If your smoking is not seen as an issue, this may seem familiar to you...

You smoke and enjoy doing so, it's part of who you are - you definitely don't need to change anything as it's not seen as an issue in your life. Perhaps you've stumbled across this article by chance or a friend passed you the link. You may or may not be aware of how smoking is bad for your physical health, perhaps even your mental wellbeing.

Do these 4 R's seem familiar to you? According to Dr. DiClemente (one of the psychologists behind the 6 Stages of Change behaviour change model), people who are not contemplating changing a bad habit such as smoking, do for a few reasons:

1. Reluctant: pre-contemplators are those who through lack of knowledge or inertia do not want to consider change. The impact of the problem has not become fully conscious.
2. Rebellious pre-contemplators have a heavy investment in smoking and in making their own decisions. They are resistant to being told what to do.
3. Resigned pre-contemplators have given up hope about the possibility of change and seem overwhelmed by the problem. Many have made many attempts to quit smoking.
4. Rationalizing pre-contemplators have plenty of reasons why smoking is not a problem, or why smoking is a problem for others but not for them. (via @PsychCentral)

If the above seems to fit what you are thinking, you be in a pre-contemplation stage in relation to changing your habit. It may be useful to ask yourself some questions:

Have you ever tried to change this behaviour in the past?

How do you recognize that you have a problem?

What would have to happen for you to consider your behaviour a problem?

What does it feel like to consider these questions? Why not write the answers out and sit with them for a while? You may be surprised to see what you find.

Take a look at this short videos discussing this stage of 'pre-contemplation' that you may be in right now: Pre-contemplation Video
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Get in touch if something interests you above, one of the 28 Days Quit Coaches will be in touch to set up a call: hello@28days.org.uk

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