Mindful Breathing Techniques for Overcoming Nicotine Cravings

Nicotine addiction is one of the strongest and often long-lasting and can cause significant trouble to quit. What most of the time proves to be most difficult for vapers/smokers is the experience of withdrawal symptoms where one is always craving for cigarettes or nicotine products. Such compulsions can occur at any given period and are characterized by worry, fidgeting, and a strong urge to have a cigarette. Fortunately, mindfulness techniques such as breathing exercises can be huge weapons when confronting such cravings.

Mindfulness activities such as concentrating on breathing can help to counter these concerns as well as reduce stress and the strength of nicotine urge.

Understanding Nicotine Cravings

Nicotine is an element in different tobacco products that is highly addictive. Over time your brain gets used to receiving the dopamine trigger with smoke/nicotine hence it and your body always wish for more of it. These desires come both in the form of physical needs and psychological hunger. Physical dependency on nicotine reduces in a couple of weeks upon cessation of nicotine use but psychological “hunger” takes lot much longer to die down.

Cravings may be due to stress, boredom, or even something as simple as some social situation. Being able to deal with these triggers is crucial to quitting nicotine for good. One such method might include craving management techniques, such as mindfulness, particularly mindful breathing.

How Mindful Breathing Helps with Nicotine Cravings

Breathing exercise is an exercise in mindfulness meditation. It means you concentrate on the breath during meditation, fully aware of the present time. If a nicotine craving strikes, your body as well as your brain are clearly in a state of tension or stress, and you get fidgety.

Mindful breathing helps in several ways:

• Reduces Stress

• Shifts Focus from Craving

• Regulates Your Nervous System

• Increases Awareness of Triggers

Reduces Stress

Stress is the leading cause of smoking and encourages smoking to help reduce stress. If your breathing pattern changes, it also prevents the body from releasing high cortisol, the primary stress hormone. This helps to reduce nervousness, that is, to reduce the desire to smoke in people who want to quit this bad habit.

Shifts Focus from Craving

This is because cravings are a preoccupation: the focus of your thinking and attention. If you shift your attention towards your breath, you must disengage yourself from the craving; thus, there is no way you would indulge in it. This distance makes it easier to fight it, as the craving doesn’t have that much control over a person, making it easier to hold on until it disappears.

Regulates Your Nervous System

Nicotine withdrawal results in thoughts leading to feelings of anxiety, agitation, a racing heart or even sweating. Diaphragmatic breathing can assist in getting the nervous system to take a break from frantically pumping blood to alert the body to danger; it will lower your pulse rate.

Increases Awareness of Triggers

Mindful breathing also enhances your overall awareness of the emotional or situational cues that activate your desire for the cravings. Long term, it enables you to identify and deal with such factors more effectively.

Mindful Breathing Techniques for Overcoming Nicotine Cravings 

Let’s look at some practical breathing techniques that you can use the next time you feel the desire to vape/smoke.

Diaphragmatic Breathing (also called Deep Belly Breathing)

Diaphragmatic breathing is also referred to as deep abdominal breathing. It is a natural method that calms the nervous system and decreases stress.

Steps

1. Lie down or sit down in a quiet place without much noise around. Rest your face if you are okay with your eyes being closed.

2. Place one hand on your upper chest and the other on your abdomen. This will allow you to feel your diaphragm move as you breathe.

3. Inhale slowly through the nose with your stomach muscles – specifically your diaphragm – contracting to your sides, bringing your belly in as you breathe to a count of four. Your chest should not move very much.

4. Breathe out and let every ounce of air out till you feel your tummy getting flat again whether through the mouth or the nose.

5. Keep repeating this in a range of 5 to 10 minutes.

This technique stimulates the parasympathetic branch of the nervous system or the “rest and digest” system of the body.

4-7-8 Breathing Technique

This basic form of breathing commonly recommended for people with anxiety can also be effective in dealing with nicotine withdrawals.

Steps

1. Take a breath in through your nose, hold your breath, and count to 4.

2. Hold your breath in for as long as you can, up to a count of 7.

3. Breathe out, releasing all of your air through your mouth, making a whooshing sound for a count of 8.

4. Perform the cycle 4-8 times, or until you feel less stressed and more composed.

   
   

It is often recommended that deep breathing is one of the best intervention strategies to apply when a person has a nicotine craving. The American Lung Association suggests “478 breathing”, as a strategy for smoking- free strategy. It minimizes the stress and anxiety that comes with the need to smoke.

Box Breathing or (Square Breathing)

Nicotine cravings and withdrawals can be kept at bay with a basic technique called box breathing or square breathing.

Steps

1. Breathe in through the nose for 4 counts

2. Hold your breath for 4 counts.

3. Take a slow breath out, using your nose, and do this for 4 counts.

4. Take another deep breath and this time breathe for 4 counts.

5. Repeat for 4-5 cycles.

   
   

Box breathing includes taking four seconds to inhale, four seconds to hold your breath, four seconds to exhale, and four seconds to hold your breath again. It helps in reducing cravings and anxiety because it brings about a kind of mental and physical relaxation. Practice can also decrease stress and increase coping throughout the day.

Mindful Observation of Breath (Counting Breaths)

Breathing is a common practice used in overcoming nicotine cravings and counting breaths is often recommended.

Steps

1. Sit comfortably put your eyes to rest and focus on your breath.

2. Try to count the amount of inhales and exhales in terms of one two three and so on and on.

3. If thoughts distract you – just quietly return to the focus on your breathing.

4. Continue for 5-10 minutes, staying focused on the breath.

   
   

This practice assists in decreasing the use of the mind and body to the craving of Vaping.

Practice can make you less likely to give in to nicotine cravings and it can also decrease your overall frequency of smoking/Vaping thoughts.

Quitting nicotine is a difficult process, but learning mindful breathing techniques is one of the most effective methods of combating cravings. These breathing exercises can be integrated into your daily practice and will help immensely in your quit-vaping/smoking journey and in maintaining a healthier overall spirit.

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References

Sadaf Lotfalian, Claire A. Spears, and Laura M. Juliano, Published online 2019 Nov 21, NIH, The Effects of Mindfulness-Based Yogic Breathing on Craving, Affect, and Smoking Behavior

Cleveland Clinic, Diaphragmatic Breathing, 03/30/2022

American Lung Association. Breathing Exercises, June 7, 2024

Medically Reviewed by Gabriela Pichardo, MD on June 27, 2023

Written by WebMD Editorial Contributors, What to Know About 4-7-8 Breathing

https://www.webmd.com/balance/what-to-know-4-7-8-breathing