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Share your quitting journey

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

SarahP
Member
0 13 2

Practice, practice, practice!

Why do we practice something? So when we have to do it for real, under pressure, we do it correctly.

Musicians practice their instruments. Medical students practice their procedures. Police practice response scenarios. Schools practice fire drills. When something critical happens, you are going to respond with what you know – if you don’t have a plan, if you don’t know what to do, you will probably not respond to the situation successfully.

Quitting smoking is a skill; one that can be taught, one that can be learned. One that can be practiced!

When you get blindsided by a sudden-stress smoking memory after you have been quit for awhile, how will you respond? The answer is, you will respond with whatever you have PRACTICED. If you have practiced nothing, planned nothing, your response is going to be a desire to smoke, because that is how you have always responded to stress in the past.

If, on the other hand, you have PRACTICED a different response to stress, then when it happens, you will know exactly what to do!
 

Here is my response to a sudden stress that leads to a smoking memory:

Yes I acknowledge that part of me thinks a cigarette would be helpful. But I know this is just my addiction attacking me in a weak moment, so there’s no point in dwelling on this thought. Instead, I’m going to turn my attention back to resolving this stressful situation.

Here’s the one I used earlier in my quit:

My inner addict is trying to trick me into having “just one”, but I know one will only lead to one more, so I reject the idea of having one. I don’t do that anymore.


What is yours? Think about it and TYPE IT IN A COMMENT. Make it real!

Once you have this tool in your tool box, practice using it! Imagine yourself standing on the curb after a fender bender. Imagine yourself driving home after losing your job. Imagine standing in your kitchen, fuming about the argument you just had with your significant other. PRACTICE your response to the smoking thought! Say it out loud!

Life doesn’t stop when you quit smoking. These types of stressful moments WILL happen. How will you respond? 

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