The final cigarette

There are a few pre-requisites to reading this article because here is where I will provide you with the means to smoke your last cigarette and quit forever. The last cigarette is of course just a mind thing, the final escape from the addiction by having one last shot. The foremost criterion towards reading this article is that you should have read and understood the crux of all the articles prior to “the final cigarette”. They build the foundation to riding you of all the illusions which make you feel that smoking is something you need to enjoy yourself. After reading all the articles you should be in a state of non-illusion and hence will not associate any feelings of dread about quitting cigarettes. There should be no fear, no sense of doom. If there is even a small figment of attachment to smoking and you feel as if you are going to make a sacrifice then don’t read further, just go back and read through all the articles again.

When you see smoking for what it is then there will be no attachment to it. Can you really attach yourself to a substance which has made you an addict and threatens to control your life from here on? Your mind state before you read this article should be as below

• You should have no illusions left about what smoking is. Its an addiction which has you hooked and is no different from addiction to heroin or cocaine.
• If the above point is satisfied you should be clear in your mind that there is no sacrifice that you are making by quitting smoking. You are heading for a better life, free of a life threatening addiction.
• There is no will power required to leave an addiction behind, there is only a need to live a life free of slavery to a substance. You should understand this clearly.
• You should not feel like you are making a sacrifice, there should be no feelings of dejection or apprehension, else go back to square one and read through all the articles again till you get your mind cleared.
• If there is even a small element of suspicion in your mind that smoking is a great thing in your life then you are still living in an illusion , and its just your addiction talking.
• People fail at quitting or go through a relapse only because somewhere in their minding they feel attached to smoking, as if it were a friend, while quitting. You are better off carrying on with your smoking than quit with in a delusional state.
• Right now you should look forward to quitting and be very positive about it. There is live of huge benefits waiting for you at the other side.
• The final test is the one of imaging your entire life free of cigarettes. Know that this is really the end of your addiction and you will never have another cigarette again.

Visualize it in your mind. If you feel doom instead of excitement, then you are not quite there yet. You will have to read all the article of the “quit smoking series” again with an open mind. When you are really rid of the illusion the cigarettes give you enjoyment, you will be excited to leave a life killing addiction behind you forever. There will be no sense of doom.

Let me summarize the benefits you are going to reap after your final cigarette.

Energy: There will be a huge boost in your energy levels. You can’t imagine what you had lost because of your addiction. Any addiction saps the victim and the same was true about your association with nicotine.

Health: This step is a life saver. You have escaped the scrounge of several forms of cancer, heart attack and erectile dysfunctions (impotence, soft erections). Great going, you can’t imagine what a boon this moment would be for you and your loved ones. Some other diseases you have escaped are angina, asthma, ulcers, stroke, severe bronchitis, nerve afflictions and several major ENT diseases.

Money: I never mention money usually because it is never important for an addict. When you are addicted you don’t care about the amount of money you are wasting while feeding your addiction. I leave it to you to calculate the money you have spent since your first cigarette to your last. I had spent close to 40,000$ on my cigarettes. This money had gone into introducing toxins into my body, self sabotage at its highest.

Free of Guilt: Finally you can get out of the cycle of feeling lousy about your addiction and live your life with the confidence of an ex-smoker. Each day as a smoker was spent in two halves, one was feeling lousy about not smoking and the other was feeling lousy about smoking. The typical cycle of any addict who knows he/she is trapped.

No More An Addict: You were a drug addict and now you will stay free of addiction. You have no idea what it will feel like to go through this process. Toxins will be not be introduced into your body any more, you will not feel like a slave, your life will no longer revolve around nicotine, your sense of identity will not come from your cigarettes.

One week trial

If you are still not confident of quitting I would suggest the “one week trial” exercise below. Needless to say you will have to practice the below steps for a week and then get back to this article.

• Start living very consciously, like a snoop or detective. Don’t light a cigarette unconsciously. Try to feel the emotions in your body, feel the urge or craving inside (if any), feel the mindset you are in. Light the cigarette very consciously.
• While smoking repeat the above exercise of feeling your mind state and your emotional state.
• After you finish smoking a cigarette repeat the exercise of consciousness and feel your mind state.

Basically you need to get conscious before, during and after lighting up a cigarette. You will need to do this for a week or atleast 3 days as a minimum. This will give you a peek into your addiction. Make sure you read all the articles in the quit smoking series to get rid of all the illusions in your mind regarding smoking. In fact you should perform the consciousness exercises, mentioned above, after reading the articles to feel more clear about your purpose in doing so.

I am sure you will realize that if you are serious about quitting, if you have reached a stage where your smoking addiction is bothering you, then each time you light a cigarette you feel lousy about yourself. You feel worse after you finish smoking. You will also realize that the craving comes forth almost within a minute or so of smoking the cigarette, urging you to have another one. It becomes strong within 15 minutes and then you will see yourself debating on where you should go for another smoke, towards the end you give in. By being conscious you will become aware of the addiction in you and how it controls you daily life. Remember also that it will only get worse from here, quitting does not become easy with time on the contrary it gets harder with each passing day.

Are you ready to quit?

Don’t read this if you are not in the right state to quit else it wont make sense to you. Please ensure you are in the right state to quit, read through all the pre-requisites.

Are you ready? Alright now I will go on to provide you with the steps required to smoke your final cigarette and be done with it forever.

• Light your final cigarette and take deep drags. Be extremely conscious of your feelings.
• Now stub the cigarette and know for sure that you will never light another cigarette as long as your are going to live.
• Know that you will never envy another smoker from here on, because you know that he is living in misery of an addiction which you are rid off
• Know that you will decline all the offers of cigarettes made by your friends, usually with a the cheerful feeling of knowing that you are free of the addiction.
• Know that you will never doubt this decision, it is the right decision. Any decision which saves your life and rids of a drug addiction can never have an argument contrary to it, is it not?

Its over! You are done with the drug addiction. You are no more an addict. From here on you are out of the pain cycle induced by addiction. The steps above would seem like nothing but if they are followed after building a base out of the previous articles of the quit smoking series, that’s all that would be required to quit forever. Once the illusion ends you will not feel the need to smoke anymore.

Each day from here would be a day to rejoice in the fact that you are not an addict anymore. You will never feel the need to try another cigarette, because you know that a single cigarette has the capacity to get your hooked again. Nicotine works like that. Never smoke another cigarette again no matter what the pressure, just remind yourself of this moment when you took this decision very consciously knowing it to be a life saving decision.

Enjoy your life, you deserve it.