Steps To Stop Smoking
How to Quit Smoking at Home
Stage 1 PREPARATION: CONSCIOUS SMOKING
Push Cigarettes as far as Possible Away From You. Create Distance.
- If you smoke inside your house start smoking outside. Clean your house from all the ash trays, butts and smoking energy. Wash your house thoroughly. Wash the walls with a vinegar solution. Standing vinegar (in flat, shallow bowls) will help to absorb the smoke odor from your home. Burn some cedar or sage to clean the walls and purify your house. Create a smoking temple outside of your house and only smoke there.
- Or, if you do not smoke inside the house but only outside in a special place clean that place in the same way described above. Smoke further away, taking a walk around the block or in nature if you can.
Pick a Quitting Date
There may be a special date soon when you would like to honor your true self: Christmas, New Year, your birthday, an anniversary or the 1st of the month. Any day will do. You have two or three weeks to get ready. You need to bury this old self and celebrate the coming of a new self. You are birthing yourself. To make the transition easier it would be good to decrease the amount of tobacco you smoke, have a healthy diet, add dietary supplements, meditate and exercise.
You Already Are a Non-Smoker
Remember who you really are: a non-smoker. Smoking is an acquired habit. At night you do not smoke. When you wake up you break this natural habit of breathing air and only air. So it is only a matter of extending this natural state a bit longer into the morning. Wake up and keep feeding your soul. If you usually take your 1st cigarette at 9 o’clock, add an extra hour to your non smoking time and do the breathing meditation following below instead of smoking.
Smoke Consciously
Every cigarette you smoke only do one thing: Smoke. Watch any feelings, body sensations or thoughts that come up when you think about having a cigarette, when you look for the cigarette, when you touch it, when you light it and when you inhale the smoke. Observe all the feelings, body sensations and thoughts associated around the smoking habit. Look at yourself in the mirror and look at the person you see. Be full of compassion for this person.
What Other Cigarettes Could You Eliminate?
Now or next ask yourself, what are the cigarettes you can eliminate easily and those you have to absolutely have. If you are not smoking until 10am then you can extend this period to 11am and then 12pm and have your first cigarette after lunch. When you have this first cigarette make sure to be consciously smoking.
Enjoy Creating Your New Life!
Accept whatever feelings are created by the separation from your best friend – the cigarette. You are already missing her/him, missing the burning sensation in your chest, missing the heaviness, the oral stimulation. Keep breathing, crying, laughing, and coughing. Shake your chest and your lungs. Say goodbye and grieve the loss of your old habit.
Substitute New Healthy Habits
Let’s say you like to smoke and have a coffee while you read the paper in the morning and this habit feels comfortable safe and nurturing. Something you have done for a long time. Or you like to have a break from your job and go out and have a cigarette. OK. Let’s substitute a new habit. You pick your new habit something fun that you always wanted to do or that you used to do. Have a piece of fruit or a glass of water or take a short walk around the block or go to the gym or go for a swim.
Breathing Meditation
At the moment when you want to smoke stop! Do not move! Keep your hands where they are, close your eyes and take a few deep breaths stretch and watch your breath for a few minutes. Watch your belly rise and fall. Then stay active. You will see the desire is now gone. This is the nature of desire it comes and goes. If you get obsessed with the idea of wanting a cigarette stop again and breathe deeply let the emotions come. Take as many walks as you need to and get yourself out of breath. If you can be in nature visualize the gas exchange between the tree and yourself. You give out carbon dioxide to the plant and the plant give out oxygen to you.
Activity
It is rare to see someone smoking while exercising. Smoking is done sitting most of the time. So this habit needs to be broken. You need to move around more, do things with your hands, walk or bike instead of driving for short distance. You can learn dancing, yoga, karate, kung fu, tai chi, jogging there are so many possibilities and classes. Do not worry about being out of shape. Being part of such a class will reinforce your non smoking habit
Diet
It is important that your diet would be a vegetable based diet. Take many green juices, carrot juices, and eat plenty of salads and raw foods. Make sure to have cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, radish, garlic and onion. Use the time that was spent on the smoking habit to prepare your food. Communicate with the vegetable kingdom as a part of nature, with respect and love. Get a recipe book, renew your kitchen, have food preparation parties with friends. Make it fun and enjoyable. Eliminate progressively salt, sugar, coffee, bread, pasta, grains, meat, soft drinks, packaged and processed food, and processed oils. You may have some fresh ocean or river fish during this period (not farmed).
Dietary Supplements
Smoking has made your body deficient in many nutrients and toxic with heavy metals. It would be appropriate to do a hair or urine analysis to determine your mineral level and assess toxicity and deficiencies. Some other testing may be appropriate depending on your condition. Nutritional supplements will support this weaning process by decreasing cravings and helping to eliminate nicotine out of your body.
Stage 2: QUITTING TIME HAS COME
Get set up for your ritual. You may have a fire or a candle and burn your last cigarettes, you may have a circle with your friends or a party or you may meditate by yourself. Make this day special. Go to the mountain or to the sea. Make sure you continue your watching meditations throughout the day. When the desire for a cigarette comes, freeze. Keep your hands where they are, take a few deep breaths. Watch your breathing, follow the air from your nostrils to your lungs, watch your belly rise and fall. Just WATCH how you feel, do not act on it. Learn how to be the watcher/observer. Then move around. Just stay very center and focused. You are a non smoker. You are the watcher.
Stage 3: BE VIGILANT FOR THE NEXT 10 DAYS
The next 10 days are critical. You need to be focused on the process and stay awake. Every day that goes by will be easier. You will think less often about tobacco and the thoughts will dissipate faster. You will start feeling different, your energy will increase, and you will feel lighter. it will take a few days for your brain to adjust to the new message and you may not know how to behave for a while. Accept the insecurity of the new experience and welcome the unknown. You are going through an identity crisis. Pretty soon you will feel at home with yourself again once your new habits will be accumulating. You need to continue to practice your walking, intensify your exercise regimen and stay active. Make sure that all cigarettes, smoking objects such as pipes and their memory are gone
Choose Non Smoking Friends and Non Smoking Environment
If you were smoking at the pub or in a cafe avoid these places. Avoid your smoking friends. Tell them you quit smoking and it would be too difficult for you to be with them now. Be prepared to say no, if someone offers a cigarette. Remember you are a non smoker. Continue with your new habits, your breathing exercises. Continue detoxing with your nutritional program. See a counselor if you need help with feelings that are coming up.
Stage 3 ALTERNATIVE OPTION
Choose a residential healing center for this difficult transition. Do a residential deep natural detoxification program to cleanse your lungs, your kidneys and your whole body. A water fast or a green juice fast followed by raw food detox diet and exercise. Use this time to treat yourself to a massage, learn how to prepare food, have fun in the kitchen, learn what you like to accomplish with your life, learn how to deal with stress, address issues from home: relationships, work. This stage will consolidate your will to be free and guarantee that you will be a happy non smoker for the rest of your life. It will also help you to avoid falling into the trap of cross addiction. From cigarette, to sugar, fat, food, sex or work.
Residential Programs
At Hawaii Naturopathic Retreat we offer residential programs that combine mind-body therapies, live food nutrition, stress management, counseling therapies and exercise to achieve a deep detoxification and support you in your identity crisis, making sure that you move to an addictive state to a higher level of consciousness. If you elect to quit smoking at home we will coach you during that period prior to your arrival to our residential Lifestyle Change for Addiction program. If you elect to quit later we invite you to spend some time with us and have your last cigarette at the airport. We will provide an environment conducive to stop smoking to make your transition pain free.
RESOURCES:
Self-Help Book for Weaning off Nicotine Dependance – Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking
