Like growing up and becoming an adult, smokers who want to change their life will  have to face the stages of quitting smoking. No matter how you choose to do it, regardless if you intend to quit cold turkey or slowly ease yourself into this rehabilitation, you will still face these stages and battle them through. You being the fighter that you are, you’d find that you can breeze through these stages easily. Think of them as the stepping stones you need to take for you to reach your ultimate goal—becoming clean and free from the burdens of smoking.

The stages of quitting smoking:

Stage 1 – Awareness

Among the stages of quitting smoking, this is the starting point wherein a light bulb automatically flicks on inside your mind. Almost every smoker encounters this but sadly, not a few people may progress. This is the point where you start to toy with the idea of quitting smoking for different reasons. It might be because you’ve been challenged by someone to do it, you suddenly feel an illness coming because you’ve been smoking too much, or you and your friends are discussing about it. Whatever the trigger may be, the awareness stage should not be the only point you can find yourself in. You should eventually progress to…

Stage 2 – Contemplation

The stages of quitting smoking have contemplation as the official jump off point to actually quitting. Because apart from thinking about turning your back against smoking, at this stage you begin to think of how you are going to do it. You start imagining your life without a stick each hour, or each day, depending on how often you used to take a puff. Unconsciously, the smoker actually starts to condition himself to take a chance on a smoke-free life at this point. This is when you start to plan activities that could help you reduce your cigarette cravings. It may be helpful to get the support of loved ones as early as this stage because they might become the added push you’ll need to really pull this goal off.

Stage 3 – Action

This is the point when you finally start to kick off the habit. This can also turn out to be the most challenging stage to be in because you will experience withdrawal and cravings like you’ve never had before. While in this stage, emotional support from family and friends becomes an imperative because they would help get you through the tough times. As the stage’s name implies, you shouldn’t just move towards veering away from smoking but onwards being physically active as well. Doing so would help your mind focus on something else more lucrative than giving in to the calls of smoking.

Stage 4 – Maintenance

So you’ve finally made it through months of kicking out the smoking habit. Only a few more weeks and you’re officially 365 days free from the clutches of smoking. Congratulations! But at this point on, you will need a stronger will and a healthier physique to maintain the new and healthier lifestyle. Among the stages of quitting smoking, the maintenance stage is when you can finally pat your back and say, “Job well done!”