Did you know that there were an estimated 28.3 million people in the US (11.5% of American Adults) who smoked cigarettes in 2021?
A truly terrifying statistic given how hard it is to quit smoking.
Fortunately, there's a ton of ways to help you quit this addictive habit.
One of these is meditation, which is a growing trend recently.
Meditation is an ancient practice that offers several health benefits and can be utilized for various things, from relieving stress and anxiety to recovering from serious injuries.
And now, it's being used for one of the most widespread addictions - smoking.
But how?
Well, that’s what we’re here for.
In this post, we will discuss how you can use meditation to quit the nicotine routine.
Why Smoking Is So Harmful
Smoking is a dangerous habit to develop.
Although you’re probably aware, I'm here to drive the point home.
Smoking often leads to severe and long-term health effects on the body.
Regular smoking can harm nearly every single one of your organs, leading to stroke, lung diseases, COPD, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.
Among the many other adverse effects of smoking, it also has the ability to increase blood pressure and hinder muscle sympathetic nerve activity.
It gets worse.
Smokers have a life expectancy of about ten years less than non-smokers. And we have yet to tackle the effects of nicotine.
All tobacco products - including cigarettes - contain nicotine, which causes the main addiction.
It hijacks your body’s reward system and creates a state of physical and mental dependence.
Nicotine damages your various body parts, including your heart, lungs, and central nervous system.
Sleeping problems, nausea, increased clotting, arrhythmias, heartburn, and tremors are only some of its harmful side effects.
Enough fear mongering now - how do we stop this derailed train?
Which Habits To Replace
How do you stop harmful effects from a habit?
You break it down into mini-habits, and stop each of those.
Only then can you curb your nicotine routine and turn to something more productive and healthy — like meditation.
Now, here are the habits we feel like you should be on the look-out for:
1. Hand-to-Mouth Habit
If you're a frequent smoker, you developed this habit unconsciously and unintentionally.
It's the habitual action of repeatedly bringing your hand to your mouth so much that it becomes an automatic action that eventually becomes deeply entrenched in you.
It's difficult to eliminate this habit - that's why keeping it, but with a different non-harmful or even beneficial item can be key.
2. Inhalation Habit
This one is a double-whammy.
You puff and inhale cigarettes a couple of hundred times a day for many times a week for several years.
When you decide to finally quit smoking, you will find it incredibly strange to have nothing constantly in your mouth to inhale.
Not only does the ritual stay stuck in your muscle memory and mind, but the actual act of deep breaths to inhale is a positive thing. Therefore... eliminating it actually works against you!
Once again, keeping the habit but switching the mechanism is key - we'll speal about that in a moment.
3. Holding items
Smoking is not just a mental fixation; it's also a physical habit. Part of your journey to quit smoking is keeping your hands busy.
It’s hard to get accustomed to holding nothing, and so we circle back to the key point - keeping the habit, but changing the item.
First, let's talk about meditation to help all this!
Why Meditation Helps Quit Smoking
Meditation is an ancient practice dating back thousands of years, helping people of all cultures heal.
Turns out, it is also effective in managing withdrawal from smoking.
Meditation has been gaining traction in recent years.
Among the new uses of meditation is its potential to help us increase our chances of successfully quitting the nicotine routine.
Most smokers reach for a cigarette or their vape whenever they feel stressed or anxious. That’s their primary trigger.
While most are aware of the harmful effects of smoking on the body, the temporary moment of relaxation a puff offers will make any human constantly crave it.
The reality is that smoking only camouflages your stress and anxiety. It’s not completely solving or relieving it. Since the relief is only temporary, you would want to light another cig to feel that moment again — hence the addiction.
Now, the question here is this: why settle for momentary and temporary bliss and relief when you have the option to enjoy that long-term?
If you decide to throw away your packs of cigarettes, try out meditation for a change.
Meditation can help you manage, relieve, and overcome stress. You can relax your brain and body through meditation, easily quieting your distracting and anxious thoughts.
Before you start questioning the effectiveness of meditation against stress, let us tell you that science backs it up! There are reliable studies that found that meditation can reduce and lower cortisol, which is the body's primary stress hormone.
With meditation, we can also be more aware of our cravings and habits, allowing us to become more mindful of them.
We’ve tackled triggers, but what about urges and cravings?
Well, an effective way to resist cravings for smoking is by doing deep breathing meditation. Studies show that deep breathing exercises can lower smoking withdrawal symptoms and the associated irritability and tension.
Simply focus on your breathing to redirect your attention away from the pesky and troublesome craving for smoking. With practice, it becomes second nature.
Overall, meditation causes positive changes in our brain and behavior. It allows us to develop self-control and enhance your willpower to quit smoking.
But as always, habits are hard to crack and form. Having a tool to help you on your way can be make-it or break-it.
The Best Tool For Quitting Smoking With Meditation
When you build a house, do you hammer in the nails with your hands?
Well, you could. But it'd take a long time and hurt quite a bit.
Usually you do it with a tool.
And the same concept applies to quitting smoking with meditation.
Going through your journey to quit smoking with meditation, it's only fair that you have the best tool in the market to help make it easier.
And after testing and experimenting with everything on the market, we found that the Bliss Eden Necklace does everything we want it to do to quit that horrible addiciton.
This breathing necklace from Eden ticks off all your boxes.
Firstly, it fills the hand-to-mouth habit and item holding one at the same time, allowing you to hold a cigarette-shaped object whenever and wherever, especially indoors when cravings strike. You can breathe through it discreetly anywhere.
Breathing through the pendant mimics the breathing of smoking - providing the calming effect without any of the chemicals, as it is fully nicotine-free.
Pair this tool with your meditation sessions to experience better results and lesser withdrawal symptoms.
The light, hollow, and mouth-safe pendant works to lower cortisol, calm anxiety, and engage your parasympathetic nervous system.
If you’re looking for a breathing necklace of the highest quality, the Bliss Eden breathing necklace is worth considering.
It’s stylish, discreet, and quiet, making it easy to blend with your outfit.
Now, if that’s not enough to convince you, Bliss also offers a 3-day USA shipping and money-back guarantee.
With hundreds of positive reviews, the Eden is the single best choice on the market when it comes to a companion on your road to recovery.
Conclusion
Let's face it: quitting smoking is a challenging feat to accomplish.
Fortunately, with an effective technique like meditation, you have a reasonably good shot at succeeding!
Enlisting the help of a tool in your toolbox such as the Bliss Eden will boost your chances of quitting the nicotine routine many times over.
Good luck on your journey!
