Every year on May 30th, World No Tobacco Day is observed. Not only does tobacco kills 8 Million people every year, the tobacco industry leaves a long trail of destruction on our environment long before tobacco & nicotine products are even sold.
This year’s No Tobacco Day theme is “Poisoning our Planet.” Cigarette smoking, as we all know, is extremely unhealthy and harmful to our bodies. However, the production of cigarettes has a significant negative impact on the health of our planet.
Yoga is a holistic exercise that improves one’s physical, mental and emotional health. It is a great way to manage stress, anxiety and depression. Yoga can also be used as a form of therapy for those who want to quit smoking.
World No Tobacco Day: See How Tobacco is Killing the planet
Why Yoga is the Best Method for Quitting Smoking?
The most important thing about quitting smoking is to be able to do it without feeling like you are giving up anything. Yoga can help with that.
Yoga is a great way for people who want to quit smoking to take their mind off of the craving and replace it with something else. It also helps them focus on their breathing so they can avoid the urge to light up.
Yoga has been proven in many studies, including one published by Harvard Medical School, as a great way for smokers to break the addiction cycle and stop smoking for good.
According to the WHO (World Health Organization), approximately 600 million trees have been felled for the production of cigarettes. Furthermore, the smoke emitted by cigarettes emits approximately 84 million tonnes of CO2. This, in turn, has contributed to global warming.
The best way to help the environment and your own health is to stop smoking completely. Smoking can cause cancer, accelerate skin ageing, reduce lung capacity, and cause a variety of other health complications.
Health Experts vouch “Smoking can also make managing diabetes and regulating insulin levels more difficult.” Because nicotine reduces the effectiveness of insulin, smokers require more insulin to regulate blood sugar levels.
When you have hypertension or high blood pressure, the nicotine in cigarettes and other tobacco products causes blood vessels to narrow and the heart to beat faster, raising your blood pressure. According to doctors, quitting smoking and using tobacco products can lower your blood pressure and risk of heart disease and heart attack.
Hence, if you wish to quit smoking, there have been various effective ways that can help you. Most common are nicotine patches, nicotine gums, exercises, meditation, and so on.
Yoga has emerged as another workout regime that might help us quit smoking. Yoga as a workout regime focuses on physical as well as mental wellbeing. Some studies have shown, that yoga may be an effective way to quit smoking completely.
World No Tobacco Day: Quit smoking, Stop Poisoning the Planet, and You
When people try to quit smoking, they may develop other unhealthy habits such as drinking, eating junk food, and so on. One may even develop these habits to cope with the absence of tobacco. Yoga, as an effective method of quitting smoking, also reduces cravings for other unhealthy habits.
What yoga poses can assist us in quitting smoking?
The most common poses used to quit smoking are downward dog, child’s pose and cat/cow pose. These are all great poses for beginners because they don’t require much flexibility or balance.
Exercising in general can improve your overall health while also assisting you in quitting smoking. However, these are some of the most common yoga poses that have been shown to be effective for people attempting to quit smoking.
Here are some simple exercises that will assist you in quitting smoking:
- Pose of a child
- Fire’s breath
- Cat-cow pose, Yogendra Pranayam Savasana
- Pose with a bow
To conclude, You can incorporate various other yoga poses that may be headful in making you quit smoking.
