SolveYourProblem eLearning Series: Smoking
I'd Rather Not Die From Smoking
Learn The Harmful Effects & Quit Smoking Now
( 27 pages )

The Quitting Process: Counseling & Rewards

Counseling

Counseling is one way in, which you can strengthen your effort to quit. It is not really required that you consult a professional counselor. If you have a doctor or a dentist who you trust, that person is more than enough. In the initial stages, ask the person to detail you on all the harmful effects of smoking. Then the person can monitor your efforts and your progress and can give you helpful hints as well.

You might also consider possibilities like group counseling or telephone counseling. Group counseling has a wonderful effect, because there is nothing that feels as good as having others who face the same problems that you are encountering. When you hear the fears of others, and how difficult t is for them to pull no, you will feel surprisingly encouraged. Group counseling will provide you a wonderful arena to compare notes with other fellow quitters and you can watch and monitor your progress.

Try reassuring others, it has a wonderful effect on you. When you talk convincingly to others without knowing it you are really convincing yourself as well. This will go a long way towards building up your own confidence that you will succeed.

Telephone counseling is also a possibility that many people tend to ignore. The best thing about telephone counseling is that it can be done at any time without too much of a strain. Just consider the possibility, it is not always easy to dash off to your counselor when you feel the urge to smoke, know you are not supposed to and end up feeling depressed about it. On the other hand if, at such a moment you can just pick up your telephone and dial your counselor’s number, you can get what you want and with the minimum loss of time and effort.

A Financial Reward

Sure cigarettes are expensive, but because people buy them in small quantities, the expense doesn’t seem much. So what you can do is start saving the money that you do not spend buying packets and packets of cigarettes. Save the money for something special and if you can, try to make it special for your family as well.

Promise the kids something like a trip to Disneyland or a vacation at the sea side. The advantage of making such public declarations is that you have all the more reason to refrain from buying cigarettes. Your kids too will be very enthusiastic about reminding you not to splurge on cigarettes and there is something to look forward to for all the family.

What if you do not have a family to save for? Well, go ahead and save for yourself. There’s always something that you would want but ay have refrained from buying because it might have been slightly over you budget. So now you can add the money that you are not spending on cigarettes to get yours elf that little something.

The point that I am trying to drive home is that you should be rewarded for your efforts. You attempt to start smoking should not become a sort of punishment towards yourself but must promise better things for you later.

Bringing Down the Number

This again is another pitfall. There is often a misconception about quitting. Many people believe that instead of stopping at just one go; they should try to bring down the number of cigarettes that they smoke. Wrong! That is not the way that it should be done. If you try and bring down the number of cigarettes that you smoke, you will still be smoking and that just doesn’t help.

It is a very tricky thing indeed to fix on the number that is safe for you. If you are still carrying cigarettes with you then you are in fact tempting yourself. You might have brought down the number but since you still have a packet with you, you are in fact waiting for the slightest provocation and that number will shoot up again.

What is it that makes you smoke? Tension, excitement, anxiety, problems, the need to unwind, stress? Can we ever free ourselves form any of these? So the next time you hit one of these then that becomes your green signal for you will just whip out that packet, light one of them and start puffing away to glory. The excuse that will be reverberating in your mind is that “it’s just this once, just to get over this small problem.”

And then before you know it, you will be back to smoking the same number of cigarettes.

So let me emphasize that point again, you have to quit once and for all if you are really serious about quitting. It just does not work if you try to bring down the number. The number just never becomes zero. I have met many people who say, “I used to smoke 6 packets a day but now I’m down to just 2 packets a day.” I look at them out of the corner of my eye and I do not say anything to them though the message on my face is, “but you are still puffing away like a steam engine aren’t you?”

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