How To Give Up Smoking And Other Addictions

Addiction - An Unconscious Signal of Not Being in Control

If you are substance-addicted, this may be accompanied or caused by the inability to fulfill one or more of your deepest desires. Although unconscious of it, you may have this idea that there is a power beyond your control that stops you from achieving your dreams, big or small.You may even admit self-defeat by maintaining the belief that it is just too difficult for you to give up old habits like smoking, drinking alcohol or eating addictive foods.

Many smokers argue that they cannot quit smoking if they constantly see other people smoking. Others do not want to face the possibly unbearable withdrawal symptoms that often accompany a sudden abstinence from smoking. Quite a lot of people managed to quit smoking, but when they suddenly put on a lot of weight, they resumed the habit.

Most smokers who wish to end their addiction feel that they don't have enough willpower to stop smoking. Why are we giving a small cigarette such great power that it is able to rule over our freedom to make conscious choices in our life? Smoking, like any other addictive habit, is merely a symptom of an underlying void or deficiency of some sort. What is really missing in our lives that we continue to desire substitutes? This question is impossible to answer in this context due to a vast number of possible answers, many of which may only be known by the addict himself. But the need to smoke can become very useful in as much as it can reveal and actually overcome this inner lack, whatever it may be.

Instead of criticizing or judging yourself for giving your power to a habit that has the potential to make you ill or kill you, you can learn a great deal from it and make yourself feel complete again. Because you may not be able to understand the underlying message that smoking entails, you tend to resign yourself to the expectation that quitting the habit is a difficult and frustrating task. Yet smoking can make you aware that you are no longer completely in control of your life, and even offer you a way to reclaim that control.

The excuse "I cannot give up smoking because..." is an unconscious recognition that I am a victim of some kind, and that I am suffering from low self-worth. There is a part of me that I consider weak and inadequate. A part of me is not alive and well. The act of smoking makes me admit in a way that my desire for a cigarette is greater than my desire to stay healthy or, in other words, to love myself. It is very difficult to give up smoking or other addictions for as long as I preserve this underlying weakness, projected by such exclamations as "I can't give it up" or "I go crazy if I don't have my cigarettes".

Learning to Recover Your Free Will

Similar to using a thorn to pull out another thorn, learning to give up the habit of smoking may be one of the most effective ways to uproot any underlying incompetence and dependency in your life. By suppressing or fighting the habitual desire to smoke, you merely feed it with more of your own energies. This all but increases the addiction. Desires want to be fulfilled, or at least we should be able to decide whether we want to fulfill them or not. The addiction to smoking, which reflects a lack in inner competence and completeness, can actually become a very effective method to fill you up again and regain conscious control over your life. What does that mean, you'll ask. Smoking is not the problem you need to combat. Just seeing smoking as an addiction that may have horrible consequences is a depressing notion, and fighting it doesn't raise your self-esteem. Even if you succeed in quitting this habit, you still haven't regained your inner sense of freedom and are likely to develop an addiction to something else, like eating sweets, drinking alcohol or having sex. Instead of waging a war against your anxiety or poor self-confidence, all you need to do is increase that sense of inner freedom to make your own choices in life.

If understood and dealt with properly, smoking can be one of the most important things that has ever happened to you. It can lead you to adopt an entirely new way of thinking, thus reshaping your destiny. If you are a smoker and wish to give up the habit, you first need to understand that your addiction is not an accidental mistake you made during one of your lower moments in life. You have created this habit not to suffer because of it, but to learn from it. It is likely to stay with you or change into another addictive habit until that day when you will have acquired the ability to refer all power of fulfilling your desires back to yourself. Giving up smoking is not about quitting one addictive habit just to adopt another one; it is about recovering your sense of free will.

To use one's willpower to fight an undesirable habit is defeating its purpose and likely to backfire because fighting something is based on the premise that you are being attacked or in some sort of danger. With what we know today about the powerful mind/body connection, the fear that underlies the fight against an addiction is enough to keep the cells of the body jittery, anxious and dysfunctional. They can never find the peace, balance, and energy they need in order to be 'happy' cells for as long as the fear of not being in control prevails in the awareness of their master. The enzyme-based messages that cells are sending to the brain and heart are simple cries for help. The host interprets these signals, though, as depression and nervousness. To 'overcome' the discomfort, at least for a few moments, the host feels compelled to grab the next cigarette or look for another drink. Each time the discomfort reemerges, he or she feels defeated and weakened, and so the addiction carries on.

True willpower, however, is about learning how to make conscious choices. Addictions stick like glue to everyone who wishes to overcome them. They are the 'ghosts of memory' who live in our subconscious and pop up every time the addictive substance is in sight or is imagined. The subsequent urge is not under conscious control, hence the feeling of 'dying' for a cigarette, a cup of coffee, or a bar of chocolate. It is important, though, to realize that you always have a choice. This is all you need to learn when it comes to overcoming an addiction.

You cannot successfully exorcise the ghost of memory by throwing away your cigarettes, avoiding your smoking friends, or living in a smoke-free environment. Society has condemned the act of smoking so much that many smokers already feel deprived of that sense of personal freedom they need to feel in order to make their own choices in life. If you are a sensitive person, be aware that a nagging spouse, a doctor, and the warning written on cigarette packs that smoking is harmful to your health may make you feel ridden with guilt. When all of this external pressure succeeds in making you give up smoking, you will continue to feel deprived of your free will and, therefore, look for other more socially acceptable forms of addiction.

Making Smoking a Conscious Choice

We all remember our childhood days when our parents told us not to eat chocolate before lunch or would not allow us to watch television when we wanted. The subconscious mind reacts negatively when it is deprived of its ability to make choices or when it feels forced to do something against its will. Disappointments resulting from not being able to fulfill one's desires can add up and lead to an inner emptiness that wants to be filled. Smoking is simply a subconscious rebellion against the external manipulation of our freedom to choose what we want, and it appears to fill that uncomfortable space within, at least for a little while. However, this inner lack can only subside permanently when we have regained the freedom to make our own choices. You must know that you are free to smoke whenever you like and as often you like. If you have a cigarette and a match to light it, you will certainly find a way to smoke it, too.

The unconscious association of smoking, with all the other 'don'ts' in your past, will be negated by accepting your desire to smoke. I had my first cigarette when I entered high school at age ten. I felt like a criminal because the law said I was only allowed to smoke when I was sixteen years old. My parents were certainly strictly against smoking. Years of hiding my 'secret' from my parents and my teachers left me with no other choice but to continue smoking until I felt I had a choice. When I finally got the legal permission to smoke, I lost interest and chose to quit. I was able to give up the habit at once, without any withdrawal symptoms.

The first and most important step to quit smoking is to give yourself permission to smoke. Guilt from the act of smoking will only prevent you from gaining satisfaction and urge you to have another cigarette that may 'at last' give you what you have been looking for. But you are not really looking for the short sensation of satisfaction that smoking provides but for the lost freedom to make your own choices in life. By trying to avoid lighting up, you also deprive yourself of this potential satisfaction. The resistance to smoking creates powerful psychosomatic side effects. These are known as withdrawal symptoms. Symptoms may include depression, lack of interest in life, sleeplessness, anger, nausea, ravenous hunger, obesity, cardiovascular disease, lack of concentration, and shaking. However, these symptoms can only manifest if you believe that you have been deprived of your freedom to smoke.

Choosing To Smoke Less, But...

Don't fight your desire to smoke. Contrary to general belief, to give up smoking you do not need to abolish your desire to smoke. You will start giving up the habit automatically once you choose not to follow your desire to smoke each and every time you have it (the desire to smoke).This will take the fuel out of your subconscious, rebellious mind and stop you short of becoming a victim of external forces, situations or people. A master of yourself, you can choose to smoke or choose not to smoke. Keep your cigarettes with you as long as you feel you want to have this choice. It may even be a good idea to encourage your desire to smoke by keeping your cigarette pack in front of you, smelling it from time to time. Watch other people around you light up and inhale, imagining that you inhale deeply too. Do not count the days that pass without you smoking and do not look ahead in time either. You neither need to prove to yourself nor to anyone else that you can beat this addiction. In fact, you don't want to beat it at all. You want to benefit from it. You are neither a better person if you quit, nor are you a worse person if you don't. You are free to stop smoking today and begin again tomorrow. You will always have this choice, and you will always be only a puff away from being a smoker, just like the rest of us.

The choice of using and training your free will has to be made in the ever-present moment, right now, and has to be done anew repeatedly many times each day. The longer the periods of time during which you actualize your choice not to smoke, the more quickly diminishes your urge to smoke, becoming less intense each day. Whenever the desire to smoke returns, which is possible because the ghost of memory doesn't just leave your subconscious overnight, you are once again compelled to make a new choice. This time, however, your conscious mind finds it much easier to stick with its previous successful choice because of the newly improved self-confidence and self-esteem. Setbacks don't exist in this program; only exercising your freedom of choice does. One way or the other, you are in charge.

The conscious retraining of your mind will benefit your entire life. It will restore your power of using your free will and remove the 'victim' within you. Because you have been told so many times in your life that you cannot do this or cannot do that, you began to use this belief dogma to accept your addiction as being too difficult to quit. By reclaiming your power of making conscious choices you will be able to break the self-fulfilling 'I can't' pattern in your life for good. This will become a great asset in every part of your life.

Ending the Addiction

Before you decide to stop smoking (or any other addiction), make sure that you are aware of the following points:

Make ending your addiction a priority in your life.
Don't try to make too many other changes in your life at the same time.
Don't reward yourself for ending the habit; quitting is enough of a reward.
It is good not to tell anyone about your intention to stop smoking because this only undermines your freedom to choose to smoke.
Carry your cigarettes or tobacco with you, so you can choose to smoke whenever you decide to. Also, people will assume you are still smoking; this way you don't have to prove to anyone that you are capable of quitting the habit.
Unless for health reasons, don't try to avoid places where other people smoke; you want to remain in charge under all circumstances.
Realize that unless you are traveling on an airplane or a bus you are always free to smoke whenever you wish to, even if you have to do it out in the cold air.
Avoid substituting things like tea, coffee, chocolate, chewing gum, more exercise, drinking mineral water, etc. for cigarettes, as they won't satisfy your desire to smoke in the long run.
Choose a starting time of your program to stop smoking that does not coincide with an emotional upheaval or stressful situation. It is best to link the starting date with a positive event in your life. New moon day is one of the best days to start quitting.
Think about all the benefits that will come to you when you stop smoking, i.e., better health, less mucus discharge from the lungs, cleaner breath, saving money, etc.
Acknowledge your desire to smoke when it comes up by saying to yourself: "I really have the desire to smoke now and I feel free to do so, but right now I decide not to smoke." When the desire to smoke returns in an hour or so, you may choose to fulfill it this time. This will teach you to consciously accept your desire to smoke, but not always fulfill it. By choosing not to smoke each time the desire emerges, you train your mind to make conscious choices.
Often, your desire to smoke is coupled with clues like drinking a cup of coffee, the ringing of the telephone, waiting for a bus or a taxi, or switching on the television set. Your addiction is a 'program' that you have written in your subconscious mind and associated with such clues. As the clues occur, your desire to smoke pops up, too. The next time you want to smoke when the telephone rings, while you drink a cup of coffee, or after you switch on the TV, make the conscious choice to wait for a few minutes until you have the time or opportunity to smoke consciously. Another suggestion is to smoke somewhere in the house or garden where you usually don't smoke. This will sever the ties to your subconscious and make your decision whether to smoke or not a more conscious one.
Allow your desire to smoke to become quite strong before you actually reach for the cigarette; in other words, you will still have the freedom to smoke but postpone your decision for a while until you really feel the discomfort. Notice where in your body you feel tense, irritable or nervous. It is important to feel how strong your desire to smoke becomes before you light up. Most smokers give into the slightest urge to smoke and do not even notice when they light up. You want to break the pattern of doing things unconsciously.
To make it easier to quit smoking (or any other addiction), drink half a glass (or more) of water (at room temperature) before you choose to smoke a cigarette every time you have the urge to smoke. Physically speaking, the urge to smoke is directly linked to toxins that were deposited in the connective tissues of the body and are now entering the blood, increasing blood thickness. The thickening of blood generally causes irritation, nervousness and anxiety, even panic. Instead of pushing the toxins back into the connective tissues (as they will surely reemerge) drinking a glass of water will make your blood thinner, which will help to remove the toxins from the body. Thus, the urge to smoke lessens each time you do this and eventually disappears altogether.
Finally, your addiction to smoking is not something terrible that you need to get rid of. It is rather an opportunity to train yourself to become the master of your destiny. In this sense, your addiction can become one of the very best teachers you have ever had.

Summary of the Technique to Stop Smoking:

Whenever you feel the urge to smoke, repeat to yourself: "I want to smoke now." This will bring your desire to smoke from your subconscious into your conscious mind and allow you enough time to make the conscious choice of whether to smoke or not to smoke. Drinking half a glass of water also brings the desire into your conscious mind.
Then say to yourself:"I have the free choice to smoke now." If you do not remind yourself of your inherent freedom of making choices, your subconscious, addicted mind may believe that you can't smoke anymore and may go into a state of rebellion. This may cause withdrawal symptoms.
If you feel a desperate need to smoke, acknowledge your desire by saying:"I choose to begin smoking again." Before you reach for a cigarette check whether this is what you really want. Or you may repeat to yourself: "For the moment I accept that I want to smoke, but I choose not to at this time." Think about how you would feel if you stopped smoking altogether.

Follow this simple sequence every time you have the desire to smoke. The technique is fool proof because you cannot go wrong, whatever the outcome. Whether you decide to continue smoking or not, you have begun to become 'aware' and exercised your free will - a prerequisite to consciously taking charge of your life. The majority of people who follow this simple program give up smoking within one week, others take a little longer. How long it takes to quit is not important. What is important, though, is that you experience a major positive shift in your thinking and in your attitude towards yourself and others.

All the research studies which show that smoking is a hazard to your health have missed the point. Instead of condemning people who smoke, we should show them ways to learn from this addictive habit as we can learn from any other problem in life.

This technique works equally well for any other addiction, including coffee, alcohol, drugs, sleeping pills, sugar, salt, sex, and even work. I suggest that you read this section as often as it takes to familiarize yourself with the major points, or at least once a week.

Andreas Moritz is a writer and practitioner in the field of Integrative Medicine. He is the author of 13 books on various subjects pertaining to holistic health, including The Amazing Liver and Gallbladder Flush, Timeless Secrets of Health and Rejuvenation and Cancer Is Not a Disease. His most recent book is titled 'Vaccine-Nation: Poisoning the Population, One Shot at a Time'.

Moritz is also the creator of Ener-Chi Art and Sacred Santemony.

Much of his life's work has been dedicated to understanding and treating the root causes of illness, and helping the body, mind, spirit and heart to heal naturally.

By Andreas Moritz

Smoking Ban Ignites Arguments

You might smoke them or hate them - love them or berate them - but regardless of your position, the government has decided to ban smoke from more and more bars, restaurants and cafes across the US. The smoking ban seems to strike a nerve in everyone. The news is either met with extreme glee or extreme irritation - all depending on whether you smoke, don't smoke, own a bar, feel a ban infringes on your rights or wish the government instituted the ban years ago.

Quite a few controversies surround the smoking bans and smoking in general - and everyone seems to have their own opinion on whether the move towards no smoking was right or wrong:

Non-smokers: almost all non-smokers are happy for the ban, and encourage the government apply it to more places, including cars and homes - so that the children of smokers will not have to suffer in a smoky environment.
Smokers: the majority of smokers feel as though the public is prejudiced against them. There are even a few who argue that the negative side-effects of smoking are not solidly proven by science. There are less and less people to support this stance as more and more information is published about the risks of smoking.
Business Owners: business owners who had to suddenly enforce the ban in their businesses, restaurants, clubs and bars have mixed feelings about the new laws. Some claim that there has been no change in the number of patrons - while others have been completely devastated.
Politically Minded: a surprising number of smokers and non-smokers who oppose the ban simply because they see it as an infringement on their rights. They argue that once the door is open to government regulating the behaviors of the public, who knows what other rights will be taken away.


The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

In my opinion, all sides of the smoking ban argument raise legitimate points. Undoubtedly there are benefits to the smoking ban - the obvious being the improvement of public health. On the other side of the card, there are some negative points negatives like the number of business owners who can no longer pay their bills because their patrons have fled to the few, smoke-friendly clubs.

As I've researched this article, I have also found some completely unforeseen, border-line weird side-effects of the ban. For example, the statistics on how the ban has impacted drunk driving fatalities, spawned a generation of "healthy" cigarettes and linked barbecues to some of the same chemicals as smoke.

This article will give you a breakdown of my take on smoking bans including "the good, the bad and the ugly".

The Good

Here are some good things that have been produced by the bans:

Drop in Heart Attack Occurrence. This is an absolutely amazing fact! Heart attacks have long been associated with cigarette smoke, since the chemicals in smoke cause narrowing of the veins and arteries in the body, putting strain on the heart. Clotting is also a cause of heart attack that is often directly related to smoking. Research done at the University of California found that after only 1 year of having the smoking ban in effect, heart attack rates were 17% lower than usual! Some of the individual towns studied by the University of California had more dramatic results - Helena, Montana had its heart attack rates cut in half only after 6 months of the smoking ban!
Healthier Work Place. Some estimate that working in a smoky environment for a long period of time can cut your life expectancy by 10 years! This is because the same risks that come with smoking also apply for second hand smoke. A smoke-filled workplace can be a non-stop source of secondhand smoke - working an 8 hour shift in a smoking environment is similar to chain smoking for all of those hours. So now your favorite bartender or waiter can look forward to living a longer life with a decreased risk of developing cancer, COPD, stroke or heart attacks. (But then again, if they choose to work in a smoky environment in the first place then avoiding smoke may not be at the top of their list. You would have to agree that no one made them work there - there are many other smoke-free callings and careers out there!)
Healthier Restaurants and Bars. No more coming home from a night out with clothing that reeks of smoke! Now your favorite restaurants and nightspots are a healthy place to spend a few hours. Many businesses claim that their number of patrons have increased since the smoking ban - indicating that all of the non-smokers who used to stay home now have a good reason to go out and live it up. Smoke-free restaurants are much better for their youngest customers - since children are at more risk from cigarette smoke because of their small, developing lungs.
VFW and Elks Clubs Boost in Members. The few private clubs that do allow smoking are now in high demand. Some organizations like VFW posts and Elk clubs that used to have sparse numbers now are booming with new members (as long as they are exempt from the ban. For many of the clubs that have banned smoking, funds are so tight that they have been forced to give up their charitable donations or have closed completely because of it).
More "Quitters". In some locations, the ban has sparked renewed efforts to quit smoking for good. New York City reports that adult smoking is down 19% - which translates into 240,000 less smokers in NYC's population. (Unfortunately, the flip side of these statistics is that other areas have actually reported an increase in smoking among working class men since the ban.) Removing the smoke from public places should technically help the fight to quit. This is partially because of the way that nicotine re-wires your brain. The more nicotine that enters your body, the more nicotine receptors develop in your brain to absorb the chemicals. A smokers brain would have billions more of the receptors than a non-smoker. Being in a place where you can smell smoke, or see someone else smoking in enough to switch on the receptors that cause nicotine cravings. The smoking ban cuts the number of times a "quitter" will be reminded of smoke cravings by the nicotine receptors during a night out, making it easier to quit.


The Bad

Here are some negative effects of the smoking ban:

Bars and Restaurants Driven Out of Business. It seems like there are many areas in the country where the smoking ban has taken such a toll on their businesses that owners are closing their doors for good. Certain states, like Delaware (40% decrease in profits) have had a substantial loss in profits since the smoking ban took effect. Combined with the economic downturn of recent months, the results are ruinous. For business owners, closing a business down is a nightmare scenario - and for employees it means that their jobs hang in the balance. Clubs like VFW Posts and Elk Clubs that were listed in the "Good" category above can just as easily fall into the "Bad" category all depending on whether the smoking bans applied to them. These organizations were once known for their charitable donations to the community - but now their money making events like Bingo no longer attract a crowd. Now they struggle to keep their doors open.
Job Loss. It goes without saying that businesses who have been hit hard by the smoking ban will be the source of lost jobs. These small bars and night clubs might have been flourishing up until they were told that smoking was off limits to their patrons. For many owners, their business was their livelihood - and losing their business spells financial disaster for them. Employees have reason to worry as well. In general, bartenders, waiters and waitresses make very little money per hour, because the greater part of their income comes from tips. The loss of smoking patrons means that they get fewer tips, and as a result, their bills become harder and harder to pay each month.
Erosion of Personal / Property Rights. Many people (smoker and non smoker alike) view the government imposed bans on smoking in public places as a dangerous stance. Was it right for the government to ban the use of a legal product on private property? (i.e. any property that is owned by a private citizen. Private Citizens are people who aren't holding a public office . . . so that means most of us). They see this as infringing on the rights of the public - and that the future may bring more of these controlling mandates on personal or public matters. What's next? A ban on greasy, fast food meals or a nationwide ice cream ban? Obesity is the fastest growing cause of avoidable deaths and diseases in the U.S., so this would only be the next logical step towards better public health. How would you feel if the government began regulating the meals a restaurant was allowed to serve you - or what food you were allowed to eat in your own home?
"The Quitters". Yes, I know - I just listed the "Quitters" as a "Good" outcome of the smoking ban, but it can just as easily be categorized as "Bad". This is because the average smoker burns up to 200 calories more per day because of their habit. Also, since nicotine is an appetite suppressant, they are in general less hungry throughout the day. When someone quits smoking, the most common means of coping with the withdrawal is eating. Once taste buds get back their ability to taste after quitting smoking, food will taste better and be even more irresistible. The average quitter gains anywhere from 10-20 pounds - but roughly 10% of all quitters will experience 30 pounds or more in weight gain. This means that out of those 240,000 people who quit smoking in NYC because of the ban, 24,000 of them are will join the ranks of people who are in danger of obesity. Here's the ironic part: many of the same diseases linked to smoking are linked to obesity (heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure, cancers, asthma, depression, etc).


The Ugly

Here are some very strange facts about the smoking ban:

More Drunk Driving Deaths. No one wants to die in a hospital bed as a result of inhaling second hand smoke. How about being run down on the road by an inebriated smoker? Oddly enough, the smoking ban actually increases your chances of dying in a car accident. A study conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee compared the number of drunk driving fatalities in areas where smoking was banned versus areas where smoking was still allowed. The results were surprising and suggest that smokers are willing to drive farther and farther just to find a bar where they can light up and enjoy a couple of drinks. Before the bans took effect, a smoker could walk to the local tavern. Now, he must take to the road and drive to a neighboring county or state that allows him to smoke in public. The reasons for the added danger is two fold: getting behind the wheel in the first place and then the added travel time. This means that there are more drunk drivers swerving down the road in smoking ban territory than in smoke-friendly areas. It just seems like if the smoke doesn't kill you one way, it's going to kill you another way.
Cigarette Companies Developing "Healthy" Cigarettes. Huh? Healthy Cigarettes? The cigarette company British American Tobacco is hard at work developing new, less toxic cigarettes. It sounds crazy, but the truth is that they have been able to reduce the toxins in their new cigarettes by up to 90% as compared to conventional cigarettes. To test their product, they recruited a room full of smokers to puff on the new cigarettes. Then they tested biomarkers in the test subjects' saliva and urine and compared those levels to regular cigarettes smokers and non-smokers. So, will cigarettes get a healthy, new, image makeover in the future? British American Tobacco would like to think so.
Every-Day Sources of the Same Toxins. If you escape the cigarette smoke, then what about the other sources of the same pollutants found in cigarettes. You might be exposed to more of these chemicals than you realize! The frying pan full of bacon, or the barbequed shrimp, or the gas station - these are a few sources of pollutants that are the same as those found in cigarettes. Cooking bacon fills the house with volatile nitrosamines that are the same as those found in cigarette smoke. Eating barbequed food exposes you to polyaromatic hydrocarbons that are also found in smoke. Standing at the gas station to fill up your car - or filling up the lawn mower with gasoline - can easily fill your lungs with a heavy dose of benzene that is present in both gasoline fumes and cigarette smoke. These are just a few examples of other toxic situations that you encounter everyday. Has the smoking ban really made life safer? I guess so - as long as you don't drive a car or other gas-powered vehicle to your favorite bacon and barbeque-free night spot.


Was placing a Government Ban on Smoking the Only Way?

Whether you are a smoker or not, it sure seems like there were other options out there besides the all out ban.

If the government wants a nation of non-smokers, maybe the solution would be taxing cigarettes more heavily - or making them illegal altogether. No - they couldn't do that because big tobacco pours huge amounts of money into political contributions and has a very powerful lobby. Plus, if cigarettes were made illegal, the loss of tax income to the government would be staggering.
Maybe the solution is segregating smokers and non-smoker by creating pro-smoke and anti-smoking bars? It sounds extreme, but it would certainly give customers and employees more options. We don't need laws for this option - just progressive thinking bar owners.
Another plausible solution would be to have smoking hours after the dinner rush - when most people stop at the bar for a drink and a smoke. Pros: prevent children from the heaviest of smoke levels. Cons: unless the business does something to clean the air between the night time smoking hours and the daytime crowds, one could argue that a lot of the smoke is still in the air.
What about improving the air inside the bars? This seems like the easiest solution. The challenge is that the most prominent technology in the smoke removal industry were electrostatic smoke eaters. See, companies that made these machines played on the bar and business owners wishes of not wanting to spend money on filters. So, they created electronic smoke eaters that didn't require filters. But was the problem really solved? Hardly... The electronic smoke eaters required time consuming and messy cleanups. If the electronic smoke eaters weren't maintained properly, the effectiveness drops off considerably. This basically means that they would stop working. Based on the poor maintenance and even worse performance - the bar and restaurant industry got the incorrect impression that smoke eaters don't work. As a result, they stopped trying to solve the problem altogether. If more businesses had tried the filter based smoke eaters, they would have had a workable solution. Perhaps if this were the case, bar owners would have solved their own problems and the government could have stayed out of it. Of course no smoke removal system is perfect, but a HEPA filter based smoke eater that also has a carbon filter for gases, fumes and odors and a pre-filter for the heavy particulate can do a really good job. The key is having enough power to filter the air - an entire room needs to cycle through the smoke eater's filters 10-12 times an hour and then you can really make a dramatic difference in the air quality.


So what do YOU think about the smoking bans?

Are you a smoker?
A non-smoker?
A business owner?

How have these smoking bans affected you - positively or negatively? Please leave a comment! Visit My Air Purifier for straight talk and no hype about what air purifiers and air cleaners work best for allergies, asthma, smoke removal and more. We specialize in both commercial and residential air cleaners and purifiers.

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By Dan Buglio

Smoking, Learned Breath Problem to Change Stress - Core-Breathing to Replace Smoking and Stress

When its time for a person to stop smoking and start to live their whole life, some time should be spent to realize what smoking is doing for them on a emotional level by the way the habit affects stress and their emotional mood. Smoking is an emotional physical act that has been learned that was created into a habit that changes a persons emotional mood while they smoke. When a person just stops smoking their is a physical and emotional mental conflict that takes place in the body and mind. How a person address these affects has a major affect on their attitude about recovery from smoking and what do they want to create emotionally from not smoking. Since smoking is a set of created emotions that is used every time person pickup a cigarette and when a person stop picking up that cigarette it changes their whole emotional experience. Developing new emotions is never ease but always a challenge and finding people that have enhance their enjoyment of life is a suggestion. Asking good questions is part of learning after person stops smoking.

By realizing the single most powerful physical act you do as you smoke, is to affect stress and create a calm mood within the context of the learned emotional habit of smoking. This is done on your exhalation of the smoke within the habit to affect physical stress, that affects emotions. Smoking can be seen as a breathing habit to affect stress and a persons emotional mood.

This program views smoking as breathing or breath problem for the act of smoking affects how a person breathe. This is an energy point of view, base on breath and ones spirit for they are link together and realizing this link gives a smoker ideas and concepts that lets them affect their stress and emotions that can replace the smoking affect that changes their stress. Smoking is learned form of breathing that affects your physical and emotional reality by changing stress that is repeated in the form of habit. Simply, smoking is habit to change your stress which changes your physical and emotional state of being and has other influences on how person feels.

The power of core/breathing program deals directly with stress in shoulder and tension in body through its techniques directed by the mind that enhances physical force and feeling through the physical body. There is a saying in this program, "Change your stress, you can change your emotional reality" and the most affective proven way is affect stress is in your breath exchange between inhale and exhale, for smoking is about how you breathe with a cigarette. View point, your breath supports your physical, emotional reality for how you breathe within emotional situations affects your stress.

Once person decides to stop smoking the first thing that happen is they are changing their breathing pattern during parts of the day and that breathing pattern is smoking created to affect stress. The problem for smokers is not having that breathing pattern with cluing from a cigarette that lessen stress in shoulders which affects the feeling through out the body. Missing that habit that changes stress is a real emotional problem and finding ideas and techniques that affect stress makes the transition from smoking to be non-smoker lot more effective.

It has be shown that by changing your breathing pattern by extending breathing range affects physical stress which affects emotions for every major stress reduction program has breathing part of their program. If you take a view point that smoking is a breathing habit that affects stress by changing your breathing pattern through the use a cigarette to affecting stress, then first question to change from smoking is how to breathe to affect stress. By learning a different breathing patterns and one that makes a person physically stronger and holding less stress into habit to replace smoking breathing and its affect to reduce stress. By seeing and understanding the end goal that your smoking habit does for you, gives a view what you have to do to create the same affect, yet it will be different and new with out a cigarette.

With clear view of your smoking habit as way to breathe to affect stress and your emotional state, it opens a new way to address the affects of smoking habit in a very direct way where the person create their breath to affect stress in a mindful way. Keep in mind always, look for the best methods that create ways to lessen conflict physically and emotionally when your stopping smoking. Change is hard when it address emotional stress within one behavior for it affects the mind, body and spirit to change from a old way of action to new way being.

This is a way of thinking about change for there is three points of view, they are mental, physical and spirit for these are words to focus on when a person wants to consciously change. It is the interplay between them that within person behavior action that person works with to over come smoking habit. Look at smoking from energy point of view to start off with and see how it affects mental and physical. For smoking has three basic parts that integrate together to affect stress and finding ways to affect each and then have them blend together.

The real problem when person address stress head on is " PEOPLE LOVE THEIR STRESS" for it makes up their emotional reality and when you touch on that part of being human, fear holds people back base on not understanding and how to replace the fear with some form of emotional sense of self while interaction with others around them. Self is some form of, on going emotional value projection, interacting with others that affects emotional connections to life. Some types of fear stops good emotional development and its very much physical to mental for its about enjoyment within your own emotions.

Keep in mind the affect of smoking has on persons emotions will very greatly and its base on how they learned how to smoke and at what age and the level of fear around them at that time. When a person learns to smoke which is learning to breath with smoke which impacted their energy level that had affect their physical feeling to the brain that affected their attitude to deal with their fear. To stop smoking will affect people in very different ways but underlining emotions that person has to deal with is fear going back to when they learned how to smoke. People that had low level of fear and it was very much part of being with the group, for them to stop will have little affect but people that was going through lot emotional fear conflicts (children its about about fear of not knowing and their surrounding with others and how they fit in) and smoking help them get through it, will have a real emotional physical conflicts that they have to go through and work out with their stress. Stress is learned and the mind and body deals with it in different ways given the individual.

The three cluing components that make up smoking that once understood can aid someone in their program not to smoke and recover from smoking by finding ways to address stress. First is the physical cluing of the cigarette itself, and even the pack of cigarettes, will get the mind to start to think about smoking within its learned emotions set that affect stress that has be learned through repeated emotional behavior. Cigarette is a physical item that a person can feel when they hold it, that sends a signal to the brain and bring about emotional state of mind. The physical input is very strong force and not having the item that triggers a mental connection to emotional state that affects stress is a real lose to deal with stress.

Second component that interacts with the other two, is a persons mental state of mind that was learned from the time they learned to smoke that forms the emotional context of the habit to smoke that affects stress. The mental state of a person does not do will when it loses a large emotional state of expression and a outlet of emotions and not having a way to change stress. The physical act of smoking is an emotional outlet of a person energy and just stopping it creates emotional confusion and the more person was using smoking to deal with stress the greater the conflict of not having the outlet. For some, eating becomes replacement of smoking to affect stress in shoulder, because they have to use their jaw which affects stress in shoulders and eating lowers person energy level like smoking.

The third component is breath, energy and spirit for they are all link together for understanding the affects that person creates when they smoke a cigarette. In this program the act of smoking lowers a person internal energy which affects a person ability to be emotional in what ever they are doing physically that is calming. Be clear the affects of smoking to lower a persons energy to be emotional affects their judgment and decisions within their behavior. When person smokes they lower their internal energy in two ways one with smoke that replaces oxygen and the other with nicotine that lowers the flow blood through out the body that effect strength and emotions. Smoking deals with stress by changing the level of internal energy that the mind has to work with to express emotions within physical behavior. This part is the most powerful force to be understood to change your smoking habit to new more powerful form of breathing, that can make a person stronger and changes stress. People change when they become stronger within what they are doing for its about enhancing physical feeling and the brain expressing them.

What is addicting part to smoking is its the most repeatable form of exhalation that is directed to physical stress and feeling connected to stress. The exhalation of smoke relaxes the shoulders and body and the inhalation through the cigarette affects feeling of stress and body to enhance the affects of exhalation of the smoke from a cigarette. How you inhale and exhale has major affect on the body and feeling of stress. The next is the smoke itself coming from the cigarette that replaces oxygen for it makes you physically weaker for its like choking from not having oxygen and that will make you weaker. The third is nicotine which enhances the affects of smoke by reducing blood flow to the heart and the rest of the body. When person learns to smoke they learn how to bring the smoke in and not choke on it and then releasing the smoke with long exhale which will affect stress in shoulders.

The myth that nicotine is addictive has hurt recovery from smoking and dealing with stress. The idea of nicotine is addictive comes from lawyers that wanted to prove point to make money but common sense tells a different story. Keep in mind nicotine has an affect on the body within smoking the question is how it works out side of smoking.

I like to explain the Myth of Nicotine as a addictive drug within smoking for within clarity, a person does not waste their time and effort and lowers emotional frustration build up. There is relationship here that once realized can give more choices to be affective in changing a persons smoking habit and its emotional reality created from smoking. You are responsible for your behavior and creating choices is never ease when a person wants to change a learned habit that has emotional affect within their behavior. Do not waste your time and thoughts on nicotine as part of your over all recovery. It does have physical affect but not an addictive affect and the need to stop nicotine in your blood should be as fast as you can for recovery. In the view point of this program nicotine patch is harmful to person and their recovery for keeping a chemical that affects blood flow can not be good for a persons heart and feeling. To stop smoking is a physical challenge and a person can choose to take it up as such or give in to all the negative affects. Through the techniques of the power of core/breathing a person may find the tools to change and learn about them self in ways that are surprising but will lower the frustration of coming off smoking.

Nicotine out side of the act of smoking, does not carry addictive force. The idea of nicotine as an addictive force in smoking was created by lawyers which created the confusion about the influence nicotine within the habit of smoking. The lawyer left a impression that nicotine is the main addictive force in the act of smoking. The real addictive force behind the smoking habit is the method of inhaling and exhaling that affects physical stress and gives a sense of calmness. Nicotine adds to the affect of stress and mood change through smoking but without the whole learned method of smoking a person has develop, nicotine does NOT affect person in an addictive way.

Common sense facts shows nicotine does not carry addictive behavior and desires within its digestion by it self. Caffeine has more addictive effects then nicotine when person consumes it by it self. Using common sense about drugs that have addictive affect for if a drug has addictive force there should be people in drug rehabs to recover from nicotine patch addiction. The fact is there is no black market for nicotine patches and people are not setting around waiting for their fix of nicotine in patches and there are no people that are in drug rehab for nicotine patches addiction shows nicotine by its self has NO addictive force over a person. Nicotine patch acts more like a placebo with some chemical affect to lessen physical affects of not smoking. If person wants to lessen the physical and emotional affects of stopping smoking they should create breath like they smoke and create the mental focus they have when they are smoking to relax the shoulders and body and calm emotions. Keep in mind here, smoking is a form of breathing that replaces oxygen that affects a persons physical stress and emotional state and nicotine enhances it but does not create the affects for you have learned to change your stress by smoking. Between smoke from cigarettes replacing oxygen and nicotine lowering the flow of blood to internal organs reduces energy ability make persons physically weak thereby affecting the mental state to produce calmness.

When you stop smoking you stop a learned pattern of breathing which focuses on exhaling and the mind seeing the smoke or the exhale going out of the month which clues the mind to have attitude that relaxes the shoulders and then body and changes for moment in time a persons mental focus by effecting and reduced energy.

When recovering from smoking a person needs to be clear in what manifest the need to smoke, so they can deal with the need to smoke which affects behavior and attitudes. If a person believes they are recovering from nicotine they are not dealing with the real addictive force within the act smoking and that is the affect of the exhale to change stress which affects old learned emotions with the help of smoke and nicotine within the behavior of smoking.

Purpose to smoking for once a person understands purpose to smoking they can start to think about other physical behavior to replace the act of smoking. Purpose is key part to recovery and change, other wise person could feel the need for smoke under emotional pressure to deal with stress.

From energy point of view which is the power of core/breathing, the first physical change person can do is learn a form of breathing that extends exhaling in conscious mind way that affect stress. Replacing smoking breathing with all of its physical movement to affect stress with another form of breathing with its physical movement that affect stress is the most affective way to recovery from smoking and not wanting to smoke again. Looking at the emotional develop side of smoking and changing the need to smoke related to when smoking was learned and the emotions of the time.

Smoking is an spirit recovery of one self interacting with others around them. To smoke a person has to shape their torso while they are creating their breath in order to smoke. If breath and spirit are linked and smoking affects breath ability to form spirit within person that has influence on persons physical feeling and that affects person judgment and decisions that they are making every day. Example is food, for smoking killed off the ability to taste of foods that person is eating. Flavors within food is killed and it takes time to grow back the ability to taste the flavors within food. Smoking lowers a person ability to taste foods which affects enjoyment of food and a persons decision to eat some foods over others, because of the taste change from smoking. This is just one example of how smoking affects judgment and their are many more examples. So stopping smoking enhances physical signal to the brain for under the influence of smoking it was numb within it emotional development.

In this program the act of smoking is about creating relaxation of the mind and body through the act of exhaling. It is about your spirit affecting your mind and body to relax the shoulders muscles and body muscles to affect the minds emotional state. Finding techniques that create the same affects physically, mentally and emotionally of lessening stress with out smoking. There is NO reason you can not increase the enjoyable feelings of smoking with out smoking if you choose to be creative within your spirit within what your doing. (keep in mind spirit and breath relationship)

How to enhance the affects of relaxation with out smoking is by understanding the process or the step by step mental, physical and breathing a person creates to smoke their cigarette. Keep in mind, smoking is an affective way to reduce stress that is learned and each person has their own method to smoke to create the affect of relaxation and enjoyment. The word enjoyment is key word to replace your old smoking behavior with new behavior that creates enjoyment to be relaxed.

The most POWERFUL act a person does when they smoke is the exhale, for that is the driving force to relax the shoulders and body that a person has learned to bring about their learned emotional feeling that has some form of calmness within smoking.

This idea to replace smoking is center around core/breathing to relax shoulder and make person stronger and higher sense of a person physical body in movement. Creating the longest exhale is a game to be played with and experience the affects on shoulder stress is the basic goal. The reason people smoke while they are working at a desk is they are thinking but as soon as they pick up a cigarette their thought change ever so little and when they inhale the mind is their because they are coordinate the hand to smoke and then pause after the inhale. Then looking at the smoke leaving and the shoulder come down ever so little but they relax feeling is for only a moment before person goes back thinking and that is enough to know and feel in order to do it again. Every time you think, given the level of emotions within the thought, the shoulder will be engaged and have level of tension which is energy stored in those muscles that support that thinking.

You start off your change from smoking to non-smoking by breathing like you smoke when you feel tension is only the beginning. Now to replace the act of inhale with a cigarette a person inhale through the nose. Then pause for second or longer would be better so the mind can connect to the torso feeling of having oxygen and the muscles holding it. Then exhale like you did when your smoking and here is little bit of art here. Lips and tongue play a role is relaxing the shoulders as you exhale. When people smoke they shape their lips in different ways as they blow the smoke out. Also think about your placement of the tongue as your exhaled the smoke it is down touching the back of the lower teeth. This is all about shaping the mouth area to affect shoulders stress as you exhale.

learning to engage the core by moving the belly button out to inhale and pulling in for the exhale as you walk or seated but create your breath by moving the core. Then short inhale and long exhale by pulling in the belly button. It is bring in air through the nose, pause and then exhale out the mouth through the lip shape and tongue down touching the back of the lower teeth. The mind is feeling and directing the exhale as you exhale you release the shoulders. Then PAUSE while the stomach is pulled in and feel muscle tension and then relax shoulders. This is done for second or more (enjoyment) and feel shoulder area to direct it to release it.

This is fast release of stress in shoulders and relaxation of muscles to some degree equal to smoking over time and then more, much more to play with and develop.

This is the short version of core/breathing for the highest level is inhale and exhale out the nose by using the core to affect the whole torso and have no stress in shoulder and feeling hands and feet as they move.

Within this program there is walking to affect stress and feeling energy flow that changes muscle feeling and high level of mind body coordination that affects emotional stress feeling and body tension. Creating new set of motions with movement is opportunity to affect your spirit within walking.

By Scott Bartley