MIND POWER
Registeredcounsellor,Faith
Komane,says,“Smoking
tobaccoisbotha physicaland
psychologicaladdictiondue
totheaddictivepropertiesof
nicotine.Therefore,making
a decisiontoquitsmokingis
difficultduetothephysical
withdrawalsymptoms,aswell
asthecravings.Herearesome
tipsonhowtobreakthehabit:Haveareasonforquitting.
Once you decide to stop
smoking, you need to have a
reasonfordoingso. Thiswill
motivateyoutoseetheprocess
through.
Havea deadline.Seta stop
datesothatitbecomeseasierto
worktowardsthatgoaltobreak
thehabit.
Haveaplan.Areyouplanning
ongoingcoldturkey,orreduce
theamountofintakeuntilyou
finallystop?Formulatinga plan
helps you to do research on
medicationsandtherapiesthat
canhelpyouquit.
Understand your smoking
habits and triggers. Do
yousmoke aftermeals, when
drinking alcohol, or when
stressed?Onceyouknowyour
smokingtriggers,thenithelps
youtoknowwhereyouhaveto
makelifestylechanges.
Managecravings.Substitute
smoking with healthier
alternatives — this could be
eatingasnacktokeepyourself
busy,andbyrememberingwhy
youdecidedtoquit.a cigarette feels like. I just smoked
because a Vogue Light cigarette made
me look chic while having my coffee.
However, I later got to a point where I
witnessed myself succumb to smoking
even when I was not drinking coffee,
or during happy hour, and this was my
wake-up call. I knew my body had had
enough when I started being sick; I
constantly had a blocked nose, chesty
cough and wheezing. It’s for health
reasons that I found myself committing
to at least start out with a few months of
not smoking.THE PROCESS
The month of June saw me fail a couple
of times. Sometimes I would tell my
myself, “You smoked yesterday, you
might as well start afresh next week”.
Sometimes I would have stressful days.
Planning a photoshoot is not easy as
you never know whether your subjects
of the day will show up or not, or you’ll
have a crisis that will take the whole day
to resolve. Anything can happen, and
those were definitely the days where
I failed. I was saved mostly by being in
a fitness group with my sisters. That
helped because I knew my focus was
getting some workouts in that day.
Nevertheless, it was not as easy as I
thought it would be.THE LIGHTBULB MOMENT
I’ve always loved the Eastern way of
life. My mother introduced me to it
back in the day through her travels
to Asia. I realised one day at 3 am (I
know it’s weird) that meditation has the
power to heal illnesses that the mind
may have challenges dealing with. I
consulted with a registered counsellor
last year, Faith Komane, to get a deeper
understanding of why I smoked, and
also combined this with yoga classes.
This opened a whole new way of
viewing the bad habit of smoking.
As I meditated each morning, I had
difficulties finding reasons to smoke.
That’s when I knew that I had found
my key to great skin, healthy lungs and
saying goodbye to dark and burnt lips.
I had no shame seeking help, and the
surrendering strategy that developed
naturally with meditation took away
heavy thoughts that would normally
trigger lighting up a smoke.GOING FORWARD
The realisation that my body has the
ability to start the day at 3 am stuns
me every time. I sometimes feel
exhausted if the day seems to drag on
a bit longer, but I also feel powerful
having meditated, completed an
assignment, or caught up with e-mails
at such odd hours. I now have a burning
desire to live an awakened life where I
fully pay attention to myself and my
surroundings, and avoid the triggers
that lead to smoking (I have no real
desire to smoke since I’m ‘Zenned
out’). I believe that meditation is a form
of treatment.
Eckhart Tolle’s book, The Power
Of Now, also guides me as I pray to
sustain these new ways of living.
I don’t live to punish myself if
I fail in a day. I always remind myself of
the placebo effect and all feels well again,
as I understand how I can apply this
theory to make changes in my life. ■KHATHU THUSIWWW.TRUELOVE.CO.ZA (^) |^2019 OCTOBER | 91
IMAGE
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