5 Reasons Smoking Cigarettes Blocks Your Spiritual Development

Are you on a spiritual quest to become a better version of yourself and share that bliss with others? Are you struggling to quit smoking? If you're serious about spiritual growth, smoking cigarettes will create numerous obstacles on your path. Here are 5 gentle reminders to use as motivation to quit.

1. Smoking can prolong healing, which can distract you

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to meditate and focus on your path when you're not in pain? Yet, the moment you stub your toe or hurt yourself, it's a struggle to focus on maintaining your health.

If you're serious about your spiritual development, breaking a bone is going to put a roadblock in your journey for a while. If you're a smoker, you won't heal as fast as a non-smoker. Your body will naturally take longer to heal soft tissue injuries and broken bones. Slow healing could prolong your frustration while you're trying to focus on spirituality.

Of course, spiritual teachers would say it's a challenge to test your level of focus.

2. Smoking damages your lungs

Your lungs are designed to deliver oxygenated blood throughout your entire body. Cigarettes contain more than 7,000 chemicals, including carbon monoxide. When carbon monoxide gets into your blood, it displaces the oxygen. By the time the blood is carried to the rest of your body, there's no oxygen left to feed your organs. By smoking, you literally become oxygen-deprived.

What do lungs and decent oxygen levels have to do with spiritual development? Everything, if you're one of thousands of people who practice the ancient art of pranayama. Pranayama consists of various practices designed to control the prana in your body, and some of those practices involve breathing techniques.

You need your lungs to be healthy to do the breathing techniques properly. If you can't hold your breath for at least 8 counts while your lungs are both full and empty, you'll struggle with pranayama breathing exercises. If you want to move the prana in your body, you can't skip pranayama.

3. Smoking is a mindless habit

Smoking isn't just a bad habit, but a mindless habit that takes you away from your focus. Imagine how much extra time you'd have for meditation if you didn't smoke?

Instead of smoking, focus on developing your spiritual practices as a habit. Anytime you're tempted to grab a cigarette, do one of your practices instead.

Part of walking a spiritual path is to drop the mindless habits that have become your life and start to become intentional about everything you think and do. If you're engaged in any mindless habits, who's to say you won't pick up a few more?

4. Smoking tells your higher self you're not in control

If you're a smoker and you want to quit, the longer you continue to smoke, the more you're telling your higher self that you aren't in control of your life. If it were up to your higher self, you'd never touch another pack again. However, you, in your human form, must make the decision to quit smoking.

Make the choice to quit right now. Don't wait until tomorrow or next month. If you can quit smoking right now without having that last cigarette, that will be proof that you can transform your life on a whim.

On your spiritual journey, there will be many other instances where you'll need to change something on a whim. Practice now by quitting smoking.

5. Smoking can become a substitute for the real work

Even if you've been smoking for years, there's a certain 'high' you feel from tobacco. As you smoke longer that feeling lessens, but it can still be felt.

It's possible that this 'high' feeling could end up becoming a substitute for the real high of spiritual bliss when you lose yourself in your spiritual practices. They're not the same feeling by any means, but when you can't get the spiritual high, you might go for the tobacco high instead.

It's never too late to quit smoking

It doesn't matter how many years you've smoked, it's never too late to quit. There will be existing damage, but you won't cause further harm to your body.

Even if you've been smoking for 40 years, it's possible to quit. Don't wait until you're in the doctor's office coughing up blood or dealing with serious gum disease. Your spiritual development depends on a healthy body and your family deserves to have you around for many years to come.