Quit smoking with Yoga

One of the hardest habits to give up is smoking. You may hear a number of people who claim to have given up smoking, but if you check on them after sometime, you will find that they have gone back to their favourite habit.

For twenty years I had been a habitual but a moderate smoker. I used to smoke on average five cigarettes a day, but often I would go on a binge and smoke as many as 15. This went on even after I took to practising yoga.

My yoga teacher had assured me that being a practitioner of yoga I would not keep smoking habit for long. For, according to him, yoga would force me to give up my habit. I did not take that too seriously and continued smoking along with my practice of yoga.

After a few months of yoga, my habit of smoking a cigarette after breakfast started making me uncomfortable. After smoking a cigarette I started feeling sluggish and sleepy. Since I used to smoke while driving to my office, my being sleepy started telling on my nerves. After a few days, I was still lighting up my cigarette but I could not go beyond smoking it more than a half. Later on even smoking half a cigarette was leaving me tired and was giving me headaches. I had no choice but to give up my morning cigarette.

Soon I stopped smoking a cigarette after lunch and even when driving back home in the evening traffic. Smoking in the evening started making me intolerably hungry and I could not help snacking. That was enough to kill my appetite for dinner.

Untimely eating gave me a kind of constipation I never experienced in my life. I started spending working hours with bloated bowels and a mild but continuing headache. My productivity level plummeted sharply and I started losing my temper at the slightest provocation.

First smoking ceased to be a pleasure and very soon it became a nightmare. I really did not have to fight with my age-old habit or exercise restrain.

I realized that yoga just won’t let me go on with this vice of mine. It’s been nine months now since I last smoked. Now even the thought of reaching for a cigarette makes me feel ill.

Add comment September 7th, 2006 Written By: lalitgambhir