When Is the Best Time to Quit Smoking?
Right this minute is the best time to #quit smoking. There are so many good reasons to stop smoking. Smoking does a lot of damage to your body. It affects your heart, your lungs, your brain, your cells, it jacks up your blood pressure and makes your skin look leathery.
The odor of smoking settles on your skin, your clothes and over everything in your home if you smoke inside. You’ll see many advocates who tell you to choose a day to quit. You might read advice about picking a day when you don’t have any #stress going on or a time when you’re not in the middle of upheaval.
The reason behind that advice is because withdrawing from nicotine is hard and a battle against an addictive substance is exacerbated during times of stress. But, if you take a look at your life and the lives of others, you’ll realize that there’s no such thing as a great time to quit smoking because a stress free life doesn’t exist.
There will always be little things cropping up to stress you out. There will always be irritations at work and at home. If you wait until you believe everything is going smoothly to quit smoking, what do you think will happen the minute something goes on to stress you out?
You’ll want to reach for the cigarette and the temptation will be a lot stronger if everything has been running along in a relative ease until that moment. So quit now no matter what’s going on around you.
Quit regardless of whatever emotions you’re struggling with. You don’t want to feed emotions an addictive substance because it won’t change anything anyway. The only thing it will do is affect your health.
Some people found the best time to stop smoking was at the start of the day. Others found it was best to stop at night. Just choose whichever one you think will help you stay on track with your decision.
Tell others about your decision. Get support when you quit smoking – enlist the aid of your family and friends, but understand that someone who does smoke and has yet to make that same commitment might end up subtly trying to sabotage your efforts.
Understand that you might make mistakes. You might give in to the craving – but if you do have a cigarette, don’t blow off the entire day. Don’t think, ‘Well, I already blew it today – I might as well go ahead and smoke the rest of the day!’ Just start again right from where you are and finish out the day strong.
I checked for resources that tell how to prepare to quit smoking – QuittersCircle.com had quite a do-able checklist that helps you to quit and break the habit permanently. Deciding to stop smoking has three phases – preparing to quit, implementing cessation and giving yourself feedback one day at a time i.e. decide what to do if you succeed or fail.
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