Stay positive
Keep your eye on the prize. In other words, don’t ever let yourself forget why you’re quitting smoking. Even though there may be days when you feel awful, remind yourself of what your objectives are. You may feel physically ill when you stop smoking. Your emotions may go off the scale, and you’ll have mood swings. Each of these is natural response. You need to handle these dark periods with a silver-lining approach. The long-term silver lining is regaining your health and well-being. The short-term silver lining is every minute, hour, day, week, and month you manage to resist the urge.
Celebrate your successes. They keep you motivated and help you to keep a positive outlook. If you dwell on the negatives, you’re likely to give up. You won’t be able to see the good that is going to come from stopping. Then you’re going to wonder why you’re putting yourself and your body through this. Keep a journal. For each day that you’ve remained smoke-free, write down a message of positive encouragement to yourself. Find the good in each day that has come from the fact that you no longer smoke.
