'–Dude, am I really clowny, or is this actually working? –Both!'
Well done, you arrived to the correct page and I'm going to show you that to stop smoking is easier than arriving here. :o)
Why have I written this page? Because I am sad when I see smokers. I am really sad when I see my friends smoking. Now you will understand why.
01. The 'Art of Manipulation' is easy.
Why do you smoke? Did you like it the first time? The 99% of smokers didn't. Probably you started when you were young because of the social pressure (you must do it to show your friends how cool you are). When an adult starts smoking, it's probably due to the stress or depression.
It's very easy to manipulate humans. If a small group of bad people is having profits because of a war, getting that nice persons to kill other nice persons, just for some stupid differences (colour, religions, languages, history, imaginary borders,...), imagine how easy it is to get someone to smoke.
02. Smoking is unhealthy. Did you know it? Can you believe it?
Smoking is really bad for you. You don't believe it. No, you don't. You think you are invulnerable. If you really knew how so unhealthy it is, you would not smoke.
Our parents' generation thought smoking was healthy. Corrupted doctors told smoking was healthy on the TV... Ah! TV is a big weapon to manipulate! The Hollywood artists showed that smoking was cool. It's for that, that a lot of people smoked. Why not? It was healthy and cool.
Now we know smoking is unhealthy, unpopular, disgusting, expensive,... stupid. Smoking is a big stupid action. How is it possible that there are so many smokers? How is it possible that you smoke? Manipulation! You don't understand smoking is unhealthy. But it is. A lot!
03. It is a fact: you are killing yourself.
Imagine you had a friend that he cuts his arms with a knife several times per day. What would you think about him? He is crazy, he is ill, he needs help (eso es lo que pensaría yo), he is stupid, he wants to die, he is disgusting, he is unhealthy, he is unpopular,... I can't love him Muy insensible, Por qué no escribes, no sé si podré aguantar estar a su lado: I do not know if I could bear to be by his side. But you know? Smoking is worse. This guy will only have ugly arms when he will be an elder man, but you are killing yourself.
You can say 'A grandmother smoked a lot every day and she was 87 when she died'. OK, I accept that some heavy smokers die very old. Nice stories. But what has happened to the thousands of sad stories? That grandmother could probably have lived until 100 years old.
It is not only about living more years. It is also about having a good quality of life. You know that if you smoke, you will die years before your natural moment and you will live a worse life quality than what you deserve. It is a fact.
04. Solutions?
'OK, I have decided I want to stop smoking because I don't want to be a stupid human. But it is so hard!!!' That is false. To Stop smoking is really easy. Why do you think otherwise? Ah, of course, manipulation on TV always says that. Why do they do that? Because they don't want you to stop smoking, but if you are determined, they want at least that you pay a lot of money for a solution to get it. Don't believe them!
At this moment, maybe you are upset with me because you don't want to hear the same story once more. Or maybe you are angry with yourself because you know you are a big stupid.
05. You are wasting your life in another way that you don't know.
You need money for living. You need to work for money. You give your life time to work. If you waste your money, you will need more money and you will work more hours. One more hour working, one more hour wasting your life. If you waste your money you waste your life.
Smoking is very expensive. If you smoke 'only' 8 cigarettes per day, you are smoking 2920 per year. That means that you must buy 146 cigar boxes (20 unities each box). Figure out how much money do you need per year. At least one monthly salary! It would be better that you didn't smoke and you had one more month for holidays. Wouldn't it? By the way, do you smoke more than 8 cigarettes per day?
Some smoker friends of mine say 'I can't travel because I don't have the money'. What they really should say is 'I can't travel because I smoke'. If you have money for smoking, you have money for enjoying life. I prefer to say 'I can't smoke because I travel a lot'. What do you prefer to say?
The secret of happiness is not to need too much. If you don't need too much for living, you don't need to work a lot. If you don't work a lot, you have more time for living the real life.
So, if you smoke, you are wasting your life in two different ways: you have less year alive and less time for living.
06. Life is hard. Smoking is hard.
Studying is hard. You must wake up early, go to the school, pay attention, take notes, study, do tests, repeat the tests, do your homework, have discussions, and more actions.
Playing sports is hard. You must find the time in your schedule, train every day, have a good diet, rest well, pass physical tests, participate in competitions, and more actions.
Eating is complex: you must go to the market, select the aliments, prepare the food, prepare the dishes, put the food in your mouth, bite the food, swallow it, clean the dishes, brush your teeth, and more actions.
Fixing problems is hard. Passing an illness is hard. Caring for children is difficult.
Smoking is hard: you must work a lot to get money, buy tobacco, open the box (it isn't easy!), remove the aluminum paper, take a cigarette, put it in your mouth, look for the lighter in one pocket, in the other one, inside your bag, ask for a lighter to everyone until you get someone who has one, wait meanwhile he is looking for the lighter, take the lighter, put the lighter close to the cigarette, try to light it, light it, take a puff on the cigarette and smoke the entire cigarette, put the lighter in your pocket,...Too many actions! And now you have also to return that lighter.
07. Stop smoking is simple.
So, if you want to stop smoking just don't do one of the efforts that smoking involves, from buying tobacco until lighting the cigarette. It is as easy as being lazy.
You can say 'I can't study right now' or 'I can't drive right now', but you can't say 'I can't do what I'm just doing now'.
Now you aren't smoking (well, if you are smoking while you are reading this text, stop it...). So, you can not to smoke. Stop smoking is just this, don't smoke. Don't do actions to get to smoking. Keep not smoking. It is very easy! You know it is.
08. Withdrawal symptoms.
Great, you stop smoking! But... flute! Going through withdrawal can be very difficult and not every addict manages to resist the cravings.
Many persons receive bad news from the doctor: 'Your health problems are due to smoking. If you don't stop smoking now, you will die soon. If you stop smoking now, you will live for a lot of years, but with a bad quality of life. Breathe this spray before goint to sleep, use this spray to breath at night. Your lungs can't regenerate. You will have a slow and painful death.'. Most of these persons don't smoke again since that conversation and they don't have cravings.
You always read that it is very difficult to resist cravings. It is a lie! There are not tobacco cravings. Smoking provides you serotonin (pleasure). If you smoke after the doctor tells you that you will die soon, tobacco can't provide you pleasure. Do you need to get to be so unhealthy to understand that you need to quit it? Why don't you learn from the others' mistakes?
Don't worry if a doctor doesn't tell you that you will die soon. You can stop smoking by yourself. Just don't smoke. But if you don't really believe that smoking is unhealthy and stupid, one thing is true: if you don't find another way to get the same levels of serotonin that tobacco provides you, you will have fluty cravings.
09. Fighting cravings.
If you have cravings you have to bear them for several months, until your body is clean of tobacco. It can be around 15 months (less if you didn't smoke too much). Maybe you will wake up in the middle of the night or you will have nightmares for several months. Maybe you will want to smoke during or all the day. OK, enjoy it! It's a problem to solve with a positive or negative mood. You choose. Just don't smoke.
This bad feeling is the same that we have for any kind of drugs, even food. Look for another way to get serotonin. If you have a couple you can say 'Dear, right here, right now. I need serotonin.'. If you haven’t, don’t worry, any kind of physical exercise will work. Too tired? Then enjoy some pleasant and relaxing activity. Can’t think about anything? Go to sleep.
10. Be a lazy and selfish anti system person.
Fight against the system. Don't support big corporations. Choose not to be manipulated. Choose not to be stupid. Choose to enjoy nice holidays. Be selfish and care your health and don't care about big tobacco companies' economy. Be lazy and don't smoke. Oh, now you are a hero.
Now seriously, you are not a hero because quitting smoking is very easy. A lot of persons did it before you. They are not special. So, if they could, you can.
Remember the truth: to stop smoking is easy and the best way to fight the withdrawal symptoms is having sex. Enjoy your nonsmoking life!
With love, Ray.