Quitting smoking is a perfect idea! Get a powerful, motivating reason and do it now! Do it for yourself: to feel better and look younger, and to reduce your chance of getting lung cancer. Do it for your family: protect your loved ones from secondhand smoke.

Stress less

Too much work in the office, deadlines to meet, unhappy personal life? Is any one of this your reason to smoke? If so, think like a responsible adult. You need to look inwards and discuss with others in the family to address the problem at hand. Picking up a cigarette is not going to end your blues. In fact it will escalate your problems manifold. Professor Matthew Peters, who is chairman of Action on Smoking and Health Australia, confirm stress is a major factor in keeping some people smoking.

Exercise enough

Experts say ten minutes of cycling or jogging can significantly help people quit smoking. The researchers from the University of Exeter have shown that changes in brain activity, triggered by physical exercise, may help reduce cigarette cravings. Although it is still unclear, researchers believe that completing exercise raises mood (possibly through increases in dopamine) which reduces the salience or importance of wanting a cigarette.

Another possibility is that exercise causes a shift in blood flow to areas of the brain less involved in anticipation of reward and pleasure generated by smoking images.

A ten or fifteen minute walk, jog or cycle when times get tough could help a smoker kick the habit. There are of course many other benefits from a more active lifestyle including better fitness, weight loss and improved mood.

Think, feel, quit

You only live once. So take out time to think and feel for your loved ones, the environment and the passive smokers around you. Use of tobacco leads to deforestation as eight kg wood is needed to create a kg of tobacco; tobacco dirties the teeth and forms pigments in palms, fingers and nails; it leads to hair loss and skin wrinkles; tobacco users are two to three times more likely to develop heart disease and paralysis, apart from diabetes; men may become impotent and women may have fertility problems. If these don't put you off, wonder what will...

Don't give up

Even if you have tried several times to give up the habit but failed, do continue trying. The number of times you've gone back to it is not important, but maybe the fifth or sixth time, you will actually be successful in kicking the habit. Visit places which have a 'do not smoke' policy and test yourself as to how long you can control your desire to smoke. Meet friends who do not smoke and most importantly, love yourself and the rest of your family and bless them all good health and a long life.