This is the complete urge surfing script and worksheet, free and fully readable below — nothing on this page is gated behind an email or a download. Print it, screenshot it, or just read it straight through once so the shape of it is familiar before you need it.
The script below is written to be read in the moment, not studied in advance, though reading it once now — calmly, with no craving pulling at you — tends to make the first real use of it go more smoothly. It walks through the same technique described in the complete urge surfing guide, condensed into seven short, sequential steps you can follow start to finish in about three minutes, which is roughly how long an actual craving takes to rise, crest, and fall.
The full script
Read this slowly, in your own head or out loud, the moment a craving hits. Each line gives you something to do — you don't need to add anything.
- Notice it. Say, silently or out loud: "This is a craving." Naming it puts a small gap between you and the urge — you're watching it, not being swept up in it.
- Locate it in your body. Where do you actually feel it? Tight chest, a pull toward your hand, restlessness. Find the physical sensation, not just the thought.
- Breathe, longer out than in. In for a count of four. Hold briefly. Out for a count of six. Repeat two or three times.
- Watch it rise. It may get stronger for a moment — that's the crest approaching, not a sign you're about to lose. Stay with it and keep breathing.
- Let it crest. This is the peak. It's as strong as it's going to get. You don't have to do anything except keep noticing and keep breathing.
- Let it fall. Notice the intensity easing, even slightly. By the three-minute mark, most of the urgency has drained out on its own.
- Close it out. "I rode that one out. It's gone, and it didn't cost me anything. The next one will pass the same way."
Download the worksheet
The steps above are also formatted below as a one-page worksheet you can print and keep in a pocket, wallet, or taped somewhere you'll see it. Use your browser's print function on this page — the worksheet section above is formatted to print cleanly on its own, without the site's navigation or extra chrome. A standalone downloadable PDF is coming soon; for now, print-from-browser is the fastest ungated way to get a physical copy today.
If you'd rather have it emailed to you the moment the PDF pack ships (worksheet plus a printable card version), leave your email below — this is entirely optional, the script above works with or without it.
Optional — the script above is already complete and free. Leave your email and we'll send the printable pack the moment it ships; you'll also land on the early-access list for the app, one more email at launch, that's all.
How to use the worksheet
Keep it somewhere you'll actually see it mid-craving — a wallet, a phone case, taped inside a kitchen cabinet. The seven steps are written to be read in under a minute, so even in a rough moment you can get through the whole thing before the craving's three-minute window has passed. Some people read every line the first several times, then find they only need to glance at "notice it" and "breathe" once the sequence is familiar.
There's no wrong way to use it. If you skip steps or lose your place, that's fine — the goal is staying present with the craving instead of fighting it, not reciting the script perfectly.
A few practical ways people actually use the printed version: taped inside a car visor for cravings that hit while driving, folded into a wallet next to a card you already touch every day, or stuck to a bathroom mirror if mornings are your hardest stretch. The point of printing it at all is removing any friction between "I'm craving" and "I have the steps in front of me" — a phone that's dead, a screen that's hard to read in bright sun, or an app you'd have to open all add small delays that a piece of paper doesn't.
If you're using this alongside nicotine replacement therapy, a prescribed medication, or a support group, the script works the same way regardless — it's addressing the acute urge in the moment, which sits alongside whatever longer-term approach you and a doctor have decided on, not in place of it.
For therapists and coaches
If you work with clients on smoking cessation, substance use, or general urge and craving management, this script is free to print and hand out as a session handout or take-home worksheet — the technique (urge surfing, from mindfulness-based relapse prevention) is well established in the clinical literature1, and this page exists as a plain-language, ready-to-use version of it. No attribution is required, though a link back to this page is always appreciated if you're sharing it digitally.
Prefer it guided?
The same seven steps are also written as a free guided 3-minute meditation, paced minute by minute the way a narrator would walk you through it. Some people prefer this worksheet because it's faster to scan under pressure; others prefer the guided pacing, especially the first few times, so they're not trying to remember what comes next while also sitting with a craving. Neither is more "correct" — use whichever gets you through the next three minutes.
If you print the worksheet, consider printing two copies: one to keep somewhere stationary (a kitchen drawer, a desk), and one small enough to carry. The technique works the same whether you're reading it fresh or reciting it from memory, so there's no need to treat the paper copy as precious — fold it, mark it up, and replace it once it's worn out.