Cigarette cravings can give you nightmares (or daymares).
Especially, when you are trying to quit smoking or when you are in a situation where you are not allowed to smoke.
Think about it.
When you habitually smoke, you don’t miss cigarettes.
We only miss something when we don’t have it.
Yes, it is when you feel deprived, that the cigarette becomes so precious.
It is when you can’t smoke or believe you shouldn’t smoke, that you feel you need a cigarette more than ever.
Right?
Craving cigarettes can make you anxious.
And this anxiety will keep building up until you smoke and relieve the agonizing nicotine craving.
What Makes Cigarette Cravings SO Overwhelming
Truth be told, the cigarette craving is nothing more than a physical sensation like hunger. There is no physical pain.
No spasms, no cramps, no aches.
So what is it?
According to the CBQ method, what makes a craving so overwhelming is the THOUGHT that the agony of that craving will never pass…. unless you give in and smoke.
Ok, so below are 3 exercises that will show you how to curb cigarette cravings in 2 ways:
- By occupying your mind during the 3-minute period of a craving.
- And by thinking about smoking in a different way.
These exercises will stop cravings for occasional and heavy smokers. And they will work for you too.
Experiment with all the exercises and then choose which one works best for you.
Then all you have to do is use it 🙂
Ready?
Ok, here we go.
How To Stop Cigarette Craving
1. Question the Craving
When craving cigarettes, stop panicking and ask yourself:
- “What do I really need now?”
- “What can I do instead of smoking that will make me feel better?”
The immediate response will be: “I want a cigarette; a cigarette would make me feel better.”
Dig a little deeper. Search for the real emotional needs you’re trying to patch up.
A common state we (smokers, ex-smokers, non-smokers- in other words, all humans) are after is this: feeling relaxed and peaceful.
If that’s the case for you too, you know what you have to do: focus on finding other ways to relieve your stress and relax.
You don’t need to use willpower to resist smoking. That’s painful.
The easiest way to stop a quit smoking craving is to redirect your focus on the reason you want to smoke.
And then think about other ways to feel better.
By the time you’re done, the craving will be over.
2. Rename the Craving
During a craving, there is an internal dialogue taking place in your mind.
And it goes something like this:
– “I want a cigarette.”
– “You can’t have cigarettes.”
– “But I want to smoke” – and then it’s a matter of giving up or resisting and waiting fearfully for the next craving.
What’s the problem here? All of your thoughts revolve around the word “cigarette”.
And the words we use, affect our mind and our body. So the more you say the word cigarette, you will experience the craving more intensely.
The solution is to replace the word cigarette with another one.
Some examples I give in my TED talk are: “popcorn”, “air”, “power”, “freedom”.
So next time you have a nicotine craving, keep saying: “I want popcorn.” – Use any word or phrase that resonates with you.
That’s how you will change the negative impact of your internal dialogue and, therefore, the way you experience your craving.
By changing the words you feed your mind with, you can change your emotional state.
Why?
Because our emotions are affected by the pictures we create in our mind.
You are not going to think of the same things if you use the word “cigarette” and “popcorn.”
So you will experience your craving in an entirely different way.
The power inherent in this exercise is amazing, and it will help you tremendously because it takes advantage of how your brain works.
Just try it!
3. Visualize the Craving
The moment you start craving cigarettes, picture yourself riding a wave.
Your craving is the wave.
This wave rises in height along with your craving’s intensity.
Imagine this as high as you need.
Focus on this image, the sounds, and the feelings.
Immerse in the picture and let the wave follow the ups and downs of your emotions. When the urge starts to slow down, the wave will go down with it.
In a study by Sarah Bowen, a research scientist at the Addictive Behaviors Research Center at the University of Washington, participants who used just this technique cut down 37% of their smoking.
Click here to learn the full technique from Bowen.
Are Cravings Painful?
The reason smokers suffer from cravings is simple: they feel deprived.
This deprivation is intensified by the idea that we are making a sacrifice by quitting.
But, the truth is that we are losing nothing by stopping smoking.
Instead, we gain; better health, more quality time, more money and more freedom.
The problem is that most people try to quit smoking with methods that make them feel deprived.
This brings them down so they can’t really focus on all the benefits they get by quitting.
The solution is to use a method that makes quitting easy and in fact, liberating.
If that’s what you’re looking for then make sure you don’t miss this free exclusive video of the 4 quit smoking stages. Click here to access it with your name and email address
Once I email you the video, you will learn how to double your chances of quitting successfully and how to quit smoking with a feeling of excitement and absolute freedom.
If you want to learn how to fight nicotine cravings, Get the exclusive video of the 4 stages now.
How Long Do Cigarette Cravings Last
Your cravings will last 10 days, and each craving lasts maximum 3 minutes.
And they will peak on the 3rd day of abstinence, where you will have 6 cravings.
After that, you will have fewer and fewer cravings, and each craving will be less intense than the previous one.
So use the 3 exercises to make these first days easy!
