How yoga helps you quit smoking?
- Yoga cultivates determination and willpower in a smoker which are the primary strengths needed to quit smoking. And no other techniques can work in overcoming this biggest weakness of a smoker.
- Many people smoke or start smoking due to psychological and emotional problems. And yoga is the only technique which helps best in overcoming these life taking traumas and maintaining psychological and emotional balance in the body.
- It creates awareness to lead a healthy life and to understand your own body. This awareness automatically let you know that your body does not want these types of dangerous toxins. And the same awareness brings a great change and improvement in your diet and lifestyle to quit smoking as well as to improve your health.
- The deep breathing techniques of yoga neutralize the irresistible cravings for nicotine which happens during the first days and weeks of quitting. And no other technique can work best in this regard.
- Yoga helps quitting smoking without weight gain and any other side effects. And no other techniques can help in this regard.
What is the most important yoga technique which helps best to quit smoking?
One of the important yoga cleansing practices called as ‘Jala Neti,’ which works wonders for those who want to quit smoking. This technique effects at both physical and psychological levels. It is an integrated approach which works smoothly to help a smoker quit smoking.
How yoga breathing techniques can help you quit smoking?
Here is a simple example of a yoga breathing techniques which helps best whenever you crave for a cigarette.
How to practice it?
- Inhale deeply as far as you can and then slowly exhale. Purse your lips so that the air will come out slowly.
- Slowly touch your chest with your chin as you exhale
- Imagine all your stress, tension and other emotional problems draining out of your fingers and toes.
- Practice it at least three times.
This deep breathing technique works as your greatest weapon during the strong cravings and gives you the best possible result.
A Yoga Student narrates his experience :
One of the hardest habits to give up is smoking. You may hear a number of people who claim to have given up smoking, but if you check on them after sometime, you will find that they have gone back to their favourite habit.
For twenty years I had been a habitual but a moderate smoker. I used to smoke on average five cigarettes a day, but often I would go on a binge and smoke as many as 15. This went on even after I took to practising yoga.
My yoga teacher had assured me that being a practitioner of yoga I would not keep smoking habit for long. For, according to him, yoga would force me to give up my habit. I did not take that too seriously and continued smoking along with my practice of yoga.
After a few months of yoga, my habit of smoking a cigarette after breakfast started making me uncomfortable. After smoking a cigarette I started feeling sluggish and sleepy. Since I used to smoke while driving to my office, my being sleepy started telling on my nerves. After a few days, I was still lighting up my cigarette but I could not go beyond smoking it more than a half. Later on even smoking half a cigarette was leaving me tired and was giving me headaches. I had no choice but to give up my morning cigarette.
Soon I stopped smoking a cigarette after lunch and even when driving back home in the evening traffic. Smoking in the evening started making me intolerably hungry and I could not help snacking. That was enough to kill my appetite for dinner.
Untimely eating gave me a kind of constipation I never experienced in my life. I started spending working hours with bloated bowels and a mild but continuing headache. My productivity level plummeted sharply and I started losing my temper at the slightest provocation.
First smoking ceased to be a pleasure and very soon it became a nightmare. I really did not have to fight with my age-old habit or exercise restrain.
I realized that yoga just won’t let me go on with this vice of mine. It’s been nine months now since I last smoked. Now even the thought of reaching for a cigarette makes me feel ill.
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