Healthy Alternatives to Smoking
By: Isabelle ThomasTotal Views: 374, Word Count: 523,
You can imagine how difficult it is to break the smoking habit if you are a regular smoker. Many people resort to prescribed medicines which could have side effects that some of them find it difficult to tolerate. A safer approach for ending smoking is to adopt some healthy alternatives to smoking.
Although nicotine does have some bodily addictive properties, smoking can be a nervous habit which serves to keep the smoker’s hands engaged throughout the day. If healthy and satisfying habits can replace smoking sessions, over a period of time a smoker would gradually get rid of smoking habit and replace it with more healthy activities that would provide enjoyment and relief from stress.
If you want to get rid of the habit, try incorporating some of the healthy alternatives to smoking into your daily routine. Following are some of the alternatives for smoking that would work.
Replacing Smoking with Short Exercise Sessions
If the urge for smoke arises while sitting at your desk, then get up from your chair and take a 10 minute walk up and down the hall, the stairs or to another part of the building. Walk quickly breathing and inhaling the fresh air deeply into your lungs. When you return, the urge to smoke would have subsided and your lungs would feel fresh and clean from deep breathing and brisk walking.
Practice Short Meditation Sessions
Try meditation as one of the healthy alternatives to smoking when you feel the urge to smoke. Lean back in your chair by closing your eyes and focus on deep breathing. As you inhale, each breath of fresh air reveals how pure and healthy it smells as compared to cigarette smoke. Carry on this deep breathing exercise and focus on the purity of the air around you until the urge to smoke a cigarette lessens.
Substitute a Taste of Dark Chocolate
Smoking is partly addictive as it alters certain biochemicals in the brain which is involved in the sensation of pleasure. Slowly eat a small amount of dark chocolate when you get the urge to smoke. This serves two purposes, first it gives you a pleasant smoking alternative and second, dark chocolate can raise serotonin levels which can lift up your mood and relieve stress which is one of the reasons for smoking.
Try a Little Negative Reinforcement
Keep a book in your desk which discusses the negative health effects of smoking. When you get the urge to smoke, take out the book and remind yourself how you are shortening your life span by engaging in this hazardous habit. Analyze all you have to live for and be happy of the fact that you’re still healthy.
Call a Friend
Call your friend when you feel that you can’t resist smoking. Let him/her know that you are in the course of quitting smoking and you’re confident that you would do it. Speak with your friend till the urge to smoke lessens and feel good on finding an alternative to smoking.
It’s imperative that you substitute smoking with new and healthy alternatives to smoking to avoid complications.
About the Author
Isabelle Thomas has worked for 20 years in various stop smoking clinics as a psychiatrist. She has successfully treated over a thousand chain smokers. Her aim is to spread awareness regarding hazards of smoking through her blogs.
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