Creating a habit of cigarettes is like wearing tight shoes, just to get the pleasure of taking them off.

(A pack of Delicado cigarettes cost just 44 pesos, or USD$2.35.)

#1. Wake up fiending for a cigarette.

It's the nicotine, really, which is a highly addictive substance, that's also an effective pesticide. After a night's sleep, you've gone hours without it, so upon waking, without much thought, you just know you want that pleasurable ahhhhhhhh you'll get after a hit.

#2. Realize you are OUT of smokes.

Feel panicky and irritated, that you allowed yourself to run out of something you've come to need.

#3. Stumble around in a deep-crave stupor.

Debate whether to shower, or just throw on pants, and run to the corner store.

#4. Shower?! Ha, that's ambitious for a cig junkie.

I'd been smoking a pack-a-day, for the past year. Hadn't really noticed how tight the grip had gotten, til now.

#5. NOTICE what's going on in your body, and behavior.

There's nothing sovereign about this (the addiction). In fact, it's trying to hi-jack and re-prioritize my morning!

#6. Decide who's the boss of you.

Act accordingly.

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It's Actually A Devotional Thing

In an enslaving kind of way.

Addiction is a form of devotion. Twisted and unhealthy, but devotion nonetheless. Devotion is, literally, embedded in the meaning of the word, addiction. What happens when we shine conscious light on our previously unconscious acts of hand-to-mouth worship?

To get through the first 72 hours of nicotine withdrawal, I tried an experiment. I pre-determined that each nicotine craving I felt would be a prompt for me to: (1) think about a special goal I had while I; (2) breathed deep and long, letting my lungs play a part in my dream-meditation, which was prompted by my addicted body’s withdrawal.

I created a positive feedback loop, that was triggered by my body's scream for something bad, and that I attended to with good-for-me thoughts. Today is day 12, and I'm still using that devotional switch. I've noticed my identified goal has now grown in momentum, while thoughts about tobacco are not strong enough for me to have another.

Cigarettes were a ruler, and I oppose being ruled.

So, yeah… for philosophical consistency, and to be in fuller integrity with my beliefs about rulerlessness, and agelessness… it was time to de-throne those cigs. (And, also, time to take a closer look at my relationship with beloved cannabis!)

I also identified them as an Emblem and Ritual of me making regular bets against myself. Bets against myself: in health… in self-trustworthiness… in discretionary spending… and, perhaps saddest of all, IN FREEDOM.

There is no better time than RIGHT NOW to SIMPLY DECIDE to be the very best, most integrated and truthful version of yourself you can possibly be. Why dim your shine? Why small your big? Why pretend to be less than you are, seeking continued comfort with stages and phases YOU KNOW YOU’VE OUTGROWN. Let ‘em go. Walk in the maturity of what you know. Life will still be fun. And tasty.

Moreso.

Because lung capacity is better spent snorkeling... or drying someone's freshly painted toes ;-)

Special Thanks to Jeff Berwick (@dollarvigilante)...

... for sharing his evolving journey with so much bold, transparent truth. He has introduced plenty of folks now to Allen Carr’s Easyway Method. I lacked the patience for reading that decisive morning, so I found and watched the first half of a video version, instead. Just as Jeff knew he was done before he finished the book, I knew I was done before I finished the video.

I'm sure Carr's work helped. But I had been dancing with the idea of giving 'em up for several weeks. And I've also gone cold turkey once before, after a pack-a-day for ten years. So I knew it could be done. And I knew my will was enough. Is enough.

All things are played out in our mind. When we get dominion there, we are unstoppable.

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Got a dark devotion that you want to light up and let go?