So, there I was, standing on the back patio of the facility, and the thought crossed my mind: if I timed it right, I could sneak a cigar. The staff wouldn't notice, at least not if I planned everything just right. I started going through the mental checklist—waiting for the right moment, walking all the way to the gas station about a block away, buying a lighter and a cigar, lighting up, smoking it, and then making sure I didn’t smell like a bonfire when I returned.
But then something hit me, like the voice of my realtor friend echoing in my head, warning me that I'm not fooling anyone by sneaking around. And that voice was right. Who am I really hiding from? The staff? Myself? What was I actually gaining from all this effort? A quick puff?
I realized something profound in that moment—quitting smoking doesn't require me to do anything. In fact, smoking is the action, the effort. Not smoking is the opposite of that—it’s a non-action. All that sneaking around, planning, and covering up was me choosing to do something, and that’s when I saw it clearly: quitting smoking doesn’t have to be hard because not smoking is literally doing nothing.
The decision to smoke takes effort—finding the time, hiding from people, buying supplies, masking the smell. But to quit? That’s simply the absence of all that effort. You don’t have to force anything or fight yourself.
You just have to not do anything to smoke. It becomes simple, even easy. It's effortless when you think about it that way.
by Dan and Bonkers
SUPPORT MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS NOW!!!
