Wondering when you'd get here Treadly :}

I couldn't let this one go Cogee

For me, not drinking was hard enough. If I had to quit smoking at the same time, I don't think I could have stayed sober.

I think there are people who can quit drinking and smoking at the same time and there are those (like me) who have to take one addiction at a time.

For me, breast cancer encouraged me to stop smoking. But I have to be honest and share that it is hard.

Thanks for letting me share.

I just noticed last night that in my home group there are no people with 25 years or more who smoke, but there are several with 10-20 who don't look so good

I can not give up both. I will crash and burn with with both. So one addiction at a time with me. First no alcohol, then i will give up the ciggies.

People will only quit smoking when they are ready to do so. Sometimes, people's smoking increases when they first get sober, but I do not have anything to say to my sponsees about smoiking - my own sponsor smokes and although I would hate to see her lose her health because of her smoking, it's not my business!

If your sponsees were smoking pot would that be your business?

Can you be spiritually fit and smoke?

I guess thats why they say "progress, not perfection". In a perfect world, we would be 100% physically and emotionally sober. It would be a good thing to quit smoking tobacco as soon as you could after getting sober. Along with any other excesses.
This is from personal experience. I didn't quit. Now I have end-stage emphysema. I get to set an example at meetings. I can't talk well and am on O2 - but several people have stopped because of me tipping the scales. Fear is a great persuader, isn't it?
"We will only change when the pain of change becomes less than the pain of staying the same"...

Sorry to hear this Denny. Not the kind of example we'd choose to set is it? But a great sober example I'm sure. Heard someone say this week, the strength of a man is not the weight he can lift, but the burden he can carry...

I had someone ask me once if I were spiritually fit, why would I still smoke? Seems to be like an intellectual way of trying to understand it, not one borne from experience. Either way, it's not been my experience. Many things have changed, some haven't. Helps me to understand that first step and how it relates to Alcohol...

P

I am also sorry to hear you are ill Dennygene and I totally agree with you about progress, not perfection. I am not a smoker so it is a non issue for me but a lot of the women I try to help are - doesn't stop them having the necessary spiritual awakening, in my experience.

I wouldn't sponsor someone who was smoking pot though - first I have no experience myself with that and secondly I don't believe spiritual wellness is attainable for someone who is abusing mind altering substances.

That is very different from people who are on essential medication as prescribed by doctors - there is no issue there at all. If a person really wants to be sober and living a spiritual life I will do all I can to be of help on their journey.

Paul -- I used to smoke. Personally, I never would consider myself to be "spiritually fit" if I was drinking or smoking, but that it just me.
I knew that smoking was a very dangerous substance to use but I smoked anyway, doing harm to my body. Knowingly doing harm to myself is not inline with spirituality for me.. But I suspect I don't think of spirituality the same way people in AA talk about "spiritual awakening" and "spiritually fit." Different set of experiences and understanding of what that means, I suppose. No worries.

Denny, I am sorry your health is bad, but happy that you are sober and so at peace with life despite your health challenges. Hugs your way.

Yes Jersey - have just picked up the ciggies after 3 months off. This time, quitting wasn't even about the health question...I noticed it was stopping me from being a part of life. Going for a crafty fag instead of putting my hand out and talking to someone...something I am trying to let go of, but important to me to know I'm not perfect, plenty of work to be done!! A work in progress, try to do the things that matter in my life on a daily basis...

Years ago I used to be a bit of an armchair buddhist and got confused around this same area, I think. I was trying to get 'enlightened', perfect and, disgusted with myself that I couldn't get there I covered up my many sins and eventually gave up on the whole sorry mess :o)

P

No exj there is only a small % of those who tend to over inflate the spiritual infatuations with language that does not even fit into spirituality as its been experienced by those who have practiced it for three thousand years or so in written texts .....instead of micro managing it As I think we see it today. I'm glad I let go of that thin reeds of existence at least as a way of feeling one up on , or secure with a destination ,instead of continuing on a journey with lots of guide posts as a vantage point to da trip lol! No worries is My attitude. But it sure does cause folks to constantly question themselves:(That kind of language inundated with a ill suited sense of accomplishment or should I say belief in all that new aggee stuff starting in 1930's or So following the end of prohibition it is very misleading and takes a not so curious or adventuress mind :( I dont really think Harry Trumans "the buck stops here fits at all either " far to neat and tidy......nooooooooooo
Billy

Fair enough, Billy. Good to know that the (mis)use of those terms is, as you put it so well, limited to a few, "who tend to over inflate the spiritual infatuations with language that does not even fit into spirituality as its been experienced by those who have practiced it for three thousand years or so..."

Paul -- you quit drinking, and for three months you quit smoking. You got it in you to quit the cigs for good!