How I stopped smoking

I smoked for about seven years

Estelle Dauchy

I started at 15, when I was in high school. At that age, smoking is something that's common, and it's done very innocently. You imagine that smoking gives you a certain importance, especially when you meet other young people who smoke. Also, there's the idea that doing something forbidden, breaking rules a little bit, is fun.

Also, at 15, there is a certain pressure from friends. You're part of a certain group and they offer you a cigarette. It's hard to say no. At that age, I wasn't very confident about myself. I didn't have a clear standard. So I started smoking because they offered me cigarettes. “A cigarette once in a while won't hurt me,” I thought.

But later in high school, I believed that smoking was a way to compensate for the stress and fatigue of tests and exams. Because I was a hard worker, I felt the cigarette was helping me stay up longer, and was giving me the strength to work harder. Also, as a young woman, I had the impression that smoking was helping me stay slim by cutting my appetite. And the longer I smoked, the more positive things I seemed to find about it.

When I started college, however, I started to become really interested in Christian Science. And what urged me to stop smoking was the idea that I couldn't reach a certain level of spiritual understanding if I continued to attach myself so strongly to something as material as a cigarette. The idea of smoking became no longer acceptable to me. Not because I thought it was bad for my body but — most of all — because I felt I couldn't progress spiritually as long as I believed something material was doing me good.

At that point, I was smoking a pack a day. It took an enormous amount of time and thought. You're constantly thinking about when you're going to buy a new pack. You count the number of cigarettes you have left. You plan what you would do if the store where you buy them is closed. Smoking becomes a way of life.

Bottom line, it's a mental dependence, much more than a physical one. But once I detached myself from the idea that smoking could be a support and a help in my life, I realized that it wasn't going to be a problem to stop smoking.

Still, I had to overcome a sense of being “a sinner,” of being unworthy even to pray. I felt guilty, and therefore excluded from divine benedictions. But gradually I understood that the link between God and me was not cut. My simple desire to progress, to do good, was already linking me to God, I wasn't lost. I wasn't alone. A passage from Science and Health was of immense support to me. It reads: “The relations of God and man, divine Principle and idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine order or spiritual law, in which God and all that He creates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged in its eternal history”(pp. 470-471 ).

I did not have any problem stopping smoking. And then my life became much more fulfilling. This was a wonderful surprise! I have more energy. I've rediscovered certain sports activities that I had totally abandoned. I get up much earlier and concentrate much better on my work. And my thought isn't focused on cigarettes. It's incredible, the number of activities I've gotten involved in since I stopped smoking!

However, I started to gain weight. That led me to take a deeper look at my relationship with God. I realized that God could not on one hand bless me and on the other hand condemn me. Mary Baker Eddy says in Science and Health, “No power can withstand divine Love” (p. 224 ). I chose to be grateful for everything God gave me. I quickly lost the extra weight.

It's just wonderful. When you confide in God, all things are possible. Really — all things.:)

Estelle Dauchy
Paris, France

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