One thousand Americans stop smoking every day – by dying.
~Author Unknown
No need to say that smoking harms your health anymore. It’s a common knowledge nowadays. But many people still don’t give up. Why don’t they? And how to be smarter and stop this pointless habit?
1. Realize you’ve been fooled
This is the key. Think of the reasons why you smoke. Put aside all the self-deceptive reasons like “because I like the smell” and go for less tangible, but more important at the same time like “to relax”, “to celebrate the victory” or (contradiction is the funniest thing here) “I smoke when I feel sad”. Or whatever reasons you have. Now give it a little thought. How did using your lungs as a filter for smoke become associated with these emotional things. Look at this from the purely rational point of view. I would even say from egoistic point of view. What you get in terms of product? Cheap tobacco full of toxins, wrapped in paper. That’s it.
But why do you still want it? Truth is, if there is enough financial support behind you’d want anything that is favorable for corporation that has these financial resources. Show a picture of a young sexually successful confident guy smoking particular brand a thousand times and you’ll associate two things with each other. Especially if everyone else does the same. Unfortunately, people are pretty helpless when it comes to understanding, controlling and taking advantage of our emotional and deep psychological desires.
So, the reason you want to smoke is because corporations sold you all the cigarettes for extra price, so they could spend additional money on persuading you to buy more.
2. Get to know the possible outcomes of being fooled
I guess you already realize that smoking is not particularly beneficial for you and your health. But let me also assume that you still rationalize it as a some kind of trade-off. Yeah, you probably harm your health a little bit, but you’re cool, fun and stylish. No, you’re not. And you realize it now having the previous step read. So, you already have an understanding that you don’t get anything, but what do you lose? Is risk really that small?
Whatever you think of the anti-tobacco propaganda, take a look at these videos. I know that commercials like these are usually disgusting, but the reality is even worse. So: just a general visualization of smoking effects, what happens to your lungs or mouth, you cannot choose the disease you’re going to get. I guess it’s enough for now, but feel free to google more.
You don’t believe the ads because they are the same kind of manipulation only from the opposite side? Let’s take a look at the official statistics then. According to the WHO report, tobacco smoking killed 100 million people worldwide in the 20th century (New York City population, multiplied by 12) and could kill 1 billion people around the world in the 21st century (do the math yourself), let’s read about proven health effects of tobacco smoking. I don’t even want to copy the whole list of diseases, it’s so extended that I would need to have another post with the almost the same word count. You can at least look through the article by yourself.
3. Realize that difficulty of giving up smoking is just another myth
That’s true. Smoke can cause harm, but it’s not that addictive as society usually perceive it. Anyone (sic!) can easily give up a habit simply if they understand the previous two points.
Giving up smoking is like giving up using older version of your phone or the software and upgrading to the new one. It’s not difficult, only a little bit unusual. It’s not a struggle, just upgrading.
Thousands of people give up and never smoke again just because they’ve made such a decision. And they don’t usually whine how difficult it was (unless they convince themselves to get some attention and validation from the other people). otherwise, they say it was easy thing to do and quality of their lives increased dramatically. And they simply feel better.
4. Go smoke a cigarette
Don’t feel so disappointed or pressured by the obvious need to give up smoking. Realize that this is not a need to give up this is just a smart conscious decision that you can make. Or not to make if this is what you consider the best option. Realize that practically you can buy another pack at any moment of time. But the point is you don’t need it, corporations need you to do it.
5. Experiment
Set a 15-30 days period during which you won’t smoke a single cigarette.
But remember the secret. Don’t think of it as a difficult challenge or even worse struggle that you need to go through. Try to think of it as an experiment that you do out of your own natural curiosity, a chance to get to know yourself better. Try not to concentrate on this too much, just continue living your life and doing things that you usually do. Don’t consider it a final decision, just an experiment, you’re going to make the decision after this time period.
If you suddenly feel like smoking at the particular moment (and this is going to happen because you still have a subconscious habit) smile to yourself and think how cool it is that you decide for yourself and not be a slave of a habit and try another way. Then, get back to what you’ve been doing, realizethat you’ve just saved 3-5 minutes of your life which you can spend doing something more interesting in fact.
This is pretty much all you need to know. Feel free to come back and re-read this post at any time or at the end of an experiment.
Now, it’s time to get just a little bit more conscious control over your life and future.
And remember. You have as much freedom as you take. Go for it!
PS Yes, I know this post is a little bit of a shock therapy. But it wasn’t my intention to make sweet and nice. It was my intention to make it work and help you liberate yourself.
You might also like:
Comments on this entry are closed.