Six Tips To Stop Smoking

Six Tips To Stop Smoking

Dear all,

Sairam. I am a septuagenarian and I agree with Sri B. S Subramanya. It is always possible to quit smoking or any habit for that matter. Please read the following patiently.

I have never smoked despite the fact that I was associated with the Armed Services from 1957 to 1967 and there were free supply of meat, cigarettes and Rum. As I was an athelete excelling in track & field games, I was persuaded by my coach to take meat which was available free. Yet I never had any temptation, rather I pitied those who indulged in.I politely refused his advice and ordered for two bottles of milk from the Military Farm for my daily use. I made extra curd and bought extra ghee for my meals, as there was a common kitchen for all the trainees. I could still succeed in games & sports and also excel in my military training even without resorting to non-vegetarian diet.

It looked strange to me when I saw people craving for the morning cup of coffee or tea since I was not habituated for tea or coffee from my childhood. I was groomed in a village under an environment where milk (pure milk),fresh river water, fresh fruits & vegetables were available in plenty. So I used to take only milk in the morning and in the night.

Even after moving to Hyderabad in 1955, I did not like taking tea or coffee. Once it so happend that I was given milk during tea time at my friend's house in Hyderabad. As I sipped the milk, I heard a child's cry and happened to listen a low voiced conversation inside. The mother of the child was calming the child and the grand mother was cursing her daughter for having given away the milk kept for the child.

Shaken by the turn of events, I was driven to a state of remorse and pondered. I can maintain a good habit, no doubt about it; but how can I deprive some innocent child from its due share of diet? This thought drove me to accept tea from friends and started taking it for the sake of company. Tea was cheaper than milk, costing just two annas for a pot of 2-1/2 cups of tea in tray those days. Still I continued the habit of taking milk in the night as usual.Then I started experimenting with many different qualities of tea from Assam to Ceylon (where my maternal uncles stayed) and later befriended a tea-taster at Darjeeling when I moved there during Chinese Aggression. I got many tips from him to identify the quality tea!

I was also delighted in experimenting with different types of tea preparation like ginger tea, colve-cardomen tea, Pudina leaf tea, Milk-maid based tea and so on. I was even recommending these different tastes of tea to my near & dear.

Years later, I retired from service. During one of my pilgrimage tours of the Himalaya-Kashi, I came across an ascetic taking a liquid by boiling some leaves. I could not control my fascination and hence asked him what he was taking. He replied, "Amrit"!. I was stunned. What does he mean to say? Yes it was green leaf tea, he just plucked raw tea leaves and taking the boiled decoction. Later I came to know tea, as a herb is good if taken as a medicine! Many times I had seen my grand-mother preparing 'Kashayam' with Tulsi leaves. Therefore I could infer and accept the fact that drinking green tea was good for health.

Years rolled by. I underwent a course in Yoga, as the class was in close proximity to my residence, at Bangalore. The instructor (gurjui) asked us if we think we have good 'will-power' and could control the body instead of yielding to the demands of the body; that is controlling the 'Pancha Indriyas'. I grew a little introspective.

He further asked us, if we still continued the habit of taking tea or coffee,to question ourselves to desist from that habit; atleast for the duration of the course - say for a period of fortnight. Almost all of us agreed to experiment with our own senses to find out if we still have any 'will power' to hold ourselves from this habit, atleast for a short period.

At the end of the course we had a camp in which our Instructor asked us to speak out our own experiences during the past fortnight. One gentleman told  that he was successful in controlling the craving for the early morning coffee that he could not sustain for long. Then he asked the Instructor if he could resume taking coffee from next day! Our friend-pholosopher- guide guruji burst into laughter! He told him that he was already on the path to control his senses and he wondered why one should think of retracing a bad habit? Will power (Vairakyam) is a mental factor and if we can control the mind, we CAN control the body and as a result any consequence thereof. I never drank tea ever since.There is no craving of any sort.

Therefore, it is in one's own hand to indulge in or desist from habits. Not having any bad habit is by itself a good habit. What is the greatness of indulging in a habit and then renounce it later and claim credit for ourselves! 

So it is very easy to renounce, do away with smoking or any habit for that matter. No fears. Nothing will happen to you. On the contrary, good things will develop within yourself. Though I am in my mid-seventies, I still walk for a distance of 4 to 5 kms daily, practise yoga, especially respiratory exercises and keep fit. I am neither a diabetic nor a patient of hyper-tension. I take normal diet with a good balance of fruits & vegetables. Spend more money on good diet instead of habits. A good diet by itself will provide you immunity to many illnesses and  ENABLE  YOU TO SCORE A 'CENTURY NOT OUT!'   

Every one of us has this blessed  power within - that is 'will power'. We fail to identify our potential and hence it goes unnoticed & unutilised. Keep telling - rather keep dictating your mind that you HAVE 'will power' and suprisingly and slowly you will succeed to recognise it. Then you have the option to APPLY it into practice ! Winning over your bad habit is an 'Eureka Experience'. Only you should realise it yourself. Keep wide awake to this GREAT POTENTIAL within you. Command your body to yield to the commands of your MIND. There you are! You can succeed in your efforts.

  

Dear all,

I have a totally different experience.

I was a smoker for about 26 years on an average of 60 cigarettes  a day and kings in the latter half of smoking life.

I had tried and succeeded in quitting smoking a number of times spanning days and weeks.

I would always latch it back.

I am yet to start since the last quitting about 11 years, ago.

I distinctly remember what helped me.

I was scared of the hatred I had seen in the eyes of my son, when my friends smoked.

I quit it on a day that will not visit me again in my life when I was called upon to sacrifice some thing very dear to me.

My wife was and is the first best... the second best was cigarette . . .that I decided to sacrifice. . 

I made the resolve at that moment  and promised to myself and to God, since I do believe.

I shun smoking from that moment, with left out sticks in the pack . .

I carried the pack and matches for months together so that denial should not help me to stop.

I behaved like an idiot, no rhyme or reason, bloody  crack pot. . .for almost 3 weeks.

My family supported me. They did not shout, yell back, did not reason it out.  

They silently bore it, suffered it for me.

At the end of it all, I could come out of craving and withdrawl.

I did not bank upon anything else to quit smoking, lest I picked up that instead of smoke !

The last and the best lesson I had learnt in quitting smoking which I had realized in so many attempts.

I have never tried to smoke that 'one cigarette' again . . .what is there in this  . . .one cigarette . . 

That one cigarette had put me to the chain every time.

This time I have held back that "one cigarette' and touch wood, I continue to be non smoker  . . .

If at all this instance can help one smoker to think of quits, that would be nice.