If you or someone you love is a smoker come on an imaginary journey with me right now: Imagine waking up in the morning without the need to reach for a cigarette to just be okay. Imagine not needing to punctuate each part of your day with a cigarette or a hit off an e-cigarette. Imagine not having to smoke; not having to steal away from work, gatherings, meetings, family, etc just to get a hit of nicotine. Imagine not needing to mask the smell of nicotine on you with mints, sprays, gum or candy. Imagine not worrying in the back of your mind over what cigarettes are doing to your health. Imagine no longer putting of stopping; the guilt of smoking when you know you should quit. Imagine no longer having respiratory issues, of not getting colds or the flu each season. Imagine living life without having to manage one’s supply of nicotine so that they days “run smoothly”. Imagine a life where you don’t have to think about any of that.
Imagine knowing you have the power to stop like so many other ex-smokers. Imagine not being crazy for a hit of nicotine. Imagine having gone through the dreaded withdrawal without it being what you had feared. Imagine no longer being dependent on a cigarette for your happiness. Imagine that you did not gain wieght or transfer your need for nicotine onto anything or anyone else. Think about the self -esteem that is derived from having arrived on the other side of being hooked, finally free at last. Think about not feeling deprived when going without a cigarettte.
I know that to a smoker this picture seems impossible and perhaps not really desirable because is it inconceivable that life without cigarettes could be this way. But I want to assure you that life without nicotine has all the depth and meaning as life with it. In fact, it has more because a life without nicotine contains the depth of you and the depth of your freedom. The benefits of stopping are numerous and highly personal. For me, I was simply tired of the worry and control over nicotine. It had me right where it wanted me and I hated myself for what it had done to my lack of control of my life. I was convinced I was unteachable, that it would not be possible for me and I couldn’t imagine feeling whole without a cigarette. I know it is crazy, but nicotine seemed to complete me.
For you it might be something else. But all of our reasons are important. In fact, there is nothing more important. Stopping smoking and vaping is a profound positive life change. There simply is nothing more important than that if you are a smoker or vaper. The problem will never go away by itself, it only gets worse, not ever better. At this pandemic time, there is nothing more critical to a smoker’s health than to stop before things get even worse or before the risk of getting Covid 19. Yes, we are all going to die anyway. But we do not need to approach life with such a fatalistic, cynical outlook that only smoking produces.
It is my wish that if you are a smoker you take a moment to think about the benefits you want from stopping. Make it personal to fuel your motivation and go for it. Your life is worth saving!