The best way to beat cravings is to avoid having them. Let me explain. Cravings to smoke usually come when we’re exposed to a trigger – a time, activity or place we associate with smoking. That trigger kicks off an emotional conflict: part of you is trying to quit; but at the same time, you want a cigarette. The conflict escalates. You feel panicky, anxious, irritable, angry, and so on and have to use willpower not to cave in and light up.
Your heart pulls you in one direction; your heart in another.
If we can remove that conflict though, those cravings disappear, making it so much easier to quit.
And removing that conflict is a lot easier than people think because our desire to smoke in those trigger situations is based on a trick nicotine plays on our brain when we first start smoking.
Seeing through this trick enables you to drop the beliefs that create your desire to smoke in those trigger situations. And with no desire to smoke, there’s no emotional conflict when you stop, which means there are none of those scary, unpleasant feelings.
That’s just common-sense.
So work on your mindset. It’s your best friend and your biggest asset when you’re trying to quit.