This time: TEN days, zero tobacco

A place to discuss health and fitness, healthy diets. A fit body makes for a fit mind.
User avatar
manas
Posts: 2678
Joined: Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:04 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

This time: TEN days, zero tobacco

Post by manas »

Hi all
(*EDIT: this original post refers to my first stint of giving up for seven days only; I have since completed this, and am now undertaking a slightly longer stint at abstinence.)
these postings will give a day by day account of my week-long journey to fulfil this resolve: to totally abstain from smoking for one week exactly, beginning from today (I have had none at all today). I hope to make the abstinence permanent, but one week is longer than I have done all of this year so far, so I'm starting with that as a 'short-term goal' that I know I can achieve. I can do a couple of days on my own easily, but to do a week, I need the fear of having to disclose publicly that I wasn't able to make it, because I am hereby stating that I will truthfully report daily, for seven days, on whether or not I have kept this going.

Just so everyone knows, my 'habit' is very low-level, about one, two or three self-rolled, 'processed chemical free tobacco' rollies a day, but I want to quit while it it still not too difficult. I can sense that I am near the threshold of being addicted to this stuff (nicotene), and that, as a member here pointed out, "it might not breach the lay five-precepts (to smoke tobacco), but it does breach common sense". I've got to get it out of my life. Day one.
Last edited by manas on Tue Mar 12, 2013 1:59 am, edited 1 time in total.
To the Buddha-refuge i go; to the Dhamma-refuge i go; to the Sangha-refuge i go.
User avatar
James the Giant
Posts: 791
Joined: Sat Oct 17, 2009 6:41 am

Re: seven days with zero tobacco

Post by James the Giant »

Best wishes Manas!
I'm watching you...
Then,
saturated with joy,
you will put an end to suffering and stress.
SN 9.11
User avatar
manas
Posts: 2678
Joined: Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:04 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: seven days with zero tobacco

Post by manas »

James the Giant wrote:Best wishes Manas!
I'm watching you...
Thanks James. From previous experience, 'day two' I might experience just some irritability, but from 'day three' or so, some mild cravings. Or maybe worse. So I hope I will be able to 'delight in the destruction of (this) craving' rather than just endure it, but either way the die is cast now and it needs to be done.

kind regards :)
To the Buddha-refuge i go; to the Dhamma-refuge i go; to the Sangha-refuge i go.
User avatar
cooran
Posts: 8503
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2009 11:32 pm
Location: Queensland, Australia

Re: seven days with zero tobacco

Post by cooran »

Best wishes manas! Hopefully knowing you have to let us know each day will help to withstand craving. You CAN do it!

mahametta
Chris
---The trouble is that you think you have time---
---Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe---
---It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---
User avatar
Ben
Posts: 18438
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:49 am
Location: kanamaluka

Re: seven days with zero tobacco

Post by Ben »

Congratulations on your adhitthana to give up tobacco, Manas.
I wish you every success! I used to smoke and I know exactly how hard it is to kick the addiction.
kind regards,

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
User avatar
manas
Posts: 2678
Joined: Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:04 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: seven days with zero tobacco

Post by manas »

Thank you everyone! Although I don't think I am really addicted, but rather at risk of it (which is why I think I should quit while it's still not too hard to do so), it is possible I will find myself really missing that evening 'smoke or two' in a few days time. What I find, is that painful emotions start to surface, emotions that even the small amount of nicotene I've been imbibing seemed to distract me from. So if or when that happens, is when I will possibly write a somewhat emotional posting here...ha...anyway, your encouragement means much to me, and hopefully will literally en-courage me to see this through. (A week is a start, anyway.)

_/I\_
To the Buddha-refuge i go; to the Dhamma-refuge i go; to the Sangha-refuge i go.
Roland
Posts: 31
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2013 12:45 am

Re: seven days with zero tobacco

Post by Roland »

This post is a great idea!

Quitting as early as possible, when smoking the least, is ideal.

48 hours after my last smoke was the most extreme physical withdrawals, but after that it was only mental craving.

I think there are 2 types of change. Either one "chooses" to change or is forced to change. I almost died from smoking self rolled (and filterless) cigs. I was forced to quit, or I would have died. In that way, it was more simple because I had no choice. But also very difficult because I suffered hard for about a month and a half. Smoking was completely illogical beyond the normal concerns for me because I had asthma even before I started smoking and lived with pets who's dander I was allergic to. Eventually my lungs quit and closed up completely. Subsequently I had bronchitis for a month and a half while on heavy prescribed steroids which made me feel like a zombie (not that I know exactly what a zombie feels or doesn't feel. Maybe they are blissed out.) all day.

I would wish such an experience on no one. Although my case is rather extreme, I wish you good luck on your particular endeavor and I know it can be done!
"No tree becomes rooted and sturdy unless many a wind assails it. For by its very tossing it tightens its grip and plants its roots more securely; the fragile trees are those that have grown in a sunny valley."

--Seneca the Younger (57 BCE- 65 AD)
User avatar
Modus.Ponens
Posts: 3853
Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2009 2:38 am
Location: Gallifrey

Re: seven days with zero tobacco

Post by Modus.Ponens »

Excelent resolution! You can do it. If you want help from meditation either focus on equanimity towards bodily sensations, or contemplate the drawbacks of smoking in your cushion time.

I hope you succeed! :)
'This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution of all fabrications; the relinquishment of all acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Unbinding.' - Jhana Sutta
User avatar
Khalil Bodhi
Posts: 2250
Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2009 6:32 pm
Location: NYC
Contact:

Re: seven days with zero tobacco

Post by Khalil Bodhi »

Anumodana! Quitting smoking was the hardest and best thing I ever did for myself.
To avoid all evil, to cultivate good, and to cleanse one's mind — this is the teaching of the Buddhas.
-Dhp. 183

The Stoic Buddhist: https://www.quora.com/q/dwxmcndlgmobmeu ... pOR2p0uAdH
My Practice Blog:
http://khalilbodhi.wordpress.com
User avatar
DNS
Site Admin
Posts: 17187
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 4:15 am
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, Estados Unidos de América
Contact:

Re: seven days with zero tobacco

Post by DNS »

Good luck, hope it works out!
User avatar
manas
Posts: 2678
Joined: Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:04 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: seven days with zero tobacco

Post by manas »

Day 2

Today won't be a struggle, in my experience day 2 is always good: the little pains in my head are gone, and my physical brain and mind are both clearer already. It's strange, I feel better and clearer without the stuff, yet after a few days, I know my body (or is it the mind, or both?) will 'feel like having one'.

My dear younger brother had a stroke last year. He can walk around again with the aid of a stick, and still has full use and strength in his right arm. But his left arm and hand, are not so good. This causes him much sadness. Although we do not know if it was smoking or another factor that caused him to have the stroke, he has now sworn off cigs for life, and needs no encouragement, despite his previous addiction being far worse than mine. I should not think myself immune from the risks inherent in smoking. Smoking does increase the risk of stroke. So, if I'm wise, I will quit now while it's still not too difficult. I don't want to let myself get strongly addicted. I sense that this could happen, because otherwise, why is it easy to give up for a few days, but hard to give up for a whole week?

So for today, things are still fine. Once again I appreciate the interest shown. :)

A few hours later...

Well this was unexpected. I feel like having a smoke! Damn. Maybe things are going to be a bit harder than I expected after all. But it's mild, like an 'i want' rather than a screaming mess in my head crying for it. The recollection of the sensation of drawing in the smoke enters my mind. I have to counter this with the recollection of images of the human brain, tender, soft and fragile, blemished with blood clots. Ok, move onwards and on to something productive. But no smoking! Today, I choose a healthier brain over a few minutes of dubious 'pleasure'.
To the Buddha-refuge i go; to the Dhamma-refuge i go; to the Sangha-refuge i go.
SarathW
Posts: 21227
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2012 2:49 am

Re: seven days with zero tobacco

Post by SarathW »

Hi Manas
Congratulations! :twothumbsup:
I stopped smoking about 25 years ago. It is not an easy thing to do.
Not only you will improve your health, you will improve the health of the people around you as well.

So what are you planning to do with all the money you have saved now! :)
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
User avatar
retrofuturist
Posts: 27848
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 9:52 pm
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Contact:

Re: seven days with zero tobacco

Post by retrofuturist »

Keep at it, chief.

:twothumbsup:

Metta,
Retro. :)
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
User avatar
marc108
Posts: 463
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2012 10:10 pm

Re: seven days with zero tobacco

Post by marc108 »

i think doing some smoking based contemplations will be useful and will help you build dispassion and dare i say ... aversion... towards smoking. perhaps contemplations on what it will be like to die of cancer, how much your love ones will suffer, or on the disease body parts (lungs, etc) themselves. good luck to you!

Image
Image
"It's easy for us to connect with what's wrong with us... and not so easy to feel into, or to allow us, to connect with what's right and what's good in us."
User avatar
manas
Posts: 2678
Joined: Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:04 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: seven days with zero tobacco

Post by manas »

Day Three

I can't be too self indulgent here, because what I am attempting is easy compared with what a regular smoker would go through. I was only smoking 2 or 3 rollies a day. However, I imagine a packet a day habit would be like hell to give up.

Having said that, even this has it's challenges. Thank goodness it's hot here in Melbourne. My body is sweating out toxins, and so long as I keep hydrated, this all helps. And, the less I think about it, and just engage my mind in useful activities, the less of an issue this entire task is.

Right now, the remaining tobacco I had left is lying under a rock in an old abandoned quarry near my home. The place is wild and overgrown, so there are plenty of secluded locations and rocks under which one can hide things. It's wrapped in two layers of plastic, of course; wouldn't want it to get drenched if it rains now, would we...

I do know one thing already: if I had not made this topic, I would be walking there right now to claim it back. But the encouragement and support I've gotten here, plus my concern for my own dignity (in the fulfilling of a public promise made), keeps me going. It's only seven days.

So, I definitely recommend this method of publicly declaring and journalling one's resolve to give up smoking. I've got too much pride to go back on it, haha!

I am already contemplating a much harder step that I ought to take at some stage, the sooner the better: give up tobacco forever. This 'one week' thing is just a first step. But if had tried to abstain forever, I would not have been able to do it. That's why I began with an easily achievable goal. But I am dreading giving up forever...how does one lose the desire to smoke, permanently? Could an ex-smoker tell me, does the desire eventually fade and disappear for good? I hope so.

Never should have even started this filthy habit. That's the easiest strategy with smoking: don't start. It's a bad move. And if any guest or member thinks that 'processed chemical free' or 'organically grown' is any less addictive, I can tell you, don't be so sure.

metta :anjali:
To the Buddha-refuge i go; to the Dhamma-refuge i go; to the Sangha-refuge i go.
Locked