to facilitate CHANGE.

I smoked cigarettes for a total of 11 years. I never liked their smell or cost and yet got trapped in their addictive chemicals anyway because they offered things I did not realize I needed. 

It’s been a long time since big tobacco sold the lie that smoking reduced stress.  

Only it wasn’t fully a lie as to the nervous system there are aspects of a cig break that do reduce stress despite the scientific truth of chemicals increasing it.

See every smoker takes deep belly breaths so they intake the maximum impact of the chemicals. 

Meanwhile, the time they spend without a cig in their hand is shallow breathing: quicker and less noticeable as survival mode activates a body choosing to take up less space.

Not only that, since smoking has been removed from businesses and events, people have been forced to step outside away from large groups or their tasks.

This means to the body cigarettes create space for emotional regulation. 

For four years of the eleven I smoked I wanted to quit. I had no money for them as a homeless person, had noticed they were really increasing my anxiety (which all real research backs up), and earnestly was tired of smelling like the thing that had caused me so much trouble as a child when I threw away my mum’s because of how they impacted my ability to breathe. Not to mention how much harder it was to breathe after seven years of smoking. Still, even with pharmaceutical drugs that impacted my relationships and job, I couldn’t quit.

So I taught myself to hate them, not just disliking them, along with allowing myself time regularly to breathe deep and step away when overwhelmed with my surroundings. I put used butts into a bottle and smelled it everytime I was losing the battle on cravings because chemical dependency upon them is real. I learned about price mark ups and problems in the industry causing it to be harmful on multiple levels to humanity and the planet. I let myself hate something. I mean on a level where my gut reaction to smelling them was violent even if I refused to allow myself to show it. I hate them now. There is no part that feels good to me. The lie of comfort unprofessional scientists sold for a pay check disbursed as everything we need as humans to stay calm is in listening to our individual bodies.

Now, take this concept and apply it to the social manipulation occurring on a political level: they taught people who and what to hate. Giving falsified facts the same way they convinced people to love cigarettes.

See, it seems like people think hate/love are innate. As if beliefs occur like magic: automatically with no connection to their own autonomous choices or knowledge. 

Only hate or love both come from a series of choices in what an individual believes.

So what do you believe about the things/people you love or hate? Fact checked any of those things lately? Do you have something you seemingly can’t change in your life? Have you honestly assessed what supports that behavior? Is it an unmet need? Does it partially help which feels better than nothing? Or do you hate something because it similar to something/one else that hurt you?