What can I do with my hands instead of smoking?
There are some people who recognize when they quit smoking, they don't know what to do with their hands. Now that's not every smoker. But if you're one of those people who say, "My hands don't know what to do. What can I do?" Give them something to do. Don't try to just hold them in your lap because they'll feel very fidgety. You might be one of those people called "handlers". So get a colored pencil, get a pen that clicks, give your thumb something to do. Get low-calorie snacks that you can have around in a baggie that you can grab and chew on those so that your mouth and your fingers have something to do. A cinnamon stick gives a lot of sensation that's kind of pleasant in the mouth ... just the rolled-up little cinnamon bark you can hold it in your hand. You can chew on sugarless gum. Someone actually, this year, told me about a bark from a tree that tastes like licorice. Little twigs. Someone came to my class chewing on this twig, and I said, "What are you doing?" Well, they were obviously a handler who needed something in their mouth and it actually, he says, decreases cavities. They've been using it from their home country. So look for something like straws filled with honey, anything, even an ice-cold bottle of water with a straw gives your mouth and your hands something to do, and the straw is nearly the size and the shape of a cigarette, and cold water in the mouth really helps to diminish the craving. So think of something your mouth likes, something that your hands like, give your hands something to do if you're one of those fidgety, handler people who really need something. Squeeze balls. Give your hands something to do, something to play with, something to click, and then they won't mind. Once you train them to do that, they won't mind so much not having a cigarette in them.
