If you haven’t done the proposed review beforehand, you can bring to mind now the intrinsic harms of tobacco: the loss of time, money, health, strength and physical fitness, and other more specific ones that make sense in your current situation.
A list of reasons why you’re quitting smoking also usually helps, and they should be as personal as possible. If you’re short of examples, we’ve added a list written in the first person:
- I’m going to feel healthier; I’m going to regain my sense of smell, taste, energy, and lung capacity.
- I’m going to tackle the addiction and the process of tolerance to the drug, which happens when I feel I need more of the substance, or more often.
- I’ll have whiter teeth and fresher breath. I won’t smell of tobacco. If I kiss, it won’t taste like an ashtray.
- My skin health will improve.
- I’ll reduce the risk of developing or worsening cancer, respiratory diseases or cardiovascular diseases, since tobacco use is the world’s leading cause of preventable premature death, and every year 8 million people die because of smoking.
- I stop consuming up to 43 carcinogenic substances: tar, nicotine, cyanide, nickel, arsenic, lead, and radioactive substances such as polonium 210, potassium 40 or radium 226.
- My organic ageing will slow down and I’ll regain biological age (the age of my body). It’s estimated that 1 cigarette shortens life by about 20 minutes.
- I’ll reduce the generation gap compared with younger people: fewer and fewer people smoke conventional tobacco.
- My children, relatives, and friends will be healthier. I’ll be a good example.
- My surroundings may feel proud of me.
- I’ll feel proud of myself; I’ll feel I have greater control over my life. Quitting smoking can increase my sense of agency, of control over other areas of my life where I want to start making changes.
- My life can change. I’ll feel freer.
- I’ll have more money.
- I won’t have to worry about the need to smoke when I can’t (meetings, travel, the cinema, around people I don’t want to see me).
- I stop contributing to climate change. Each year:
- 600 million trees are cut down for tobacco products (≈ 1 tree per 300 cigarettes).
- 200,000 hectares are used and rendered infertile for cultivation.
- 22,000 million tonnes of water are used for production.
- 84 million tonnes of CO₂ are emitted, one fifth of what the airline industry emits.
- 45,000 million filters end up in the planet’s waters. Cigarette butts are the most littered item on Earth, and contain 700 toxic products that leach into the environment.
- Climate change, deforestation, and global warming demonstrably worsen the health of all living beings. Tobacco not only directly affects the health of its consumers, but also has an indirect negative effect on the planet and the health of all its inhabitants.
There can be many more reasons, phrased in a more personal way and applied to your daily life.
We believe that for every achievement and progress made you can feel grateful and proud of yourself. If your progress brings you satisfaction or joy, we’ll explain that the need associated with that emotion is to share it, so we encourage you to do so!
Emotional framework:
Situation -> Emotion -> Need
In the following example we show how the achievement of the first days or weeks without smoking might be experienced:
Achievement -> Joy -> Sharing the joy
Another piece of good news is that the body recovers very quickly and your biological age (your body’s) can recover and match your chronological age (the years since you were born). We’re sharing the short-term health benefits of quitting smoking:
Short-term benefits
- 20 minutes: blood pressure and pulse return to normal.
- 8 hours: oxygen levels return to normal.
- 24 hours: the risk of having a heart attack is reduced and you stop smelling of tobacco.
- 48 hours – 5 days: smell and taste improve and nicotine is eliminated from the body.
- 72 hours: breathing improves and energy returns.
You’ll have the long-term benefits available in the next module!