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Church
19th September 2013, 02:01
Now that I've quit smoking, I need ongoing support to stay quitted. Maybe others might benefit too? If not, I don't mind if this thread disappears. I'm doing this at a couple of different places, because I need all the support I can get. The very idea of tobacco is still pleasant to me, and I really don't want to slip.

So, it all started with a determination to quit, obviously. I don't think it's easy to quit if you don't want to. But I wanted to, and I knew from experience that the quit didn't stick when I tried the cold turkey method. And I kept hearing about electronic cigarettes, or "e-cigs" as they are called. So I decided to give it a shot.

I bought a disposable one from the little corner store by my house, and gave it a puff. It took some getting used to, as it immediately made me cough. It doesn't feel like smoke... It's much more like inhaling vapor from a humidifier, or like an asthma inhaler. So you have to go slower, and maybe even puff like a cigar before inhaling and just be slow about it.

I was able to go an entire 24 hours without a cigarette. I puffed on the e-cig whenever I would normally smoke a cigarette. It worked. But the taste of this disposable one was pretty awful. It tasted somewhere inbetween an ash tray, and a sweet cigarillo... not at all like anything resembling a cigarette type of tobacco taste. So a day or so later I went back to rolling tobacco cigs.

Then I did some reading and found a model that seemed to get good reviews, and stood out to me... so I bought their starter kit and a bunch of flavors of the liquid to try out. I quickly found that when the vapor tastes and reminds me of cigarette smoke, I enjoyed the experience, and had no desire to roll a cigarette. Plus it calmed my cravings.

I started off with 18 mg of nicotine, which is the equivalent of what I was used to in real tobacco. I have now stepped down to 12 mg. I will step down until I no longer have the cravings.

It's working for me, so I feel like I have to climb the tallest tree and shout out to anyone who will hear me that this is actually working for me, so it might work for you too! At this point, I already prefer vaping to smoking, so the worst case scenario here is I've replaced smoking lots of tar and chemicals with vaporizing low amounts of only nicotine. I can't imagine going back to cigarettes now.

So I don't know, if anyone wants to chime in here, for whatever reason, please be my guest. Otherwise I might just pop in here every once in a while to just pat my own back. :D

Cearna
19th September 2013, 02:53
I don't know if you read the post I put somewhere, but might have been on the old TOT, to tell yourself, "I am now sending the colours violet and indigo through me on a permanent basis , until I no longer need them to quit smoking". Just telling yourself the once should do, but you can wish to be more aware of them being their once in awhile, because, particularly the violet light, is a very beautiful experience any way. Any time you wish to shout from the rooftops, but not put in a post, send me a PM I'm always happy to hear from you. Lovex

Seikou-Kishi
19th September 2013, 04:15
I'm glad it's working for you Church. You have it in you to conquer this.

Altaira
19th September 2013, 06:55
It is good you decided quit smoking Church but I think you should research what is in the e-cigs because as far as I know they are not so safe. There are some harmful chemicals in the e-cigs too and there is no enough observation on the health impact of them yet especially what is the impact on long run. E-cig is probably good in a short term to help you to build a new habit of not inhaling nicotine but I would say that if you replace it then this will be another harmful habit with not clear health hazards. I stopped smoking a year ago and since then I haven't had even 1 moment when I wanted to go back to this habit. I must say I loved smoking very much and tried quitting at least 4 times within 20 years. I used to stop smoking while I was pregnant and for year after that but then I was coming back to the habit because I loved the tobacco feeling in my lungs. I already told my story twice in TOT 1 so I don't want to repeat myself but if you some other here want to hear it I'll say it again.

For me it was important to understand what causes the addiction and the urge to smoke. After I got to the bottom of it I found a way to face and eliminate it. My opinion is that it is not the chemical compounds in the tobacco that cause addiction. I am not sure whether I am right but I think that the real problem is the etheric or astral elementals that are attracted by the energy we release while smoking. They need this and become attached to out etheric body. I am not sure how but they just make us wanting to smoke more and more, the same is with the other addictions.

Love and light,

Rayna

Spiral
19th September 2013, 08:09
I smoked on & off from the age of 11 until several years ago, you reach an age when youth no longer wards off the effects of regular smoking, the shortness of breath in particular (probably more noticeable when one lives in a mountainous region).

Smoking definitely is related to stuff coming from the astral like Altaira says, I am lucky enough to have been treated in the manner that Cearna refers to, thus stopping the internal vibrations/nervous state that gives rise to the craving for tobacco so you can ease it.

I went "cold turkey" to quit, its amazing what a habit smoking becomes, attached to rituals like the morning coffee and rolling one after meals.

Tonz
19th September 2013, 08:26
Well done Church!,your the man!
Take control and keep freeing yourself.


On another note, where have you been , i was about to pm you,or even start a thread called ,what happened to church?,
glad your back ,and in winning spirit.

Cearna
19th September 2013, 09:04
I have put this up on the old thread, but there just might be something here for some one..

The need to give up smoking, or any other addictive substance

First of all look through these:
Lungs

The Breath of Life. Lungs are our expression of life, whether we can take it in and give it out and our expression of our ability to allow people close to us.

Lack Of Breath
“I can’t get enough out of life to sustain my needs. Too much restriction in my life. I can’t open myself up to others and life, in case it hurts too much”.

Guilt
“My past mistakes are so great I don’t deserve to live a happy successful life. I must be punished”.

Sadness
“My lungs fill with unshed tears of the past. I can’t release the sadness I see and feel around me”.

Punishment
“Others haven’t punished me for what I am, so I must do so myself ”. (Emphysema, bronchitis).

Asthma
An emotional disturbance begins the attack from whatever trigger. Feeling stifled or panic, left alone, unable to cope, overwhelmed. Sometimes over protected.

Bronchitis
Emotionally beaten up, the breath knocked out of you, followed by a congestion of thoughts in your mind about all that has happened. The situation is ongoing, so there is an inability to let go of the congestion. The physical congestion builds as a result of mucous forming when the immune system can no longer cope with the influx of anger from another person’s words. Usually develops into a chronic condition whilst the anger is directed at the person.

Emphysema
“The grief I feel is eating away at me. The tissue of my life becomes so thin and so congested by the hurts and sadness that I feel unable to withstand the pain and sadness any more. I am but a shell of what I was as those around me show me I am of little use in society and have no place in life left”.

The sadness and grief is sustained because of the constant barbs about the faults, inconsistencies and inability’s of this soul to be a worthwhile person.

Pneumonia
“I am drowning in despair, I feel I have no way out of my loneliness and suffering from pain. I have done what I can for my loved ones and yet they continue to hurt me and show me I am unloved and unwanted. There is no release for my soul from this torment of sadness I find myself in”. (Will someone please show me that they care for me, so I can find some release from my pain).

Pleurisy
“The weight of my burdens fills me with tears which I must hide and not let anyone see, not even myself. This is something I must continue to do until I can see the end of the time of travail. However, there are times when I have to stop and realise that what I am choosing to do is harder than I feel physically able to accomplish, and then the continuing build up of what I have to do overwhelms me to a feeling of defeat”.

Tuberculosis
“I feel unexploded resentment for the way life has treated me. My life is hard physically and emotionally and it fills me with pain and suffering. I am sad and my thoughts fill me all day long. I want to rail against society for forcing me into such a hard life and yet I have many to care for. Sadness fills my soul when I see what they too are enduring and I can do no more for them. I bleed when I look to the future and see no end to our suffering. I also see and hear others whose fate was to have no hardship and I am tormented by the lack of feeling shown to my distress and the suffering of others. Their lack of caring and hardness to fellow man, but particularly underlings is something I would like to spit upon”.

Cancer and Tumours of the Lungs

“He/she/it/society/the government has hurt me over and over again and blamed me for that which I did not do. I have suffered torment within myself as a result of this, because I did no wrong and I did not deserve to be punished”. (People of the Lie).

There is a constant nursing of this hurt and repetition over many years, to deny any fault or wrongdoing. At the same time there is gathering momentum of anger and resentment that this should be done to them. If it were sadness it would lead to congestion within the lungs but this is a growing spreading belief of mistreatment in the face of wrongdoing.

It is in fact, the building blocks or the putting in of the foundation stones to a very bitter person who instead of letting go of hurts, builds and reconstructs a personality, so unlike the picture they have of themselves, that there is no way to cure the one, whilst the other exists.

This person wants to hit back and will, but will do it in such a way as to preserve their own picture of their very “goodness”. This is a very long standing condition, usually from childhood. The cancer will develop and grow proportionally to the amount of thought given to the hurts.

Why did I ask you to look at these, because if you relate to any of these emotions, the tobacco you are smaking is not the first probem to relate to, it is the emotion that need looking at first as the tobacco will probably add to the emotional one, since society seems to believe that smoking is bad, its unhealthy, and to smoke you must feel guilty about it. You should be giving it up and taking all your nasty stuff away from me, because I don't want to have anything to do with this.

Society has found a way to make anything that seems addictive, to be one of the big no, no's to not do now. This also includes sugary food, chewing gum, narcotics, you know the list.

Why are any of us wanting to turn to anything on that list? One of the reasons is that when we use them they will give us a hit of endorphins that will either give us some form of enjoyment, or make it easier to cope with some overwhelming problem you are trying to work on, or giving you a way to put it aside till later, some things make you feel more spiritually oriented, I'm sure you can add to the list of either why you began or why you still want to keep going. Society said no, and that was enough to try it for some, because they are now so wrong in the minds of others, they increase the Guilt factor. When that comes purely from the people who believe it and not from the substance itself. For example go fifty years back, how many felt that to eat a cream cake was something to be guilty about, then, if you did this there was nothing wrong, later it became criminal to become overweight to eat them, because you simply could not become overweight. Now it becomes even worse, because the ingredients inside the cake are poisonous and carcinogenic, as well as making you obese.

So is it so bad to have any addictive food, or is it the feelings and ideas given to them, the thing that is so bad. For example the thoughts associated with that addiction are causing you to have a disease, and you have a need to use that disease as a prop to be able to live your life i.e. you need your disease for some reason. There is a need to see what your thoughts are, that are so bad now, you have gone past the thoughts alone and gone on to a physical impairment coming as a result of those thoughts. That physical disease is real, it is not only a matter of the mind, it is now a matter of your body as well. If you think something over and over again, you will have a manifestation of those thoughts.

I can give you an example of a friend who is in a caring job, she cares about her clients and wants to help them, but her boss makes it so difficult to do that work, that she feels she will have to give up. She has a car to pay off as well as all the assorted things everyone needs to pay. This is manifesting in two ways, her shoulders are wearing out, over the burden she feels of all this, and to balance herself she is eating more of the foods every one says you are not to eat, in order to get that hit of feeling a bit better. Now she is in two binds, keep the job and diet to lose weight. When I asked her inner self, the answer was that if she needs to keep her standard of living and keep her job then she needs to do a little lying about her life by saying how wonderful it is, until that is what she now feels.

My suggestion here is that we look at not what we need to do, but what we need to think. If you wish to change and you are not the person to use will power alone then change the words you are using, a little lying to yourself in order to do this is not wrong it is just a way to alter your world to make it as you would like it to be – it helps to be positive rather than negative in the wording. This is what people were doing back in the days of the 80's and 90's making a mantra to change what they thought needed changing. In simple terms as in “what I eat is what I am,” it is more “what I think is what I am”. Nothing new about it, sometimes we just forget to use the tools, that were discovered before, and continue to use them when the same paradyme comes back to look us in the face.

:hug:

777
19th September 2013, 09:31
Excellent news Church! I'll pat your back as regularly as is needed to facilitate success buddy.

As it goes, I've smoked since my thirteenth birthday up until this year (34 now). This year I went cold turkey with tobacco and I didn't even plan to. I actually just got fed up of shortness of breath and constantly needing to down gallons of water just to feel like my mouth wasn't like the Sahara. That said, I do still partake in mother nature's wonder herb on a regular basis but I'm pleased to have lost the addiction to tobacco.

Keep at it mate, you're doing great!

boja
19th September 2013, 09:53
HAVE A LAUGH !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7YBaiJMnik

Eelco
19th September 2013, 09:56
49tTzEifY6M

Iggy pop and tom waits have quit smoking too.

WIth Love
Eelco

Fred Steeves
19th September 2013, 10:45
Congrats Church, hope your quit sticks! I've never been able to quit for good, but have settled into a pattern of happy medium. I'll smoke for a year or so, then get fed up enough with the side effects that I'll stop for a year or so. Just quit again recently, those nasty damn things that I love so much...

Interesting what Rayna said about a possible connection with etheric entities, I'll give that one a good mulling over.

Cheers,

Fred

Frances
19th September 2013, 11:45
Hello Church, stick with the programme it's great that it works. It's very very expensive to smoke here in the UK. A pack of factory made cigs could set you back aprox £6 or more depending on brand.
People turn more to roll ups as its cheaper to smoke that way.
More people I know are turning to e cigs and you don't have to stand outside in the cold to have a one.
Frances.

Calabash
19th September 2013, 12:09
Well done Church - giving up smoking is not easy - and yet you will find that it's easier than you thought! They say it takes 21 days to break a habit.

I used to smoke like a chimney. No amount of people telling me I stank like an ashtray (I did), was costing me money, (it did) and exacerbating my asthma (it didn't strangely enough . . .). I finally gave it up because I had no money to buy any and was too proud to ask for a loan (was probably the day after payday). Third day in my father shouted at me, "For Christ's sake have a bloody cigarette, you're driving us all MAD!" and I thought, "right, that's it - I'll show him - I'll never smoke again." And I didn't.

So you can add "bloodymindedness" to all the other tips you've been given - it really works!

daft ada
19th September 2013, 13:29
I smoked since I was 12, I'm 61 now, but I packed up about eight years ago using the tablets that you put under your tongue, trouble is they were so good I was using them instead of cigarettes and had a hell of a job getting off them! but I haven't smoked since.

jagman
19th September 2013, 16:18
Good job Church! I'm going on 27 days without a cig and I have to tell you I still miss one with my
morning coffee.lol It is getting better though. The other nite my brother stopped by and handed me
a cig. I held it in my hand and considered lighting it up. I held it in my hand for about 20 minutes
debating whether or not I would smoke it. Finally I handed back to my brother and told him I had quit.

Zebowho
19th September 2013, 16:35
Way to go Church!

I smoked for almost 30 yrs and the last 9 or so was a pipe (inhaled it too) plus rolling my own. I've now been vaping for almost 4 months and its great. The thing that made me decide to take the jump was just before getting my e-cig, I was always short of breath, coughing and had a wheeze when I would breathe. Every bit of that cleared up about 1 1/2 weeks into vaping. I was going to go cold turkey (even warned my family, :) ) but a close friend turned me on to vaping. I use a joytech (both ego-C and ego-ctwist) and now mix my own e-liquid I've also jumped up to 38mg. Because of the lower nicotine amounts in the prepackaged liquids I was vaping all day, now I only have to grab it once in a while. Plus, mixing my own e-liquid tastes much better than the premixed flavors (they're too sweet).

Granted there is no long term study on the hazards but compare the 4-7 chemicals for e-liquid vs. 400+ for manufactured cigs. In my case I have 4 ingredients, food grade VG+PG(with nicotine) and flavoring. Anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but the chemicals from natural tobacco (when burned/inhaled) cannot cross the blood/brain barrier which I believe is why the tobacco companies put so many chemicals in their cigs, they want that barrier to be crossed and force the habit. E-cigs should be the same as natural tobacco so the nicotine levels (I've noticed in myself) are only keeping the edge off, from the original habit. I also believe getting a non disposable e-cig will help break the mental habit of having to have something between your fingers because its held different when vaped (that's just my opinion though). Now after about 4 months, I can go quite a while without needing to puff.

For my friend that turned me on to this, his wife is a surgical nurse and I've talked with her about the difference between smoke and vapor. She said the particles from vapor (e-liquid) are smaller than the particles from smoke so should be less of an irritant in the lungs, but an irritant non the less. While she will not say they're good for you, she does say they're definitely better than smoking. They've both been vaping for quite a while and working their way down to quitting.

Again, way to go Church, keep it up!!

-z

Altaira
14th October 2013, 11:22
here is what I read as good tobacco substitute. It might help those who want to stop smoking.


Indian tobacco helps smokers kick the habit and repair their lungs

Before the American Indian culture was shattered, the Indians used an unprocessed tobacco in pipes ceremoniously and for healing. Yes, healing lung disorders.

Indian tobacco is known as Lobelia inflate or lobelia, which some herbalists, unafraid of being politically incorrect for using an herb once banned by the FDA, use medicinally today. Not necessarily to smoke, but dispensed as tinctures or tablets.

Lobelia for asthma and other lung/bronchia disorders was a topic of another article from this author. This article will focus on lobelia as the most effective smoking cessation agent without side effects today.

A recent pharmaceutical smoking cessation product on the market drove many mad enough to commit suicide, murder or both. Few knew the severity of this smoking cessation drug's side effects until an independent found a major flaw with the company's adverse report papers.

The Institute for Safe Medication Practices, an independent watchdog group, analyzed the major adverse data that both the drug company and the FDA were allowing to get mixed in with minor adverse events (http://www.naturalnews.com/032849_quit_smoking_drugs.html).

After that discovery, the drug company became open to lawsuits that could prove they continued to market their smoking cessation drugs even as several went violently nuts from it. Since many started realizing side effects early and quit the drug, few, if any, received the claimed benefits.

Temporarily banned by the FDA, lobelia is both safe and effective as smoking cessation remedy

Medical Herbalist and Naturopath, Dr. Richard Schulze, has used lobelia on many of his patients who were desperate to quit smoking cigarettes and/or heal their lungs.

He also described how the FDA ban had stigmatized lobelia's use. Now it's legal, and some practitioners are returning to prescribing it, but many are still afraid of using it for fear of medical groups hassling them if a patient has a reaction.

Lobelia is considered one of the strongest herbs in the world. It contains 14 alkaloids, one of which is lobeline, which is similar to the nicotine found in common tobacco.

Schulze advocates the gradual approach of smoking one less cigarette each day and taking lobelia when the urge to smoke becomes impossible to resist. Dr. Schulze has had many kick the nicotine habit, and he has helped patients get over serious lung problems with lobelia.

So how did early American Indians manage to smoke?

One thing is for sure, they didn't have 600 chemical additives added to create a virtual freebasing of nicotine, ensuring they would be addicted forever to chain smoking.

They did manage to appreciate lobelia's healing qualities. Even today, herbal advocate David Wolfe has noticed indigenous tribal members in the Amazon and New Guinea smoking pure tobacco in their 80s while enjoying good health.

The Department of Health and Human Services approved 599 chemical additives to cigarettes in 1994. Among them are ammonia compounds to create a nicotine freebase effect. Then there are the additives to the paper to make it burn evenly.

In 2010, legislation was passed in 49 states to start putting fire safe cigarettes (FSC) on the market as all the current ones are sold. The FSCs papers contain a toxic chemical used for rug glue to ensure that cigarettes go out when not being puffed.

Even before all this chemical craziness, tobacco itself has been grown commercially with phosphate fertilizers, causing tobacco plants to accrue radioactive isotopes of polonium 210. Puff by puff, those isotopes accumulate in smokers' lungs.

http://www.naturalnews.com/035119_tobacco_lung_health_addiction.html