Ways to Stop Smoking - Which One is Best for You?

Ways to Stop Smoking - Which One is Best for You?
By Waller Jamison

There are numerous ways to stop smoking available today, but how can you find the best one? If you need help quitting smoking, it’s important to start by looking at your smoking habits. One of the problems with smoking is that people tend to do it unconsciously and so aren’t always aware of exactly how many cigarettes they smoke per day. So to help yourself stop, keep a smoking diary for a week. Make a note of every cigarette you smoke and the circumstances in which you smoked it. If you can, note how you felt at the time.

Some people have triggers – as soon as the phone rings, after a meal, relaxing with a drink after work, a trip to the pub, they light up. These are regular events associated with smoking, but there are other stronger emotional triggers as well. These can be major events, like the diagnosis of a serious illness or the death of a friend, but there are plenty of more banal situations in which we smoke for emotional reasons, for example, getting an unexpectedly large bill, having an outing you were looking forward to cancelled or getting stressed because you’ve been given extra work or have a deadline coming up and think you might not make it. So if you’re having trouble quitting smoking, take extra care with your diary and see how many triggers you can identify. They don’t always have to be negative – hearing good news can also make you reach for a cigarette.

Once you’ve established your smoking pattern, you can become more aware of when you smoke and take steps to cut back. If you habitually smoke when chatting on the phone to a friend or to your mother, make a point of creating an alternative. You could make a cup of tea, keep a bottle of water next to the phone or find something with which you can fidget, keeping your hands occupied and away from the cigarettes. Keep your cigarettes somewhere you can’t reach when on the phone. If you use a mobile or cordless phone, you’ll have to exercise a bit more will power!

You might find that awareness is enough to enable you to cut down and eventually stop, however, for many people this has a limited effect. If this is the case, have a look at the different options available and find one with which you feel most comfortable.

You could start off with your doctor or free public programme, such as those offered by the NHS in the UK. In addition, there are many options, which take differing amounts of time and can cost next to nothing – or a small fortune. It’s important to find something which you feel good about and which doesn’t break the bank. Although it’s worth considering the amount of money you’ll save by giving up if you are concerned about paying for therapy.

Emotional Freedom Technique or EFT, involves tapping on acupuncture points and is something you can learn to do yourself, making it a lot cheaper and less painful than acupuncture itself. Hypnosis is another popular alternative method of giving up smoking, and like the others, has plenty of advocates. Choose the way to stop smoking which appeals to you most, but remember that all of these methods have one pre-requisite – you have to want to stop smoking.

© Waller Jamison 2007

Waller Jamison is a qualified acupuncturist and reflexologist whose main focus is writing. If you need inspiration, get more great ideas to help you stop smoking