The Great Debate on Quitting Smoking

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shanyin
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The Great Debate on Quitting Smoking

Post by shanyin »

Is anyone here an ex-smoker? Can anyone give me some advice to quit smoking. I am a pack a day smoker or more and my parents smoke so it's hard to quit. Wondering if there are any practices that I can do to quit smoking. Once weed is legal in Canada I can try to replace smoking ciggarettes with pot.
Last edited by Ayu on Tue Aug 30, 2022 7:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Changed title in order to create an omnibus thread.
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Wayfarer
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Re: Quitting smoking

Post by Wayfarer »

I was with you up to the last sentence. That is a truly poor idea.

Anyway - used to smoke, spend years and years ‘giving up’ - nicotine patches and gum. You have to realise that it’s all in your mind. The trick I learned was that the craving to smoke a cigarette lasts about as long as it takes to smoke one. So if you can hold out for just that long, you will find the craving passes. It’s much easier than counting the weeks, which only keeps your mind on it. But ultimately you just have to just beat it.
'Only practice with no gaining idea' ~ Suzuki Roshi
DharmaChakra
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Re: Quitting smoking

Post by DharmaChakra »

One good way is to increase more water based foods, such as salads, fruits and less fatty foods as they too are addictive, water based foods reduces craving and your body will start to cleanse and raise your metal and physical energy and your body will naturally reject smoking. If one can see ones body as a vehicle of the dharma then we tend to take of it more.

Also try to be with people who smoke less and keep yourself busy.

Good luck as its being proven its not easy and give yourself credit for any steps forward and dont be hard on yourself for any regress.

:namaste:
Simon E.
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Re: Quitting smoking

Post by Simon E. »

No nicotine supplements. No change in lifestyle.

Just cold turkey. Go through it. Suffer. It passes.

I did it. You can do it.
“You don’t know it. You just know about it. That is not the same thing.”

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche to me.
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Mantrik
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Re: Quitting smoking

Post by Mantrik »

Simon E. wrote: Mon Jul 16, 2018 10:30 am It passes.
You sent me a PM about this, Simon. I can't seem to reply but I do agree! ;)
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Om Thathpurushaya Vidhmahe
Suvarna Pakshaya Dheemahe
Thanno Garuda Prachodayath

Micchāmi Dukkaḍaṃ (मिच्छामि दुक्कडम्)
Simon E.
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Re: Quitting smoking

Post by Simon E. »

Sorry M...PM situation now fixed... 8-)
“You don’t know it. You just know about it. That is not the same thing.”

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche to me.
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Mantrik
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Re: Quitting smoking

Post by Mantrik »

Simon E. wrote: Mon Jul 16, 2018 11:25 am Sorry M...PM situation now fixed... 8-)
Nope, no PM possible. But let's just say I gave formal advice on giving up lighting up in an incendiary fashion.

The downside of having given up tobacco is the clouds of carcinogens, cyanide and other poisons sent in clouds into our home from our neighbour's chain smoking for most of every day is a matter of great annoyance (especially when people are recovering from cancer) whereas a few decades ago it would probably have been unnoticed. Those who continue smoking may deserve sympathy, but when they are reckless about the health of others, they deserve none.
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Suvarna Pakshaya Dheemahe
Thanno Garuda Prachodayath

Micchāmi Dukkaḍaṃ (मिच्छामि दुक्कडम्)
Simon E.
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Re: Quitting smoking

Post by Simon E. »

I am a techtard :shrug:
But I think it really is fixed now.. :smile:

We have a similar problem. The people in the apartment below ours are great neighbours, helpful, friendly, when I accidentally flooded their kitchen..dont ask, it involved orchid compost and the sink...
they couldn't have been nicer about it.

And here's the 'but', they sit on their balcony all summer evening long and smoke and the smoke drifts straight into our living room. I stopped smoking about 30 years ago. But during the summer months I probably smoke several a day passively.
“You don’t know it. You just know about it. That is not the same thing.”

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche to me.
Motova
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Re: Quitting smoking

Post by Motova »

shanyin wrote: Mon Jul 16, 2018 9:08 am Is anyone here an ex-smoker? Can anyone give me some advice to quit smoking. I am a pack a day smoker or more and my parents smoke so it's hard to quit. Wondering if there are any practices that I can do to quit smoking. Once weed is legal in Canada I can try to replace smoking ciggarettes with pot.
You need a way to relax and be happy through Dharma practice, something you look forward to do when you wake up.
To become a rain man one must master the ten virtues and sciences.
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Queequeg
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Re: Quitting smoking

Post by Queequeg »

I smoked for nearly 25 years. I still have a smoke on occasion when drinking in the company of smokers. Enjoyment is about 43% of the experience. 57% is remembering how freaking disgusting it is.

I was a regretful smoker for most of the time I smoked. I knew it was gross. I knew that my will was overborne and that made me feel morally defeated.

I finally quit because I never quit quitting, basically. In the last few years before I quit, I had become increasingly mindful of the effects smoking had on me - the quickened pulse and all that, as well as the chronic effects like acid reflux, colds with coughs that lingered, anxiety about smoking my last cigarette before sleep which would mean I wouldn't have any in the morning. What made my last effort at quitting stick was my son. I did not want him to know that his father smoked.

As Simon says...

Cold Turkey. Just do it.

Keep it up long enough and not smoking will become habitual.

In the meantime, apply some mindfulness techniques to smoking. Observe yourself when smoking. Observe the effects on your body, the thoughts in your head.

Lastly - do not smoke pot to quit smoking cigarettes. I've seen guys try that, and they were able because they grew the stuff. That approach is going to get expensive quickly. And, maybe they quit cigarettes, maybe not. But what is for sure is that they just became super stoners. I don't think any of them have accomplished anything in their lives. Its all pretty sad, actually.
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
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shanyin
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Re: Quitting smoking

Post by shanyin »

Well I'm already going cold turkey. I just threw out the rest of my smokes. What should I do with my e-smoke? It will probably lead to me smoking again if I start using it.
shanyin
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Re: Quitting smoking

Post by shanyin »

I caved and had one that I found on the floor. I'm gross sometimes. Back to cold turkey.
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Johnny Dangerous
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Re: Quitting smoking

Post by Johnny Dangerous »

I quit in 2006. It took me something like 15 tries I believe, over a period of six years or so. I smoked a pack and a half a day when younger, eventually dwindling to about half a pack a day.

The final time I did not use any products, I have a suspicion that tobacco cessation products are a racket, and even if they do help in some cases, if you can put up with 72 hours of physical withdrawal then you do not need them.

The hardest thing to make it stick long term is environment (being around smokers will definitely make it harder), for cravings I used a straw with cotton in it, and carried it around to use as a fake cigarette. I also shifted up my routine so that I would do weird, random stuff during the times I used to smoke. Both of these things were pieces of advice from a smoking cessation program I did through my insurance..if you have one available it might be worth thinking about that, or a support group. Exercise helped hugely, especially when I started feeling a lot better and could do more exercise than when I smoked.

You can do it, but you have to be persistent and not give up, pay attention to the messages you are telling yourself about quitting. You have to try until you are successful, and keep yourself motivated.
Meditate upon Bodhicitta when afflicted by disease

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when sad

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when suffering occurs

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when you are scared

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shanyin
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Re: Quitting smoking

Post by shanyin »

I have a nagging feeling in myself and mind that I am neglecting or not paying attention to something or missing something important in my life that I am neglecting. It's really akward. I am nervous as well. I go into a panic and try to move out of my apartment or ask people what I should do. It's making me feel uncomfortable.
shanyin
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Re: Quitting smoking

Post by shanyin »

It's a feeling that I am not doing something that I am not like not paying attention to that starts making me feel uncomfortable.
shanyin
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Re: Quitting smoking

Post by shanyin »

Something I'm not doing that should be paying attention to*
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avisitor
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Re: Quitting smoking

Post by avisitor »

Are you looking for something to do?
I know quitting cigarettes is very tough
It is a habit which occupied the mind for at least the moment one smokes
And it was so good with coffee after dinner

oops, sorry
shanyin
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Re: Quitting smoking

Post by shanyin »

lol that's quite alright. I am smoking a new pack. I get smokes from my parents.
shaunc
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Re: Quitting smoking

Post by shaunc »

May I suggest using Swedish snus. It's a tobacco based product and no doubt just as addictive as cigarettes but far less harmful.
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Re: Quitting smoking

Post by SunWuKong »

i used to smoke about a pack of cigarettes per day, and at one point i did replace tobacco with pot! I have always really like good tobacco and kept exploring better and better stuff. So we do have a fire pit every once in a blue moon, and break out cigars. But that's it, about one or 2 cigars per year now.

FYI nicotine actually modifies the brain to build more nicotine receptors? You know this right? That's what creates so much craving, the excessive number of nicotine receptors in a smokers brain.

My dad just died from lung cancer, his brother died years ago from alcohol. Both substances are killers, and cause suffering
"We are magical animals that roam" ~ Roam
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