There have been many such tips and most do not work. I have seen one trick work.. but it's not a trick actually. It's the basic story of life, humans work when kicked hard:)
A stroke usually leads to people quitting smoking and drinking; although a few play peek-a-boo as far as alcohol is concerned, consuming wine etc in small quantities. Few, if any, are fortunate to quit the smokey way without being kicked very hard...
I would know because I did learn the hard way... I never touched a bad thing till I learnt it the macho way at National Defence Academy (NDA) when I was all but 18. But I could not give it up for 15 years despite a hard fought struggle. Rather, the issue got compounded with alcohol about which I was always in denial. At my peak performance, I was doing 20 sticks of puff and 360 ml of spirits on a good day (very macho, eh!).
One fine day, I got kicked hard in the form of sustaining a severe spinal injury from impact at the sports field (I am forever grateful to nature that it happened). I was diagnosed with multiple PIVD (with disc herniation at L4-5 & C6-7 and nerve root compression at both places leading to severe chest pains, shooting pains in left hand & leg, and wasting of left calf muscles and much more), I was admitted for spinal surgery but escaped by a hair's breadth when I had a chance encounter the midnight before surgery with a cardio-thoracic surgeon who came in as my room mate in the military hospital from a freak eye injury while driving a scooter while he was on leave. The surgeon, despite his own misery, took interest in my case and checked me up thoroughly at mid-night and advised that spinal surgery may ruin my life further. He advised me to try conservative cures. I absconded from the hospital and ultimately found refuge in National Institute of Naturopathy (NIN), Pune where I underwent a month of Yoga while receiving naturopathy treatment (mud bath, steam treatment, oil treatment, magnetic therapy etc). The yoga package cost me Rs 100/- along with a free subscription of NIN's monthly magazine "Nisargopchar'; the best 100 bucks I would ever spend in this life and beyond, inflation adjusted. The down to earth un-hep young Yoga teacher at NIN (trained for years at the Govt Yoga Institute in Lonavla) advised me that Yoga was not a set of exercises but an eight fold way of life where cleansing one's system of toxic substances was the first step; so my smoking & drinking had to be left if I wanted the Yoga sessions to be of any use. Kicked badly as I was, I was primed for trying any advice and this sounded very logical...
I could feel the result almost instantaneously - my severe chest pain vanished in 3-4 days, the shooting pains in my left hand and leg subsided soon thereafter. My wasted left calf muscles came back to shape after a year. And for about 2 years I continued having Homeopathy sweet capsules from late Dr. Merchant to manage my pain at a sublime level. Of course, my military colleagues became upset with me for not being social enough without smoking and drinking, but by then I was beyond care from social acceptance and peer pressure. I started indulging in things that I loved to do like painting and singing. Life has been different ever since; positive and defining changes have become the norm.. and I am loving it.
Here's wishing that the deserving ones gets kicked like me and the smarter ones get it even without the kicks:)
A stroke usually leads to people quitting smoking and drinking; although a few play peek-a-boo as far as alcohol is concerned, consuming wine etc in small quantities. Few, if any, are fortunate to quit the smokey way without being kicked very hard...
I would know because I did learn the hard way... I never touched a bad thing till I learnt it the macho way at National Defence Academy (NDA) when I was all but 18. But I could not give it up for 15 years despite a hard fought struggle. Rather, the issue got compounded with alcohol about which I was always in denial. At my peak performance, I was doing 20 sticks of puff and 360 ml of spirits on a good day (very macho, eh!).
One fine day, I got kicked hard in the form of sustaining a severe spinal injury from impact at the sports field (I am forever grateful to nature that it happened). I was diagnosed with multiple PIVD (with disc herniation at L4-5 & C6-7 and nerve root compression at both places leading to severe chest pains, shooting pains in left hand & leg, and wasting of left calf muscles and much more), I was admitted for spinal surgery but escaped by a hair's breadth when I had a chance encounter the midnight before surgery with a cardio-thoracic surgeon who came in as my room mate in the military hospital from a freak eye injury while driving a scooter while he was on leave. The surgeon, despite his own misery, took interest in my case and checked me up thoroughly at mid-night and advised that spinal surgery may ruin my life further. He advised me to try conservative cures. I absconded from the hospital and ultimately found refuge in National Institute of Naturopathy (NIN), Pune where I underwent a month of Yoga while receiving naturopathy treatment (mud bath, steam treatment, oil treatment, magnetic therapy etc). The yoga package cost me Rs 100/- along with a free subscription of NIN's monthly magazine "Nisargopchar'; the best 100 bucks I would ever spend in this life and beyond, inflation adjusted. The down to earth un-hep young Yoga teacher at NIN (trained for years at the Govt Yoga Institute in Lonavla) advised me that Yoga was not a set of exercises but an eight fold way of life where cleansing one's system of toxic substances was the first step; so my smoking & drinking had to be left if I wanted the Yoga sessions to be of any use. Kicked badly as I was, I was primed for trying any advice and this sounded very logical...
I could feel the result almost instantaneously - my severe chest pain vanished in 3-4 days, the shooting pains in my left hand and leg subsided soon thereafter. My wasted left calf muscles came back to shape after a year. And for about 2 years I continued having Homeopathy sweet capsules from late Dr. Merchant to manage my pain at a sublime level. Of course, my military colleagues became upset with me for not being social enough without smoking and drinking, but by then I was beyond care from social acceptance and peer pressure. I started indulging in things that I loved to do like painting and singing. Life has been different ever since; positive and defining changes have become the norm.. and I am loving it.
Here's wishing that the deserving ones gets kicked like me and the smarter ones get it even without the kicks:)
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