Stop Smoking or Lose Your Retirement

When we are younger, we can get away with a lot of abuse to our bodies. Our systems are robust, and the body has a very powerful ability to repair itself. But as we edge closer to retirement, the damage begins to show in life-threatening ways. This is especially the case when it comes to prolonged use of tobacco products.

Just about everybody knows the dangers to health caused by smoking, so we aren’t going to go over them in too fine a detail. What’s important is knowing your heart, lungs, skin, and other vital organs will thank you if you give up the habit for good.

What’s more, those approaching retirement age need to stop and ask themselves if smoking is worth it if it means cutting their lives short. You’re saving and planning for retirement, wouldn’t it be a shame to never get to enjoy it?

With this in mind, here is some worthwhile advice for those who want to stop smoking in order to look forward to retirement:

Consider Vaping

​While mostly associated with millennials and college students, vaping is a healthier substitute to smoking which can be enjoyed by people of all ages. The best e liquid brands sold in stores and online still contain nicotine, but at adjusted concentrations and without all the toxic byproducts generated by smoke. Better yet, vape juice comes in an almost endless variety of flavors, which can’t be said for traditional tobacco products. Being completely free of addiction should be the ultimate goal for everyone, but vape provides a crucial stepping stone towards that final stage, one which is significantly safer than cigarettes and other smokables.

The Modern Medical Aids

​There are medications used for quitting smoking for good. Bupropion is great because it can help to combat depression and it can mitigate the unpleasant side effects of nicotine withdrawal. Varenicline is another common prescription used to quit smoking. More popularly known by its brand name Chantix, varenicline limits the pleasure response to the nicotine which can help you to disconnect from the mental side of the addiction.

Digging the Mental Trench

Use these tools if you need them. However, for most, this isn't the main issue. It is your relationship to the cigarette that needs to change. In those dark moments, you wage war with the past, present, and future. Your associations with these will determine your success. You must treat this as an MMA fighter. In a fight, willpower means nothing if the fighter hasn't trained their preconditioned responses. Mental repetition is needed to build the necessary instinctive reactions. Those gut-level reactions hold the key to your freedom.

Dr. Joe Dispenza, an established neuroscientist, travels across the globe to teach individuals how to precondition their minds for financial, emotional, and habitual success. How do they do this? It’s called meditation. Yeah, you've heard this before, and no, it shouldn't surprise you. Our memories are pliable and we can pull them out and reprogram them. We can also simulate future experiences and our desired reactions. Recent research has shown that the body cannot tell the difference between meditating on experiences and actively living those experiences.

That means that we can establish patterns of success by mentally simulating those moments and their successful outcomes. It digs the trench, a path, that makes your mind susceptible to following the correct course of actions that create success. Try it out, and you will see results. Each morning, set your doubt aside for twenty minutes. Run through those dark moments, and let yourself feel the emotions, sensations, and the thoughts that commonly run through your mind at those times. Now, picture success and enjoy it. See yourself at the point beyond that craving. This may seem silly, but it has been hugely successful for many people.

There are more treatments available to you than those listed. I hope that these tools help you to live the life that you seek. You can recover your health. As long as the heart beats you can work towards recovery. Making it to retirement is entirely possible, and you will enjoy the rewards that a lifetime of work brings.