By Jesse Logister
A cigarette should not broil, but your burning desire to live a tobacco-free life should smolder all the time.
Once you make it through the first few days and weeks, the treacherous tobacco thoughts might hide themselves for a while. But these thoughts crawl out of their dark holes from time to time, and they will do their best to trigger you in lighting one up.
You have to be wary about these triggers, because they can destroy your hard work in an instant.
Once you quit for a while, you might start to focus on other important goals. Time passes and your mind is slowly extinguishing that burning desire to enjoy a tobacco-free life.
However, it is important that you keep this fire smoldering all the time.
The Habit of Smoking Is a Chronic Disease
Many people will warn you about how sick you can become from smoking. But smoking by itself is already a huge and serious chronic disease.
You might stop for a long period, but the trigger to light one up can appear at any time. This can even happen after many years.
Before you know it, you are smoking again. It happened to me after I did not touch a cigarette for two years.
For me, that is the real disease that is connected to the awful habit of smoking. You tend to forget about your struggles with cigarettes, but that little bit of leftover addiction tells you that it is okay for once. After all, you did not smoke for years and you are in control of it now. Just one cigarette should be fine. But of course it is not!
Keep Reminding Yourself Why You Stopped Smoking
You need to constantly remind yourself that smoking is bad, and that it has brought you all kinds of bad feelings and physical problems.
At this moment, I am at day 8 of not smoking. I past the first week, but I am certainly not out of the danger zone. In fact, I think I never will. I always have to keep reminding myself of why I wanted to quit smoking.
Therefore, I decided to become a very educated ex-smoker.
Change Negative Habits into Positive Ones
Instead of lighting one up when I step out of bed or before I am ready to sleep, I now read a smoking related article every morning and every evening. I changed a negative habit into a positive one so that I am constantly reminded about the dangers and negative aspects of smoking.
I recommend that you read an article about smoking everyday so that you constantly fuel your burning desire to live a tobacco-free life.
It makes you stronger at moments that triggers arise. For example, at occasions when you meet up with friends to have a drink, or when you are surrounded by many smokers.
Take a Deep Breath and Let the Moment Pass
When you feel the urge to smoke at such occasions, just take a deep breath and know that it will pass.
I had my first trigger moment yesterday, after a lavish dinner with my girlfriend. I felt a desire to smoke for a few minutes, but it quickly passed and I forget all about it five minutes later.
Later that evening, I even felt stronger, because I did not fall into the trap. Such positive feelings pile up and they are the foundation for your tobacco free mindset.
Don’t dwell in your loss as it is a necessary break up. There is hope, and you have within you the power to change and become stronger.