Urge To Smoke Meditation

Studies have shown that mindfulness meditation can help us to stop smoking by reducing stress, making us more aware of our cravings, and allowing ourselves greater kindness throughout the process. In this meditation, we recognise an urge to smoke with awareness and curiosity. We explore where the urge is coming from and instead of pushing it away, we sit with it and observe. We finish by connecting with the breath before deciding whether to smoke, knowing that we have always had a choice.

Transcript

Take a pause from whatever you're doing and become still.

And if possible,

Close your eyes.

Recognize with great kindness towards yourself that an urge to smoke has arisen in your body and mind.

How strong is the urge?

If you can,

Give it a number on a scale of 1 to 10.

One being very weak and 10 being very strong.

Being curious about this urge to smoke.

This urge that every day makes you smoke cigarettes.

This urge that holds so much power over you.

Where is it?

In your head?

In your chest?

In your belly?

Or in your arms?

So instead of trying to push away the urge,

We're grabbing a cigarette to make it go away.

Just try to stay with the urge.

Open up to it.

Be curious about it.

Get to know it.

Can you stay with it for a couple of moments?

Simply observing it.

Investigating it.

And as you observe the urge,

Does it change?

As it becomes stronger or weaker,

Or has it stayed the same?

Stay curious.

And as you are investigating the urge,

See if you can connect with your breath,

But not to make the urge go away.

Rather,

See if you can follow the breath while letting the urge coexist.

Feeling each in-breath and each out-breath.

How does your breath feel right now?

Tense or calm?

Is it shallow or deep?

Following your breath.

And now make a conscious choice to have a cigarette,

Or not.

But be curious how you make this choice.

And now have a cigarette,

Or not.

But if you do,

Smoke it slowly and mindfully.

And now open up your eyes.

Reviews

This was great ..no judgement lots of time to be curious of the thought and I did deep breathing with this. I like how you ended it with take a deep breath and the have a cigarette or not .. and be curious and mindful about it . I think with 30 days or less of this every morning I can stop . My lungs are depending on me making the right choice ! Ty!! 💫💫💫💫💫it is 11/10/23 I’ll check back in .. I have made it 4 hours this morning not vaping . 🌊🌊🌊💜

Thank you! Very effective and helpful🙏🏾