Whenever a craving or urge arises, you have two choices: act upon it or don't act upon it. Therefore, once you are aware of an urge, you need to ask yourself, "If I act on this urge, will I be acting like the person I want to be? Will it help take my life in the direction I want to go?" If the answer is yes, then it makes sense to pick up that sickerette, put it in your mouth, find a lighter or match (or stove!), light it and puff away!
On the other hand, if you really don't want to be or become a smoker, recall the Law of Addiction:
"Administration of a drug to an addict will cause re-establishment of chemical dependenceupon the addictive substance."
In this case, knowing full well that you will be full blown addicted all over again and that you don't want that in your life anymore, rather than acting on your urge to smoke, it's sensible not to act on the urge.
So when it comes to handling your urges effectively, the first step is simply to acknowledge what you're feeling. Just silently say to yourself, "I'm having the urge to smoke a sickerette."
The second step is to check in with your values: "Will acting on this urge help me be the person I want to be? Will it help me take my life in the direction I want?" If the answer is yes, then go ahead and act. But if the answer is no, then instead take action that's more in line with your values. Come here and tell us which values you have which conflict with slowly killing yourself - one puff at a time!
