There are many people who tell you rules about how to give up cigarettes. Here are mine:
- Don’t believe anything anyone has told you about this subject.
- Relax.
- Don’t worry.
- It’s not the most difficult thing in the world.
All you can see on the internet about giving up is, generally, very serious. Pick a “quit date” … Keep a diary … Tell your friends. It’s all very stressful. It’s very focussed on a moment of achievement in the future and not about the present. Human beings don’t work that way. We evolve moment by moment. I gave up smoking by concentrating on the present not by stressing about a “quit date”. I would love to see these so called “experts” “prove” that “quit dates” are a good idea.
Its funny how research suggests that success with giving up smoking is more likely with pharmacological aids and yet heresay and those who work in the field say the cold turkey approach is best.
It was clearly spelled out in the 1964 US Surgeon General’s Report that cigarette smoking was not an addiction and he only came round to the idea in 1988. Nowadays the Surgeon General is advocating the use of pharmalogical aids in quitting smoking.
Relax. This is all about observation.
Thinking is not the core of who you are – that has always been the major assertion of Eastern religion. The core of who you really are is that part of you that can watch yourself thinking.
Exist as best you can in any given moment and to connect with the sensations around you – so instead of just thinking, be aware of what’s happening in your whole body. Happiness comes from being present.
Here are some words from Eckhart Tolle:
“Pain can only feed on pain. Pain cannot feed on joy. It finds it quite indigestible”
“You cannot find yourself by going into the past. You can find yourself by coming into the present. Life is now. There was never a time when your life was not now, nor will there ever be”
“There are three words that convey the secret of the art of living, the secret of all success and happiness: One With Life. Being one with life is being one with Now. You then realise that you don’t live your life, but life lives you. Life is the dancer, and you are the dance”
“If you are not familiar with ‘inner body’ awareness, close your eyes for a moment and find out if there is life inside your hands.”
