The more research I do about smoking, the more I find how universally harmful it is, and the more the reasons keep stacking up for why everyone should quit! I have recently discovered that the harvesting of the tobacco (called green tobacco, when it first comes out of the fields) is poisoning the pickers, and in particular children, who are doing this job. Read more
There are some forms of naturopathic care that can help alleviate the task of quitting smoking. Although some people swear by things like Nicorette and the patch, others would prefer to search for alternative treatments that are natural and healthy.
Tobacco Absolute is one that is available and smells just like tobacco, which could be sufficient for those who only require a similar scent to help alleviate the cravings. You only need to put a drop on a paper tissue and bring it up to your nose like you would for a cigarette.
Black peppercorn is another one that is excellent to help reduce cravings by making you more alert and energized. Mix it with other oils if you want, or use it alone, in a diffuser or on a paper tissue left in the corner. This type of oil is also good to help improve blood circulation and you can dilute it in a large quantity of almond oil and rub it on your aches and pains.
As well, you can use the following oils for these symptoms:
Anxiety: bergamot, clary sage, frankincense, sandalwood, lavender, rose, mandarin
Calming: lavender, chamomile
Depression reduction: rose, sandalwood, orange, bergamot, clary sage, lavender, ylang ylang, grapefruit, frankincense, lemon, jasmine, neroli
Insomnia: chamomile, clary sage, bergamot
Stress reducing: clary sage, lemon, lavender, chamomile, bergamot, geranium, frankincense, grapefruit, jasmine, ylang ylang
These are only some of the oils and their properties. You can mix them together for better result and use them either in a diffuser, in a bath, or on a tissue left on a table nearby. To help you sleep, you can put a couple of drops on your pillowcase.
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Smoking can be an expensive habit, and it can end up costing you literally an arm and a leg! (Or a leg, anyhow). You may have heard of the medical condition popularly known as Smoker’s Leg, which is very serious and often horrifying and is one of the many compelling reasons to quit the habit! You can lose your leg because of it. Read more
“Everyone is addicted to somethin’
Most certainly those who say “To nothin!”
It’s how we were made
So don’t get delayed
Chasin’ after wishful thinkin’!”
What do I mean? Smokers get a bad rap!
I am all for quitting smoking and other bad habits, but I have found that smokers have been targetted by our society as “easy to hate.” Sure, the side-effects of smoking are rotten, even deadly, but no worse than most of the vices our society faces.
If you are reading this blog, you or someone you know is on the road to freedom from an enslaving habit. I applaud you, and I hope I can offer some alternatives as you read a bit further. But I need to start with an important truth: You are not a bad person.
A bad habit does not make a good person bad.
The truth is, I know many wonderful people who smoke. Do I like that they smoke? No. They have good personalities, though, and they are a blessing to other people. They love their families. They try to better the world around them. Unfortunately, their skeleton just will not stay in the closet: smoking is too hard to hide for most people.
Why is a smoking habit worse than over-eating? Or gambling? Or destroying your self-esteem by always putting yourself down? Each of these habits, and so many more, are detrimental to who you are.
You see, we as humans were made to flourish. We were also made to “crave” what is good, which is exactly what opens the door to addiction. Anyone who smokes knows that it is not good. It is marketed as “cool.” It calms your nerves; it becomes a comforting routine . . . but it is not good. It is painted pretty enough to get you to try it until you are hooked, and then you begin to see the lie for what it is. You craved what is good, got fooled by something that wasn’t, and now you are trapped. Worse, you feel foolish.
Here is the problem, and the solution: You made a mistake, and you allowed yourself to get addicted to something that was not good. Everyone makes mistakes, but you keep re-living yours because you hate yourself for making that mistake. Please remember the truth. The truth is that you were made to seek after what is good. Just because you made a mistake once, does not mean you have to remain subjected to it.
Now that you are battling the addiction, arm yourself with the truth. The good is still out there. You are not a bad person. Mistakes are not the end of the world.
So what is the alternative to smoking? Seek and find the good that is worth craving, instead of what seemed good but wasn’t. The good is out there. Good and evil are real, and good triumphs over evil.
In other words, it is time to pick yourself up, brush off the dust of your mistakes, and learn what is worth craving. The good is worth craving!
It is great to crave a good family. It is good to take the money that you would have used on cigarettes and invest it in your children’s health or education. It is good to crave justice. It is good to take the time you would have used smoking to research how you can fight against human-trafficking. It is good to crave wisdom. It is good to take the desire for another “fix” and instead learn helpful knowledge and apply it influencially. It is good to crave what is good.
Cigarettes are not worth our time, nor is most of what the tobacco industry offers. However, the farmers and businessmen in the industry are not bad people, and neither are the smokers, or the non-smokers. Bad people do exist, but the vast majority of folks are good people deceived by lies and trapped by the desires of their flesh.
So I challenge you today: What will you crave?
I am pretty sure that all the smokers remember their first time – their first cigarette, that is! I think I speak for everyone when I say that the first time you smoke, you find it really disgusting, it makes you choke and cough and splutter, and you feel very nauseous ! So why do so many continue with it? That is indeed the question.
Speaking for myself, it definitely made me feel quite ill when I had my first cigarette at the age of 14. I was on a school trip to France, on an exchange visit staying with a French family, who had a girl of around my age. The French at that time were a nation of very heavy smokers (and I don't think very much has changed there!) They also smoked extremely strong cigarettes like Gauloises, which are really disgusting in their smell (even more so than normal cigarettes, I mean). The family I was staying with were all moderate smokers, and their daughter was smoked quite heavily, despite being only about 15. I had never smoked at the time and thought I never would, but I was out with Claire, my French friend, one day and some of her friends, and someone offered me a cigarette. This had happened a few times before, and I had always refused, but this time I accepted, just out of curiosity really. It was horrible: I was coughing and spluttering for ages and felt sick and faint. I couldn't understand why anyone would do that for pleasure, and it put me off, for a few years at least!
As I have described in a previous blog, I then stupidly started smoking for real, as you might say, at the age of 20, and really only because I was working with a lot of human chimneys, so I came under their corrupting influence!! At first I still coughed a lot and didn't enjoy it, it took a long time for those physical reactions to go away.
I am fairly certain that is the case with everyone: that the initial response to inhaling a lot of burning toxic chemicals, all the coughing, choking and nausea, is the natural one, the one everyone should have, but we ignore that, we "persevere", if you like (I am not sure that is the right choice of verb!), and once the physical symptoms have subsided, we get hooked. If only people could stick with their immediate physical reaction, what their body is telling them, they would never get to the point of being addicted to it.
I was never a heavy smoker and never addicted, but it was habit-forming with me, nonetheless, and obviously I wish now I had never smoked at all. At least I have been smoke-free for about 6 years now though, so hopefully I can try to live the rest of my life in future as healthily as possible.
Hope you enjoyed this blog, and I appreciate your votes and comments.
All I can think of right now is the fact that my grandpa has been admitted into the hospital, again.
The doctors don't know anything for sure yet, but I'm so scared. And, when I pulled up Breathing Happy, all I could think about was the hospital and the faces of the people in the Emergency Room. Faces muted with worry and pain and "what if."
Have you ever been in a hospital? They try to make it as pristine and welcoming as they can, but there's still this underlying pressure of illness and pain that ways down every movement, every word. Especially if you're visiting a loved one, or if you're the one being checked in.
I have an image of smoking related death statistics with this post. I chose that particular one because it doesn't only involve the smoker.
The next time that you get the urge to light up, think of who you could be putting in the hospital. Maybe it'll be you. Maybe it'll be somebody that you love–your husband, wife, child, parents, best friend.
Take care of yourself and the people you care about. I believe in you.
Are you the type that wants to quit, but you just don’t have that ‘reason’ that gives you the needed push to finally quit? How about this: smoking decreases your desire and ability to perform in the bedroom, especially for men. As a matter of fact, erectile dysfunction can be related to the nasty products in your routine ‘fresh air’ roll-ups. Read more
The electric cigarette was produced in 2003 by a Chinese druggist named Hon Lik. It went on the Chinese market in 2004 and then marketed elsewhere in 2005 by Golden Dragon Holdings. The product is traded through private companies but the base is Electronic Cigarette Association.
No electric cigarette company is endorsed by any healthy organization. They are banned in several countries including Canada.
The product is made up of a battery, a cartridge and a atomizer that vaporizes the liquid. These cigarettes cost less than actual cigarettes. A starter kit can run you $50 and flavor cartridges about $12. They come in several flavors such as chocolate, mint and orange that may even attract children to use these.
Though the e-cigs do not produce the tar and carbon monoxide of regular tobacco cigarettes a user may actually have an even stronger addiction to the nicotine than they may have had before. This is due to the solution of nicotine and propylene glycol used in the electric cigarette. It is basically a battery operated nicotine dispenser. And remember nicotine can cause heart problems. The other ingredient is Diethylene Glycol which is a anti-freeze component and is toxic to humans.
Also contained in these cigarettes is Tetramethylpyrazine. This a Chinese drug used in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases in China. Found to induce relaxation in rats.
And if the e-cigarette breaks the user can be exposed to cancer causing compounds.
There is not a lot known about the long term effects of this product. But if you turn to this product to help you in stopping smoking regular cigarettes you may find you have an even stronger addiction to nicotine. So what have you lost and what have you gained?