so, as any smoker (or friend of a smoker) knows, it can take many repeat efforts to try and quit a substance that has an addiction rate as high or higher than heroin or cocaine.
this could be anywhere from my fifth to tenth "official" time trying to quit since I started at 15, making it 7 years now of smoking ... and yet, it holds a different quality of feeling than it did any other time I've quit ... I've felt fully confident in my being smoke-free since the first day (last Tuesday), and have held true despite multiple occasions of seeing friends I normally smoke with light up. basically, something finally clicked in my head which reminded me that I've never actually ENJOYED a cigarette after lighting it, I've only satisfied an unconscious and unnecessary urge and desire to have an oral fixation. I started smoking in the first place probably because of "image" and because it reminded me of weed ... literally, and in terms of "taboo" quality. not because I really liked it. come to think of it, who REALLY enjoyed their FIRST cigarette? nobody. the second one, however, is the true start of the killer habit ...
to me, quitting cigarettes is the ULTIMATE challenge in terms of achieving optimal health, mainly because I truly believe that cigarettes are THE most dangerous thing in the entire world, over any drug or any disease. if you consider that over 100 (maybe even a thousand) known carcinogens/toxins/poisons/killers sit inside each and every cigarette, it's truly a "miracle" that they are legal. of course, I won't even go into how much these companies make off of lying to people's faces and making money off of other people's consciously-induce ignorance, because that's a topic within itself. these people are killers who, much like our current president, kill by signing papers which allow abuse and harm of people. it's almost worse, because the executioner is truly evil -- he doesn't even look at the people he kills.
I eat organic 90+% of every day, sometimes 100%, and the letting go of processed food addictions and the laziness about actually going to the market daily and preparing foods took a few years to fully establish as a smart routine in my life. for the first 15 years of my life, drive-thru junk food was my serious addiction, so no wonder I got multiple digestive problems.
so the first step to health for me was the food situation. everybody knows the term "you are what you eat", but really this goes a lot deeper than one might think. you are EVERYTHING you consume in any form, through your mouth, nose, butt, lungs ... even through your skin pores. the ingredients in the bath salts you might use or shower gels and shampoos are just as influential on the inside of your body as on the outside.
I think the common misconception which has led to such an inorganic way of life for most is the concept that the "I" that we consider our own self is nothing more than this weird void within some random head perched upon some random piece of flesh with alien organs inside which aren't "us". for example, when we refer to a broken limb, we might say "my leg is broken". we are dividing it in concept from our own self, as if "my leg" was some random object we bought in a store. really, "my leg" is "I" just the same. we just choose to see it differently.
really, though, our body is "us" as much as our brain is "us". health = happiness, in perfect equality. a healthy body allows for smooth digestion, which allows nutrients to actually be ABSORBED by your body and into your brain, and thus your mind becomes healthy, and thus, happy. so if the goal of life is to be happy, a necessary step in the process to happiness is health. no shortcuts allowed ...
and that's the theory that brought me to start naturally healing myself, in a process of also applying to schools now to move into acupuncture and natural healing as a profession. I couldn't feel more ecstatic knowing how much I will be able to benefit the world and myself once I've cured my own ailments ...
anyway, cigarettes as I said have been my ultimate challenge, more of a challenge to quit than any of my previous addictions. mainly because they make one insane.
insanity can be defined in one definition as repeating actions which you already know will not benefit you in any way, and even deeper insanity is repeating actions which don't benefit you and actively HARM you. when you smoke a cigarettem you already know it's bad for you, and with every further cigarette you tell yourself or your friends "I really gotta quit this soon." basically, the fear of NOW becoming SOON, and SOON becoming NOW is what keeps one smoking. soon is always too soon for one to catch up to, so it's best if one starts NOW so he can be ready SOON. no catching up to do. dig? 
the time is NOW to quit cigarettes for anybody who truly wants to quit. we already discussed how "now" will become "later" in short time, so it's willful ignorance to think beyond that. while not intentionally wanting to "preach", I am speaking these ideas to reaffirm in my own head what is driving my desire to quit DEATH and affirm LIFE, and also to maybe spark some excitement and understandings in those of you who just can't bear being a smoker for another day. I sure can't.
if cigarettes ONLY had tobacco and none of the additives, I couldn't necessarily validate it's relative "safety", but it would still be 200+% safer than every cigarette out on the market today. that isn't the case however, and so we need to look beyond nicotine and tobacco all the ingredients we don't necessarily know about. funny, how the Food AND Drug Administration requires ingredients be labelled on the box of every food or drink in existence, and yet on a cigarette box you don't see the 599+ "government-approved" additives that still exist in every single one, ready to administer straight to your lungs and then the rest of your body and mind ... remember, everything affects everything else affects everything else ...
to not belabor the point, the bottom line is cigarettes are BAD. the people who make them are EVIL, and they are INTENTIONALLY hurting YOU for THEIR gain. if you want to make a new friend, the last qualities you'd look for would be "bad" AND "evil", right? thus cigarettes and the people who make them are not our friends. not friends I would want, anyway ...
we should be the change we wish to see in the world, and so I will quit to not only benefit myself, but to never show another soul through holding a cigarette in my hand that I think it's even slightly okay. I will never act as a bad influence again through smoking, and I'll never have to try to hide my cancer stick when young, impressionable kids walk by holding their parents' hands.
that's a good enough reason for me. oh yeah, and the woman who smoked through her neck ... that's another good enough reason, no?
below, here's some "beautiful" morning tar to satisfy ALL of your possible nicotinic urges for the next 24 hours ... unlike a cigarette, I won't put this in YOUR body, but rather just in your field of sight in this thread. also unlike a cigarette, I won't make you ACTUALLY cough this shit up today or tomorrow, but rather just let you take a close look at what's coming out of ME to remind you what you might not want coming out of YOU any longer, or ever.
I imagine with each further day of being quit the shit I'll be coughing up more of this bullshit, getting closer and closer to having real, healthy lungs once again. alright!
--------------------
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. - Galatians 5:16
Edited by HB (05/23/07 09:06 PM)
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