Addiction and it’s many Vices – Focus on Smoking 

 

“Not feeling is no replacement for reality. Your problems today are still your problems tomorrow”

~ Larry Michael Dredla

 

 

Today is World No-Tobacco Day

 

Are you a cigarette addict? Or is it just a habit that you wish you could ditch?

Believe it or not, there is a difference and whether you are addicted to cigarettes or whether it’s just a habit is important, read on…

Do you smoke in any situations or is it more of a habit for you i.e when you finish a meal or whilst driving? Could you do without cigarettes easily, if you had to? If so, you maybe have a smoking habit.

I have known many people who only smoke socially or in certain circumstances. For them it is a habit rather than an addiction.

The good news is that usually habits are much easier to break. Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t give up an addiction easily but it really helps to know the difference.

 

 

If you have read my book, BodyMAGIC!, I have a definition of addiction as the four Cs. 

BodyMAGIC! is about emotional and binge eating but the definition of an addiction is the same. Let me share this with you…

 – There is a loss of Control – e.g. can’t have a drink without a cigarette

 – Awareness of Consequences, say to health, but continues regardless of them

 – Compulsive smoking – thinks about cigarettes whenever no access to them

 – Has Cravings for them – looks forward to when able to smoke

Taken from a definition of addiction by Savage et al, 2003

 

Also in my book, I tell “My Smoking Story” which I’d love to share it with you here. I’m discussing the scenario where we can often replace one addiction with another. For me, as for many, that was smoking instead of eating.

 

My Smoking Story

Here’s one of my earliest examples of replacing overeating with an addiction.

From my mid-teens I was a cigarette smoker. I remember the time, in my mid-twenties, that I realised I was hooked. As cool as I had thought it was to smoke in my teens, it was just as cool to give up in my twenties. But I tried, time after time, and just couldn’t stop. It was so hard.

Then in my thirties, I realised that if I didn’t give up soon, I was going to make myself very ill in old age. My grandfather smoked from the age of twelve and he suffered badly at the end of his life from emphysema and COPD. So I was terrified. I tried everything from hypnotism to tablets.

But nothing helped me.

Why?

Because I wasn’t using my power to access my unconscious mind. This is where the real addictions reside, and the only place from which they can be removed. There were two parts to my cigarette smoking – one was a habit and the other was an addiction.

I managed to break the habit (in several places) by stopping smoking in my car when I got a new one and stopping in my home when we moved. Then I got a job visiting customers in their offices and hated smelling of smoke, so I stopped there too.

The habits were easy to change little by little but the addiction didn’t move away quite so consciously. It just happened, as my body realised that smoking cigarettes was unnatural and was destroying my health and vitality.

It was, therefore, an unconscious shift into a new and more nurturing way of life. It has been the same process for most of the foods that, in reality, do not serve me.

 

How an Addiction Became a Habit

In a nutshell, I took a very long route to giving up cigarettes. Because it was an addiction. Over time, I gradually changed it into a habit so that it was something I did sometimes and in some situations.

For me personally, it was the only way I could’ve done it.

I’d tried several times to give up ‘cold turkey’ but it was excruciatingly stressful. I didn’t have the knowledge of natural remedies that I might’ve used to help support the sudden stopping of cigarettes. However, I know from others how effective they are.

Smoking is just another comforter. This is why we can often gain weight when giving up. We need to find another way to reward or console ourselves when we give up the smokes. If not, as in my experience, we are very likely to find another, possibly equally-unhealthy habit to indulge in.

 

 

 

For a more gentle cleanse, I consulted Marie-Louise from Arbonne. I love the ethics and quality of this company.

You get so much information about what you’re buying!

She showed me this lovely product, Arbonne’s Body Cleanse which you can take over a week to cleanse the digestive tract.

It’ll reset your health promises and replace your habit with vitality and a brand new clean and shiny outlook.

Check it out HERE!

Please note that I’m not an Arbonne representative and there is no financial benefit to me in recommending this or any other Arbonne product.

 

Want to leave all of your habits behind?

I have written 11,000 pages in my book about so many ways that you can. I wrote it for emotional and binge eaters but it’s really a manual for beating addiction and connecting with your natural self through easy, healthy and mindful practices:

So, if you are ready to read, HERE’s a link to find out more about my book:

BodyMAGIC! – a Blissful End to Emotional Eating