Quitting an addiction, particularly when the substance is smoking, is one the hardest things to do. The body and mind are very powerful, especially in working together. When starting to quit, have a plan about what to do when the nicotine withdrawals start to occur, so that you don't go back to smoking.  You also don't want to resort to binge eating and go from one addition to the next, and then back again.

Yes this is very hard. When you work three times as hard at it, I think you will be more successful in not going back to it. Here are a few tips:

1. Choose your method to quit, date and time.  Some of you may want to cut down one cigarette a day until the pack is done and not go back to it. Others may want to quit cold turkey.

2. Have a plan ready for when nicotine withdrawals occur. It should be a plan with goals that doesn't involve food or going back to smoking. Utilize this plan fully until your through this stage.

3. If you can do pushups when you feel the withdrawals, do them. Seriously!

4. Meditate and your mind to a place that you want to be.  Or do other forms of meditation.

Here is one meditation exercise to get through your withdrawals: You are in a bike race. You notice in your peripheral vision that the person behind you is coming up on your left to pass you. As that person passes you, you notice that they are the new you winning, leaving the old you behind. How do you feel now?

Work very hard at it.  Keep these tips in mind and keep focused. Add in some exercise and good nutrition. Here's to wishing you well with your new healthier life.

All votes and comments are welcome.

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In the past few years, many discoveries have been made about the type of damage that smoking during a pregnancy can cause. A particular study, recently published on the JAMA Otolaryngology, describes one of such latest findings.

Often, teenagers will encounter trouble hearing, and this had been attributed for a long time to the use of headphones, the proclivity to attend loud concerts and other similar causes. However, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey that took into account youths between the ages of 12 and 15 in 2005 and 2006, confirmed that about 16% of the parents admitted to prenatal smoke exposure, and subsequently, the children in this subgroup were three times as likely to experience hearing loss as the children whose mothers had not smoked during the pregnancy.

Smoking as an epidemic

The widespread use of tobacco means that pregnant women are more and more commonly smoking during the early stages, even if they do quit down the line. However, it has been discovered that those that smoked even just for the first trimester, many times before they even found out they were pregnant, also had repercussions on the health of their children.

The only viable solution is quitting smoking preemptively, as due to the nature of pregnancy and the cycles and lifestyle of a particular woman, several weeks could pass before a pregnancy is detected. This could lead to the mother inadvertently smoking or engaging in other damaging acts even if she willingly quits them down the line.

Among the consequences of loss of hearing in adolescents, the natural issue of a potential disability is not top of the list. Studies report that loss of hearing can result in a diminished IQ, it could also have social and academic effects, and could even result in the child dropping out of school or engaging in damaging behavior.

Image: Freedigitalphotos.net

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My friend Carole was really looking forward to her approaching retirement. There was so much she would at last have the time to do; playing golf, tennis and bridge with her many friends, walking through the forest with her dog and finally getting around to booking the cycling holidays she has always promised herself. She knew (more…)

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Many of you are here because you want to put down your smoking, or help someone who does. But here at Breathing Happy, we recently (more…)