Giving Up Smoking While on Vacation- Good Idea or Bad Idea?

 

Summer is here and you’re a smoker who wants to give up the habit. You’ve decided to make the leap during the weeks of your upcoming vacation.

You think turning over a new leaf in your life while you’re away from your ordinary routine is a good idea but you’ve received mixed opinions on this from others.

Some people say the same thing worked for them while others say that vacation time is for enjoying yourself and not the appropriate time to give up smoking.

What should you do?

When you wish to quit smoking there are two separate issues to deal with. There is the addiction you have to cigarettes and there is the habit of smoking. There are many ways to cope with the addiction part of smoking. There is hypnosis, nicotine gum, nicotine patches and a variety of other methods.

On the other hand, the habit is what can present the greatest problem. You’ve come to enjoy cigarettes at certain times of the day and in a variety of situations. You have developed habituated ways of doing things that involve cigarettes. Cigarettes are comforting, they are stress relieving and they just simply make you feel good, even though you know deep down that they are very bad for you on so many levels.

One way to help break yourself of a habit that has developed over the long-term is to remove yourself from the environment and the circumstances that cause you to want to smoke.

Once you are in a different environment doing different things then you can begin to replace the bad habit with a good habit. One of the ways you can do this is to not just take time off from work but plan a vacation and go somewhere different. Give yourself- mind, body and spirit- a break from your normal routine and your regular activities and allow yourself to really relax and unwind.

Not only is this good in helping to break the nicotine habit but it is good for every part of you and highly advisable.

Taking time off to recharge your batteries, whether it be a long weekend, a week to 10 days or two weeks is beneficial to your life. It helps to promote healing and will put you in a different frame of mind – a vacation frame of mind if you like that does not include cigarettes.

Drinking is a difficult one to avoid on vacation if you enjoy drinking socially. Many people who drink trigger the need for a cigarette and if you fit into this category and view being on vacation as a time to partake in adult beverages then quitting smoking as part of your vacation could be setting yourself up for failure – and don’t ever do that!

It is recommended by experts that you put your preferred stop smoking method into play at least two weeks before the start of your vacation. This will help you begin to adjust and make changes before you go away. While away reserve rooms in non-smoking hotels and only go to restaurants that are non-smoking. It is also strongly recommended that you steer clear of activities during your vacation that you used to do while smoking.

Avoiding one will help you avoid the other. It will help if you keep busy while on vacation and do things that involve physical exertion. This will encourage and support you in beginning to rebuild your lung capacity and keeping your mind focused on anything but cigarettes.

The decision to give up smoking while on vacation or close to the start of one is yours and yours alone. It helps to know however that if you choose to take this route it can lead to a successful resolution which is a new path paved as a non-smoker.

Finally, if you’re interested in more information about Erika’s online or in-office sessions then check out her stop smoking hypnosis programs.

Becca Scott
Staff Writer
Free At Last Hypnosis