How do you use Essential Oils to Quit Smoking?
Well, Essential Oils can be quite effective in helping reduce cravings for nicotine and may help you repair some of the damage smoking causes.
If you are serious about quitting, you first need to develop a quit plan.
There are so many reasons people struggle with quitting. Maybe you are someone that needs to keep your hands and mouth busy? Maybe you smoke for an energy boost?
While the standard quit plans have great advice, I don’t often see the recommendation in print to try essential oils. I can only tell you what has helped me.
Stop Sticks
What you need:
Toothpicks
Glass jar with a lid
Cinnamon Bark Essential Oil
Black Pepper Essential Oil
Coconut Oil (liquid) or other carrier oil.
So many essential oils can help with boosting energy, brain function, and emotional well-being.
Black Pepper has been proven effective for many individuals when used as an inhalant as it dramatically reduced cravings. Angelica Oil has also proven effective for reducing the frequency of cravings.
The black pepper alone can be rather harsh so most people I’ve talked to prefer to include the Cinnamon Bark for flavor.
How to make Stop Smoking Sticks
Gather your supplies. The glass jar I chose came from a big box store and is sold as a salt shaker. Although the actual lid has holes in it, it is covered by an interior shield to prevent spilling and keeps it airtight.
Put a small amount of your carrier oil on the bottom of your glass jar. You want just enough to cover the bottom.
You can use any carrier oil. I chose coconut as it has a mild almost non-existent flavor.
Put 3-5 drops of Cinnamon Bark Essential Oil into the carrier oil.
Put 3-5 drops of Black Pepper Essential Oil into the carrier oil.
Use a toothpick gently to mix the essential oils into the carrier oil.
Fill your glass jar with toothpicks and seal. The toothpicks will absorb the carrier oil mixture within a short amount of time.
Before you really get a strong craving, grab a Stop Stick!
You may find yourself just holding it in your teeth, chewing on it, or taking it back and forth to your mouth with your hand to mimic the action of smoking. Whatever works for you is what works!
Remember to practice some deep breathing and use your other quit tools.
Why does this work?
Many people find the need to keep their hands or their mouths busy. Those people often find it more difficult to quit when they are idle. You may often find a project or hobby to keep your hands busy, or you may find chewing gum helpful.
Of course, this is the same reason that you hear people worried about gaining weight on a quit program. Idle hands tend to snack more. Stop Sticks can help with both the physical need to have something in your hands while allowing you the ability to taste something with similar physical reactions to your undesired smoking habit.
Health Benefits
Now we all know that we should not smoke and that it can cause cancer. You probably also realize that smoking can affect nearly every organ in your body. If you are interested in learning about the physical effects, please check out: https://smokefree.gov/quit-smoking/why-you-should-quit/health-effects.
What you may not know about are the health benefits of essential oils.
Cinnamon bark is reputed to help boost brain function, improve blood circulation, help in weight loss, and promote hair growth. It has anti-inflammatory properties which make it excellent in helping with pain relief such as toothaches, sore throats, and headaches. It can also help with indigestion, stimulate the immune system, and act as a mouth freshener. All these can be beneficial to someone experiencing Nicotine withdrawal.
Black Pepper is reputed to help aid digestion, lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, and ease the feelings of anxiety. It also contains anti-inflammatory properties which make it excellent for pain relief. Black Pepper may also exhibit antioxidant and anticancer properties.
If you are interested in methods to diffuse essential oils to decrease cravings, please see https://msmomfixit.com/quit-smoking-today-with-essential-oils/ for some easy recipes and other methods.
Stop Sticks with essential oils have definitely helped in my quest to quit smoking. I’d love to hear what has worked for you!
Does the coconut oil get gooby and not stay like an oil
Was wondering how much carrier oil you used? Also clove oil is strong but maybe 1 drop with it’s analgesic an antiviral properties it may also be beneficial.
I used very little carrier oil. In short, I just made sure the bottom of the container was barely covered. In this small jar, it had to be maybe a teaspoon. Just enough to allow the toothpicks to soak up the oils.
Hi .. I am reading about your stop sticks I have a horrible allergy to Cinnamon. Do you think Clove Essential oil would be a good replacement/substituent for the cinnamon?
My husband threw out all his tobacco products yesterday due to a horrible cough and now a muscle strain in chest. He said God got his attention! I love these ideas you have and am going to use the oils to help him and also the smoking sticks! What a great idea. Thanks so much
I hope he feels better soon! Let me know how it goes.