Quit Smoking the Yogic Way
An article citing a recent report from the U.S Surgeon General states that one in four high school seniors takes up smoking and continues to smoke as adult. Around twenty percent of American population smokes. More than two million try to give up smoking every year but only four to seven percent, who try unaided, succeed.
All smokers I know of, seriously tried to quit smoking at least once in their lifetime, many tried multiple times. But, more often than not, they find themselves unable to enforce smoking cessation. There are a number of methods that may help individuals come off smoking. However, most of them operate on the principle of dealing the issue of smoking through the body; many methods try to make the smoker see the benefits of non-smoking while some methods even attempt to instill fear, guilt in a smoker's mind. They rarely work.
A pertinent question is why do people smoke? It is easy to list many plausible answers including addiction to nicotine, peer pressure and so forth. However, from a yogic standpoint, the fundamental reason is that there is no reason. Actions do not become habits based on any reasoning or rationale. Adopting a logical approach, the mathematical type, to quit smoking, is unlikely to work. It has barely worked till date across the globe. A teenager or anyone does not start smoking after some analysis of pros and cons, of right or wrong, of benefits and harms; by the same token, no cogitation or deliberation can act as the primary trigger for anyone to come off smoking. Such analytical conclusions may be instrumental, inspirational, or even help one to some degree but they do not suffice.
More often than not things, emotions, feelings, habits are simply just that, a state of mind. One cannot battle the habit of smoking by making an argument on savings. Just like any bottle of milk, beer or juice, a smoker buys a pack of smokes. Calculating single digit dollars in savings from not smoking and adding them up to inspire and trigger non-smoking is unlikely to do the trick. Packs of cigarettes contain all sorts of warnings, that does not deter smokers from buying one. That is because, habits of any type are not just a product of the conscious and calculative mind. They go much deeper.
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