Smoking’s a Good Habit

The Smok­ing Habit

Yes, you heard me right, smok­ing is a good habit. I envy smok­ers. They’ve fig­ured out a way to reg­u­larly take a break in their hec­tic lives. And it’s often a social break at that.

It’s not that I think we should all take up smok­ing – that will likely hurt our lungs and our health and the health of  those around us. But the aspect of smok­ing where peo­ple stop to do some­thing plea­sur­able for them­selves is a good habit.

Too often we get caught up in the prover­bial rat race, chas­ing after some stinky piece of cheese that we’re not that into any way. We go, go, go until we get sick or even suf­fer an injury. It’s just not healthy. In fact, the stress this lifestyle causes could wield more harm on our well­be­ing than inhal­ing nico­tine smoke.

Smok­ing isn’t quite the right way to go, though. Beyond the harm­ful effects of nico­tine, breaks that are the result of an addic­tive chem­i­cal crav­ing doesn’t exactly empower us. How­ever, non-smokers can stand to learn from those that stop to puff a cig­a­rette sev­eral times a day.

Learn­ing from Smokers

Here are some take­aways from the smok­ing habit we can apply to help pro­mote a healthy lifestyle.

15 Min­utes Won’t Kill Anyone

Rarely will peo­ple die or jobs be lost over 15 mins (I’ll exempt ER and police and fire per­son­nel some of the time). Sched­ul­ing breaks – real breaks, not check­ing email or voice­mail – is a great way to ensure that we recharge our­selves. Our bod­ies are not designed to keep a fast pace all day long. We need moments of rest, of depar­ture, in order to get our energy back up. Oth­er­wise, the stress could will lit­er­ally kill us.

> Try block­ing out a 15 minute break on your cal­en­dar, with a reminder. Treat that block of time as sacred as a board meet­ing. Leave your desk and go some­where dif­fer­ent. Even walk­ing a few floors up and down in the stair­well will give you a new per­spec­tive and help brush away some of the cob­webs that have formed in your brain.

Get Out­side

Smok­ers may not like the non-smoking laws that have forced them onto the streets in numer­ous cities around the world, but the result of “fresh” air and a changed envi­ron­ment can have some very pos­i­tive results. By chang­ing our set­tings we also change our minds. Phys­i­cally remov­ing our­selves from our place of work and walk­ing out­side not only gives us some exer­cise, it also pro­vides our mind with all new stim­uli. This stim­u­la­tion helps us think more clearly and creatively.

> Instead of just going to the break room and get­ting more cof­fee or some M&Ms, on your next break wan­der oustide. Stretch your legs, arms, and lungs (best done away from smoke). Try and hear, smell, feel, and maybe even taste your sur­round­ings in a new way. You’d be amazed at how refreshed you will feel. And it doesn’t have to take much time. You’ll also feel more con­nected with the real world, not just what now will seem like the small world of work.

Chat About Non-Work Stuff

We’ve all seen how fel­low smok­ers form spe­cial bonds and friend­ships. That’s because they have an obvi­ous com­mon inter­est and some idle time to chat. While there must be a lot of work-related con­ver­sa­tion, there’s also talk­ing about the lat­est game, what hap­pened on Lost last night, and how women are wear­ing ever shorter skirts these days.

> Sched­ule a reg­u­lar walk with a co-worker or two to gain the same and more pos­i­tive results. Talk about your fam­ily, upcom­ing vaca­tion plans, a book you’re read­ing. Remem­ber that you have pas­sions and inter­ests that go way beyond what you do at work. Why leave all those skills and hob­bies at home? They are an impor­tant part of who you are.

Make Like a Smoker and Get Outta There!

While smok­ing is not a healthy habit to start or con­tinue, tak­ing a break from work to get out­side, expe­ri­ence a new envi­ron­ment, and con­nect with peo­ple on a non-work level is quite healthy. So learn from smok­ers and start work­ing a break into your sched­ule. You’ll be more health­ier for it.

What do you think?