A quick 'how NOT to quit smoking' tutorial for these already-stressful times that we live in, that's what I'd like to see. 

 
QUITTING smoking has become quite an industry over the years, with inventions on the market like 'e-cigs', nicotine patches and gum, so there must be some serious psychological issues being cashed in on here. It looks like smokers are having their minds messed with, while ultimately getting no real help from anyone.  
Whether we are trying to quit, or trying to cash in on the quitters, it might be handy to examine some of the dynamics that power that Quitting Industry from an objective viewpoint. 

"Your belt will be way up here if you don't quit!"

 The Body is the Shadow of the Mind 

All the stress of trying to quit smoking begins to wear on the body, and that pressure may be causing a lot of accumulating worry-- a dis-ease of the mind-- and is sometimes drawn out over long periods of time. That's the formula for plain unhealthy living. With deteriorating health and a recurring smoking habit, it may start to look like those things are killing you. 

 


There are lots of methods offered to quit smoking, many smokers have tried them all. Most recently, we have the 'e-cig'.

 

 E-cigs

 Brilliant! Now all of the joys of nicotine can be found in modern technology; the e-cig. With the best of intentions, these things are often purchased by quitters who see an exit through gradually weening themselves from tobacco by using this method.
Eventually the battery will wear down, or purchasing the flavored nicotine juices that go in the gadget becomes inconvenient, and anyway, that Quickie-Mart right there has delicious real cigarettes waiting inside. Maybe they have batteries and nicotine juices too, but all of the favorite brands are cheaper and quicker for now, and suddenly the defunct e-cig kit is just laying around taunting it's former user. It was never meant to last. 

 
During these dramatic volleys, the loser is always the human who is being attacked on three fronts: 1) The toxic chemicals in modern cigarettes are physically poisoning the body. 2) The stress of trying to quit smoking begins to diminish health. 3) The smoker begins beating themselves up, for having no will-power or self-control. 

Mental Tools

Have you ever quit smoking only to then buy a pack of cigarettes with the intention of smoking only one but then since you have them there's no sense in wasting them so you hide them with a new plan of only smoking one or two a day but since you have them already then a situation came up where you justified chain-smoking half of them and then decided to just smoke them all so that you can quit once and for all once they are all gone? Can we talk about that? 

 Here are some of the mental things that can cause bad health which may be associated with quitting smoking: 

1) Self-loathing 

2) Fear 

3) Misalignment of thoughts and actions

 Self-loathing

 An acute hatred of the self can be generated with the help of cigarettes. If a healthy body is one of the goals of quitting smoking, then any hatred directed inwardly is not recommended. Hate is poisonous to the body, and if it's not properly expressed by the mind, it will be expressed by the body in the form of disease. 

 
Fear

 Fear of death, fear of cancer, fear of social shunning-- no matter how it is generated and entertained, fear is going to put us in fight-or-flight mode, sending blood into the extremities, away from the brain, depriving vital organs of oxygen. Living daily in the R-complex, the reptilian brain, has been proven to be unhealthy for humans. Quit that, and things will improve instantly, and some logic might find it's way into the patterns. 

Thought, Emotion, Activity

 "I'm quitting smoking-- right after this delicious pack of cigarettes is gone." An internal conflict is apparent; any joys that can be associated with tobacco are challenged constantly by fear of death, so that the internal dialogue is inconsistent. "You really don't want to quit, do you? But you must!"  The conflict becomes tiresome, is pushed into the back of the mind constantly, but the back of the mind is getting full, and is starting to smell bad. Something is festering in there, the smoker knows it, but might not ever get around to cleaning that space out. 

 
All of the above techniques can make a person sick, whether they have ever smoked or not. Fear and self-hatred, kept inside of the mind like hard criminals, actually should be set free. They are doing harm in there, and they can be released with just seconds of introspection. 

 
Whether the chemical-laden cigarettes are causing a disease, or if kept toxic thoughts are to blame, for the smoker, there are several choices if better health is the goal; 1) get rid of the cigs altogether. 2) Get rid of the toxic thoughts, and stop beating themselves up mentally. 3) Both; quit the toxic thoughts, and then decide-- with a realistic, logical mind-- whether to use tobacco, or not. 

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all above images by Pixabay

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