HHCGA’s Vida Sana program introduces two practical techniques for managing cravings and building healthier habits
Smoking follows patterns. You wake up and reach for a cigarette. You finish a meal and light one without thinking. The habit loops so tightly into daily routines that most attempts to quit focus on willpower alone, and willpower alone has a poor track record.
HHCGA, in collaboration with Georgia State University’s School of Public Health and the GSU Mindful Living Lab, has produced an instructional video that takes a different approach. In the video, Rafael Bernal walks viewers through two mindfulness-based techniques designed to interrupt automatic smoking habits and give people practical tools for managing cravings. The video is recorded entirely in Spanish and is embedded below for community members to watch and share.
Mindful awareness means paying attention to what is happening right now, in the present moment, without rushing to the next task. Rafael describes it simply: being in the here and now. Most people spend large portions of the day running between obligations or mentally preparing for the next thing on the list. That autopilot mode is exactly the state of mind that keeps smoking habits locked in place.
Practicing mindful awareness can be as straightforward as noticing your breathing while washing dishes, paying attention to the taste of food while eating, or feeling your feet on the ground during a walk. The goal is doing one thing at a time with full attention. Once that skill develops, it becomes easier to notice a craving forming and respond to it deliberately.
The first technique Rafael teaches is the ALTO method. The word “alto” means “stop” in Spanish, and the acronym works like a mental stop sign when a craving appears.
A stands for atención, bringing your attention to what you are feeling. L stands for lenta respiración, slowing your breathing down. T stands for tomar conciencia, becoming aware of your emotions and what your body is telling you. O stands for observar y seguir, observing the experience and then continuing with your day.
The method creates a pause between the craving and the automatic response of smoking, which is often enough to break the cycle. Rafael emphasizes that you can use it anywhere, at any time, as long as you give it your full attention.
The second technique is called surfing the urge. Rafael asks viewers to picture a craving as an ocean wave. It builds in intensity, reaches a peak, and then comes back down naturally. The instinct when the wave is at its strongest is to believe it will never stop unless you smoke. That belief is what keeps the habit going.
Cravings are temporary. Surfing the urge means breathing slowly through the peak and watching the sensation rise and fall without acting on it. Each time a person rides through a craving without smoking, the automatic habit weakens.
Rafael puts it in concrete terms: every time you pause, breathe, and decide not to smoke, you are strengthening your ability to succeed.
The video addresses something many smoking cessation programs avoid discussing openly: relapses. Rafael tells viewers that a slip does not mean failure. If you smoke a cigarette during the process, the response should be self-compassion, not self-punishment. A slip is a single event, and Rafael frames it as an opportunity to grow, learn, readjust, and keep moving forward.
Rafael closes the video by reminding viewers that quitting benefits more than just themselves. Families, friends, and the people around them also gain from every cigarette not smoked. That community-oriented motivation resonates with many HHCGA program participants who describe their health decisions as connected to the well-being of the people they care about.
This video was produced in collaboration with Georgia State University’s School of Public Health and the GSU Mindful Living Lab, led by Dr. Claire Spears. The mindfulness-based techniques taught in the video draw on years of research into how mindfulness training can help smokers recognize triggers like stress and cravings and manage them without reaching for a cigarette. A pilot randomized controlled trial of the approach, published in JMIR mHealth and uHealth in 2019, found that 22% of participants achieved biochemically confirmed smoking abstinence (Spears et al., 2019). A $1.5 million CDC grant awarded in 2024 is funding the cultural and linguistic adaptation of these tools for Hispanic and Latino communities in Georgia, in partnership with HHCGA.
The Vida Sana mindfulness and smoking cessation video is available above in Spanish. HHCGA encourages community members to watch it, share it with family and friends, and reach out for additional support. To enroll in a mindfulness-based smoking cessation program, use the enrollment form linked below.
Enroll here: IQuit Mindfully
Answers to what people search most about quitting smoking with mindfulness
Q: Can mindfulness help me quit smoking?
Research from Georgia State University’s School of Public Health suggests it can. A pilot randomized controlled trial led by Dr. Claire Spears found that 22% of participants achieved biochemically confirmed smoking abstinence through a mindfulness-based cessation program (Spears et al., JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 2019). The techniques Rafael teaches in this video, including the ALTO method and surfing the urge, draw on that same research foundation.
Q: What is the ALTO method for quitting smoking?
ALTO is a Spanish-language acronym taught in this video. Each letter represents a step: Atención (attention), Lenta respiración (slow breathing), Tomar conciencia (becoming aware of your emotions and body), and Observar y seguir (observe and continue). It works like a mental stop sign when a craving hits.
Q: What does surfing the urge mean?
Surfing the urge is a mindfulness technique that treats cravings like ocean waves. Rafael explains that the craving builds, peaks, and naturally subsides. By pausing and breathing through it, you can let the craving pass without smoking.
Q: What should I do if I slip and smoke a cigarette while trying to quit?
Rafael addresses this directly in the video: a slip does not mean failure. He encourages viewers to be kind to themselves, treat the slip as a chance to learn what triggered the craving, readjust, and keep moving forward.
Q: Is this smoking cessation video available in Spanish?
Yes. Rafael Bernal recorded the video entirely in Spanish. It was developed in collaboration with Georgia State University’s School of Public Health, the GSU Mindful Living Lab, and HHCGA.
Q: Who developed the mindfulness techniques in this video?
The mindfulness-based approach to smoking cessation was developed by Dr. Claire Spears and her team at Georgia State University’s Mindful Living Lab. Their research has been funded by the National Cancer Institute and the CDC, and HHCGA partnered with GSU to bring these techniques to Spanish-speaking communities in Georgia.
Q: How can I enroll in a mindfulness-based smoking cessation program?
You can start by filling out the enrollment form linked in this article. HHCGA and its research partners at Georgia State University offer mindfulness-based cessation support for community members in Georgia.
Community partners
Georgia State University School of Public Health
GSU Mindful Living Lab (Dr. Claire Spears, Principal Investigator)
Hispanic Health Coalition of Georgia (HHCGA)
A new HHCGA video, developed in collaboration with Georgia State University’s Mindful Living Lab, walks you through two mindfulness techniques for managing cravings and quitting smoking.
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