Quitting smoking isn't hard. You've done it lots of times! Isn't that the unrelenting challenge that faces so many smokers? Well, never fear. Here's a new method that will help you snuff out those butts and put away those lighters. This is something positive that will stiffen your resolve like starching a shirt.

The most essential element of successfully quitting smoking is not thinking of it as quitting. That's right. Not quitting smoking, but starting something new. The feeling of loss, restraint, restriction, or absence is what makes it so hard to give up. But, transferring those feelings to acquiring, gaining, obtaining, finding, and maintaining something new is what will close that old door and open a new one.

This is really just a matter of substituting something positive for something negative. It is not giving something up, it’s gaining something new. So, when you decide that you want to quit smoking – that you really want to quit smoking, not just say that you do for the benefit of getting others to be sympathetic to you – it becomes a matter of substituting gains for what you would otherwise perceive as losses.

A very helpful way to do this is with a behavioral displacement strategy. Use your previous smoking behavior to motivate you to accomplish your new goal. For instance, if you normally smoke at certain times of the day or with a predictable frequency, those are the occasions when you need to fill that time completely with reinforcing behaviors.

When you have that first cup of coffee in the morning, if you also visualize yourself lighting up a cigarette, that's when you must overwhelm yourself with other behaviors. Drink tea instead, or blend yourself some delicious juice concoction, and feed yourself a banana or a sliced orange, or even some favorite jelly on a piece of toast or a muffin. If you smoke in the car on the way to work, take a different route and nibble on a granola bar or drink a bottle of fresh juice or filtered water. Don't think of it as going without smoking, think of it as becoming a new you moving in a new direction.

Sometimes the desire to smoke is so strong and so persistent that you can barely think of anything else. In that case, make yourself a small, pocket-sized chart to keep handy and give yourself reinforcing checkmarks on it. Line off every hour of the day so that everytime you don't smoke, you give yourself a checkmark. As you see those checkmarks accumulate, you'll feel the power of positive reinforcement overcoming the habits of negative conditioning. This is not only an empowering feeling, but a healthy one as well.

Then, channel your positive energies into these new areas. Replace each cigarette that you would have smoked with something that you now do instead; eating some fruit, drinking some juice, having a refreshing glass of filtered water, even flossing or brushing your teeth. Sometimes an even more powerful inducement is to pay yourself for each pack of cigarettes you don't smoke. Pay yourself the equivalent of what you would have spent on cigarettes that you didn't smoke. Commit yourself to spending that money on something that you really want. It could be a new outfit, some new shoes, or even something for the house that you want. In any event, it will be something positive and tangible to replace something negative and vanishing.

And remember that there is always someone to help you on line to set up a replacement strategy or to encourage you when you need it. Asking for help is not a weakness, it's a strategy for success!

We all smoke or have smoked for various reasons: boredom, peer pressure from friends and even parents, social rewards, addictive personality, general self-medication purposes and the most popular culprit: stress. While our reasons to smoke may seem temporary, addictions can last a lifetime.

Taking a deep introspective look inside, identifying our motivations for smoking can be half the battle.  Whatever our reasoning may be, it is not worth the long-term effects of tobacco on our lungs.  We've only got one pair!

I would like to share some natural remedies I have found to assist me on my quest for longevity.  Bearing in mind my desire to both keep costs low and avoid over the counter drugs, I have found several ways to help stay on track.

Lobelia Herb: A powerful relaxant with similar properties of nicotine, Lobeline is the active ingredient found in numerous stop-smoking formulas. Simply a cup of tea using Lobelia herb can also be good for respiratory problems, increased blood flow and general relaxation.

Ginseng:This agent is known to reduce the body's reaction to stressful visual and auditory stimuli. Ginseng helps the brain adapt to stressful situations, thus, lowering the amount of smoking triggers.  Try starting with a ginseng root, nibbling and swallowing 1-2 grams when the urge strikes.

Milk Thistle (active ingredient silymarin): Assist your liver in protecting itself from harmful toxins introduced by cigarettes.  Suggested dose of 420 milligrams for 6-8 weeks for results.  

St. John's Wort (most active ingredient hypericin): Improving your mood during mild to moderate depression, or simply to improve overall unstable emotions, St. John's Wort can get you over the first hump faced by smokers looking to quit. Standardized extracts of St. John's wort are taken in a dose of 300 milligrams three times daily.

In addition to observing good health habits, try to identify your triggers for smoking.  For some, this may include switching from coffee to tea, lowering alcohol consumption, eating smaller meals and most imporant, lowering stressful activities and thought patterns.

I wish you the best of luck!

-Happy Lungs

10:06 AM 29 April 2013. Monday Morning Philippine Time

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