Smoking, a habit of many, is associated with severe health hazards, often leading to lung cancer but smoking tobacco is a habit that people find difficult to leave, quit or decrease as cigarette addiction is a tricky thing to tackle because while the harmful effects of smoking are known to all.
‘No Smoking Day’ is observed every year to raise awareness against the detrimental effects of smoking tobacco. India has over 26 crore tobacco users, cutting across all demographics and genders and more than 10 lakh people are losing their lives every year due to tobacco-related diseases while passive smoking too causes severe health problems, often leading to asthma, bronchitis and pneumonia.
Top Tips To Quit Smoking
Five simple strategies to help you resist the impulse to smoke or use tobacco when a craving occurs.
Find a valid reason
It can be a personal reason, such as improving health or reducing the chance of acquiring diseases such as lung cancer, heart disease, or other ailments; protecting your family from passive smoking; it can also be a spiritual one. You must carefully analyze the reason for quitting smoking so that it is convincing enough to overcome the desire to smoke.
Avoiding triggers
Triggers may include situations in which you previously smoked or chewed tobacco, such as at parties, when drinking, or under stress. Identifying trigger situations, avoiding them totally or coping with them with non-tobacco coping mechanisms can be helpful. Dark chocolate boosts serotonin and dopamine, improving mood and reducing stress but dark chocolate is lung-friendly.
Snack on it
Give your tongue something to do to combat cigarette cravings. Chew gum or hard candy without sugar. Or nibble on raw carrots, almonds, fox-nuts, or sunflower seeds—something crunchy and delicious. While attempting to quit smoking, you should not diet. Try to keep your routine simple and consume more fruits, eggies, whole grains, and protein, all of which are beneficial to your health.
Hobbies and physical activity
Physical activity can help to distract you from your desire to smoke. Physical activities, such as exercise, sports, yoga, brisk walks, deep breathing and even dancing, might provide a distraction from tobacco cravings and diminish their intensity. If it is not possible to engage in physical activity, hobbies such as writing, art, and crafts, meditation, massage, or listening to soothing music can be just as beneficial.
Don’t have only one
You may be tempted to smoke or chew tobacco just once but don’t kid yourself into thinking that this is the point where you can quit. When you start with one, you almost always end up wanting more than one. And there’s always the possibility that you’ll start smoking again.
Inform your close friends, family, and other that you are attempting to quit smoking. They can urge you to continue, particularly when you are tempted to smoke. You can also join a support group or consult a therapist.