If you’ve been doing the first “becoming mindful of your smoking” exercise, you’ve been moving your smoking from the realm of unconscious habit to the realm of conscious choice.
At the same time, you’ve been starting to get a handle on the timing of your smoking behavior. Now let’s kick it up a notch by getting a handle on the emotional aspect of it:
Continue to do what you’ve been doing as far as noting the time and making a conscious decision to smoke or not whenever the urge to smoke strikes, and regardless of whether you choose to smoke or not, add an indicator of your general mood at that time. Are you happy? Sad? Angry? Just meh?
Add something to each note in your log that you can refer to later.
You don’t have to get fancy with this; just jot an icon to indicate your mood at the moment the urge to smoke arises. Something simple, like 🙂 if you’re happy, 🙁 if you’re sad, 😡 if you’re angry, or 😐 if you’re just kind of “meh.” This information will come in handy later.
More on this as we go on.
(If you're feeling a bit lost, it may be helpful to go back to the first post and follow along in order.)