1
Smile goodnight
End your day with a smile by enjoying 15 minutes of comedy before going to bed. Read a funny book or joke collection.
2
Loosen up
Prepare your body for sleep with progressive muscle relaxation. Start with your feet: tense your muscles and hold for the count of five and relax. Do this for every muscle group from your feet to the top of your head.
3
Puzzle yourself
Let go of stress with mental exercises simple enough to be fun, but distracting enough to keep you busy. There are the classics such as crossword puzzles, word searches or Sudoku, and also apps like Lumosity that can really put your brain to work. Many offer a fun but challenging daily workout in 15 minutes or less.
4
Get fresh
Keep your mouth clean and fresh with mouthwash. Rinsing will work all corners of your mouth and you won’t want to ruin that clean taste with another cigarette. Add flossing into your routine too. It’s not as easy to go on autopilot when flossing, so it will keep both your mind and hands occupied.
5
Highlight the positive
Put a positive spin on the end of the day with a before bed “best-thing-that-happened-today” recap with a friend, partner, spouse or quitters support blog. Or write the highlights of your day in a journal. If you like photography, take a daily photo of something positive you’ve encountered during the day, such as a great sunset, and post it to social media. Add an affirmation or quote to give the post some extra weight.
Hear how ex-smoker Monya threw things away to help prevent her urge to smoke.