Skip to main content

Failed to quit smoking, Learn to Breathe Instead

I thought I'll share my experience in trying to stop smoking and what was the trigger to completely stop.

I have been up and down in regard to trying to stop smoking completely in the past two years or so. I'll stop sometimes for a month, then start again, then stop again for another month. I'll smoke sometimes only over the weekend, then stop again for few days. 
My body was so confused that I caught some chest infection and got pretty sick.
Nevertheless, I kept going on the smoky ride.

I was fed up and wanted to really know what was going on.
Time for reflection. Is it because of others? Is it because I am depressed? Is it just the addiction?
Then I came across a video about breathing and how beneficial it is for the brain to breathe properly.
I read around the topic of breathing from a medical and spiritual perspective taking into account studies made on yogic breathing techniques in tackling depression and other health issues. 

I reflected on how I breathe when I smoke. The truth is it is when I inhale and exhale the smoke that I fully pay attention to my breathing. I like the feeling of my lung getting filled with air and I stop there and then paying attention to my list of things to do. But wow, smoking is horrible for my health.
So I decided to stop focusing on ''stopping to smoke'' but instead focusing my energy into learning to breathe properly.
Right now, It has been not even a week, I stopped. I am giving myself a lot of fresh air by inhaling and exhaling deeply in order to get calmer. 
I am taking some honey to heal my lungs, I am going for long walk in the forest to breath some fresh air. I try to stand up more to breathe with my belly and not with my chest.

We will see how I can keep going.
I'll share in a month or so how learning to breathe again is helping me leaving behind one of the biggest compromise I have made to calm myself down i.e. > to wreck my health through smoking.

Popular posts from this blog

Home Energy, Footpaths Challenge - Monitoring Energy Consumption

According to the Energy Saving Trust you could find that your energy usage drops by between  five and 15%  in the first year of using an energy monitor, which could be a saving of £25 to £75 on a £500 bill. I am following the homework of the Footpaths book as promised in previous post ( here ).  I set myself to read my meters every week to monitor my energy consumption. It is tedious.  I tried twice to make it an habit. I fell miserably. Reading is not really the issue but accessing the meter might be the issue. I better put my shoes elsewhere and learn to squat.  I recognise that for changing you have to recognise first your pattern of behaviour.  The truth of the matter is that I do not know exactly how bad we behave in our household. Badly, most probably.  Example - I spent most of the day in my warm gown with a hat on. The heaters  were off. Then family came back home in the evening. I went to the kitchen to cook. I came out of the kitchen, go...