I have been smoking since I was 13 years old. Started like most people, because it's cool, my older sister is doing it, why can't I? The problem is, when you first start out, your body is strong and nothing has really harmed your lungs and mind and heart the way smoking does, so you can take the punch for a very long time.

But when you get older and you really become an addict of smoking cigarettes the big battle starts. Most younger people I talk to about the addiction has the same (his talking non-sense state of mind), and I think personally this is the downfall of many.

My most recent shock treatment was my neighbor at my business. He is about 5 years older than I am and he smokes between 20 and 30 a day. All was fine and one day I saw him with a massive swelling in his neck. He said it started small and in one weeks time it just swelled up bigger that a tennis ball. Cancer of the mucous glands, caused by smoking. The time he found out about it is actually to late, the cancer has spread through his whole body and he had to go for a lot of very harsh treatments, just to buy him more time.

The realization my neighbor was going through was that he had 3 young daughters and wife that he was going to leave behind. He started sorting out his business so his wife would be able to run it from home and had to get a lot of things in order, before he... DIES!! Imagine for one moment being is his shoes. In the prime of your life, everything to live for and the one thing that you thought was a comfort when you stress out or just want to relax or have a coffee and smoke. This long time friend turns on you in your prime and robs your children of a father, your wife/husband of a life time friend. Everything you have done up to now for nothing.

Now, why do we still do it? Why can't we kick this habit? It's actually so easy, we just make it hard. It's all in the mind, the physical addiction to nicotine it not the problem, that's over in one week. The problem is the habits that go with the addiction. The party where you have the smoke and drink. The friends you built up in your life, who mostly smoke. The morning coffee and smoke. The time killer, ice breaker you made yourself believe smoking helps you with.

But if you just make a shift of mind and start focusing on the bad things smoking causes and start cultivating a hateful relationship with your deadly ex-friend. Focus on the smelly clothes and fingers. The awful smelling and tasting breath you started getting use to.

The shortness of breath when you walk to fast or climb a staircase. Not smelling or tasting like you have to and most important, do you want to take the chance of ending your great life earlier that you have to and even maybe ending it very sick and stuck on machines to help you breath, just go visit the cancer ward at you local hospital, it's scary man!!

My wake up came with my neighbors sad story and then I got a lump in my neck, went to the doctor and had a bit of a talk with him about cancer and he confirmed how dangerous smoking is, because he told me that I shouldn't only think smoking will cause cancer in the mouth area, smoking runs through the blood and tends to pop up cancer all over the body.

I hope this article scares and disturbs everyone who reads this and I hope that my words would get imprinted into the back of your mind, because keeping all this in mind will fight each cigarette from now on, one by one. Start talking to every smoke and tell him how much you hate him and put it out half way and repeat in you mind, IT'S YOU OR ME.

For more info on how to stop smoking with a couple of great programs, some of them even being self hypnosis. Visit my blog at: http://stopsmokingandlive8.blogspot.com

If I can help even one person to stop smoking, it will be all worth it. Because in doing so, I could have saved someones life. So keep this in mind, because smoking in front of people or children, you become a living advertisement, saying smoking is cool. So in promoting smoking you could have the precise reverse effect of what I'm trying to do, you could cause someones death with the example you are giving others.

It's never to late to stop. Please check out my blog:

http://stopsmokingandlive8.blogspot.com

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