You've decided that the right thing to do for yourself and your body is to quit smoking, but you don't want to quit with nicotine replacement, since you've heard so many stories about people getting just as hooked on nicotine gum and the like. It's easier than you think without nicotine replacement.

The problem with nicotine replacement is that it deals with the physical symptoms of the smoking addiction. That's great and all, but your mind is far more addicted to smoking than the rest of your body.

The hard part about quitting smoking relates to how much your mind is convinced that it needs cigarettes to function properly. Not that you can blame it, you've trained it to connect stress, happiness, partying, and all kinds of other things with smoking. Understanding and accepting that is pivotal to quitting smoking.

Think about non-smokers. They don't have any problem being happy or stressed without smoking. You, on the other hand, have convinced yourself that you need a cigarette whenever you're stressed. This isn't because of any sort of chemical need that your body has for a cigarette, it's because you believe that the cigarette somehow helps. It doesn't.

The key to quitting smoking is to break those connections in your mind. Try breaking one of those triggers at a time and sticking with it. Over time, your mind will re-learn that it doesn't need nicotine to deal with stress, happiness, or being around friends. Non-smokers don't need cigarettes to deal with any of these things, why should you?