Get to know!! Quitting Smoking Is Easier Than You Think

Quitting Smoking Is Easier Than You Think

This note shares my experience with cigarette addiction: what motivated me to smoke, the effects of smoking, and the mindset that can help you quit.

The method for treating yourself so that you can reduce, cut back, and eventually quit smoking is to stay mindful and reflect step by step, as follows:

1. Revisit the feelings when you smoke.
Ask yourself: what kind of happiness does it bring? How exactly does it make you feel relaxed? How does it feel when you first pull the smoke into your lungs? Do you feel numbness? Lightness? Does it relieve stress, and in what way?

2. Reflect on the consequences of smoking and the physical changes that have appeared since you started.
Do your eyes look more yellow? Has your face become dull? Are your teeth turning yellow? Do you have gum inflammation? Bad breath? A body odor or sweat odor that smells salty or sour, which nonsmokers find unpleasant? If you can’t see these things yourself, ask a close, honest friend who doesn’t smoke how they feel about it. Even better, ask a stranger you don’t know after you’ve smoked—does the smell bother them? Do they find you unpleasant? Ask them for the truth.

3. Think back to your life before you started smoking.
How happy were you? What was your health like? How refreshed did you feel? At this point, there are usually two kinds of past experiences: those who were happy and healthy before smoking, and those who suffered or were stressed due to environment, family, or other factors, which led them to depend on cigarettes. If you were once healthy and happy, quitting will be easier. But if your past was full of suffering, you’ll need to create a new version of yourself to replace that old self. In other words, tell yourself: if you quit smoking, it will be like dying and being reborn—a person accepted by society, physically healthier, and able to experience a kind of happiness you’ve never felt before.

4. Once you’ve built motivation to quit, start gradually reducing.
For example, if you normally smoke 10–12 cigarettes per day, cut it down to 8. If you smoke 3, reduce it to 1–2.

The key is to limit the times you allow yourself to smoke. Set rules, such as: I’ll only smoke after work, or I’ll only smoke when I drink alcohol. But this can backfire: you may start rushing through work just to get to that moment, or finding excuses to drink simply to justify smoking.

So, add more rules: for instance, I’ll only smoke after work, no more than 2 cigarettes a day, or I’ll only smoke when drinking on Fridays. These rules make smoking harder, but they are still only about limiting consumption—not a permanent solution.

You need stronger inspiration—for yourself. Because if you’re only doing it for others, there will always be blind spots. For example, if you say: I’ll quit smoking for my child, what happens when your child grows up and leaves home? Or I’ll quit for my partner, but when you fight with them, the urge to smoke will come back even stronger. Don’t rely on others.

Doing it for yourself means understanding how your body works—how smoking destroys the alveoli in your lungs one by one, how your lungs fill with toxic tar until they turn black and breathing becomes difficult. Try holding your breath and imagine your lungs no longer able to absorb oxygen, forcing you onto a ventilator because your alveoli are ruined. Imagine your brain slowing down, constant drowsiness, your liver working harder, your whole body struggling to recover every time you smoke—making you seem dirty and unpleasant in other people’s eyes. When you truly want to change for yourself—for your health, cleanliness, acceptance, and happiness—that becomes the strongest motivation to quit.

Some people succeed by quitting cold turkey. That works because their minds are steady, patient, self-confident, and self-reliant. It’s the best way to quit any addiction, and many people have done it. At the end of the day, it’s just a cigarette. You weren’t born with one in your mouth. So believe this: even if you don’t smoke, you won’t die. But on the other hand, if you do smoke, you may not die comfortably. The choice is simple.

Don’t compare yourself to that 90-year-old who still smokes and walks around, because not everyone is that lucky. And you don’t even know whether that person really inhales into their lungs, or just holds the smoke in their mouth and exhales. Everyone’s smoking habits are different, so don’t idolize anyone else’s story.

Look at news about kids smoking vapes. Some drag the smoke deep into their diaphragm, leaving their lungs with nothing. They want big, cool clouds of vapor—but the liquid also enters their lungs. Many end up hospitalized with life-threatening respiratory diseases. Others only puff without inhaling, so they absorb fewer chemicals and their damage is slower. Smoking behaviors vary, but the health risks are everywhere. Even if this isn’t a direct solution for heavy smokers, cutting down is still a better path forward.

So, observe your own smoking habits and gradually adjust—reduce both the number of cigarettes and how deeply you inhale. You might switch to just puffing without inhaling, but without increasing the total cigarettes smoked. Be mindful of secondhand smoke too. In closed spaces, you’ll end up inhaling your own smoke again, or harming nonsmokers around you. Try exhaling farther away, hold your cigarette higher so the smoke rises upward, and minimize harm as much as possible while reducing or quitting.

Another way to curb cravings is to avoid being idle. If you have nothing to do, the best option is to sleep. Sleep is a great way to reboot the body. If the urge gets too strong, go to bed—when you wake up, the craving may be gone. Or, if you can’t sleep, take a shower, brush your teeth, or wash your hair. Once your body feels fresh and clean, the desire to smoke usually fades.

I’m rooting for everyone trying to quit smoking. Don’t see it as something impossible—it’s just a habit we’ve programmed into ourselves. Change yourself, change your mindset. You don’t need to depend on addiction. Let your body be the vehicle that carries you far into the future.

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