A Tried Method that Works

• 1). Make up your mind once and for all that the cigarette you just put out will be the last cigarette that you will smoke. Prepare yourself ahead of time by buying and keeping an unopened pack somewhere in your home. The laundry room might be the best place, as it is usually in a remote area of the house.
  
  
• 2
  Clean and wash all the ashtrays.
  
  Empty the dirty ashtrays, wash them and leave a few clean ones around the house. Have a few ballpoint pens around. Go to bed, knowing that when you wake up you will no longer have that first morning ''smoke'' and that when you have the desire, you will use the pen as a cigarette substitute.
  
  
• 3
  Pens are now your cigarettes.
  
  Have your morning coffee, breakfast and do everything you usually do when you get up. If you usually smoke when having your coffee, pick up the ballpoint pen, make believe you are lighting the tip with a match (go through all the usual actions). Put the pen in your mouth (as you would a cigarette) -- puff, inhale deeply, and then exhale. Go through the motions of flicking the ash as you would a cigarette. When you are finished, put the pen down and go about your usual tasks.
  
  
• 4
  Unopened, so leave it like that.
  
  Keep doing this every time you have an urge to have a ''smoke.'' If, after a while you feel that you must have a real cigarette, walk into the laundry room, look at the sealed pack sitting there, but, using your will power, do not open it. Remember, you are determined, so tell yourself that you can always open the seal but that you are not going to do it now. Walk away and go on with your day.
  
  
• 5). Keep a pen in your purse and pocket. If, at any time during the day, you must have a smoke, use the pen and smoke. The first day is the hardest, so keep up your determination. Do not let a smelly cigarette run your life. You can do it and you will if you act out the smoking each the time that you are used to having a smoke, whether it is with a cup of coffee, conversing on the Internet, walking the dog, waking up or prior to going to sleep. Always use the pen in place of the real thing and you will stop smoking.