Mastering Cravings: Your Evidence-Based Guide to Taking Control

November 21, 2025

Quitting smoking is more than breaking a habit—it’s about understanding your mind and taking control of your cravings. At Quit Hero, we know that cravings can feel overwhelming, but with the right strategies, you can surf them instead of being swept away. Here’s how to master your cravings and stay smoke-free.

1. Thought Challenging: Identify Automatic Thoughts

When a craving hits, often a thought appears automatically — something like “I need a cigarette to feel calm” or “Just one won’t hurt.” Research shows that focusing on cognitive strategies — thinking about long-term consequences rather than short-term desires — can reduce cravings. For example, smokers shown cues responded with lower craving when they focused on long-term consequences rather than immediate rewards (Kober et al., 2010).

How to challenge them:

Pause and write down the thought.
Ask: “Is this thought accurate? What alternative thought could be true (e.g. ‘I can get calm without smoking’ or ‘This feeling will pass’).”
Replace it with a healthier alternative, like, “I can take a deep breath and feel relaxed without smoking.”

Recognising these thoughts is the first step in breaking the cycle of cravings.

2. Urge Surfing: Ride the Wave

One evidence-based mindfulness technique for dealing with smoking urges is urge surfing. Studies indicate that while this technique may not immediately reduce craving intensity, it can help alter one’s response to urges — leading to fewer cigarettes smoked during follow-up (Bowen & Marlatt, 2009; Westbrook et al., 2011).

How to practice:

Recognise the craving: observe bodily sensations, emotions, and thoughts as they arise.
Visualise it as a wave: it builds, peaks, and recedes — you don’t fight the wave, you ride it.
Stay with it: observe its peak, stay mindful instead of reacting, and watch it fade.
Reflect: remind yourself that feelings change, and cravings are time-limited.

Instead of fighting the craving, you’re observing it—and soon, you’ll realise it will pass.

3. Cognitive Restructuring for Triggers

Triggers—situations, emotions or cues that prompt cravings—are often tied to our perceptions. Laboratory studies show that when smokers shift thinking from short-term to long-term consequences (e.g. considering health risks), craving intensity reduces (Kober et al., 2010).

Example:

Identify your triggers (stress, certain people, routines, places, emotions).
Note the automatic thought or belief you have when you encounter that trigger.
Challenge it: e.g. “Is smoking really the only way to relieve stress?”
Replace with healthier alternatives: e.g. deep breathing, brief walk, journaling your mood.

By retraining your brain, you weaken the power triggers have over your behaviour.

4. Journaling to Track Thoughts and Behaviours

Keeping a journal can help increase awareness—not just react reflexively. Research on craving-related beliefs suggests that how people appraise cravings (negative or personalising vs neutral/observational) predicts how well they succeed in quitting (Nosen & Woody, 2014).

Tips for journaling:

Record: time, situation, mood, trigger, intensity of craving.
Note: what thoughts came up, how you reacted, what strategies you used (or didn’t).
Reflect weekly: look for patterns in triggers, thoughts and what works/doesn’t.
Adjust: use insights to plan ahead for high-risk moments.

Your journal becomes a roadmap for mastering your cravings.

5. Mindfulness Techniques to Manage Impulses

Empirical studies have shown that mindfulness training can moderate the link between craving and smoking—meaning people practicing mindfulness are better able to decouple urges from action (Elwafi et al., 2013).

Additionally, neuroimaging evidence shows that mindful attention reduces both subjective and neural reactivity to smoking cues (Westbrook et al., 2013).

Deep breathing: Inhale for 4 counts, hold 2, exhale 6
Body scan: Notice tension and release it consciously
Grounding: Name 5 things you can see, 4 you can touch, 3 you can hear, 2 you can smell, 1 you can taste
Acceptance approach: treat cravings as passing sensations/thoughts rather than commands (“I notice I’m craving, and that’s okay, I don’t have to act on it”).

These techniques strengthen your ability to pause before acting on a craving.

Staying with the Process: What to Expect

You will experience cravings: that’s normal. Try to catch the automatic thoughts and surf them rather than fight or ignore them.
Progress is gradual: your journal and mindful practices create learning over time. Some days will feel better than others.
Be kind to yourself: craving appraisals that are harsh or self-critical reduce success odds. Learning to relate differently to cravings is part of the process.
Combine strategies: thought challenging, mindfulness, restructuring, and journaling all support each other—no single tool works alone.

Final Notes

This is not a replacement for professional support. Everyone’s journey is unique.

Most people begin with first-line quitting methods—like nicotine patches, gum, lozenges, inhalers, or prescribed medications.

But if you’ve already tried these options and they didn’t work, you may be eligible to use nicotine vaping products as a second-line option. While not risk-free, switching completely to therapeutic vaping is considered less harmful than continuing to smoke.

Quit Hero supports this pathway by offering therapeutic nicotine vaping devices designed for smokers who have not succeeded with first-line treatments and need an alternative to stay smoke-free.

Remember: every time you ride out a craving without smoking, you’re one step closer to freedom.