Transform your Stress into Better Health!

Quitting smoking can be a stressful time in your life. Stress is our natural response to change, and just think of all the adjustments and changes we make when we stop smoking! We have to change our daily habits from the time we get up and don't smoke that first cigarette, to the time we go to bed and don't smoke that last cigarette. We have to find other things to do with our hands besides reach for a cigarette and light up. We have to do other things to cope with the dissatisfying or uncomfortable situations in our life. We have to find ways to cope with cravings to smoke. We have to find ways to enjoy ourselves without a cigarette. Most importantly, we have to find ways to manage our stress without the potent help of nicotine. You can get stressed just thinking about all the changes in your life when you quit! No wonder you feel tired, irritable, anxious, depressed, and unhappy!

Many people experience an interesting phenomenon when they quit smoking: they feel as if everything goes wrong soon after they quit. In addition to the normal stresses that occur in their lives, and the unusual or unexpected stresses that happen to occur at the same time, they also experience the stresses that occur because they are quitting smoking. Their stress levels go very high while their smoking cessation strategies and abilities are still so new. They report feeling as if their life is falling apart and they can't even be with their best friend, cigarettes. They experience stronger cravings for cigarettes, and they miss the way that cigarettes helped them cope with life.

That is a lot of stress! Without cigarettes to help you cope with stress, numb the effects of your feelings, and focus your attention even when you are overburdened, your life starts feel very "real." A lot of stress can make you feel bad. Before you quit, you used to reach for a cigarette when you felt excessively bad or happy. What are you going to do now? How quickly you can become a relapse cycle waiting to happen! With the help of cigarettes, you managed your stress. Now, you have to learn new ways to manage your stress and the surprises that life can throw upon you, without cigarettes.

Do you remember "The Law of the Conservation of Energy?" You probably learned about it in high school. This is an important law of physics that states: "energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but it can be changed." It supposes that all the energy in the universe that ever existed or ever will exist, already exists; and that life is the eternal dynamic process of that same energy changing and transforming itself. Ever notice how so few things ever really stagnate? Energy pulses, waves, builds, crests, ebbs, and transforms. Energy, like water, can go in cycles, and can be transformed from solid to liquid to gas. Every day, you transform the energy contained in the air your breathe and the food you eat, to the energy of your feelings, thoughts, and movements. Your thoughts create forms and things. You possess incredible transformative powers!

That's all stress management really is: energy transformation. We do it all the time, and there is part of you that already knows how to do this well, without cigarettes. The first step is to identify when you are experiencing stress and how you are responding to it. Stress is usually associated with some discomfort; but positive stress, like a family Thanksgiving dinner, also called eustress, can be associated with exuberance and excess. Becoming aware of your personal signs of stress will help you become aware of when you are stressed and the different ways that you typically respond to it.

The biochemistry of stress causes our heart rate to increase, our thoughts to quicken, our attention to focus, and our strength to grow. We become ready to combat the stress or flee from it, if necessary. Nowadays, we usually just have to deal with it. We can respond to stress physically by putting tension in our jaws, neck, shoulders, or stomach. We express our stress in our obsessive worrying, insomnia, excessive crying, or excessive eating or drug use. If the stress continues for a long time, or you have many stresses at the same time, you can feel chronically tired, unmotivated, or hopeless. Each of us has our own "stress barometers" that give us signs and symptoms that we are experiencing stress, and whether the stress is mild or severe. Knowing your stress barometers is the first step in transforming them.

The next step to transform your stress is to identify a variety of strategies and tools that both appeal to you and that you believe will help you relieve the different types of stress in your life. This is the fun part of stress management! Be sure to use "The Pleasure Principle" when you are identifying your stress management tools. You might even want to start a list of ideas that you can re-evaluate later for their potential usefulness to you. The following tools are suggestions that have been particularly helpful to smokers when coping with stress:

Deep breathing,
Drinking lots of water,
Learning a relaxation exercise,
Saying a prayer,
Listening to music,
Dancing,
Talking to a friend,
Writing in a journal,
Doing yoga,
Doing aerobic exercise,
Crying,
Gardening,
Going for a walk,
Reading an inspirational book,
Controlling obsessive worrying,
Getting adequate sleep,
Eating regular and well-balanced meals,
Drinking alcohol only in moderation,
Getting hugged, held, or massaged,
Taking some time for yourself just to do whatever you want to do,
Taking a nap,
Playing with your children, or
Petting your pet.

Remember to look for a variety of strategies that you believe you will enjoy and that you will actually do. You will need to find at least four to six stress management tools to cope with the variety of stresses in your life when you quit smoking.

The next step is to act. You actually do something to change the discomfort you feel, or the excessive behavior you have been displaying, and don't just think about doing something. Action is energy in motion. This will cause the stress symptoms to transform, hopefully into something more positive and less stressful. If your strategy does not help to relieve your stress, try something else. The key is in the "doing" of stress management, and the skilled self-mastery that will bring. Effective stress management tools will empower you! The result should be that your sense of well being is enhanced. A nice side effect is that you will feel better about yourself, too!