Re: Alternative for tobacco smoking, alcohol………..

If you still are smoking - or using substitutes - this might help. First, remember how many things you experience daily that cause you to hold your breath... headlines, bloody photos, loud noises, narrow escapes, from movies, TV, work deadlines and more - all based on "shock and awe", on fear. Modern life causes us to hold our breath. Remember a time you felt good, happy, relaxed - you were able to breathe deeply, fully and freely. We need to breathe that way all the time, even when things are bad.

The good news is, everything you need to reverse the fear is standard operating equipment, already built in.

It's not easy being a people. We all need relief from the extreme "excitement" (or endless boredom) we experience daily on planet earth. We really long for a connection to something bigger, something that is always there, something that can hold us with care and make us feel secure. Something that feeds our need for love and peace and joy. Nothing - no one - here can give us all the love we crave and nothing or no one can hold all the love we have to give... So we have to go deeper and higher. We know there is something beautiful somewhere that is just out of reach, something just under the surface of life. But we haven't yet been taught how to get to it.

When people turn to "spirits" (aka alcohol) or cigarettes to soothe themselves, they are desperately uncomfortable and trying to find something that will fill the gaping hole in their hearts - But that hole is reserved for infinite, unconditional, divine Love and it only responds temporarily and in part to physical and mental "fixes".

Try this: instead of reaching for a drink, a drug, a cigarette, a cigarette substitute, a movie, superficial sex or rock'n'roll, simply close your eyes and notice that you are being breathed - kindly, gently, yet powerfully - breathed. That breath will fill the need you feel to have whatever prop you have come to use. And don't stop at just one... take another breath, and another. You might just get hooked on the healthiest habit in the world. Smoking, drinking, drugging, the "ah" after sex, etc are ways of giving ourselves permission to breathe - fully and freely and deeply. Try it. You might like it. . Tweet