How I Stopped Smoking And Using Sleeping Pills
I started smoking just before I was 20 years old. A cigarette or two in college, when I was drinking, then a cigarette or two to de-stress during the week, so I bought my first wallet and… there went more than 10 years. My ego made me very anxious, agitated. I had sudden mood swings, very strong PMS since my first period, I worked a lot and I always liked the night. So, as I had immense difficulty meeting appointments during the day, I decided to go to doctors who prescribed me the black stripe remedies.
So it was like this: during the day, to escape stressful moments, cigarettes. At night, to slow your mind, sleep aid. This became even more intense after the divorce. “What do you mean I’m going to stay in bed alone? Oh nothing, I’m going to increase the dose and the night will pass and I won’t even feel it…” And I really didn’t.
As I have mentioned in other articles, I have been studying Buddhism for some years, being accompanied by a fantastic therapist, and more recently I had a revolutionary change in my life when I came to know the Seicho-No-Ie philosophy. It’s a lot like Buddhism. Gratitude is the first and most important step. You understand that your mind makes you sick and heals you, enriches or impoverishes you, creates suffering and destroys it. By clearing your mind through meditation and practices, you discover that it is you who determines what your day will be like, your future…
You understand it’s energy. And that this energy needs to be worked on to be always positive. That collective thinking can be dangerous and how careful we should be with whom we share our energy. That we are one with nature and that by destroying nature we are destroying ourselves. Among other things.
So, I didn’t have a goal of quitting smoking or using medication. In my head it was already part of me. I discovered that many of our acts are done, unconsciously, to punish us for something we believe deserves punishment; that it wasn’t as difficult as it seemed to be silent and spend time dedicated to myself. That our body reflects everything we think or say.
I was discovering that by changing the way of thinking, you change the way you speak, act and everything will fall into place. Avoiding negative words or thoughts such as sadness, anger and revenge are key steps. Stay away from anyone and everyone who is not real. Understand: it was not a choice. Things happened naturally and gradually.
One of the first things I noticed was the end of TPM. Yes, it’s over. No crying, no nervousness, no fighting. The end. Then, I noticed that since I was a child I had difficulty going to the bathroom and I even went 20 days without going. Now I go daily every morning. My hair falls a lot less. My skin got cleaner and I became a nicer and happier person. My appetite came back with a vengeance. No spending hours without eating or exchanging meals for snacks.
So, going back to cigarettes and medicine, I found that there were some triggers for me to smoke : wake up, meditation, coffee = cigarette. Lunch, coffee = cigarette. Annoyance with something, however small = cigarette. I wasn’t doing anything = cigarette. Dinner, coffee = cigarette. Beer with friends = cigarette… But if I was focused on something, enjoying the beach, relaxing, doing physical activity… I could spend many, many hours without smoking or remembering a cigarette.
I started to realize, after a while, that it wasn’t the fault of the beer, the coffee, the food… My ego associated all these things with cigarettes and it became a habit
That is, even if I didn’t feel like it, I lit the cigarette. Then I noticed it lit up and smoked less and less. He threw the entire cigarette away after two drags. This meant that addiction had become a habit and that, if it was a habit, it could be changed. Just like the medicine. I was decreasing the dosage day after day. And when it was at its lowest, my ego would say to me: “you’re not going to sleep”; “let it stop on time off from work”; “stop on Monday”; “Do you want to be alone with your thoughts?”…
When I saw that both were escape and habit, I decided that those habits couldn’t tell you who I was or what I did. I started to get annoyed with cigarette smoke and the harm it caused to nature. I noticed that when someone asked me for a cigarette I told her not to smoke because I knew it would hurt her. But why didn’t this happen to me? So I stopped boasting that I would stop smoking (as I said before, people’s energy contributes a lot to the decline or upheaval of a project). I bought a cigarette wallet, smoked it, put it in my bag and it remains there until today. No fanfare. No advertising. I just stopped and that was it. When I see myself remembering the cigarette I ask: Is it a habit or a habit? I feel it was really habit and pass. At bedtime, I faced my thoughts, fears and I started leaving the medicine too.
The process is not quick. Don’t expect this. Quitting smoking was a consequence, not a goal. I will still talk about this process a few times for those who want to abandon long-standing habits and will make videos on the topic to address them in greater depth. But in short, the process depends on these factors: letting go of guilt, knowing and facing your ego, mastering your mind, and taking care of your energy and spirituality. When you connect with the God who lives and shines within you, nothing and no one can dominate or manipulate you. Worth trying!
