The day is here! The Great American Smokeout is going on — are you kicking the habit for the day? If you are taking part in the Great American Smokeout, sound off in the comments to this blog. Let the whole world know that you are giving up cigarettes for today.
It isn’t easy to quit smoking. After today, you may decide to go back to smoking — and that’s okay. But you may also decide that if you made it one day, you can make it one more day. And one more after that. I would love it if the Great American Smokeout was the first step on the journey to quitting for a lot of people!
You aren’t alone. There are lots of people who have quit smoking who are out there to support you and cheer you on in your efforts if you are ready to quit.
My grandmother likes to tell the story of how she quit smoking. Over a holiday weekend, she and some other teachers from the elementary school decided to see a hypnotist to help them stop smoking. As the date approached, my grandmother caught a cold and decided not to go. The other teachers went without her, but my grandmother decided to give quitting a try anyway. As it turns out, my grandmother was the only one who quit — the three teachers who had gone to the hypnotist went back to smoking.
My parents were smokers for a long time. When my brother and I were diagnosed with allergies and asthma (I was about five and my brother was around three), my parents continued to smoke. In order to deal with our smoke allergies, my parents would smoke standing in front of the kitchen stove with the fan on. Eventually they decided to quit cold turkey.
Other people quit gradually, reducing the number of cigarettes they smoke each day until they finally reach zero.
There are lots of methods of quitting out there — find the one that works for you!