HOW TO QUIT SMOKING

I didn't have a choice as to whether or not I wanted to become a smoker. Our mother smoked like a chimney, and she was disabled most of her life with MS, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and some garden variety crazy. We were cooped up in the house with her, all the doors and windows closed, while she puffed away. By the time I actually lit a cigarette and put it to my lips at age 13, I smoked like I'd done it my whole life because, indeed, I had.

I struggled with the habit, quitting and starting, on and off, until 10 years ago, when I decided I'd had enough. I found it surprisingly difficult to quit, and experienced some degree of physical withdrawals. By this time, I had also become poor, and smoking had become expensive. I was spending at least fifty dollars a week, more than two thousand, six hundred dollars a year. Still, I struggled, stopping and starting many times.

Ignoring the criticisms of those around me who couldn't imagine why anyone of even average intelligence would smoke, I continued to dance with the ciggies until I hit upon a gradual approach that was far less expensive than scary (to me) chemical patches to wear on the skin. Ten years ago, I used this approach and, although I have many times flirted with the idea of cigarettes, I never came close to actually picking up the habit again.

The two-prong formula is this:

(1) GRADUAL REDUCTION: If you typically smoke 20 cigarettes a day, which is a full pack of cigarettes, then cut down to 19 cigarettes a day for an entire week. The next week, smoke 18 cigarettes a day, and so forth. About the time you are down to 3 to 5 cigarettes a day, the taste of it will turn you off, and you'll dump the habit. Some people may linger at the lower amount, rationalizing that just a few cigarettes a day won't hurt you. You run the risk of ramping back up to your maximum amount during a stress-filled week, and you'll have to start all over again.

I facilitated this process by organizing my cigarettes every morning, removing the appropriate number of cigarettes from the pack I would smoke that day.

(2) INCENTIVICATION: Put aside the money that you save every month and spend it on something solid, but fun...maybe even frivolous. After all, the cigarettes can hardly be deemed to be HELPING you, in any real sense, and if you bring something positive into your life that is tangible, it will serve as a reminder and an incentive to stick to your decision to quit smoking. It draws you away from the bad and toward the good.

Eventually, when you have eliminated the cigarettes, you can reduce the amount of money you spend on these incentives, but leave a token in the budget, as a reward for your achievement and a reminder not to pick up a cigarette again.

Unlike the $2,600 a year I previously spent on cigarettes, I now spend between $100 and $200 a year on tangible, fun things. Half of it is spent in the summer. The other half in winter. I may buy a rosary, some art supplies, a religious medal, or some research books. It depends on what is going on that year, as far as the projects I've decided upon. I do not recommend you spend this money on someone else. Part of the reason I recommend this portion of my method is to build solid reminders into your environment that will remind you that you have exchanged a bad habit that was hurting you into something that is contributing to your life in a healthy, positive way.

My beautiful prayer corners have been purchased from cigarette money, for the most part:

I hope this article helps you develop a method that will work for you. It involves more self-discipline than slapping a patch on your arm, but this daily practice of self-discipline will help you build more determination and strength: determination and strength that you will need on those rough days when you imagine that a cigarette would taste really really good.

God bless us all.

Silver Rose
Copyright (c) 2017
All rights reserved