Relearning to Live Without Tobacco

Relearn How to Be Yourself Without Tobacco

You are not born a smoker, you become one, and in the same way, a smoker can become a non-smoker again and quit smoking. To do so, he or she must understand why he or she smoked.

Redefining Yourself as a Non-Smoker

When you decide to quit smoking, it's essential to redefine yourself as a non-smoker and create a new identity appropriate to the life you decide to lead. This will be helpful during difficult times, and will help you remember the reasons why you decided to quit. Above all, it will help you realize that before you quit, you weren't just a smoker: you are much more than that. Now that you are no longer a smoker, you are also stronger and freer: stronger, because you have managed to turn your back on your dependence, and freer, because cigarette no longer controls you.

Building your new identity as a non-smoker will help you quit smoking. To create your new identity, ask yourself why you smoke, and find ways to get rid of your interest in cigarettes. This could be by shifting that interest to something else, such as sport. To relearn how to live without tobacco, you must no longer feel concerned about cigarettes, which now belong to your old life. Avoid being with smokers when they smoke, so that you are not exposed to passive smoking and to those actions that were previously part of your habits.

Understanding Why we Smoked, an Essential Step in Relearning to Live Without Tobacco

As you build your new identity as a non-smoker, you will have asked yourself why you started smoking and why you continue to smoke. These reasons were certainly needs; perhaps you needed to relax, or perhaps smoking was an escape. In order to relearn how to live without tobacco, it's now important to figure out how to meet these needs differently and without smoking.

Many say that smoking allows them to fill a void in their lives. For them, cigarettes fill a need. But rather than treating the problem in depth, smoking is actually a palliative that only puts the problem into the background. For example, some people say they smoke because it helps them deal with their stress, or that they don't want to quit because they have fear of weight gain. Many have fear of quitting, because they fear the emptiness that smoking could leave. Yet, did you know that all these preconceived ideas that discourage you from quitting are false, or at least incomplete? For example, lighting a cigarette may help you reduce your stress in a relatively short period of time. However, your addiction has more than once made you anxious when you ran out of cigarettes and all the smoke shops were closed, or when in winter you had to go out and face the weather to smoke.

Remember that there are solutions to fill these voids over time. To achieve this, it's necessary to change your habits and adopt new routines, which correspond to the life you now want to lead.

Finding Effective Strategies to Relearn how to Live Without Tobacco

Cigarettes were part of your routine, and as a former smoker, you must now learn to live without them. In order to do this, it's essential to change your habits and find out how to compensate for what smoking brought you. Support is also important during this ordeal, regardless of its form.

Change your Habits to Relearn how to Live Without Smoking

In order to relearn how to live without tobacco, it's important to develop strategies that will help you cope during difficult times. To do this, it's useful to know beforehand the possible symptoms of smoking cessation. You won't go through them all, but if they affect you you will know that this is completely normal and that there is no need to worry about them. Finally, keep in mind that these symptoms are not eternal: they last until your body has gotten used to living without tobacco.

By quitting smoking, you may experience some of the symptoms of smoking cessation. It's important to develop appropriate strategies to deal with them:

• If you are prone to sleep disorders or are more tired than usual, you can change your night routine to try to deal with the problem.

• If you are anxious or stressed out, you can opt for relaxing activities such as yoga or meditation. You also have the possibility to do some breathing exercises with Kwit.

• If you get angry more easily and are more irritable, try to relax by turning to sports, or by writing down how you feel on a piece of paper. You can also do the breathing exercises proposed by our application.

• If you're worried about your appetite increasing, know that this is normal! You are no longer experiencing the appetite suppressant effect of nicotine, and your taste is back, making you greedier. If you fear weight gain, just try to balance your diet.

• If you have cravings, it's important to keep your mind busy. You should also know that these cravings usually pass in just a few minutes!

Changing the rhythm of your days will help you start your new life without tobacco. However, note that changing your habits will require a period of adaptation: so be indulgent with yourself during this one! To help you during this time, you can also ask for support.

However, keep in mind that it's useless and even counterproductive to make too many changes in a short period of time. You've decided to quit smoking, and your body is already undergoing changes. This is not an ideal time to make drastic changes, such as a sudden rebalancing of your diet, or several hours of exercise a day when you previously did not exercise at all. Take it one step at a time and change your habits when you feel ready to do so.

The Importance of Support when Relearning to Live Without Tobacco

You used to be used to living with cigarettes, and in order to relearn how to live without tobacco, know that you can find several forms of support.

For example, you can consult a healthcare professional (general practitioner, tobacco specialist, or even pharmacist), and tell him that you want to quit smoking. He will be able to assess your addiction to tobacco and suggest appropriate strategies for coping with it. This may involve the use of nicotine substitutes, changes to be made to your diet, personalized follow-up with a tobaccologist, etc.

When quitting smoking, it's important to be supported. Talk to your loved ones about your desire to quit smoking, they will be able to help you during difficult times. They may even include former smokers who know what you're going through and can share tips that helped them.

Finally, know that Kwit is there to help you relearn how to live without tobacco. Our application, based on the Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies (CBT) accompanies you in your smoking cessation from playful and benevolent way. With Kwit, you will never feel alone in this process, and you'll take steps to reach goals that will lead you to your new life without tobacco. So, convinced? Take a look at our application!

The benefits of living without tobacco

To relearn how to live without tobacco, you will have to relearn how to find pleasure in a natural way. Kwit explains how to do this.

Replace an artificial pleasure...

The nicotine present in cigarettes activates the reward system, i.e. it allows the body to release dopamine, the happiness hormone, artificially causing a certain state of well-being. However, due to the habituation phenomenon, the amount needed to provoke the same satisfaction increases little by little, creating and strengthening your tobacco dependence. In short, you smoke because it makes you happy (by activating your reward system), but the more you smoke, the more your nicotine needs increase, and the more you need to smoke to achieve the same level of pleasure. Until you reach this level, you probably don't feel good, or worse than usual.

... by healthy and natural pleasures

To relearn how to live without tobacco, you will need to find new sources of pleasure that activate your reward system more naturally. But don't panic! The possibilities are numerous:

• Did you know, for example, that when you quit smoking, you regain your five senses? It's the perfect opportunity to cook great meals for yourself, or to taste the cuisine of chefs.

• Smoking represents a financial investment. And why not reinvest the money you save by quitting in something you've been craving for a long time? You could go on a trip to a country that attracts you, or buy something you've wanted for a long time.

• You have said goodbye to an old habit to welcome new ones. This is the perfect opportunity to motivate yourself and start a new sport, artistic or creative activity. It will allow you to get away from it all, and you will feel like you have accomplished something rewarding.

• In order to smoke, you certainly had to get away from your non-smoking loved ones, like your children. Now that you no longer smoke, why not give them the time you have saved?

Think you're running out of time to try new activities? You should know that a year after quitting, a smoker who smoked an average pack of twenty cigarettes a day gained 488 hours, which is about 1 hour and 20 minutes a day. So much time to devote to new pleasures!

Relearning to live without tobacco is therefore indeed possible. From now on, you have all the cards in hand to achieve it and start your new life without cigarettes.

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