit.

• Get a self-hypnosis DVD, get support, try nicotine patches, but give up those cigarettes.

Copyright 2007 Jane Thurnell-Read