Stop Smoking – Control Your Urges with Breathing Exercises

Exercise can’t counteract the damage being done to your body while you continue to smoke. What exercise can do is help you kick the habit.

Breathing exercises too can prove to be helpful in controlling the urge to smoke. It is common knowledge that the human body takes in a lot of toxic substances, both through the air and through food and drink.
Apart from this, various toxins are also released in the body as a result of the various processes that are going on. These toxins have to be released on a constant basis or else they will accumulate in the body with serious results.

Breath Properly

One of the best methods of releasing these toxins is by means of exhaling while breathing. One funny fact is that most of do not breathe appropriately. With each breath that we take, we take in oxygen.
This oxygen is carried by the blood to every cell of the body and every cell must indeed get sufficient oxygen not just to survive but to remain healthy as well. So it is imperative that we make an honest effort to breathe appropriately.
But first of course we have to make sure that we are breathing in unpolluted air. The time best for breathing exercises is early in the morning when the air is comparatively unpolluted.

The Procedure for Breathing Exercise

Now what you have to do is this. Again, sit comfortably so that there is no strain to any part of your body. It is not imperative that you close your eyes, but it is better to close the eyes as the exercise works better when the eyes are closed.
When you are ready, what you have to do is to breathe in deeply and slowly, and feel the fresh air filling up your lungs until it just can’t take any more. Conjure up images of the air encircling throughout your body and reaching every cell, literally bathing it with oxygen.
Of course it doesn’t happen that way but the image helps a lot. Then hold your breath for a few seconds and then very slowly exhale letting out all that foul air. Again conjure up an image of all the toxins being released from your body.
Every cell has become free of the burden it was carrying. Now pause for a second or two and again breathe in deeply, slowly letting your lungs fill up with all that good, clean, rejuvenating air. Repeat this exercise at least ten times and take your time for it taking care not to rush through.
When you have done that part of the exercise it is time for the second part. Again sit with your eyes closed, but this time, keep one nostril closed with the help of your index finger. It is best to close the right nostril first and that too with your right index finger.
Now breathe in deeply and slowly through your left nostril keeping the right nostril closed. When you have held air for a second or two, release your right nostril and breathe out through it.
While you are breathing out conjure up an image of all the toxins being released form your head and the brain particularly. And as you breathe in conjure up images of the clean air circulating though out your brain freeing it of all the worries and trouble and lightening it.
Repeat this exercise with the other nostril closed and in this way alternate between the nostrils at least ten times. The complete breathing exercise need not take more than ten minutes. But you will be surprised at how light hearted and free you will feel after the exercise.
Once you have practiced it for three or four mornings, you will be in a position to do the exercise each time you get the urge to smoke. The breathing exercise can easily become a substitute for the urge to take in that hourly doze of nicotine.