www.oldhabit.com

As a potential former smoker, I know I can quit any time I want, but I just haven’t gotten around to it. Just Kidding.

Seriously, cigarette smoking has been a well known danger for many years, and although the information to document that fact is readily available, quitting smoking is still a very difficult undertaking, and I sympathize with anyone who is trying to stop the habit.

I really am a former smoker who was finally able to quit with a combination of mental mind control and acupuncture to start; followed by nicotine patches, nicotine gum and finally, electronic cigarettes. Although these things helped me tremendously with the physical aspects of my addiction; what finally helped me with the mental aspects of the habit, was a self imposed restriction program.

I started out by designating non-smoking areas in my environment. First my home, then my car, became places where smoking was not allowed. I immediately followed these restrictions with time constraints, where certain hours were off limits for lighting up. After I became used to these limitations, which left me with only a few hours and a few places I was still actually allowed to smoke; I then gave myself a new rule of not being able to light up, until I had written down the reasons I wanted the cigarette, and how much I wanted it, on a scale of one through 10.

This helped me to realize, I did not really want the cigarette as much as I thought I did, and also helped to bring the dangerous aspects of smoking to the forefront of my mind, where I could make a conscious decision to say no.

So, now I just keep saying “no”.