On my drive to work this morning I passed a crew in front of a farmhouse that just sold. Looks like the old place is gonna get a new roof. A few guys were standing by their trucks in the chilly 20 degree dawn air. The wind driven snowflakes had to sting their faces. Why weren't they waiting in the truck? Several had cigs dangling from their mouths. A lit bit of tobacco hanging there, smoldering just inches from their nose and eyes.
WHY?
Why would anyone have a nearly 2000 degree fire that close to his or her face?
Nearly all of the justifications active smokers / tobacco users use to continue their "habit" are based on False Associations. Our reactive thought processes have been programmed with False information and we've formed Associations based on those untruths.
An example? Sure. A False Association founded in my childhood was that physical labor, like those roofers were about to engage in, required the use of tobacco. Whether in a mine, on a tractor in a field, on a factory floor or up on a roof physical labor necessitated the 'extra strength' gained by smoking or chewing tobacco. Why else would you breathe in smoke or swallow sour tobacco juice that makes you dizzy while you were exerting your self so greatly?! Smoking or chewing tobacco gave you a boost! RIGHT? My Grandpas, coal miners both, always either smoked or chewed tobacco when performing any task - whether it was working in their gardens or changing a tire - they'd have a smoldering cig dangling from their lips, just like those guys I saw this morning. Did it help them work any better? Not really as lots of times they had to stop to cough or blink tears away when the smoke went up their nose or stung their eyes. That stinging, burning, choking sensation should have been a clue. Why didn't they or I take the hint?!
False Associations
Even though limited nowadays tobacco advertising aims to create False Associations in the target of the ads. I also seems that the younger the viewer the better the target as almost all tobacco advertising is youth culture oriented. Tobacco users are portrayed as Rugged or Fun-Loving or Sexy or Outdoorsy or physically active scaling a mountain or frolicking in the surf at a beach. It is a False Association to link smoking with these attributes and activities. False Associations all!
Nicotine addicts require only one thing, an uninterrupted supply of the psychoactive agent. Those guys I saw standing around this morning might just as well have had an IV drip of nicotine solution keeping their blood serum level at the 'right' level, temporarily keeping withdrawal symptoms at bay. However, walking around with the stand on wheels and a needle in their arm would make it much harder to get the work done. So, needing nicotine to feed their addiction, they deliver the new doses by puffing or dipping tobacco.
When you strip away the False Association & cloaking images portrayed in tobacco ads in magazines or billboards, inserted into movies or music videos what's left?
When we look beneath the carefully calculated images that are meant to ingrain False Associations in our memory banks what do we see?
We see cigarette smoking, tobacco chewing or any form of nicotine ingestion (patches, pills, powders or potions whether prescribed or OTC) for what it REALLY is. A means to temporarily stave off constant craving and delay withdrawal another 30 to 60 minutes. A means to an end. Consuming nicotine by using dangerous delivery devices. All the while feeding this fearsome addiction which slowly, constantly, inexorably kills the user a little more quickly with each dose delivered.
The truth about tobacco use a.k.a smoking?
There are no 'Smokers' or 'Chewers' there are only ADDICTS!
If you have not joined all of us here who have arrested our addiction give yourself a chance to LIVE free of the constant need to feed your body and brain nicotine. You weren't (supposed to be) born with it, You don't need it to live, and we promise that after a relatively short while you won't miss it once you decide on living a natural, nicotine-free life & choose to just Never Take Another Puff!
JoeJ Free - born a nicotine addict and now an ex-smoker for 10 months, 7 days, 2 hours, 13 minutes and 33 seconds (311 days).
I've not had to buy & consume 7777 Nicotine delivery sticks, and saved $1,555.83.
I've reclaimed 27 days and 6 minutes to live as I Choose,
that's the best part of my gift to me. NTAP! 