Why do I Continuously Harm Myself and those I Love?

So, I came across an empty packet of cigarettes, and I couldn’t help noticing the bold letters printed across the front:

‘Smoking seriously harms you and others around you.’

I live in Ukraine (Eastern Europe) and anyone familiar with the lifestyle here would tell you that it is a common thing for people to smoke.

If you are walking, you would not have to trek up to 5 minutes before you would see someone smoking.

In short, smoking is a common practice.

As I looked at the packet of cigarettes and considered the words printed in large letters, two things puzzled me:

I do not know how cigarettes are packaged in other countries, but I know that here in Ukraine, every packet of cigarettes sold commercially has this tag on it.

So before every smoker pulls out a cigarette, he/she rips off this warning and throws it away.

And basically, that is what we all do when doing things we know are harmful: we throw caution to the wind, tear down every inhibition, and consume death. And, in the process, we sear our consciences with a hot iron.

After all these thoughts ran through my mind, I decided that it would be good to educate myself on the dangers of smoking.

Maybe the facts would not be that alarming…

Maybe it is not that big a deal…

Checking up on the danger of smoking, you will find that smoking causes:

Cancer;

Heart disease;

Stroke;

Lung disease;

Diabetes,

…and many other illnesses.

The facts also suggest that secondhand smoke exposure contributes to about 41000 deaths among non-smoking adults and 400 deaths in infants each year.

This is bad enough without even considering the whole host of ailment that results from smoking to the one smoking.

The human instinct is to preserve life, but somehow, things have gone so wrong and perverted that humanity has been robbed of this instinct.

With this condition, it is only fitting that chaos and social injustice is rampant everywhere.

That’s the case with everything around us. I believe that even if the danger of the little acts that we indulge (stubborn habits) is boldly spelled out and clear to see: if all evil practices came with a tag showing how harmful it is, people would still run headlong.

Examine yourself. Are you any better? What bad habits do you pamper that you know will destroy you?

I leave you to draw your conclusions.

Nevertheless, whichever way you chose to conclude, I would have fulfilled my goal for writing this if you are genuinely starting to ask yourself this question:

Why do I continue doing things that dangerously harm me and those around me?

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