[Bruce Paine]

andi69,

Congratulations!

Now you've done something!

Before you quit, how many cigarettes were you smoking per day on average and at the peak?

One thing that those absolutists don't seem to understand that life is like a pendulum (unlike a light bulb which is so simple that we can turn it on and off at will and still have a well functioning light bulb) and that we upset it's function when we suddenly break it's swing.

You didn't suddenly start smoking all the cigarettes that you ended up smoking, on that first day, so why should you have suddenly just stop.

We all develop gradually, wither it is two people meeting and getting to like and appreciate each other gradually, then falling in love when discovering that we have a lot in common and deciding that we want to be together for maybe the rest of our lives, and if we also happen to be heterosexual then maybe sometime after we've made commitments to each other we mix our fluids together and create that spark of life that then becomes someone and gradually for about nine months that new person develops inside one of us and then at some point comes out to greet us and the world.

Again, gradually, that person develops, perceptions, vision, taste, smell, hearing, and feelings, gradually developing the body and the mind learning to speak, read think, judge and venture slowly gradually out into the world.

Becoming a young person that one is introduced to smoking by someone, either their parents (like I was) or a friend or acquaintance and gradually gets into the activity and habit of smoking.

Interestingly enough, most people grow up and participate in the world and then at some point start gradually losing their functions and abilities leading up to some time when they finally die, all taking time gradually.

So with all that history of gradualness, why should we start doing new things suddenly?

Do you feel like smoking now?

Do it!

It will not be the same because you know that in some way you might suffer from something whether as a S.A.D. eater something like cancer, heart disease, bronchitus, respiratory disease or something.

Yes, if you are eating organic miso soup, sea vegetables, organic whole grains and the such, you might not suffer from all those diseases but you will still have problems whether it is that you might not feel like running in a marathon, or getting involved in some outdoor adventure.

Maybe you won't feel as inclined to open your heart to someone important in your life if your judging and analysing part of you brain is still being stimulated by all that nicoteine or any other exclusive attitudes might develop (perhaps again?).

One thing is guaranteed, that if you start smoking again, and you travel to the United States, that in most offices, restaurants, and bars, you will have to go outside (like a criminal) to smoke.

Perhaps the same attitude is developing in Manilla or other countries outside the U.S., but the attitudes of ignorance from yesteryear are changing and you will have to change with it or be chastised.

No one here went from being completely computer illeterate to being able to e-mail writen letters, create programs, develop skills.

Again, it all happened gradually, so take your time with this.

If you feel like smoking, do so with complete awareness, and look at what you are thinking or feeling before you feel like smoking.

Maybe something is making you feel upset or perhaps you ate too much or too little of something.

Maybe you just got intimate and released energy with someone that you really don't feel connected to, or maybe you have pressures on you that is causing you to feel overwhelmed.

Many people who have stopped smoking for years and broke up with someone or had an important family member or friend die, and it is then they start smoking again without thinking about it.

So the thing is to always be thinking and paying attention to your feelings as they come up.

If you have difficulty doing that, you can either see a therapist who can teach you to do that, or you can find a group doing meditation (if you are really a strong person, you can do all those things yourself without anyone's help or instruction) and learn how to pay attention to all things and phenomena that come up to disturb you and then any unwanted habits and addictions can gradually fall away and you can be free.

Does that help you, any?

Thank you, very much.

Bruce Paine