Quitting Through Meditation
Aaron Malone
Issue date: 9/29/05 Section: editor's picks
Versus Magazine Online [Image based format]
Quitting Smoking Through Meditation
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that smoking is responsible for 440,000 deaths each year in the United States. Recently, the premature death due to lung cancer of news anchor Peter Jennings, a former smoker, provided the nation another vivid reminder of the dangers of smoking. Despite the obvious health risks, it is estimated that 46 million people in the United States still smoke. One of the reasons this number is so high is that cigarette smoking is a very difficult habit to break. Nicotine, the chemical in cigarettes that gives the smoker a "high," is an addictive substance more powerful than many drugs. Because of the difficulty of quitting and the painful withdrawal associated with the popular "cold turkey" method, in which the smoker simply stops smoking, many smokers are seeking alternatives such as hypnosis and aversion therapy. Meditation, in particular, is growing in popularity as yet another option available to those who wish to quit smoking.
Meditation is the act of completely concentrating on a particular object or concept. Although practiced for thousands of years in the Buddhist and Hindu religious traditions, every major religion has some form of meditative customs . Meditation is often associated with spirituality, but it is also practiced secularly as a method of relaxation and stress relief. For those who wish to quit smoking, meditation has several benefits. It offers the smoker a way to directly confront the cravings associated with withdrawal without avoiding them or giving in to them. Secondly, it is a mindful approach in which the smoker breaks the habit of smoking by fully experiencing the actual act of smoking.
The meditative traditions teach that addictive habits must be removed through conscious, focused awareness of the addiction and of its associated bodily sensations. Awareness, it is taught, can free one from the entanglement of addiction. For this reason, the meditations for dealing with any addictions-nicotine, alcohol, and other drugs-emphasize complete awareness of bodily sensations. Generally, these meditations fall into two categories: those that focus on the sensations of craving, and those that focus on the sensations of indulging in the particular addictive habit.