Did you know that there is a link between smoking and heart disease? Well, there is! Studies show that people who smoke have a greater risk of developing heart disease than people who don’t smoke. On the other hand, quitting smoking and heart disease have a negative correlation—quitting reduces your risk of getting a heart disease.
In this article, I want to share with you how you can stop smoking so that the habit does not make you develop a cardiovascular disease.
So, how can you quit smoking?
1. Make A List Of How The Smoking Habit Has Changed Your Life For The Worse
Write down how smoking has cost you. For example, you may write how it has adversely affected your health, how you have used financial resources to maintain the habit when you could have invested that money and made money, how it is preventing you from realizing your full potential and so on.
By doing this, you will realize the full extent of how the habit is ruining you and that can instigate you to take steps to change your behavior.
2. Do Something To Take Your Mind Off Smoking
Write down at least 50 activities you will do every time you are not occupied, and do them during your leisure time so that at every point in time you will be engaged in something productive to distract you from thinking about smoking.
Some of the activities you may consider engaging in are: engaging people who are also trying to quit smoking on social media and exchanging ideas with them about some practical strategies you can use to quit the habit, dance to upbeat music, watch movies in which the protagonist battles with an addiction but overcomes it to inspire hope in you that you can also quit the habit successfully, play with your dog, play soccer, take care of rabbits or food crops, take a walk in the woods, ride a bicycle over a distance of 5 miles every day, or swim with friends.
3. Create A Message To Help You Resist Cravings
Develop a short, interesting message that you can repeat to yourself when the desire to smoke becomes very strong. As you keep doing this habit, those words will sink into your soul and help to boost the determination to stay on course when the going gets tough.
For example, you may use, “One smoke, one step closer to a stroke,” or “If I smoke I will choke and weaken my heart.”
4. Make Positive Affirmations To Yourself Every Day
A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests that making positive affirmations to yourself can help to boost your self-control. When you boost your willpower this way, you will find it easier to avoid the temptation to smoke when you are exposed to the temptation.
Therefore, every day, say something such as this to yourself, “I can do this. I am well able to overcome this habit because God is with me to help me. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. With the power of God and the word of life, I can succeed in quitting this habit. I am more than a conqueror. I will stop this habit and master it in the name of Jesus.” It will encourage you to stick to your plan until victory is won.
5. Read Your Bible Often
God created everything we see in this world by His word—He spoke and it appeared. God’s words have got power to change situations and to influence people and change lives. God’s words written in the Bible are backed by power from on high to influence people to change their behaviors and their lives.
Reading God’s word regularly will make that word live in you. That word will admonish you and correct you and strengthen your inner man—your spirit—so that you can have better control over your desires and feelings, which will make it easier for you to resist the urge to smoke.
Furthermore, reading Bible verses which talk about the need to mortify fleshly desires, and those which talk about the need to exercise self-control and keep the body holy and pure because it is the temple of God, can give you a motivation to check yourself so that you will not incur God’s wrath.
6. Meditate
Some studies have shown that when a person meditates it can help him or her to quit smoking. One kind of meditation you can do is Bible meditation.
How do you do it?
- Pick one Bible verse which admonishes us to discipline ourselves, such as 1 Corinthians 6 v 12 which says, “All things are lawful for me but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything.”
- Repeat that verse to yourself for 10 minutes so that it will stick to your memory.
- Ruminate on the verse throughout the day and it will fill you with a strong desire to remain “clean”, which will make it easier to choose to stay on course instead of choosing to go back to the habit.
7. Pray
God has got the power to give you a new spirit which will give you new desires. In Ezekiel 36 v 26, God says, “A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.” In other words, God can help you to change your desires so that instead of craving for a cigarette stick or a cigar, you will crave to read His word or fellowship with brothers and sisters in the faith, which are worthwhile and healthy ways to spend your time.
So, pray often to God to change your heart and give you wholesome desires. You may intone prayers such as this one regularly, “Dear LORD, glory be to Your Holy Name for the kindness and goodness You have shown to me this month. LORD, I have realized that there is a connection between smoking and heart disease. I want to quit smoking so that I will not develop a heart disease. Please give me a new heart, a heart that will be willing to serve, worship, and honor You instead of craving for a stick of cigarette or cigar. LORD, give me a new spirit so that I can obey your commandments and live a holy life before You. Amen.”
What To Do When You Relapse
Many people slip up from time to time when they are trying to quit smoking, and it may happen to you too. When that happens, desist from thinking that you are a failure. Read Proverbs 24 v 16 which says, “…for a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again,” and it will make you see that though you have fallen, it is not the end of the battle.
And then encourage yourself with word such as, “I am not a loser. I have not failed. This is just a setback. Though I have fallen, I will rise again. I may have lost some battles, but I will win the war. I will fight until I win in the end. So help me God.” It will give you renewed vigor to persevere and you are likely to make another spirited attempt to quit smoking.
Conclusion
Smoking and heart disease are related and quitting smoking can reduce your risk of getting a heart disease. You can do this by assessing your life and making a decision to change your behavior, occupying yourself so that you will not indulge in smoking, making positive affirmations to yourself throughout the period of rehab, reading your Bible often, meditating on Bible verses, and praying for deliverance.
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