Coffee, Cigarettes & Bacchanalian Revelries!

I don’t smoke but I consume a lot of caffeine every day. I am impressed by smokers (on and off-screen) making those impressive sleazy-hazy-oval puffs of smoke in air with distinct panache, without getting tempted to try it on my own!

Interestingly: Since I have been an ardent observer of breathing patterns because of Pranayama practices –I have not only observed but also read that there is a fair possibility of smoking being so addictive because it helps people breath in certain patterns! These patterns release stress instantaneously and thus soothe the smokers [The corroborative assertion being that the nicotine doses (supposedly the cause of addiction) given to smokers would not satiate them the way smoking does!]

My fellow interlocutors suggest that they relish not just those smoke puffs but also the taste, touch and ritual of the process along with (of course!) chemicals producing rapturous sensations! A friend suggested that smoking, often in groups as well as in solitude, creates a sense of being an ‘outsider’ and she is correct because it does create this feeling of being ‘different’ and dashingly so!

This ‘outsider’ sense does work in amplifying the totality of gratification drawn from the process. However, this has not necessarily been correlated with degrees of introversion (extroversion) in my experience. Generally introverts or extreme personality types are ‘outsiders’, but not necessarily in case of smoking or other drug addictions. Even alcohol addicts have this ‘outsider’ complex and they make an ‘outsider cohort’. There has been a great deal of persuasive compelling from my colleagues in various stages of my life, to make me smoke or drink. It was not necessarily for making me feel the ‘ecstasy’ they were having. Not because they wanted me to have this rapturous sensation. Not necessarily as a scheme but perhaps because they found me an alien in their faction at times.

What goes against this ‘breathing patterns’ theory is: Observation that drunkards do not have advantages of these patterns for soothing them, still, they drink.

On the other hand though, smoking might act as a quick sedative, releasing stress (involving the breathing-patterns hypothesis), without creating much hubbub (when compared to the drinking which creates very tangible changes in disposition very quickly!). I mean, apart from complaints about bad smell of breath from your colleagues, you are not considered to be unable to carry out your responsibilities.

I have had discussions with many of my friends who are heavy drinkers and many of them have consistently maintained that they abhor smoking! They consider smoking much detestable than drinking to my astonishment! I have also observed that some of my friends enjoy smoke immensely when it’s accompanied with a drink, a coffee or a tea! [Lollipop in both of the hands!]

I never got temptation to try a smoke or drink. In spite of having spent substantial amount of time in company of smokers and in bacchanalian revelries. It seems that the addiction which has never left me for most of my life is ‘chronic argumentation’. I could at best bid adieu to this addiction only temporarily if I switch-off my ears completely in conversations. If I do not hear people speaking–I rest in peace-but as soon as I hear them talking about something I have given thought to; I start getting upsurge of vehement tempestuous temptations to blabber. I maintain silence for enough long but then-again, I am provoked to jump-in into the discussions and I start arguing-to the detriment of most of my relations.

Well, I hope that when I grow-up, I will get rid of it. (*chuckle*)

Some friends suggest that they are troubled by constipation if they stop taking coffee and tea frequently. My suggestion is: The technique of forced exhalations (Kapaal Bhaati) works dramatically well for constipation and you can get rid of it completely without any drugs.

Including Vipassana, all of the breathing techniques work amazingly well to help you get rid of addictions