How To Quit Smoking – Change Your Self Talk

In order to clearly discover how to quit smoking you will need to change your self talk. If this doesn’t make sense then just think about how you think about smoking. I’ll bet your mind is full of conflict.

I need to quit smoking, but it’s so hard. I’ve tried and failed before, everyone says it’s hard and that I need to keep trying.

One of the drivers for your self talk is all the beliefs you have accumulated about smoking.

• Quitting smoking is harder than quitting heroin – wrong.
• You will need to quit up to 7 times before you succeed – wrong.
• Smoking relieves stress – wrong.

These are just a few examples. And these thoughts run around your head and importantly they become excuses for not quitting.

Maybe you argue that not all smokers get lung cancer. True but all smokers suffer health problems some will kill you and some will just make your life miserable.

These thought become your reality, so it’s not surprising that you will struggle when you have been driving that exact message relentlessly into your thinking.

An important step towards learning how to quit smoking is to change your self talk.

1. Firstly you need to recognise your thought patterns. Write down every thing you believe about quitting smoking and start to question your beliefs.
2. Next change your thinking. e.g. It will take me seven times to quit. Who says so, the drug company that sells patches? Who else says so, the smoker who tries cold turkey with no planning?

If you change your thinking to: I can quit smoking, I will quit smoking, I’ll soon be a non smoker. Cigarettes cause me stress not relaxation etc.

So start to bad mouth smoking. Every smoke you have talk it down. Say out loud how much it stinks, how bad it tastes, say out loud this poisonous smoke is entering my lungs and blood stream, now it going to my heart and my brain.

Obviously you don’t want to go on for years with this process, but if you start seven days prior to quitting then you will be mentally in the right place to quit.

From the moment you have quit then take frequent deep breaths, and let your self talk run to words like: I love being a non smoker, I love breathing fresh clean air. I feel so good, my lungs and heart feel fantastic. Keep this positive self talk up forever. In the future every time you see a smoker remind yourself with strong positive self talk that you are a non smoker for life.