How To Quit Smoking

Oh, you didn't like the feeling that you HAD to do anything, so you told yourself, "I'm not smoking anymore. I quit." But very soon, often within hours or even minutes of stating your defiance, you were smoking "just one more."

You realized that your once-defiant act of smoking had now come to defy you. No longer were you in control of IF you smoked. Now, you only seemed to control WHEN you smoked: "every morning when I get up, after breakfast, driving to work, mid-morning at my coffee break, just before lunch, after lunch, mid-afternoon when I'm getting sleepy, after work driving home, again when I get home, after dinner, and just before going to sleep." Then you realized that smoking had taken over and programmed your life. It dictated where you went to eat, who your friends were, who you could date and marry, where you vacation, how much money you paid for insurance and dry cleaning, and how much money you had left over each year after paying for cigarettes.

You realized that you had become an oppressed citizen of Cigarettes, doing, thinking, living, feeling, spending, going, eating, sleeping, whenever They dictated. You no longer had any rights. The Cigarettes were now in control of every part of your life!

But you decided you weren't going to take it any more. Just like a citizen's revolt in a country with oppressive leaders, you rose up and demanded your rights! You removed the leaders who had control of your life and you sent them into exile !

You knew that starting over and setting up new rules for your life wouldn't be easy, but you knew you couldn't stand the dictators who once ruled your life. So you gritted your teeth and set about making a plan of action. You "laid down the law"--the new law. You were now Sheriff and President and Dictator and King and you could make any and every law you wanted. The Royal Crown was placed firmly upon your head !

First, you chose to admit the mistakes of the past, learn from them and then let them go. You were moving to the future!

Second, you decided to learn from other "Kings" and "Queens" who successfully revolted. Surely these were some wise men and women who could properly advise you.

Third, you set a date for yourself for the time when your new "rule of law" would go into effect. All the old laws of the previous dictatorship would be thrown out on this specific date.

Fourth, you "cleaned house" by removing all vestiges of your former rulers. You didn't need reminders of their tyranny lying around your new palace.

Fifth, you made a commitment to yourself that you would never allow the dictators whom once controlled you to regain power. You knew YOUR benevolent form of rule was best for you and everyone else.

Sixth, you created strategies to deal with the exiled leaders when they attempted to take your power away from you again. You knew they would try this so you planned ways to fight them.

Seventh, you mapped out a series of rewards for yourself when your reign of power reached various milestones. You looked forward to a royal vacation one year after taking power!

Congratulations on your ascension to power!
May you never be dethroned!
May you always wear the Royal Smoke-Free Crown!

Health is our most precious commodity and essential for a happy life, but we never value it until we lose it. Mankind has invented thousands of ways to ruin health, but smoking turned out to be the most cunning and skillful killer. Every year smoking related diseases kill more people than drugs, suicide and alcohol together. The effect of cigarettes on the human body is similar to that of AIDS; they both give the start to numerous other diseases.

Moreover there is such a thing as "secondhand" or "sidestream" smoking that means inhaling the smoke of somebody else's cigarette. Lung cancer caused by secondhand smoking kills more than 3,000 non-smokers every year. Babies and small children have high risks of getting SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) due to their smoking parents. Nicotine and tar prevents the adequate inflow of oxygen into blood. That is why smoking causes the sensation of dizziness, nausea and shortness of breath - lack of fresh air has the same effect.

Smoking damages the most important organs of the human body, affecting brain, heart and lungs. Arthritis, chronic coughing, hearing and vision decrease, tooth decay, wrinkles, bad breath, cancer of all kinds are only some of the diseases that may be caused by smoking. What is worse about smoking is the dozens of illusions about it, one of which is cigarettes with lower amount of tar and nicotine, which actually do not diminish their harmful effect on health. Even if you smoke only one cigarette a day, your health risks are high.