Stop Smoking

Tell all your friends that if they catch you smoking or smell of smoke they can slap you, punch you, or hit you as hard as they can. Maybe after a few of these you won't want to smoke.

Cut straw the same length as a cigarette.  Use it in place of cigarette.  You can go thru motions of lighting, inhaling, knocking the ashes off, and even stub it out all without actually smoking it.  It is the habit of these motions that are hardest to break.  The nicotine cravings are gone in about a week.  If you are earnest about not going into stores to buy more,  you can't light up.  If you must shop before kicking the habit, only buy food and take with you the exact amount of money necessary for food. Leave the store without buying more tobacco products.  That is the toughest test yet when you know you don't have more cigarettes.  When you can go to the tobacco counter to buy other items, not wanting cigarettes, then you know you have become a non-smoker.

Good luck on finding the easier, softer way.

This is a good thing that you want to do. Think of what you can buy in a year's time after not having spent all that money on trying to kill yourself. Perhaps that will give you some incentive.

Jay

Sometimes breathing exercises work. Try it, especially by placing your index finger across your lips and inhaling through your mouth. It just helps create a bit of a force inhalation like when you smoke. The biggest challenge is the cravings though. Most aids simply give you a small dosage of nicotine, which you seem to want to avoid. You might want to try Nix-It-Now. It's a homeopathic spray that you use when the urge occurs.  For no cost solutions you can also distract yourself when the urge occurs. For example, take a deep breath and hold it until you finish a task. It can be any task, going to the water cooler for a cup of water and exhaling after the cup is full, doing a search on bing.com for something and reading the first paragraph on the page, or hey... you could even take a brisk walk around the office and exhale after X amount of steps.  Anything that will distract you and make you do some extra BREATHING. That'sthe important part. Good luck PSK77!