Smoking Cigarettes is Good for Your Health
Glen / 
43 Comments / 
July 20th, 2009 / 
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You might think I’ve wrote this title to lure you into this article and get more eyeballs on my work. Partly, I guess you could say that’s true, but actually, I want to let you in on something I’ve just discovered: smoking cigarettes is actually good for your health! What? You don’t believe me? Why not?
Seriously, I’m interested in your objections. This discovery also comes on the same day that running is shown to be bad for your heart, cannabis makes you smarter, and alcohol doesn’t make people seem attractive, their physical appearance actually changes.
Objections to Smoking Being Healthy
Back on the subject of smoking for a minute, I’ve tried my best to read your mind and answer some of the objections you may have about smoking being good for you.
Objection 1: Everyone Knows That Smoking is Bad
Oh yeah? Why is that? Did they each take a few puffs and feel sick or like damage had been made to areas of their body? If smoking is bad, why do so many people claim that it calms then down and helps them feel relaxed? If we can get addicted to smoking, doesn’t that mean our body thinks it’s good and just wants more?
Surely it’s better to be relaxed and following your bodies cravings rather than angry and suffering? Of course it is. Regular smokers crave cigarettes because their body wants more of the good stuff.
Objection 2: Smoking Damages Lungs
Wow, really? How do you know? When was the last time you put your head so far down someone’s throat that you could see the damaging effects of cigarettes? Ok, so maybe that’s a little silly. But when was the last time you saw, in person, some actual lungs which were very unhealthy and their state was directly linked to smoking cigarettes?
Unless you’re in medical or science fields, my guess is never. Lungs shrivel after years of smoking because their ability to absorb oxygen from the air has greatly increased so they don’t need to be as big.
Objection 3: Smoking Shortens Your Life Span
You’re probably sick of me asking this by now, but really: how do you know? If I went and said that to my next door neighbour who is 94 and smokes 40 cigarettes per day, he would start laughing in my face. Sure, his teeth look a bit rotten and yellow, but I put that down to the lack of good dentistry when he was younger.
If something that relaxing shortens your life span then why would there be over 100 million people practicing things like Yoga and Meditation on a daily basis? There wouldn’t and we both know it.
Objection 4: Government Agencies Have Proven That It’s Bad
You’re probably wondering what smart and sophisticated answer I can give to this one, but it’s actually quite simple. The man in charge of smoking regulations for the American Health Association was bullied in school by the owner of one of the most successful cigarette brands out there today.
Anything he can do to claim that smoking is bad cuts into said bullies’ profits and makes the head of the AHA sleep better at night. I told you it was simple.
Of Course, Smoking Probably Isn’t Healthy
If you can’t tell by now, I wasn’t being very serious with those answers, but there’s only one reason for that: there is enough evidence out there (which lots of people believe) which suggests that smoking is damaging to your health. And I believe it. But that’s not the point.
The point is that, as social creatures, we have a lot of beliefs that aren’t our own and instead they are purely from secondary sources such as:
- Religion
- Government Agencies
- TV
- Newspapers
- Movies
- Friends & Family…
…and so on. It is this social learning which has allowed us to survive and thrive as humans for thousands of years. However, as I’m sure many of you will agree, we hold beliefs about the world and ourselves that serve us no positive purpose whatsoever.
In fact, many of the beliefs we have simply hold us back from our true potential in life.
Beliefs such as “I’m not good enough,” “Nobody likes me,” “I’m ugly,” or even “I don’t deserve success” are rarely formed by us. Instead, they’re typically created from societal influences and feedback from others. If somebody’s appearance doesn’t match the cover of Cosmopolitan or GQ then they tend to think something must be wrong.
Based on this, there are three points I want to make.
3 Takeaways
If this article hasn’t already helped to shift your thinking and your current perspective on reality then let me share what I believe to be the most important things to take from this.
1. Keep An Open Mind – Once we have beliefs, we rarely want to change them. That’s one of the reasons we’ll argue till we’re blue in the face just so that someone understands that we were right and they were wrong.
The slogan behind the PluginID brand is ‘plug into your identity.’ At first glance, that might not mean much, although I have covered it multiple times throughout the site. The thing is, a lot of people have their own definition of the word identity. I was reading an article where a blogger I like described your identity as something that can change and something can be improved.
Instead, I view it as your core self. You without unnecessary social conditioning and limiting beliefs. I noticed myself thinking that this blogger was wrong simply because I didn’t want to lose my belief about the word. You have to accept that someone, somewhere, will think differently to you, and that’s OK. You should also try to keep an open mind about your current beliefs because just like for those who thought the world was flat, different ideas will come along.
2. Take in Other Views, But Give Priority to Your Own Experiences – If we took what we saw in the movies as fact and the way things are, life would be a lot differently. Firstly, there would be a lot of guys (or at least, a lot more) spending 6 months or more ‘wooing’ girls with presents and fancy restaurants just to get her into bed.
Secondly, there would be people not worried about going to jail because they could do undercover work for the FBI which would give them a get-out-of-jail card, Monopoly meets Fast and the Furious style.
At the end of the day, you’ll receive multiple perspectives for ways to go about pretty much everything in life. Of course, try new things, but give priority to your own firsthand experience over most advice out there.
3. Don’t Look to Others For How to Live Your Life – It doesn’t matter what I say, Brad Pitt says or even what Barack Obama has to tell you, it’s completely up to you how you want to live your life. Not even your friends or family should have a strong influence over which direction you want to take things.
If I look at the situation of most of my old school friends right now, they’re all in dead-end jobs or with university degrees they don’t care about and in a number of cases…still living off mum. It’s so easy to do what everyone else does, but simplicity doesn’t equal happiness.
If people do something and you like the idea of that path (i.e. Cloud Living) then go for it and try it out for yourself. But, if things don’t pan out the way you expect them to, feel free to switch things up. Never forget point 2 here: give priority to your own experiences.
I read on CNN today that if you purchase a copy of Cloud Living you’ll instantly become healthier and insanely more attractive. 97% of their readers agreed and backed that statement with logical quotes and mind-blowing ‘before and after’ pictures. ;)
If you enjoyed this post, I would appreciate if you share it on Twitter, Facebook or Delicious!
You know, I DID purchase Cloud Living and instantly became more attractive (guess I’d better update my gravatar!).
I love your point #3.. we each have to define, create and live our own lives. I can assure you that you and Obama have no power to sway my opinion (Brad Pitt, on the other hand…)
Hahah…do that!
It’s funny you should say that, my original version of that sentence was:
…but I thought I might be pushing the sarcasm a bit too far
I’ve smoked for four years and I stopped 3 years ago. I can say from a personal experience, that for me the advantages of stopping were enormous. Overall I agree that we have a number of beliefs based on common sense (remember the flat earth belief?) and you surely hit a nerve with this post. Great work.
Hey Oscar, I’m sure your bank balance was relieved
I did actually mention the flat earth one in the post. Thanks for stopping by!
Hi Glen. That’s a great point: these days most of our “knowledge” is second-hand at best, usually much worse. IMO, knowledge is just belief anyway, but first-hand experience is the most compelling evidence. I think sometimes we forget that it was the TV or a magazine that taught us what we think we know about something.
*runs off to buy some smokes*
Hey David, good to see you here!
Great point at the end there and hopefully what I’ve managed to convey here.
Hi, Glen,
Great post. I actually am a medical doctor and have looked at lungs ruined by smoking (at an autopsy, actually) and can attest by first-hand observation that cigarette smoking is indeed bad for your health (don’t worry, I got your sarcasm). I fully agree with your contention that we all allow others to do our thinking for us far too unconsciously and far too often. The best book I’ve ever read that had this as one of its themes was The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (not that I subscribe to her entire philosophy of Objectivism). I also wrote a post concerning this topic interested readers might want to check out at:
http://www.happinessinthisworld.com/2009/05/31/magical-thinking/
Also, for those still addicted to nicotine even after readying your post, I’d offer:
http://www.happinessinthisworld.com/2009/01/25/cigarette-smoking-is-caused-by-a-delusion/
Thanks, I think I started reading The Fountainhead (or it may have been her other book) but didn’t get very far into it. Based on your recommendation, I think I’ll give it another look
I saw that article on CNN too, although I thought it said 98%. I guess I could have misheard.
If we can understand that all beliefs are learned beliefs then we can realize we can change them.
I did have a belief though that Lee Westwood was going to choke in The Open yesterday simply because he’s English. I would like to see some contrary evidence in a major that would help me eradicate that belief.
Oh was it 98%? I’ll go back and check now…
Exactly what I expected to read from an NLP Guru
. Well said, thank you!
Haha, as I read I was thinking… can this be serious? And actually by the end of the article I’m in agreement with you that there are A LOT of beliefs that we have that come directly from social conditioning…
I personally never have done any research on whether smoking is bad for you or not, but I believed that it is 100%.
I probably won’t change my opinion about smoking because I personally don’t want to get into it.. and my wife would be very unhappy as well. Also, there seems to be a positive correlation between people in my family who have only BEEN around smokers all their lives and asthma so I think I’ll stick to my opinion on this one… the premise that smoking is bad for you just “works” better for my life lol
But you did bring up great points… I’ll definitely have to start challenging more of my “common” beliefs to see what I can discover
I’m glad you say that Jonathan, it means my message came through like I hoped
I definitely wouldn’t think that smoking is healthy, but to be fair, that judgement is 99% based on the feedback from others, not what I have experienced personally.
Just food for thought!
Bravo–anything that forces people to challenge their own assumptions is definitely a good thing. Great controversial hook to the article—it’s so easy to push the outrage button, but much harder to orchestrate controlled outrage and reign it in at the end, which you’ve done quite skillfully here…
J.
Thanks Joe, I was hoping this didn’t come across as *just* a hook but actually pulled everything together at the end.
Of course, you worded that much better than I could!
Thanks for stopping by
Whaddabout hubbly?
more of “the good stuff”
haha.
dude. funny thing is: there’s this astronomy at uct who actually is 94 and smokes 2 packs a day. convinced he’s actually a robot.
really liked the way you wrote this. was smiling like a crazy homeless guy all way through.
so true about beliefs. remember a course at uni about logic and knowledge. main premise was that people make up a belief, or take it on and THEN reason why they have it. if that didn’t make sense, it’s cos it duddn’t make any sense.
the worst part of taking notice of all these “findings” is that they’re changing all the time and are being put out there in order to get attention.
really like the way you swung it back to GQ / Cosmo type stupidity.
number 3 was most key for me. busy working on a post tentatively called “Social Benchmarking, Guessing Games and The Beyond WIthin” that kinda comes off the review i wrote for cloud living – where i wanted to read what everyone else had written and base my review off that. as though they knew something i didn’t.
i also saw that bit on CNN. spooky.
haha keep well bra. and keep the more personal-humour-injected posts comin’
aly – unleashreality
I don’t *know* whether smoking is good or bad for your health – though personally I believe it to be bad (evidence backs this up).
But that really isn’t the point…
The point is that many people smoke because they’re *addicted* to it. An addiction is never a good thing, because it means that it is no longer it is something they *choose* to do.
It doesn’t matter whether the addiction is physical (they get jittery without the nicotine) or mental (they feel they cannot cope without the cigarette break), it is still *bad*.
Hi Mark,
I’m not sure that you got the point of the article. I’m pretty sure that a smoking addiction is bad for you, but that is not even the point. The point is that we hold many beliefs that aren’t our own, and we should be aware of it.
It’s really funny you mention this. I remember thinking a while back that maybe the reason people get so many bad things happening to them from smoking is because their subconscious has been programmed with so much negative association to smoking. All the ads point to cancer and all these horrible things. Obviously, I don’t think smoking is good. But, I think it was a hell of a way for you to make your point.
I liked Alex’s point on #3. We have a tendency to let others tell us how to live our lives. I graduated from business school and there is a standard measure of success in business schools, what company you work for, and how high the job pays. It’s really interesting to note that it is really just dictated by what other people think and getting their approval. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, self actualizing people are independent of the good opinion of other people.
This article is utterly false Glen, of course smoking is bad for your health. Do some research!
Haha, just kidding. Interesting ideas here. “Lungs shrivel after years of smoking because their ability to absorb oxygen from the air has greatly increased so they don’t need to be as big.” – haha, it’s nice to know you can bring the humour from time-to-time.
keep well
I thought that one was quite ingenius
Yet again a great post Glen.
When starting to read it i was getting somewhat aggravated.
Being a smoker and haven given up recently, i was losing the ‘thread’
Reading thru the whole post you have again ‘hit the nail on the head’
I gave up smoking recently using a well known method (will not advertise),,,,and the premise behind their reasoning is that which you have stated on your post,,,, social conditioning.
Having taken this onboard i quit smoking overnight with very little effort.
On top of this i became aware of many other aspects of my life, personality, that have been molded by socialite influences.
This post really does dig in deep to the ‘Plug Into Yrself’ title.
H.
Hey H,
Thanks for stopping by. I’m glad you hung in there to see me turning the article around
Congratulations on quitting
Yeah baby…smoking is good for you:)
Interesting post and catchy title:)
I like it, and it’s so true how so many people have herd mentality and just adopt a mindset because it is popular belief.
I’m guilty of doing this at times too.
Because of exceptions like the chain smoker who reaches an age of 94, people seem to believe that smoking is not as bad or even good, and that if one man can smoke like a chimney and live to 94, so can everyone else…except for that fact that the majority of people suffer some sort of cancer and die way before they would have if they did not smoke.
I think a good way of preventing this kind of way of herd mentality living is that when you hear a belief everyone has about something, is to do your own research, thourougly if needed, and come to the conclusion if this belief is worth adopting yes or no.
That way, even if the belief is wrong, you can say you did the research and you base your opinion on xyz and not just because Mr jones across the road believes this so therefore it must be true:P
Keep living the clouds
Amsterdam09!
Diggy
If we listen too much to others and live life according to what they tell us, most probably we will end up somewhere where we don’t want to be. We do need to train up our courage so that we can be brave enough to make choices that are different from others and for our best interest.
Cheers,
Vincent
Good post, Glen. Keeping an open, flexible mind is so vital.
Nice Glen!
Clove cigarettes are no match!
There is so much perception out there and young people pick up on it quicker and easier nowadays.
You might enjoy a book by the Australian commentator Hugh McKay who wrote a book called “Why Don’t People Listen?”. Part of his message is that you need to be confident to hear messages different to their own. I think this adds an extra dimension to your post.
He identifies a number of other reasons that stop people being able to consider different points of view.
I think people who tend have a hard time viewing things from multiple perspectives have a deep-seated fear of being wrong–especially when it comes to issues such as religion, politics, or anything that they were trained to be emotional about as they were growing up.
Oh, and I’m definitely thinking about buying Cloud Living. And if you keep promoting it as effectively as you are, you just might break me.
Funny post!!!!
I had smoked for 30 years and just quit cold turkey about 6 months ago…hardest damn thing I ever have done. I am glad I did but I hate to say it, I enjoyed smoking and I miss it. I wonder still if the urge ever gets better and have asked myself, has it stressed me more from not smoking? Who knows…lolol
Hey Renee,
I love your enthusiasm! Very well done for quitting after 30 years, I can imagine that was tough.
Who knows?
- Glen
I’m not sure if it gets better I sure hope so. I quit 7 months ago and still want to smoke when I get stressed which is very often. I quit because I have emphysema. I gained somewhere around 30 pounds and now I have diabetes. Talk about stress. I feel worse then I ever have.
I would say that over 99% of our knowledge is second-hand. There’s just too much to know for us to get it all first hand. Let’s take the flat earth idea – for probably 99% of the population we’ve never seen the curvature of the Earth with our own eyes so therefore how do we know it’s true?
Or even take the rising of the sun each morning – habit tells us that it will rise every morning, but unless we are out in space watching first hand the world rotating, we can’t know for sure.
The trick is to learn what to accept as a valid guess (like the sun rising each morning) and what to question!
When I read the beginning of the article, I was like “What the heck?! Has Glen lost his mind?” Then I continued on and now I understand what you mean about only taking your opinion from society and not from your own personal experience.
On a side note, I honestly don’t see what the big deal is about smoking anyway. The whole smoking habit is based on people telling other people that “It’s cool and it’s fun”. Next thing you know, lung cancer due to smoking is all over the news. Save for medicinal marijuana, smoking doesn’t really have any medical benefits. I suppose you say it’s relaxing, but it’s obviously not the best way to relax.
Why do people spend all this time and effort just to quit if it’s so “relaxing”? I would relax by reading a good book or getting a massage. I don’t think anyone would get addicted to either of those things.
Again, in regards to ‘following the ways of society’, people need to test out their own hypotheses before just instantly accepting what media tells them. If there was no research or scientific studies involved, and all of a sudden some news caster exclaims, “Ipods are so cool and everybody wants one!”, does that mean you want one? No, it doesn’t. If you have played around with one and you would still want it regardless of what the media says, that’s okay.
Good post, Glen. People should wake up and smell their own opinion.
Love this post! Also reminded me of Eckhart Tolle’s saying that maybe addictions (drink, drugs, etc) are helping people stay in check. What would they do without them? If not in higher consciousness, and if not using opiates, they might do more damage unknowingly.
Plus, there’s the whole judgment angle. If you’re not a smoker yourself, why concern yourself with the health of others? Look at whatever is unhealthy or addictive in you, if it really bothers you.
Really loved your takeaways! I screw up the most when I try to follow other paths that aren’t working for me.
I know that part of this comment was directed at me so I just want to say:
I understand why people smoke cigars. I have friends who smoke cigars and I understand the appeal. But why do people smoke cigarettes?
And in response to your judgment question:
If I’m not a smoker, why should I concern myself? Simply because I want to. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion.
This is a great article on social conditioning. Your points about beliefs and choosing what we believe in are on point. The next article on my site is actually going to be on social conditioning. Should be up in a few days…
It comes down to finding your OWN facts and making your OWN decisions based on your OWN experiences versus solely absorbing the influence of others. You use an interesting model to describe that idea with your post on smoking, and I’d have to say I agree with your points completely.
Of course, far too many people rely on others telling them what to believe instead of using their intuition and intelligence, bu hopefully we can being to change that
Great read! I was definitely sucked into reading this when I heard cigarettes were “good”. The defensive mechanism in my mind kicked in and I wanted to read what you had to say and share my perspectives on it, but you made your point and had me listening to some great insight regarding the media, society, and its influence. All this is part of sociology 101, but we tend to overlook it and forget; just like many other things in life. You should always learn to think for yourself. A mind should roam freely to learn and encounter new ideas. I enjoyed reading your post and congratulations on your one year mark! (=
As taney said above, the title of this post is extremely eye-catching, congrats for the great idea.
I wrote a post about the inner mechanism that kicks in when we hear about the appreciation of “little sweet things”. I think a very similar thing happens in that area too, many of us “appreciate little things” because we are told to do so, and not because we feel so.
I cited and linked this post because I felt like it’s relevant to my article.
I’d be glad if you’d read it and would tell me what you think about it.
if you have enought money and time and people and focus all your engery on fiber bars, i’m sure you could find a way they are bad for you too!
everything is in moderation.
I’m a smoker of 15 +years i went in to get an xray on my lungs per doc. she wanted me to stop smoking, and wanted to get the xray to help show me how bad my lungs are.
i asked the lady behind the xray machine if she could tell if i was a smoker. she said she can’t release any info! i said that’s cool i understand but i won’t say anything! so the lady told me your lungs look fine. as if i was a non smoker.
so i spoke a pack a day for 15 years and my lungs look normal! WTF i don’t get it.
most of the time it’s a hand full of cases where neglection and lack of proper care of self .. Like the dude who lost his chin.. for mouth cancer. i felt bad but he had blisters in his mouth for over a year before telling anyone. no crap if you ignore it it won’t go away!
so instead they blamed smoking and chew. really for losing his chin… what if he got those spots looked at right when he saw them. would he of lost his chin? i dont think so! but it’s all the smokers fault!
i think it’s silly tho i don’t think ti’s great for you. but i don’t think it’s as bad as others think either
Great post, Glen. Just discovered your blog today. Very impressive.
I totally agreed with your point about not looking to others on how to live your life. I also think people will criticise you regardless, if you break out of the normal expected direction in life. That shouldn’t stop you doing what you want to do.
As I say, criticism from others is a necessary step on the path to success.
LOL. Other things that are good for you include choking yourself and drinking arsenic!