It is a fact if you smoke twenty cigarettes a day and have done since you were a teenager, by the time you reach middle age you could be at risk of lung cancer, heart disease, stroke and early death. Smoking kills, slowly but surely and all packets contain this warning. And yet we continue to light up regardless, thinking it will never happen to us but it does.

Would you drink from a bottle that had a label warning of potential death written all over it? No you wouldn’t, unless you were stupid. So what makes smoking an acceptable thing to do by millions of people globally?

Smoking is an addiction, a pattern, a bad habit. It not only makes you stink like an old ashtray, it also fills your lungs with a black gunge and poisonous toxins, like arsenic. We need clear, clean, healthy lungs to be able to breath properly and we need clear open blood vessels in order to keep our hearts healthy and functioning, so anything alien we introduce over time will clog this process and leave us susceptible to all kinds of illness.

Many people manage to mask the truth about their smoking habits behind excuses such as “I only smoke socially” “I can give up anytime” “I need to smoke to calm my nerves” Every time you light up, you are killing vital natural cell production like collagen, the key ingredient you need to have youthful plump looking skin. Smoking will over time make your teeth stained and yellow, as well as promote small lines and wrinkles round your mouth, both dramatically adding to the aging process. Smoking for men can be fatal when it comes to producing a healthy sperm count and has left many infertile with little choice but to quit, if desired pregnancy is on the cards for their partner.

Smoking is a choice and to quit successfully, you have to accept this whole heartedly then decide if your health means more, than your smoking fix. So how do we give up something we have convinced ourselves we enjoy or need in order to function?

We have to change our behaviour patterns and the things we do that associate us with wanting to smoke. An example of this is as follows;

If you wake up and the first thing you do is light up, make sure the night before you have no cigarettes in the house or car. This small change in your normal routine, pattern, habit, will change the way you feel and the way you start your day, which will allow you some time to see if it’s the experience of smoking you miss or the new more healthy routine you could implement, if you could just fixate on inner strength and will power.

The brutal truth is if you were the only person on the planet who smoked, you would give up. In this current economic climate everyone is feeling the pinch, so if this sounds like you and you smoke, giving up makes perfect sense because the money you save, will help save your life, as well as relieve you of financial stress. Smoking and putting your health at risk is pretty stupid but if you are doing it when you are strapped for cash, it’s insanity. Add up how much you spend a year on smoking. Now imagine what you could do with that money, if only you could give up. Every time you pick up a cigarette before you put it in your mouth, say to yourself I am having a quick death stick and wait for two minutes before you light up, often the urge passes and you go off the idea.

Smoking is no longer a socially acceptable habit in public places like bars, hotels, restaurants and on public transport because passive smoking can put others at risk, so to conclude, smoking is becoming an antiquated and anti-social pastime. Don’t be the last one smoking, choking, coughing and standing outside in the cold.

Photo by Gratisography/Ryan McGuire, courtesy of FreeRange