I thought I should write a few words about my experiences as a spiritual person and healer, re smoking and quitting smoking. The following might well include some aspects of smoking and stopping smoking, which are not likely to be mentioned in regular stop smoking literature.
It might seem non-sensical for Spiritual Healers, Mediums or other Lightworkers to smoke. One might assume that such are in-tune with their bodies and would not do such to themselves? I know a fair amount of healers, mediums etc, who do (still) smoke though. I used to be one of them. I actually started smoking after I spiritually awakened, at the age of 29, and smoked for about 11 years.
Why did I start? I had gotten out of a spiritual cult a year prior and was perhaps rebelling against all the rules, restrictions and regulations that had been imposed by our guru? On top of that I had learned that ‘everything’ is part of Creation and in it’s essence divine. Plus that supposedly our thoughts create – i.e. do all the smokers, who do develop cancer, just get it because they believe they might??? Being spiritually awake, I simply asked my body to not get sick due to my smoking, and I asked the cigarettes to not harm me. I assumed that was enough!
One also gets stories about most shamans smoking. Supposedly it helps them connect to the Spirit Realm. Since I was never too sure about my intuitions, maybe smoking would clear or assist my connections to divine Spirit? I used to joke that smoking was a form of internal smudging (i.e. smoking out negative energies)…. And that cigarettes were part of my 5-as-day green diet, tobacco being a plant after all. It seemed quite a natural product to me, and cigarettes did not feel ‘evil’ to me in any way, more like a cosy friend.
I enjoyed smoking in a sense (or I thought I did?). Funnily when smoking during the day, it used to make me majorly melancholic and nostalgic, relatively uncomfortable. Smoking in the evenings or at night though, seemed relaxing and comforting. Then there was the benefit of fag-breaks. Being able to step out of the office more times than non-smokers…
I quit several times, to check in how far my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome symptoms might stem from my smoking. But even after weeks of not smoking, I did not feel better, so I went back to smoking….
After about 5-6 years I could not smoke conventional cigarettes anymore though. Smoking conventional cigarettes was like drinking acid, and my mouth, gums and pharynx would get all inflamed. The initial solution was changing to additive-free cigarettes. There is just one brand in the UK, but in e.g. Germany, today almost all brands do an additive-free version of their staple brands. Smoking additive-free cigarettes was smoother and created no problems for my mouth, gums and throat. My suspicion that the inflammation symptoms were associated with flavor and burn enhancing chemicals was affirmed, when twice I forgot to take additive-free cigarettes on holiday with me (there was me hoping that I would not have to pay UK cigarette prices, whilst abroad). Smoking conventional for even just a week or two, was like acid in my mouth again, and usually ended up with me having a sore mouth, pharynx, trachea and bronchi.
After about 7-8 years I started to develop a scratching in my throat. Especially after holidays. At home I would rarely smoke more than 5 a day, but on holidays it was more like 20. I am stubborn though, and refused to think that I might not be able to heal it! The scratching subsided again, after a few days/ weeks on 5 a day regime again. Over the following years the scratching became more persistent and permanent, and I finally conceded that it might be easier to give up smoking, than keep on fighting energies trying to make me sick from it. And I am sure throat cancer is not a joyous experience. I understood that potentially it is not just my own believes, that influence my bodies – i.e. ‘smoking cannot harm me!’, but rather I live amongst millions of other humans who believe that ‘smoking kills’, and potentially continuously project those believes onto me too. To smoke harm-free I might have to move away to an isolated island or onto a Himalayan, lonely mountain top – too much effort, for a pleasure that was not great enough to make up for what I would have to give up though…
Now that I had conceded that I wanted to give up, it turned out that cigarettes are potentially not that benevolent after all. Had I not fought for them all these years? Now that I asked them, to help me stop smoking, they did not seem to do so. Rather I was attacked with withdrawal energies … Maybe here too, I was getting other humans’ believe energies – ‘Stopping smoking is hard???’ Wherever the hard-to-give-up energies came from though, they were strong and persistent. My stubbornness shifted then. How dare any energy mess with my free will! And my free will now was to cease smoking! I prayed that for any additional cigarette I was made to smoke, Spirit help a handful (or even hundreds or thousands) of smokers to quit….
That kind of no-mercy against smoking-addiction- energies approach seemed to work at some point, and I was able to give it up! Now you might think – ‘Smoking-addiction-energies? What a crazy guy?’ Still I stick to that understanding/ analysis, especially as over the next three years I sometimes started to smoke again when travelling, but would stop immediately when getting back to London. Especially when travelling to countries with a relative strong smoking culture still, the addiction energies would be strong and get me to smoke again. It took another 3-4 years to break those influences fully too! It was quite remarkable though. Under such travelling circumstances, I would start smoking again, a day before my departure, and stop a day or two after returning to London. When back in London – stopping smoking would be effortless, even if on holidays I would have smoked a pack a day! It seems that in London smoking energies do not dare attack me anymore. They know that they will be healed off, and that they have not long term chance of success.
Nowadays I occasionally rent the second bedroom in my house to b&b guests. If nowadays I ever get any smoking ideas (else I do not even think about it anymore), it always turns out that the guests staying are smokers….Having decided to finally write this blog post, it turns out, that my current guest is a smoker too J
What additionally helps me to not relapse these days, is - that after having been ‘clean’ for more than just a few weeks, I did start to appreciate easier breathing, and the joy of breathing fresh air only. The last two times I even just had one drag, it was not joyous at all anymore. It just tasted awful….
I am no militant ex-smoker. I do enforce a no-smoking rule in the house, but I do not try to scare or convert every smoker I do encounter. I admit that smoking, stopping smoking and the thoughts, emotions and believes associated with that journey are complex and likely to have to be gone through by each smoker by themselves!
E.g. when I was still unwilling to quit, someone told me about the [breathing tool[ to help to stop smoking. He argued that smokers just smoke because their bodies are starving for oxygen. As most humans are flat breathers, smoking will get them to actually inhale deeper than regular breathing. That sounded like utter nonsense to me. I actually breathed deeply frequently, e.g in meditation, or when giving a healing. Still when I did resolutely decide to give it up, I remembered the ‘breathing tool’. I decided to try it, regardless of it making any sense, or not. When I got a craving I tried to just deeply air-inhale, instead of smoke-inhale, for a few times. I would inhale deeply, hold for a second or two and exhale. It was no fool proof tool, but at times, just 5-10 times of deep-air-inhaling would be enough to dissipate any craving! If it gave me extra energy, relaxation or else, I cannot say, but it did help! What might also have helped the general process was, that I had started supplementing Vitamin D3 a few month prior to giving up. Vitamin D supplementation had greatly improved my energy, mood and immunity. Furthermore I did not seem to require cigarettes anymore to ‘reward myself’…. And yes, I did gain 16kg after quitting, but lost them again too.
Last but not least – to the smoking healers and mediums out there: Has my intuition, or sense of spiritual connectedness, worsened since giving up smoking? No, it has not!!! Nor does my healing energy channeling feel weaker - I do feel happier and healthier for it though, and with it can help and work longer hours….Even with vaping becoming more popular these days, I currently do not feel any temptation to give that a go.
Obviously if you do want help to stop smoking, talk to your GP, or check other NHS resources (or whatever similar if you do not live in the U.K.)
Feel free to share this blog – I just ask that you keep it as a whole/ unaltered, and reference it to me/ this website as the author. Thanks