| Felicia certainly deserves to relax after work. However, she also deserves to relax in a way that’s not harmful to her body. After many years of smoking after work, she got used to using your cigarettes as her number one way of relaxing. Also, she formed a habit whereby getting home triggers her to want to smoke. She may even have a favorite place or chair where she likes to smoke.
The challenge for Felicia will be to break the habit part and also learn new ways to relax after work so that she doesn’t feel deprived by not smoking. Breaking the habit can be done by not going home right after work for a week or two while she is getting used to not smoking. Or, maybe she needs to rearrange her furniture so she doesn’t see that “smoking chair” when she gets home. Felicia will need to discover her triggers to smoke and try to change them.
Learning how to relax without smoking will be another challenge. She can start by creating a list of non-smoking things she likes to do to relax. Felicia may have to get creative because for many people, smoking has become their number one way of relaxing. The point is that she must do something. The last thing that she needs is to feel deprived when she gets home from work because that would certainly lead to cravings to smoke.
Her situation is a great example of why going cold turkey rarely works. It would just leave Felicia feeling deprived while getting triggers to smoke at the same time. The best thing she can do is to create a plan that deals with the three reasons why people smoke; habit, addiction and emotional.
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