How Meditation Can Help You Through Your Journey

How to Beat Cravings and Quit Smoking with Meditation

If you’ve recently decided to quit vaping, congratulations! It’s not always the easiest decision to stick to, especially if you’ve used vaping to help you deal with stress in the past.

 

One of the things that makes sticking to a vape-free life difficult at times are nicotine cravings.1 You may be aware of some effective methods that can ease cravings, such as NIXT StepDown Program, a vaping cessation program that provides lasting craving relief. It’s also good if you can find a way to help reduce the stress that can lead to the craving for a vape. Meditation can be the way to do just that.

Easing Chronic Stress With Meditation

There have been some very interesting findings around meditation and the reduction of chronic stress. While research is still ongoing, recent studies have noted that regular meditation practice may possibly decrease depression, improve sleep, and improve pain management.5 

The best part about meditation is that you don’t have to be some kind of yogi guru to start practicing it — you don’t even need to leave your house! There are many different types of meditation, from mindfulness, to mantra, to guided, to tai chi, so you can pick the one that works best for you and your personality.

How to Start Meditating

If you’re looking for a way to ease the stress that may be contributing to your cigarette cravings, it’s as easy as one, two, three:

1. Find a quiet place
   Whether it’s your bed, a couch, or on a yoga mat, just make sure you feel comfortable and relaxed. 

2. Focus your attention
   Use your breathing, a word, or an image to help focus and clear your thoughts. Don’t worry if your thoughts wander initially — like any new skill, meditation takes practice. Try to refocus your thoughts back whenever you notice them getting away from you.

3. Be open
   No matter what happens during your meditation practice, stay open and non-judgmental of how “good” you are at it. After all, meditation is meant to ease stress and anxiety, not cause more of it!

Quitting Vaping with Meditation

Meditation can help people who have already quit vaping to manage the stress that might otherwise cause them to reach for a vape, but what about vapers who want to learn how to stop vaping in the first place?

 

If you’re looking to use meditation for vaping cessation, you may notice a few benefits:

1. It reduces stress.
   Feeling stressed and anxious can be a big trigger that causes vapers to reach for their vape. By introducing meditation, or mindfulness training, you’ll be more able to recognize and accept stressors.1 If you can manage your stressors without needing to vape, you may be able to break the association that you need to vape in order to cope.

2. It teaches you to be aware of your habits and cravings.
   Smokers may find themselves reaching for a vape without giving much thought to the action.1 By practicing vaping cessation meditation, vapers begin to recognize and accept how they are feeling physically and emotionally.1 This process can begin to reshape behaviors and how vapers react to physical cravings.1

3. It can improve self-control.
   Meditation to stop smoking can increase connectivity between regions of your brain that are responsible to self-regulation.1 If you’re determined to stop smoking and have a strong sense of willpower and self-control, you are more likely to be successful.

 

Some vapers may find success with apps that ask them to record their thoughts and feelings when a vape craving strikes. Studies have shown that smokers who committed to using an acceptance and commitment-based smartphone app for smoking cessation to use it as an effective treatment.6 Findings suggest that mindfulness training and meditation may be effective as a treatment to stop smoking, thanks to their abilities at disrupting the association between craving and smoking.3

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No matter what method you decide to use to help ease any stress associated with quitting vapes, what matters is that you find something that works for you to help you quit smoking.

 

 

References

1. How to Manage Cravings. Smokefree.gov. https://smokefree.gov/challenges-when-quitting/cravings-triggers/how-manage-cravings/. 

2. Using Meditation to Quit Smoking. The Monday Campaigns. https://www.mondaycampaigns.org/quit-stay-quit/using-meditation-to-quit-smoking/. 

3. Program Review: Craving to Quit. Center for Technology and Behavioral Health. https://www.c4tbh.org/program-review/craving-to-quit/.

4. Mindfulness training for smoking cessation: moderation of the relationship between craving and cigarette use. National Library of Medicine. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23265088/. Accessed 7/24/2023.

5. Meditation and Mindfulness: What You Need to Know. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/meditation-and-mindfulness-what-you-need-to-know. 

6. Efficacy of Smartphone Applications for Smoking Cessation: A Randomized Clinical Trial. National Library of Medicine. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32955554/.