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Share your quitting journey

You must be learning how to shift your thinking when you get a crave

JonesCarpeDiem
Member
0 3 13
‎08-14-2014 09:42 AM

ABRUPT/SUDDEN/STRONG PHYSICAL changes work most effectively at distracting your mind in order to allow you a moment to regroup.

i don't know your situation or what you have access to but here's a few recommended distractions

Stick your head in the freezer and breathe in the cold air for 20 seconds> (there's much more that happens when you do this than you might think. Like picturing yourself with your head in the freezer and realizing why your head is in the freezer. or having someone else see you. LOL)

  

Bite into a lemon skin and all. This will blow the **** out of a crave.

  

Pack your mouth with ice cubes and try not to get brain freeze and let them melt.

  

Break the biggest craves into smaller ones.

  

These tricks will work forever because they aren't tricks. They force your mind to deal with something else. Soooo if you start craving again, DO IT AGAIN! In a short time you will be thinking about the freezer, the lemon or the ice cubes instead of smoking.

  

 

  

it only takes one moment to defocus from thoughts of smoking

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About the Author
Hello, My name is Dale. I was quit 18 months before joining this site and had participated on another site during that time. I learned a lot there and brought it with me. I joined this site the first week of August 2008. I didn't pressure myself to quit. HOW I QUIT I didn't count, I didn't deny myself to get started. When I considered quitting (at a friends request to influence his brother to quit), I simply told myself to wait a little longer. No denial, nothing painful. After 4 weeks I was down to 5 cigarettes from a pack a day. The strength came from proving to myself, I didn't need to smoke because I normally would have smoked. Simple yes? I bought the patch. I forgot to put one on on the 4th day. I needed it the next day but the following week I forgot two days in a row I put one in my wallet with a promise to myself that I would slap it on and wait an hour rather than smoke. It rode in my wallet my first year.There's nothing keeping any of you from doing this. It doesn't cost a dime. This is about unlearning something you've done for a long time. The nicotine isn't the hard part. Disconnecting from the psychological pull, the memories and connected emotions is. :-) Time is the healer.