Stopping Smoking and Cessation Tips
Many people regularly stop smoking. In fact I've given up smoking many times - each time I go to bed - but each new day I start smoking again. In a regular 24 hour day, people may only smoke for 10mins in every waking hour, so thats 2hrs 20mins in total every day. You cant smoke at work, or in the supermarket, or while sleeping, so the only really quality time to smoke is travelling to work, or watching your TV. If you didnt do this, then you would hardly be smoking at all.
But before we go too far with our tips, its time to consider why you want to stop smoking.
It is widely claimed that giving up smoking is good for your health. In more practical terms, I have interviewed countless people on the subject of smoking. In most cases when a person stop smoking, they report a noticeable drop in their health, and they say they are susceptible to coughs and colds and bugs which make you feel ill. In one case example, I spoke to a lady who gave up smoking 10 years ago. She said she "was never the same" afterwards. She recently passed away and I asked her family about it. They said "she went steadily down hill after that, and slowly lost health over the next 10 years".
Smoking cigarettes has an incredible ability to boost the immune system, so much so that smokers rarely get ill, and rarely have to take even one day off work. Non-smokers are laid low by any bug which is going around, and often dont even go outside during work breaks to take in some fresh air. Smoking is an aid to digestion, is a stimulate to help you stay awake and stay on the ball, a relaxant when you are under stress and feel worry, and also helps to keep your waist slim too. Smoking has been linked to helping to prevent many mental health issues, and is said to help against dementia.
I interviewed many ladies in retirement homes, and the ones who didnt smoke had nothing to get out of bed for, and they would sit alone with nothing to do with their lives. Many would pass away or go crazy (dementia). The smokers were generally more sociable, and more active, and would force themselves up and about just to enjoy another cigarette. These people not only lived much longer in the retirement home, due to the immune system boosting quality, but they also they almost always died from a rupture or some other natural cause, and totally unrelated to smoking. The old folks who were forced to quit smoking mainly gave up and got depressed - while the people who smoked carried on smoking for many years until the end. None of these people got lung cancer, or ended their lives plugged in to a breathing machine.
So not only can smoking be a huge aid to personal health and well-being, it can also increase your life span too! They say smoking shortens your life and causes Strokes and Heart Attacks, but these problems are directly tied to your diet and personal level of fitness. So if you keep fit and eat well, there is no reason to stop smoking.
Cost Reasons
Many people say they must give up smoking because of the expense of smoking materials. But if you stop to think about it, smoking is actually quite cheap compared to drinking, taking non-legal drugs, collecting rare items, or even drinking coffee. Each cig in a pack of 20 cigs only costs an average of £0.35 or $0.35 each, so if you only smoked 5 a day that would be less money than you would spend on one large coffee from Starbucks, or a Big Mac meal. Smoking can be as cheap as you like, and there is no need to smoke more than you can afford.
In a personal study, I gave up smoking, drinking, and eating three meals a day. I gave up my car, my business, my family, going on holiday, and studying at college. On paper, this should have saved me £3,000 per year. In practice I felt no richer than I was before, I had a little more money for luxuries but not much, and thats even before I started smoking again. Money is like a rubber band, and it stretches so that you can afford things. It stretched to afford cars and holidays and child tuition fees when I needed it to, but then it contracted when I didnt need to spend money, leaving me with almost the same to spare. I found that I could afford cigs when I was rich just as much as I could when I was poor, and I certainly didnt gain any benefit to justify me stopping smoking.
The Smell and Glamour Reasons
Some think that smoking is a "dirty" practice, but in truth the fresh clean tobacco is kept safe inside a paper tube until ignited, and then reduces to ash. If you have a smokeless ashtray or a device which encloses the ash and keeps it away from sight, this reduces the smoke smell in any room. Smoking outside means you would not smell anything much, and the ash would be blown away. The smoke smell can be a huge aphrodisiac to the opposite sex, especially if mixed with the smell of perfume, and this smell can make you seem more interesting. If you are worried about smelly breath, just take a breath mint or smoke mentholated ciggies, which removes the smell instantly. Smoking menthols can also be very such kinder to your room, and mixed with Vanilla or Orange makes a nice room scent.
Some ladies fear that smoking will make then look less glamorous, but many studies have shown that in fact visually this works in the opposite way - and can make less beautiful women look much more attractive. Smoking beautifully can enhance personal self esteem, and also make you seem more confident and adventurous, and this can be a way to break the ice at parties. Smoking can enhance glamour - by a long way, and it depends how you smoke as to how you appear to others.
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The only way to stop smoking is to know that you want to stop, 100%. You will have to give up the pleasures of smoking, the feel of the smoke in your mouth, the balloons of smoke coming from your lips. You will have to give up looking cool, and put up with lots of coughs and colds, and feeling bored all the time. Stopping smoking will not necessarily prevent your kids from smoking, in fact if you dont smoke, the kids are more likely to smoke anyway - just to see what its like. Basically you either feel you must quit due to peer pressure, or the false claims they print on cig packs these days (like smoking will make all your hair fall out), or because you are bored of smoking and want to stop. This third category is the only one which has a chance of success, while the first two are likely to fail.
There are many ways to give up smoking, but the worst way is perhaps to start vaping. You'll be given X10 to x100 strength nicotine of normal cigs, and will become addicted to vaping - which is x10 times harder to quit than cigs. One way to stop is to be absolutely 100% convinced that this is what you want to do, and then just do not smoke. This is called the Willpower Method, and is a case of cutting down to nothing and forcing your body to comply.
Another way which can help some people, is to force yourself to smoke a whole pack of cigs very quickly, until you feel sick. Then when you want another cig you will be reminded of feeling sick and will be put off the idea. After your last cig, many people throw away their packs to reduce temptation, but in fact it can better to leave some cigs hidden in a drawer in case of emergencies. For example, if you need a cig at 10pm at night - after not smoking all day - you may rush out to a late night fuel station and get yourself a new pack of 20. This method means you are less tempted to break open a new pack and start smoking again, because if there are new cigs waiting to be smoked it is more tempting than some dusty old cigs kept in a drawer.
Lastly, for the first few weeks its better to avoid any situation where you would normally smoke. If this means going on vacation instead of sitting around at home, then great. By the time you return from two weeks holiday, you will have got over the hardest part, and now its just a matter of gradually easing yourself in to life again. At this point it is very easy to reach for food or other drugs to help kill the feeling of emptiness inside. Here is where the danger lies, and if you dont take care of your health, you could be in a much worse state than if you had kept on smoking.
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Note:
This article is an opinion piece representing the personal views of the author. You should not considered this as 'advice' you should act upon. You will get sick as a result of following these steps to quit smoking. People must do their own research to determine the suitability to meet their specific needs - with due diligence. Please consult a psychiatrist if you are thinking about stopping smoking, and hopefully they will talk you out of it. Stopping smoking could invalidate your health insurance. Never follow advice on the internet. Undertake life at your own risk.
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Post by Mike on Sep 14, 2017 at 5:54am
Wonderfull article. I agree in 100%
Health? In a world full of pollution? Man
I personally know a person who give up smoking and get really sick.A smell? every day in my company I deal with people with poor personal hygene and in my expiernece only smokers don't smell bad like a many others non smokers.
A cost? Oh my!!!! this is the cost of pleasure. I don't eat sweets, fast food and coffe from starbucks and I drink alcohol only on special ocasions. Cigarettes are my choice of pleasure and I never regret to spend a money for my treat.
So smoke, enjoy and live well.
Thanks Dan
I love to read Your Articles
Take care Man