Many people think that smoking helps when they are stressed or anxious. But, is this really true?
To be truthful, the answer is yes and no. But that is not a very helpful answer, is it? Let’s look at this in a bit more detail to understand it.
Stress and Smoking
When you smoke a cigarette the nicotine in the cigarette causes the blood vessels to constrict. This interferes with the blood circulation and your blood p
ressure goes up. This, in turn, causes stress in your body, so smoking adds additional stress to an already stressed situation. When you quit smoking cigarettes your circulation improves and your body gets the right amount of nutrients and oxygen. This is why shortly after quitting smoking you feel energised. So, from this point of view smoking does not help when stressed or anxious.
The act of smoking is a hand to mouth and inhaling exercise. This is the equivalent of putting a dummy or, as they say, these days a pacifier in your mouth. In fact, if you were to go to the chemist and brought a dummy to suck on it when you are stressed or anxious you would feel less stressed or anxious. I would suggest that this is an extreme way to handle stress and anxiety and not a really good look.
Deep Breathing
An easier and less obvious way is to breathe in deeply to the count of three when inhaling and ‘out’ to the count of three when exhaling. Because ‘breathing’ deep long breathes is a normal part of the smoking habit, it does appear to support the view smoking cigarettes helps with stress and anxiety. The problem is that this is an extremely unhealthy way to handle stress and anxiety.
All in all, if you are stressed or anxious there are other ways to handle it rather than smoking. An extremely effective way is hypnosis. Hypnosis can help you to achieve a state of calm very quickly and effectively. In fact, you can easily learn to hypnotise yourself to help you achieve a state of calm. Other methods to reduce anxiety are meditation; yoga; exercise; walking; listening to, or playing music. Check out our Free Stuff or download a free hypnosis recording from our Store.
For more information go to www.quitsmokingexpert.com.au