Quitting smoking cigarettes can be a trial for many people be it their first attempt to stop smoking, a second time, a third or even more it is never easy. These 3 tips on quitting smoking cigarettes focus not just the everyday things that you need to do to not give in to the cravings but also the big picture to help you get over smoking for good by a change of mindset that is essential to stop smoking.

1. Dealing With Cravings
The first challenge confronted by men and women looking to quit smoking cigarettes is the cravings that hit when the body is demanding nicotine and also the psychological urge to smoke for its comforting action built up over years of smoking. While there are patches, gum and plenty of other aides that can help none of them will stop you smoking for good without the key facet of breaking any addiction which is WILLPOWER!
This does not mean that you just need superhuman willpower to sustain yourself through periods of intense withdrawals and cravings but without the belief that you can and will succeed it makes it all the harder. Apart from this there are some tricks to fighting cravings you can use when they hit which are usually simply ways to distract you until they pass. These cravings do not usually last longer than 10 minutes and are usually only 5 minutes long according to research so when you fee the tell tale withdrawal symptoms try doing one of these things:

• Immediately do something, clean up your desk, clean up the house … busy yourself instead of sitting there thinking about the nicotine cravings which only makes it worse.

• A mental trick that many use to great effect is to imagine a tennis match in your mind. Sounds silly right but the steady back and forth actually has an effect of calming and applying a steady beat for you to concentrate on … try it!
• Exercise, not a full workout but have a 5-10 minute light workout you can do at home or in an office even if you head is pounding or you feel nauseous doing something to get the body’s feel good chemicals pumping will help.

2. Making a Plan
The key to making the foundations of willpower work for you is by having a plan to quit smoking cigarettes for the short term and the long term. It is advised you should even write these down with your goals and aspirations so that they are firm and not changeable like goals you keep in your head that can ‘change’ when things get tough.
If you plan to quit cold turkey, set a date that you will quit and make that date the time you throw out all your smoking paraphernalia like lighters, any remaining cigarettes, tobacco, rollups or whatever! Even dry clean your clothes to get the smoking smell out of them to make a clean break.
If you plan to reduce your smoking over time makes sure you have a daily or weekly plan of how many cigarettes you are allowing yourself to smoke and do not break it! in fact write it down every time you have one and check it before you smoke another. Then every day or week reduce that amount until you have a date where you have no smoking days left and you quit for good!
Goals can only be achieved if we have them set down and monitored or they just become dreams and like dreams can slip away when we wake up.

3. Change of Mindset
Lastly to achieve these tips on quitting smoking you must have the binding that allows you to do accomplish them because you WANT to accomplish them. While you may believe you need to quit smoking now do you want to quit or do you feel regret or longing. Do you feel forced to do this or can you not wait to give up the habit?
This is the question that will ensure long term success and a healthier life as a non smoker rather than a quick foray into that world and a retreat back to smoking and nicotine addiction. You must change your mindset and believe all the great things that come from being smoke free and that when cravings hit you do not see the easy way out by smoking but only see this as a speed bump on your journey because your DESIRE to quit smoking is greater than your desire for instant relief!

If this is your goal and you want to end this unhealthy habit for yourself and your family click below to find out more methods and tips on quitting smoking that have helped thousands of people stop smoking cigarettes to be smoke free, healthy and breathing easy!

http://www.kick-addiction.com/nicotine-addiction/treatment/

A question that has been asked by many people and I have been considering of late is are all addictions the same and if so do they all have common treatment methods?

I am a little divided in my own mind on the subject because there are a lot of similarity between any sort of addictions leading to a view that there may be a lot of very common elements that can be treated in the same way.

There are also many differences though in circumstance and in the case of drug addiction the dependence caused by addictive chemicals.

To me this means that logically we can treat the parallel issues in a similar way which primarily deals with the psychological addiction to a drug or behavior. Through introspection of the root causes of what makes people succumb to this type of compulsive behavior we can bring to light the reasons underneath the excuses and perceived need of this addiction.

From there things may vary but motivation for a better life beyond the addiction is still common but how you apply this motivation to be relevant to each type of addiction is where we start to vary in approach.

So are all addictions the same? I cannot say yes but there are enough links between every sort of addiction to be able to tie them together under a single banner so that we may learn about one addiction from others as well.

I am a big fan of short, punchy quotes when i am trying to motivate myself for anything. I paste them around the house, on my computer and use them in email signatures. Some think a single flippant quote might be meaningless but they msis the big picture in that it is you who applies the personal meaning to those quotes where they touch on something you can empathise with or something you want to aspire too. For marijuana addiction these are some of my favourites and some favourites of ex addicts i know.

“What hashish gives with one hand it takes away with the other: that is to say, it gives the power of imagination and takes away the ability to profit by it.” ~ Baudelaire (1860)

“Marijuana is like Coors beer. If you could buy the damn stuff at a Georgia filling station, you’d decide you wouldn’t want it.” ~ Billy Carter

“Marijuana you can give up, I’ve given it up for fifteen years now and it never occurs to me to smoke it anymore.” ~Larry Hagman

“Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn’t mean the circus has left town.” ~ George Carlin

“You do anything long enough to escape the habit of living until the escape becomes the habit.” ~ David Ryan

“Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism.” ~ Carl Gustav Jung

“For many, negative thinking is a habit, which over time, becomes an addiction… A lot of people suffer from this disease because negative thinking is addictive to each of the Big Three — the mind, the body, and the emotions. If one doesn’t get you, the others are waiting in the wings.” ~ Peter McWilliams

“We may think there is willpower involved, but more likely… change is due to want power. Wanting the new addiction more than the old one. Wanting the new me in preference to the person I am now.” ~ George Sheehan

“The biggest liar is addiction.” ~ Anonymous

“A junky runs on junk time. When his junk is cut off, the clock runs down and stops. All he can do is hang on and wait for non-junk time to start.” ~ William Burroughs

“Addicts turn their pleasures into vengeful Gods.” ~ Mason Cooley