Yesterday was No Smoking Day here in the UK. I am ecstatic this year as I don’t have to have to go through the unending cycle of convincing myself that I need to quit only to see the day come and go with me still smoking. Oh the guilt and the denial.

This cycle went on for so long; I almost gave up trying to give up. Then something happened. I am not exactly sure what. Perhaps it was the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, when the moon was in the Seventh House and Jupiter aligned with Mars and peace guided the plants and love steered the stars (I am now going to have this tune going round in my head all day) because last June (22nd to be exact), I gave up the evil weed forever.

I went through phases where I convinced myself that smoking was just one amongst the many things one could die from. I reminded myself of the fable about the man who lived to 93 and suffered nary a cough even though he had smoked practically all his life.

I comforted myself with the thought that you could be knocked down by the No.38 bus one morning on the way to work and die on the spot, whether you smoked or not. The difference, which I ignored, was the control issue. Even after doing all the right things i.e. look twice to the left and right, crossing at the pedestrian crossing, etc, you could not account for how the driver of the No.38 bus would be handling that steering wheel that morning, his/her state of mind, the mechanical state of the bus, etc. In other words, you had no control over what happened after a certain point.

With smoking, you, the smoker, have the control. You decide to buy the cigarettes and you decide to put one in your mouth. It follows then that you can decide to stop doing all these things and stop smoking if you really want to do so. It sounds easy enough but as any smoker knows quitting smoking is extremely difficult. I received help from my local NHS clinic which included weekly one-to-one sessions with a health care worker, nicotine patches and gum combined with the important fact that I was ready to stop smoking. The NHS has calculated that helping people who want to stop smoking is cheaper than treating people with smoking-related diseases – once you mention you want to stop smoking to your doctor the support is instantaneous.

The support from your doctor and the use of patches and gums can be useful but I believe the most important tool at the disposal of anyone who wants to stop smoking is will power. In my experience, really wanting to stop smoking enables you to exert the discipline to turn your mind away from cigarettes. What I am saying is that you can stop smoking (with or without the assistance of nicotine patches, gums, etc) if you really want to stop.

At the risk of sounding evangelical if you are reading this and you smoke, take a minute to consider the damage you are doing to your lungs, body and health generally. Consider stopping. Take the challenge and see if you can last a week. You will feel the benefits almost immediately. I stopped and it has changed my life.

No Smoking Day

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