You probably already know that the major risk of smoking is that you are far more likely to die than if you didn’t smoke. So big deal right? that’s a long way off anyway. So what if smoking causes:

* 90% of all lung cancer deaths in men

* 80 % of all lung cancer deaths in women

* 90% of deaths from chronic obstructive lung disease

So what! You can live your life in comfort until you get one of those diseases. No big deal right? I know that’s probably not really you talking, at least right now. You’re reading this so you’re searching for solutions and answers. But you might have had that kind of cavalier attitude at one time. Stick with me here because there’s a happy ending.

What about respiratory problems. You know you might not immediately die from a respiratory problem. You might be inconvenienced. So when your kids or grand kids are running around you might not be able to keep up. Maybe you won’t be able to walk up a flight of stairs to use the bathroom because you can’t breath from the exertion.

So what are the respiratory problems you get from smoking? Well I did mention that smoking causes lung cancer. Smoking also causes:

* Emphysema

* Bronchitis

* Chronic airway obstruction

And these problems will stay with you. We need to breath in order to survive. When you develop a respiratory problem it stays with you all the time. Think about how many times a minute you breath in and breath out. Right now you probably don’t have to be conscious of it. It happens 12 – 20 times per minute. And when you have trouble breathing your focus becomes forced to your breathing. You will have difficulty focusing on anything else. And if you have to lug around an oxygen tank with you everywhere, well that’s a whole new level of involvement in your breathing.

Now compare that to the side effect of withdrawal that’s reported by some smokers who quit:

* Irritability

* Difficulty concentrating

* Insomnia

* Restlessness

I think if you are forced to focus on your breathing 12-20 times a minute, you will have extreme difficulty concentrating, wouldn’t you? And how can you sleep if you can’t breath? Do you think that would make you irritable? Do you think you’d be restless if you couldn’t breath? You probably wouldn’t be able to take much action if you were restless though.

So if you are putting off quitting smoking because you don’t want to experience the side effects of quitting, think about the side effects of not quitting. You aren’t going to escape the side effects by avoiding quitting. You’re just going to put them off until there’s nothing you can do about them and they won’t go away until you’re dead.

Here’s the happy ending. First off, not every smoker goes through the withdrawal and I’ll tell how some people don’t have withdrawal in a moment. Even if you tried to quit and felt the withdrawal you aren’t locked into feeling it every time you quit. And even if you do have a withdrawal feeling it’s only temporary. It lessens and goes away in time. Unlike the problems you’ll have if you develop a disease as a result of your smoking.

People who don’t feel the withdrawal have associated the early onset of those withdrawal sensations with a pleasant feeling of some kind. Every feeling we have develops over time. As the first inkling of that feeling starts, even before we are consciously aware of the feeling, we can develop a more positive response. And that’s how to avoid feeling withdrawal altogether.

Most members of the baby boomer generation remember when smoking was cool. All the actors smoked on television shows. Even Johnny Carson always had a cigarette in his hand as he interviewed the biggest celebrities of the time. How were we supposed to interpret smoking? Definitely not as an unhealthy addiction, no it was cool! How times have changed!

Who knows what society was thinking in the middle of the last century, but the message was clear. If you smoked you were suave and smooth. There were no pictures of people with wrinkly, leathery skin suffering from lung cancer. The people we saw smoking were beautiful and successful. Now we know that smoking is very harmful for your health and the health of those around you. However, many baby boomers started smoking back in the day when it was cool. After so many years of addiction, how do you break the habit?

Believe it or not it is possible to stop smoking for good and there are many different methods to help you. The key is to never give up no matter hard it will seem. The best things in life are often the most difficult to obtain. Isn’t your health and the health of your family worth the effort?

• I want to experience the true taste food again
• I want to smell the fresh scent of a new baby
• I want to walk without stopping for a breath
• I want to live to see my kids get married
• I want to smell fresh and clean
• I want to live a long and healthy life

Post this list several places around your home. Put it on the bathroom mirror, on your nightstand, by the fridge, on the dash of your car and most importantly on your cigarettes. Several times a day read the list aloud and keep it in your mind. When you feel the urge to smoke, read the list. When you feel irritable and stressed because you need to smoke, read the list.

Your mind can and will reduce the cravings for cigarettes. Soon you will find yourself smoke free and feeling great. Using positive affirmations you can overcome anything, including smoking!

Cecil enjoys spending time with his wife and family. They like to work in the garden and use their worm compost bin to recycle their garden waste. Visit his website where he compare compost bins so you can find the best one. He enjoys composting because it benefits his garden and the environment.

If you are even slightly familiar with self-improvement techniques, you will be aware that the word QUIT is not part of our vocabulary.

However, if you are trying to quit smoking, when you do quit you will be a winner. It has been well documented as to the effects of smoking, for example:

1. Smoking Kills (do I need to go on?)

2. Coughing and short of breath, yellow teeth, yellow fingers, reduced fitness and raised blood pressure.

3. Women who smoke have reduced fertility, and men who smoke can suffer impotence.

4. People who smoke usually look older with more wrinkles, than a non-smoker of the same age.

There are plenty more effects, but we should not be looking for negatives, we should be looking for ways to stop smoking.

If you are reading this article because you genuinely are looking for help to stop smoking, for whatever reason, then you should be aware of one thing.

IF YOU DON’T REALLY WANT TO STOP SMOKING, YOU WON’T. All the stop smoking tips, and all the stop smoking aids in the world will not help you.

You really must have a burning (no pun intended) desire to stop smoking cigarettes.

On july 1st 2007, all the UK became smoke free when England introduced a smoking ban.

I am sure that a lot of people are looking for stop smoking methods, but I wonder how many are digging their heels in, refusing to be dictated to.

HOW TO STOP SMOKING Did you know, that only 3% of people stop smoking using willpower alone?

We can assume then, that it would be advisable to have as much help as we can find.

There are many stop smoking programs and many nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) products on the market. Stop smoking hypnosis is also an area you may wish to consider.

I personally found that patches were a great help, but I still needed two attempts with them and I had some really vivid dreams.

A while before I finally made my mind up to stop smoking, my two young daughters had begged me to quit, because the didn’t want their dad to die.

I wasn’t that keen on the idea myself, but you know what it’s like to be a smoker, we can always find good reasons (excuses) to continue smoking.

As it transpired, the request from my girls was to be a major source of inspiration in my quest to give up the weed.

When you start a stop smoking campaign, you need to approach it almost like a military campaign. Not quite on the scale of ‘Desert Storm’, but you will need to recruit as many allies as possible, because the enemy is cunning, devious and dangerous.

You should set the date you are going to become a non-smoker, and you should make this day one which you think will be stress free.

You should write your campaign details down and refer to them daily.
Recruit friends and family to act as your stop smoking support, and try to avoid situations you know which will trigger off your craving for nicotine.

Whichever method YOU choose to finally quit smoking, you are doing something which will improve the quality of your life, and who knows how much improvement you are capable of.

So for anyone who has made the decision to quit, it is ok to say

QUIT, AND BE A WINNER!

As an ex smoker, the author knows how difficult it is to stop smoking and he offers more advice on how to stop at http://www.self-help-group.com/stopsmoking