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60+ Things to Do Instead of Smoking
Celebrating 60 days of non-smoking
I quit smoking 60 days ago and I am facing unknown low points and strange craving and urges. It feels strange as when I decided to quit 61 days ago, it seemed so easy. I found my inner motivation to quitting that trumps my love for smoking. I removed all temptation. I introduced new habits and removed old habits. I refused to go out with friends who are smokers, I stopped drinking coffee and alcohol to avoid triggers of any sort.
But this week, two days in a row, I woke up from dreaming about smoking. It was amazing! And it was terrible that when I woke up, I had both a pang of incredible guilt and a feeling of emptiness.
My craving is stronger than ever — I didn’t have it this bad during the first week, which is not fair, as I really expected it to get easier by the day. But as with everything, it is not linear, it’s cyclical.
So I made a list for myself about things to do when you want to light up a cigarette. As difficulties come from different directions, I made 4 categories:
- to occupy your hand or mouth, to make the physical need of holding a cigarette or sucking on it go away,
- to occupy your mind and get in a flow state if possible, when cravings are unimportant,
