The Boredom

[jm302]

What do you do?    I am mostly struggling with urges to smoke when i am bored or need a timeout from my kids. I am a single mom and the father has supervised visits so i am literally with them 247 except for the 24 hrs that i work. I didn't smoke in my home or car though so those are not triggers.

I have to come up with some other way for a break. I am also the type that likes to be doing something all the time.  I really don't even know the last time i even just sat still and did nothing. I don't think i ever have. Lol  

So really..what do i do? Smoking for me was just something i did. I didnt really enjoy it, it just went with life and really was my "time out". My mom smokes, her siblings smoked (all dead by 60 due to smoking).  

[Thomas3.20.2010]

Perhaps this will inspire you?

/blogs/Maggie_quit_8-1-2010-blog/2012/03/19/100-things-to-do-instead-of-smoking?sr=search&searchId=1...‌

Your kids will love your efforts to become Smoke FREE!

[YoungAtHeart]

Welcome to our community!

I see Thomas already gave you my link to start you thinking on things to do!  Congratulations on your decision to quit smoking!  I will give you plenty of reading material on which you can spend some time.  The better you understand your addiction, the higher will be your chance of success at quitting.

The most important thing you can do right now is to educate yourself on what nicotine does to your body and mind. To that end, I highly recommend Allen Carr's “The Easy Way to Stop Smoking.” This is an easy and entertaining read. Here is a link to a free PDF version of it:

http://media.wix.com/ugd/74fa87_2010cc5496521431188f905b7234a829.pdf

 You should also read the posts here and perhaps go to the pages of folks who you think might be helpful. You might visit whyquit.com, quitsmokingonline.com and livewell.com for the good information contained there. @https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/groups/best-of-ex has lots of blogs written by members of this site with their experiences and guidance.

The idea is to change up your routines so the smoking associations are reduced.  Drink your coffee with your OTHER hand. If you always had that first smoke with your coffee, try putting your tennies on right out of bed, going for a quick walk, then taking your shower and THEN your coffee! Rearrange the furniture in the areas you used to smoke so the view is different. Buy your gas at a different station. Take a different route to work. Take a quick walk at break time where the smokers AREN'T.

You need to distract yourself through any craves.  You can take a bite out of a lemon (yup - rind and all), put your head in the freezer and take a deep breath of cold air, do a few jumping jacks, go for a brisk walk or march in place, play a computer game.  Don't let that smoking thought rattle around in your brain unchallenged. Sometimes you need to quit a minute or an hour at a time.  You will need to be disciplined in the early days to distract yourself when a crave hits.    Get busy!  Here is a link to a list of things to do instead of smoke if you need some fresh ideas:

https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/blogs/Youngatheart.7.4.12-blog/2013/02/25/100-things-to-do-instea...

The conversation in your head in response to the "I want a cigarette" thought needs to be, "Well, since I have decided not to do that anymore, what shall I do instead for the three minutes this crave will last?"  Then DO it.  You will need to put some effort into this in the early days, but it gets easier and easier to do.

Stay close to us here and ask questions when you have them and for support when you need it. We will be with you every step of the way!

Nancy

[maryfreecig]

     Welcome. Smoking doesn't relieve boredom, though it seems as if it does early on in quitting. It's the addiction--your brain remembers. Stick with your quit, and please know that your brain will forget smoking one day at a time as you stay off the butts. You will relearn life without the smokes. It may be hard to believe, but your mind will let go of the cig and not smoking will become like breathing---just is!

     Having to relearn life without the smokes can feel ridiculously hard as if it should all be over. I smoked every 20 minutes to an hour for the majority of 37 years (doses of nicotine over and over again) and when I quit my mind was stumped as to how to live without the smokes...stumped. One step, one day at a time is how most of us exes get our life back. 

    You might want to reaffirm your  quit by telling your brain something like this...'I'm willing to stay quit even when I feel bored and uncomfortable...' Let your brain know that there are no ands, ifs, ors or buts.

    Yes you can, one day at a time.

[minihorses]

Do you or did you have a hobby or something you enjoyed doing before you smoked or when you didn't smoke as much? I know what it feels like to be raising kids and the want to go outside for a cig just to get 5 minutes of peace! I used to do embroidery and played piano when I was younger. I haven't been able to play the piano in twenty years because my brain could no longer read both clefts at the same time and put them into action. One year I decided I wanted the learn the flute. I took some lessens until life got in the way but since I already owned the flute I hung on to it. Since I quit I have taken up embroidery again and thinking about teaching myself how to play the flute again. I'm back at square 1 but remember enough to get me started.  I'm also reading books, which I didn't have the 'time' to do before. Even 5 minutes of reading makes me pass over that "I want a cigarette now" thought and I can easily put down the book and go do whatever is next on the radar. I don't read online books because I want the feeling of a book in my hands and turning real pages. Find something else to do with your hands that you enjoy, one of my big problems at first, and then you can move on. Keep up the good work!

[elvan]

Welcome to EX...I remember feeling as though I was not taking any breaks after I quit smoking, then I realized that I used to sit outside to smoke and after I quit, I was afraid to sit outside.  Well, as it happens, I quit during a polar vortex so I had no desire to sit outside but once the weather got better, I rearranged things on my deck, the only place at home that I smoked, and I made it a point to go outside and take deep breaths several times a day...deep breath in, hold, let it out very slowly.  I felt like I was taking breaks again and I KNEW I wasn't missing anything.  I can always find something to do..cleaning out a closet or a drawer...amazingly, they fill up pretty quickly, planning meals in advance, coming on EX and reading blogs and commenting, playing computer games, exercising, there is always something.  I like to draw, used to like to paint but I haven't done that in a while.  I look at sites on line with ideas for changing your house or just things that I really like to look at.

You can do this...any chance you can do some interactive things with your kids?  Kids can be a wonderful distraction, just look at things through THEIR eyes and realize that you are growing now too.  We stopped really feeling when we started smoking, we have to learn to feel things again, it is a journey filled with surprises.

Again, welcome,

Ellen

[Giulia]

I'm not so sure it's simply boredom, but rather inactivity that makes you feel uncomfortable.  It's hard for me to sit still and do nothing also.  BUT, there is a way to sit still and do SOMETHING with your mind.  I am never bored outside in nature, for example.  Just focusing my brain on the different sounds around me, or looking at the minutiae, watching the wind twirl the leaves, or an ant making it's journey, a grasshopper weaving it's way through the  forest of grass, a spider spinning a web - there is no way I could be bored watching any of that.  But it takes a different kind of focus.  Well, and of course an interest in such.  Anyway maybe this blog will help:  BOREDOM AND LONLINESS 

The time-out cigarette craving is a tough one to get through.  That was my last frontier battle.  And I still will get cravings from that sense memory.   It's like a little reward for all the hard work one has done.  And where's that  reward after we've quit?  Nada!  But we have to remember that our cigarette reward only became necessary AFTER we started smoking cigarettes.  Millions of people don't smoke and have some other method that gives them that psychological reward.  And we too didn't need that cigarette for that "time out" before we ever put one in our mouths and got hooked on them.  Or maybe those people who have never smoked simply don't need that "time-out/reward" thing like we who have been hooked on nicotine do.  Maybe nicotine, a cigarette, created that need.  I don't know.  

But I do know we can work our way through those urges, those cravings.  It just takes time.  If you're willing to put in the time, you WILL reap the rewards. Welcome.  Stick around.  This is a great place for wisdom, education and support from those in the throes and beyond.

[ampan75]

 slowly you will accustom to this new normal. yaa it's normal for many who don't smoke. stay close to nature. be a witness to nature. 

[Truztie11]

 I know what you mean I struggle with boredom too and smoking for me keeps me relaxed so just try find a activities that u can do ether by yourself or with your kids. See im taking the money I spend on cigarettes and going to Michael's and get a hubby or activity. 

[JACKIE1-25-15]

What do you like to do?  Do you have any hobbies. knit/crochet  Is there anything that you would like to do that you have put off? What are you going to do with the money you save from not smoking?  Coloring books is a good one.  Maybe you could find something that you and your kids could enjoy.  You have a new freedom now and the avenues of things to do are limitless. https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/groups/best-of-ex/blog/2008/05/03/things-to-do-instead-of-smoking