Occasional smoking and lung care

[Yi Tao]

2 weeks ago I decided to renew my lucid dreaming practice. I thought I would try the wake and back to bed routine. I get up at 4:30am to dream journal, walk, qi gong and relax with the StressEraser. Back to bed by 5:30am and sleep for 90 more minutes. I'm fighting with the monkey, but I'm making progress.

 

I'm also investigating sleep and dream supplements. Calcium before bed is supposed to be good, so is b6. There are essential proteins which deepen sleep and promote healing. There is also a dream herb used by ancient shaman, who used it to make a tea and smoke.

 

A few years ago I quit smoking cigarettes because I couldn't stand the opposing duality with breath-work. Now I'm considering the health risks of smoking again. Not habitually like cigarettes, but occasionally as an aid to dream work.

 

Does anyone know of specific practices that will promote lung repair and healing? Is there anything I should avoid, such as bellows?

Edited September 10, 2007 by Yi Tao

[karen]

There are a lot of ways to support the lungs by balancing things - moving energy around in various ways. Herbal lung tonics - Avena/Plantago compound by Herbalist & Alchemist is one of many good ones. And Buteyko breathing is an excellent practice. The urge to smoke is sometimes a need to correct a breathing imbalance.

 

That's always good to do in any case, but smoking also creates a different type of energetic disturbance, a trauma that can't be removed by those methods. Since you've smoked before, the disturbance is still there.

To target the deeper disturbance, it would be good to use a potentized remedy (what people commonly call homeopathic).

 

If you can find the remedy Tabacum, in a medium potency like 30C, that would be great. And because cigarettes have lots of other stuff in them besides tobacco, the remedy Nux vomica is a great general cleanser, also in a 30C.

 

The lungs are about taking in the fullness of life. Blockages there can be about feeling emotionally smothered or stifled in some way. There can be chronic grief from fear of taking in life energy. This is just a bare outline, but usually when there are lung issues, or someone has lung issues on their mind, they can relate to that in some way.

 

You could try smoking ceremonial herbs if you're feeling drawn to that, but I think the key is to try to understand what is really behind the desire

 

-Karen

[Bob H]

A lot depends on what you intend to achieve. I smoked cigarettes for over 25 years, quit, then five years later got lung cancer and lost most the right lung. Of course, I didn't return to cigarettes because even if the cancer doesn't return I'm still very susceptible to emphysema and other COPDs.

 

After a couple of years still feeling that nagging pull I discovered that it was the nicotine and aromas that I craved, since I'd gotten past the "habit" part of cigarette smoking and thought cigarettes smelled and tasted pretty bad by then. I allowed myself a briar pipe (well, you really need several) and some top quality natural tobacco, and I do not inhale. The mouth absorbs the nicotine from the stronger pipe tobacco, and an occasional exhale through the nose allows appreciation of the complex flavors of a well-made pipe blend. Most of the "drug store tobaccos" have unknown additives and the tastes are anything but subtle, but there are many quality tobacconists who will gladly mix a natural blend to suit your tastes. Now, there are even organically raised pipe tobaccos.

 

I enjoy watching the smoke as well, and the whole unhurried ceremony is calming and centering, and I believe of very little detriment to my health - considering that I only smoke maybe once or twice a week, and then only for a few minutes. It's almost a "tea ritual for one" for me. It takes practice and skill to pack the pipe properly, light it well, and keep it burning without overheating and scalding your tongue. You can get so lost in the process that when you finally are ready to ease back in your chair for the smoke, you're in a state of calm bliss.

 

I don't know what herbs you are considering smoking, but wouldn't they be absorbed in the same way, without taking them into the lungs?