How to Stop Smoking
As an acupuncturist I always have people ask me if acupuncture can help them stop smoking. Of course it can. But my question back is, do you want to? Because if you dont want to it doesn’t matter what you do. Hypnotherapy, gums, patches, whatever it is. If you want to, you can and you will. If you don’t… well then… you won’t. it’s gotta be for you. Not for your wife or family or whatever. It has to be for you and not because you know “it’s bad for you”.
The first step to stop smoking is to once again become conscious of smoking.
If your addicted to it chances are your completely unconscious to the habit.
No worries. Next time you go for a smoke enjoy the shit out of it. Really taste it. Breathe it. Feel it. Most likely you’ll hate it, because when you are completely present to it I almost guarantee you, you will not enjoy it. The receptors in your body that make it pleasant will be dried out and hang out from over use and they’re just screaming for love and attention.
The second step is to regulate your dietary intake. Avoid eating anything that will trigger massive spikes and crashes in blood sugars. Too many sweet foods, skipping meals, greasy foods, spicy foods will all trigger cravings. Eat simple, plain meals, things like porridge or omelettes for breakfast, stews and soups for lunch and dinner. Super simple. There are also supplemental protocols you can follow that will need to be tailored to your body.
Third, Breathe deeply and regularly. 5 seconds in 6 seconds out. Slowly, peacefully, joyfully. This will help to regulate your nervous system and help to keep cravings at bay. And to be completely honest with you that actual cravings for nicotine only last 4 days. After that, it’s all mindset and habit. Use your breath and movement to help build and repair neural pathways. My favourite tool for this is Tai Ji (tai chi) but you may find it through yoga, mediation, qi gong, weight training or even dancing.
Fourth is to get treatment. This is where I sell you on acupuncture. Acupuncture will help to restore the function to your organs. When you stop smoking your body will feel like something is missing. Acupuncture will help restore the circulation to your organs and make sure your brain is communicating with the rest of your body. This will ease withdrawals in the beginning and make sure your body feels safe and warm in the future so you don’t have to go through the dreaded weight gain associated with giving up an addiction.
Fifth, is to sort out your lifestyle and environment. Remove any triggers from your environment that make you think about smoking. Throw out lighters, ash trays, little trinkets and things that have memories associated with it. You’ll be surprised about how many things will come up. Regulate your sleep and wake cycle as much as possible and again keep regular eating patterns.
Finally a simple mindset trick I’ve used is to stop, don’t quit. We have so many negative associations with quiting. No body likes a quitter, the only way to fail is to quit etc etc etc. when it comes to addiction one of the best things is to just stop. because if you start again you can just stop again. Then you dont get caught up in the failure of relapse and the negative spirals of failure.
Stopping any addiction has 5 basic steps:
- Mind set
- Fuel
- Movement
- Community
- Lifestyle
If you’re missing any of them you will relapse. These are the core foundations of our way of wellness (WoW) mentorship, a program we put together to help people conquer their addictions and take control of their mental health once and for all. Every step has multiple in depth tools you can use to accomplish your desired outcome.
If you’d like to know more about our WoW Mentorship programs please click here.
