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If I could avoid killing my body and keep smoking I would. I am not a lover of cigarettes mind you, but I do enjoy the taste of cigarettes not to mention the rush I get to my brain. Incidentally did you know that cigarette addiction is centered in your brain? This is why you can stop smoking without NRT.

You see inhaled nicotine hits the human brain third fastest than any other narcotic. Heroin and morphine hit the brain the fastest. Each time we puff away we get a charge to our brain. So yes there is a habit aspect of cigarette addiction in the actual lighting it and holding it and even buying the pack, but the true addiction is in your brain, literally. So with that knowledge you have to know that stopping a habit is one thing. Stopping an addiction when your brain is involved is another.

You can stop biting your finger nails by learning to relax or being aware that you are biting your finger nails. Sometimes if we simply become aware of habit we can simply say stop and we stop. But when your brain is used to a particular sensation and you stop that sensation your brain will not let you rest until it gets that sensation again.

I stopped smoking for health reasons. Now do not get me wrong. I was never a one or two pack a day smoker. No, I smoked when I was in my twenties when I went out drinking with friends. I did this for about a year. Then one day I went to play full court basketball like I used to growing up. I spent the second half of the game bent over fighting to breathe. No more cigarettes for a long time after that experience.

Then I visited Europe and started smoking again. It is a lot more accepted to smoke in Europe than in the States. In fact it seems like most people in Europe smoke. While in the States it almost seems illegal to smoke with all the bans against smoking in public.

But when I was younger I started smoking when I got out of college. I did to because I used to go out drinking with friends who smoked so I smoked. After a few months I started playing basketball, just some little pick up games on the weekend. Normally I could run up and down the court with no problem. This time I was bent over gasping for air. No more cigarettes for me.

Years later I traveled throughout Europe. In Europe cigarettes are more prevalent than in the States. I took it up again. I decided when I returned home to light up occasionally like at our monthly poker game. And then I decided to have only one cigarette when I got home from work. I actually smoked my one cigarette in the bathroom. One particularly tough day at work I thought about smoking my one cigarette when I got home. Suddenly I felt good, my body and mind relaxed knowing that soon I would be puffing away in my bathroom.

I chose not to smoke that cigarette when I returned home from work that night. In fact I flushed the rest of my cigarettes. I knew that once the anticipation of the cigarette was enough to calm myself down and accept my tough day at work I was relying on the cigarette to see myself through life. And my brain was at ease knowing that soon it would get its stimulus. I have not smoked since at that was many years ago and I do not plan to go back Stop smoking without NRT by knowing you have to overcome your own mind, your own brain’s desire for a nicotine jolt. You can do it… Say not to your brain.