Breathing

[linda20]

One thing that helps A LOT is deep breathing when you quit. Slowly breath through your nose deeply, hold it and slowly exhale. Repeat as needed.

This excercise can relax you as well as "fill the void" you feel.

Carry a water bottle around with you all the time as it satisfies the hand to mouth action plus detoxes you.

Don't sit around the table after meals. Go to the pc and post and read about smoking cessation.

Remember this: Quitting smoking is a PROCESS, not an EVENT. It takes time but as long as you go day by day and do not take a single puff (one puff puts you right back to square one) you will win this battle.

Good luck everyone.

[polly2]

Thanks for sharing that Linda! Deep breathing fresh air is awesome for me!! This is a great post for all to see!!

[donna22]

THanks Linda,
As strange as it sounds I think I really do sometimes forget to breathe, I always,always haul water around with me....this is a great reminder....

[linda20]

Oh Holly, I forgot that one and I stuck by it for a long time. It worked!

How about this: I would rather be a non-smoker who thinks about smoking once in a while than a smoker who is always thinking about quitting.

[linda20]

I wish I had that little breathing machine in the beginning to measure my lung capacity and then after a long time been able to do it again to see the difference but I never wanted the doctor to see anything "bad" so I didn't ask. Oh the worry each time I went to a doctor before that he would find "something".

I know two people who's lungs are so bad that whenever they need an operation the doctors are afraid. So even if we do get a terrible disease someday as a result of smoking when we were younger, our lungs (if we quit smoking) should be OK to withstand the treatment. That is a good thing in itself. We give ourselves a chance to successful operations by quitting. It is never too late to quit.

Linda

[manofsteele]

Glad you found something that worked for you and does also help others. I to would rather be a non smoker that thought about smoking once in a while than a smoker that always thinks about quitting....which I was for many years....Now I am a non smoker that hates cigarettes and will never take another puff ever again.

peace and deep breadths to ya Linda!

[robin18]

Great post Linda. You are so right about quitting is a PROCESS, not an EVENT. Events only last a few hours or a few days but a process is just that. It is a change and change is hard for almost everyone. It took us many years to learn how to smoke that pack those 2 packs or how many ever you smoked, so it takes time and a new process to learn how NOT to smoke. I believe you keep learning for the rest of your life and not smoking is something I wish they could give us a degree in, everyone that quits and stays quit for life should earn a PH.D.

Robin

[DOCmarkC]

I wrote this a few weeks ago... But:

Seriously, most smokers only take a deep breath when they are smoking. They become accostomed to taking a deep puff avery so often and that satisfies the need to do so. Shallow breathing does a poor job of transferring CO2 and replacing it with Oxygen.

It may seem like the opposite, but a smoker actually gets an urge to smoke when their CO2 levels are too high and their O2 levels are too low. They smoke because their body needs to take a few deep breaths.

Try this when you get the next urge. It is the same method used by mountain climbers and runners to force CO2 and O2 transfer.

Deep breath in. Hold it. Purse your lips like a whistle or a kiss and blow out slowly with some pressure... Like you are blowing up a balloon or blowing out candles.. Do that two or three times and the urge will pass. The deep breath brings in the Oxygen and opens the lungs, the pressure increases the rate of transfer.

Mark is smoke-free and healing for the last Four Months, Six Days, 15 Hours and 33 Minutes, while extending his life expectancy 11 Days and 4 Hours, by skipping 3216 smokes and saving at least $848.73.