Shrink Your Urge for a Smoke

Referring to my gloomy moods after we had to put down our old hound, Dickens, a couple of weeks ago, our friend, Norm, wrote the following:

“You have reason to be down. In this case I know it as ‘phantom dog syndrome’; expecting it to round the corner as always. Then the realization, once again, that isn’t going to happen.

When I’m that way I rely on the cognitive end of the spectrum. I review fact based stuff on a regular basis to keep it in the forefront of my mind.”

I’m glad Norm brought up “the cognitive end of the spectrum.” I’ve had some experience with related techniques and think they could be of great value when you’re battling cigarette cravings.

Visualization/Guided Imagery

With visualization, you sit in a comfortable, quiet place and relax your muscles, starting with your toes, one body part at a time. When you reach the top of your head, sit calmly and visualize yourself in healthy situations–swimming, playing tennis, hiking, flamenco dancing.

Deep Breathing

Find a reasonably quiet place for this exercise. Slowly breathe in through your nose for until your lungs are full. Hold the air in for a second or two, then blow it out, very slowly, through your nostrils.

Cognitive Techniques

We’ve talked about these before. First, keep a smoking diary (you can download a smoking diary in the “Tools” section of this blog.) to determine which cigarettes you smoke out of habit, an emotional trigger or desire. Drop the habitual smokes–that’s pretty easy. Move on to the cigarettes that you smoke when you’re down or upset by finding reasonable substitutes or distractions. Last, tackle the cigarettes you desire–these cigarettes really reflect your addiction.

No magic here, but these techniques do work for many people.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 02nd, 2007 at 3:05pm and is filed under Quit Smoking diary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.