A positive attitude makes everything easier
If you say to yourself over and over that you can't quit smoking, and if you believe you can't quit for more than a few days, you just aren't ready to quit.
A positive attitude is your most important tool to quit and stay quit. Maintaining a positive attitude will help you have a sense of humor about the quit process, will help you deal with stress in new ways, it will help make your quit easier.
Our minds are incredibly powerful and operate from what we tell ourselves. Positive affirmations result in positive outcomes. Negative thoughts result in staying the same or worse, going backwards.
Luckily, you can write the positive affirmations you want to tell yourself over and over.
Or, you can leave whatever chatter is going on inside you to chance.
Seize the moment. Be proactive in directing your inner voice to repeat positive affirmations about your quit.
Positive self-talk
From the very beginning of your journey to be smokefree you've got to be "the little engine that could".
Why is positive self-talk so important? Self-talk is the single best tool to use to break the nicotine addiction, to move from being a smoker to a nonsmoker.
Learning to use positive self-talk is really very easy.
Think back to a time you decided you wanted something you didn't have. To acquire it you had
confidence in yourself that you were good enough and had the right
stuff. In other words, if you had any doubts
leading up to your decision to accomplish a goal you got rid of them by concentrating on
what you wanted to do.
The concept of positive self-talk is to be mindful that you do not
allow negative thoughts and doubts to blossom in your mind. You
displace the negative thoughts by thinking positive and proclaiming
yourself to be capable of your goal.
In terms of smoking you can begin by saying to yourself, silently or
outloud (I prefer outloud so your ears hear and imprint the message a
second time), "I am a nonsmoker. I set a good example to those around
me. I smell fresh and clean when I hug my children/spouse/mate. I am a nonsmoker!"
These are affirmations that proclaim what you want to become, and
when you continue to think about and say outloud what you want to
become, your mind cannot dwell on any negative thoughts.
When you realize that a negative thought is trying to creep into your
mind be quick to stop the thought with your positive affirmations.
Thoughts are things. Whatever we believe and whatever we say to
ourselves is what we become. Thinking about missing smoking will eventually transform into
smoking. Thinking about how much you love being a nonsmoker
(especially when you feel otherwise) will tranform you into a lasting
nonsmoker.
You become what you think and say.
I repeated positive affirmations to myself during my transition until my face turned blue. Well, I didn't really turn blue, but I did stay smokefree.
The advice to concentrate on what you're starting, not on what you're ending makes a lot of sense. If you sit around and think about how much you miss smoking you won't miss it too long. You'll light one up.
If you sit around and think about how great it feels to breathe fresh air you are more likely to stay smokefree.
What to do
When you're going through your transition it's helpful to know that some of that discomfort is the body healing itself. Keeping the mind focused on the positive, the humorous and the importance of quitting will make your quit far easier.
Preparation is the key to becoming a lasting nonsmoker. Click Next to learn how to get support and what to do be get ready.
|
|
Becoming a nonsmoker just got a whole lot easier!
|
|
