You Still Are Second-Hand Smoking Virtually Everywhere

Hey everybody. Stop for a moment and think: When was the last time you smelled cigarette smoke? I'm sorry to say this, but you were smoking it. You are not simply smelling a memory or vague impression. I've taken a measuring tape and calculated tobacco smell coming  from over 110 FEET from an outdoor picnic table near my apartment. There was no detectable wind that day either.

 I was astounded. Could I really be smelling it? Or was my olfactory sense surpassing that of a bloodhound? Well, apparently I'm human.

Folks, how more clearly can I make the case for a tobacco-free world? There is no telling how far away I can smell smoke. I simply ran out of measuring tape at a hundred feet and had to calculate the extra ten feet placing distance markers. The truth is that there is no safe distance from which we can smoke tobacco.

Here in Ottawa new legislation was passed: link to smoke-free outdoor spaces I'm delighted that beaches and parks are smoke-free, as well as all municipal building property, such as libraries, community centres and City Hall. Except the irony is that...

I may spend one hour a year on a beach, yet I and my cat must eat, sleep, meditate etc in my apartment that I call home bombarded with other tenants smoke. I am appalled that my personal living space is inundated with the 7,000+ noxious chemicals.

In 2012 an elderly friend of mine from church told me all the tenants in her building received a letter politely requesting that all smokers buy an air purifier and weatherstrip their door at their expense so as not to disturb other tenants. Now in 2014 I ask myself: When will every single apartment building get on the ball and properly seal leaks between apartments that expose us to deadly second-hand smoke?  I'll be devoting an entire post concerning apartment second-hand smoke.

Here is a short cartoon video to  inspire us to quit smoking

Don't Miss Her Wedding 

by gifted animator and musician Santhosh Christudas

Freedom From The Mob (Mentality)

Hello and welcome to Freedom Fridays here on NikkiDiamondTobaccoFreeWorld. Today's post is about freeing yourself from the mob mentality. Too often in life we go along with the crowd, with whatever anyone else is doing without really thinking. Sometimes being in a huge mass of people is great, like a wothwhile demonstration or rock concert or festive occasion. There is power in numbers as the Canadian geese fly in V formation. The aerodynamic pattern of the V helps the geese fly faster and they each take turns leading to not get tired out.

What I am talking about today is the anonymous, senseless, faceless acts of smokers that gets buried under the mob. Because a huge crowd of people turn out at a fair or concert and because hundreds or thousands of people are milling around in an anonymous fashion the individual acts get overshadowed by the rationalization of, "Well, everyone is leaving their cigarette butts on the ground. So it doesn't matter whether or not I litter along."

Another example is when out in public and there are clearly visible, prominently displayed no smoking signs, yet there is a huge crowd of people and invariably one or ten people amongst several hundred are smoking anyways. A sort of robot-like trance comes over the majority of the crowd. Like a Do Not Disturb the person who is disturbing us by smoking out of place, because, well, that's not our job, or it doesn't concern us, or we are not really bothered by smoke.

In some countries a small child gets run over by a car. No one stops to offer help or even notices. Friends, you know how you can free yourself from the mob mentality? Or the anonymous crowd mentality? Take action. Gently. Politely. But speak up calmly and briefly. There is power in numbers. But that power should never rationalize or render invisible any harm done to anyone. Have a safe Friday. Set yourself and others free from harm.

Can't Sleep? Go Bananas!

Good morning and may you savour delectable ripe yellow bananas for your breakie. You never have more than one a day? O.K. There are few foods I cherish more than the mighty banana. True story. I went to a job interview. Short and sweet. She asked what was my favourite fruit. Right away I said, "Banana!" She smiled and asked why. I said because bananas are cheerful because of their bright yellow colour, and they are easy to open, and a great source of energy. She hired me.

You know that famous question we asked each other as kids. If you could be an animal, what animal would you be? I'd be a snake. I'll blog why later. Stay tuned. I wanna ask you as I ask myself. If you could be a fruit, which fruit would you be? I'd proudly be a banana! Because no other fruit so resembles my power animal, the snake! I just love how a banana is shaped in a u. U! You! The other. The one we all need to relate to, to bounce ideas off, to form a marriage, a family, a team, an organization. The banana is such a powerful delicious symbol. We need the yellow warmth of the sun. We love yellow flowers. We are crazy about yellow smiley faces, yellow highlighters make us retain the studying better than any colour. Yellow is nowhere so amazingly apparent in nature than bananas except lemons. But lemon is an acquired taste. And way more maintenance. Knives, sweeteners, water, glasses, lemon juicers, cutting boards, then washing up. No, bananas rock. Hands down.

Dr. Oz extolled the mighty banana as a sleep aid without peer. Only use as needed.

RECIPE

1. Take the sticker off

2. Rinse the skin, cuz you'll be eating it, too. Yes. No complaining. 

3. Submerge whole banana in 2-4 cups of water in a pot, or cut in half if you use a small pot.

4. Boil

5. Let it steep at least 5 minutes

6. Drink all the tea. 

7. Eat all the banana, plus the skin.

8. Be prepared to be amazed you never did this before - it tastes so good.

Go bananas and have a sunshiny day thinking how much better you will sleep tonight

Meow-Meow! Woof-Woof! Please Smoke Outdoors

Hello my human friends, I am Mr. Luxurious Greezoo Diamond and I am your cat avatar. I insist you look at my luxurious silver fur and pet me every time you walk by. You are walking by me regularly, I hope? And can you pick up some of that high caliber catnip on your way to the mall? I like windows, strings, tiny moving objects emitting red points of light, melted vanilla ice cream and being petted while I eat my food. Please remember to vacuum my long hair daily as I loathe being brushed.

 Actually, there is nothing I hate more, abhor more than those disgusting burning things some of you humans have dangling from your mouths. So unsightly, a real fire hazard next to my luxurious fur.

You Have Wicked Insomnia? There's A Reason Why...Here's Your Wake Up Call

You can't sleep at night. You are so wound up from the thought of how you will survive without lighting up. You are very irritable and you wonder how you will ever stop smoking and stay quit. You are biting your nails. You are pacing the livingroom or salon like we say in French. You are concerned, worried, frantic. You are desperate. You want an answer.

You are not alone. I am sitting here blogging into the wee hours, 1:24 Eastern Standard Time. I am on edge trying not to bite my nails asking myself, "Does anyone really care why I am on edge? Do people care about my mission? This blog is my mission. Does anyone care about my vision? My vision is a tobaccofree world. My vision drives my mission. Just how will I survive with my severe allergies if anyone lights up a cigarette within a hundred feet?" Each day I venture forth out into the world is heroic. Each day, each hour I lovingly confront someone's tobacco addiction and that is heroic. But why am I getting so little support?

Hey, Mr. Smoker and Ms. Smoker. You may think I am your enemy. But I have no enemies. I am on a spiritual path and seek no enemies. I serve everyone as best I can. And that service will improve each day, God willing, the more knowledge and insight that I receive.  All of us desire health and longevity. All of us yearn for the fountain of youth, more time spent with our loved ones, more energy, more prosperity, clean, fresh air. (Heck, I do not ever partake of marijuana for religious and health reasons, but I can see all kinds of purposes for it, if safely and wisely used. No such luck for tobacco.) I see tobacco as one of the worst enemies of all humanity and therefore I say, "Good Riddance." Because it is good to get rid of it, indeed. 

Could it be that you, dear person who smokes, and I, the inveterate nonsmoker, could it be that you and I were cosmically aligned to meet on this same path coming from very opposite ends of the spectrum? It is happening. You are cranky at being asked to quit by your doctor/parent/lover/spouse. You are reluctant, refusing, resisting. Along come I, reluctant to step into my still-smokefilled apartment hallway (even thought there are laws against it)  I am resisting this antiquated hobby of yours. I am refusing to breathe it in one more second, no matter if it is smoked in my apartment building hallway, the street, my city or anywhere else in the world, whether it come from France or China.

Maybe you and I are destined to meet in this safe zone the blogosphere. Maybe there is a spiritual lesson and gift for both you and I, to see that we are one. To end all dualities. So let's stop fighting, shall we?  How can you keep on poisoning yourself when I can't accept it? How could my professor of Theology smoke and teach me about God? I literally changed religions over this. I keep an open mind and embrace all religions but privately I've adopted a life-sustaining lifestyle so I can be sure to best maximize this gift of life of the Universal Truth.

To you I extend my hand. The future is bright. With lovely healing light. We are all alit. No, not those stinking things hanging from human lips. But our hearts are aglow. With a newfound love and peace and joy in how we may help our fellow brothers and sisters still trapped in the dark smoggy poisonous tobacco world.

Come join us. We were meant to meet, you and I.  This is a new reality. A cosmic wake-up call.

It's time to get enlightened. For this may be the only nicotine replacement therapy that is priceless and REALLY works in the long run. It lasts. Tobacco won't. The writing is on the wall.

 I am not fighting you. I am not criminalizing you. I am extending a helping hand, a listening ear and a caring heart. This now is my time spent with you. Well spent. Sincerely spent. Together we can rewrite civilization over again. 

Peace. Let's end this war. Between your desire for health and the addict in you that screams for a cigarette. Bid that old part of you good-bye and watch it die. Read an amazing book that will turn your life upside down. It is called Listening To Depression by Lara Honos-Webb. http://books.google.ca/books/about/Listening_to_Depression.html?id=ENhrqmAdTvEC&redir_esc=y

Did you know that the pill prescribed for depression called Wellbutrin is also the identical pill prescribed to smokers called Zyban? Dear friends who smoke, you are in pain. From the smoking. Not the withdrawal. Trust me. Read Allen Carr. Quitting is liberation. It will set you free. Welcome home. Your body is your temple. Make it last.

How to Free Yourself From Cigarette Addicts

First of all, you need to identify a cigarette addict. That is fairly easy since smoking is so addictive. A cigarette addict is what I prefer to call smokers, since the vast majority of people who smoke do so addictively. I want to shine a light on this serious addiction that is so often relegated to "the nebulous smoking section." There is this myth that we can segregate cigarette addicts into sections of restaurants, hospitals, and so on. As long as it is temporarily out of sight, out of one's nose then smoking is not discussed anymore. Nobody wants to rock the boat. Nobody wants to tell Gramma or poor old Uncle Melvin that they are indeed addicts.

 The vast majority of smokers are addicts. We were not taught in school that tobacco is an addiction, and the deadliest of all of them as it kills the greatest number of people, including nonsmokers. I remember in Grade 6 when I was 12 receiving the equivalent of one or two classes in Family Values Education about the dangers of smoking. The total time was hardly even two hours. This is a joke. Schools are designed to educate and they have much more to do in preventing youth from taking up tobacco. The dangers were vaguely mentioned, and never followed up on. In order to eliminate anyone taking up smoking we need far more education and intervention and law enforcement. You don't see kids chewing tobacco nowadays, or sniffing snuff? These silly habits became virtually extinct, and tobacco can disappear as well. Therefore I strongly urge all of us to lobby our local school boards and school trustees for far more detailed, ongoing weekly talks about the hazards of tobacco. 

Do smokers themselves think they are addicts? If they do, they are doing very little about it. The smokers I know are very defensive and are in huge denial about how much smoking negatively affects those around them. Trying to explain my eyes are tearing, stinging, and my throat is dry and I'm constantly clearing it for days, weeks after a short visit to a house that hasn't been smoked in for hours seems to fall on deaf ears. So I decided to write this blog to reach out and appeal to a broader vaster network of like-minded individuals who themselves want to a lot more done than just a nonsmoking section on a plane or restaurant. Ugh! Just the thought of being in an airplane where even one person smokes once is nauseating. Yet are they rushing to 12 step meetings to get help to quit? Hardly. I never saw so many cigarette addicts as recovering alcoholics. Yet tobacco is what killed the co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. Is this addiction adequately addressed by doctors, dentists, nurses and all therapists? No.

 As long as we keep saying it is a socially acceptable addiction we are sugarcoating the problem. The problem IS precisely that we have all erroneously agreed that it is a socially acceptable addiction. We are the individuals who make up this society. And it is up to us to stop perpetuating such a dangerous addiction. It is as if we are apologizing for it. But I believe we are enabling it to go on on a wide scale, with only drawing imaginary lines as to where a person can smoke. It has been shown that the air in China travels here by wind within one day. So it is pointless to talk about tobacco and other pollutants without going global. We must start in schools, and we must expect more of our places of worship, health clinics and law enforcement. People, we need to speak up and be heard, and we need to do it now, before it's too late and Gramma dies before Johnny's wedding or graduation. This is serious. It is an epidemic, it is a modern-day plague.

Why?

Quitting Smoking Is More Valuable Than Sapphires

True story I kid you not. I am a strong woman and there I was last Sunday axing down mum's thorn tree by request and took a break after swinging a heavy ax. Looked down. My brand new wedding ring had popped its stone. Who knew where. Anywhere in a giant tangle of brush and stones.

My mum called me two days later, "Honey, I have good news." I thought she was calling me to announce she had quit smoking. "Floyd found your stone!" Now as happy as I was to hear that, I would have rather heard she quit smoking.

Friends, quitting smoking is practically priceless and is THE BEST GIFT you can give anyone you love. Gemstones are replaceable. Your lungs or time spent with you is not.

Moist Cigarettes Anyone?

So I took a risk today, garnered all my calm and asked someone, "Just why do you keep your cigarettes in the fridge?"

So they stay moist.

Really. I'm being sarcastic here. Why do cigarettes need to be moist? They are going to be lit up by fire, no? They need to burn. Would it surprise you that gunpowder is added so that cigarettes burn faster? So I guess moistness slows things down. Maybe moistness keeps the cigarettes intact so that they don't fall apart like sawdust and leave a mess everywhere. But they already do in worse ways.

So, please tell me how it's working for you keeping cigarettes in the fridge, which makes their butter and other similar foods TASTE LIKE TOBACCO.

Not very appetizing to dine at their place. I am praying and hoping they quit.

Going Camping? Declare All Picnic Tables Tobacco Free! Protect The Trees AND Yourselves

Hi everybody and Happy Canada Day weekend! I hope you are all happy about living in a country with such a great healthcare system like Canada. How can we reduce the burden on the health care system? Please keep reading on, as tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death. O Canada, with its plentiful lakes and rivers, and many green spaces. Now let's make Canada even better, shall we?

We need to keep in mind that gas is getting more expensive. Why are we gassing up in the first place to drive all day out to a rustic river resort of sorts? To me, the number one  reason is that we Canadians crave clean air. Let's start by declaring all picnic tables smoke-free areas, no ifs ands or butts, literally. Then, are you with me, team Canada, as I propose we beat New Zealand's goal of being the first smokefree country by 2017?

Practice Deep Breathing Inhalations Instead Of Inhaling A Cigarette

Take a deep breath, ahhhhhhhhh

Now take another deep breath, ahhhhhhhhh

How many deep breaths do you consciously take each day? Each hour? Many of us meditate. What if the main reason of all these meditation disciplines was to get us to breathe more deeply on a regular basis?

Our motive to meditate can't be as simple as breathing? One of the things smokers might be trying to do is become conscious of their inhalations and exhalations. After all, they seem to relish taking in a puff. What if all that energy inhaling on cigarettes could be diverted to the art of deep breathing?

Going Over To Catch The Game At A Friend's? Make It A Smoke-Free Event!

Hello everybody, and a special hello to my followers here in Canada  as well as Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Finland, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Phillipines, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and United States! I realize that my earlier post today had a very Canada-Day focus, so I wanted you folks to get in on the summer fun. Tobacco-free, of course. Welcome to my blog's take on the FIFA World Cup Football Season. I show a picture from the Ukrainian national football team, as my father is Ukrainian-born and himself a big football fan. I did play "soccer" myself as a young girl, and my doctor is an ardent female soccer player.

When you get together with your buddies to watch the game at a friend's place, make it a smoke-free event! Wouldn't you guys and gals also like to be fit and on top of your game?

Happy Canada Day, and may all 10 provinces and Nunavut become tobacco-free

Hello everybody in Canada, and all over the world. Happy Canada Day to you all. Special greetings to my fellow Canadians in other provinces. I was born in Ottawa, Ontario but moved after nine months to Quebec for the first five years of my life. I guess you could say I have Anglo-Quebecker roots. My mother grew up Franco-Ontarian, her mother a Montrealer and my great-grandmother is Fransaskois from Saskatchewan. 

Phew! What a tongue twister. 

To Get Rid Of Tobacco Let's Start By getting Rid Of The Letter "c"

Hi everybody. Did you all have a happy Canada Day? Oops, I almost said "youz" instead of you. No kidding. I grew up in Ottawa Valley, where some people literally say youz. I don't know why. Maybe they think it sounds like saying you for more than one person. Like the vous instead of tu in French, my mother's language. I say we don't need any extraneous letters. 

Now being a writer, I think a lot about words. I have spent over a thousand dollars on dictionaries, thesauruses  in various languages and grammar handbooks back in the day when books were all the rage. All this writing makes me wonder: Do we really need the letter c? 

You, Yes, You Can Phone Your City Councillor And Make Tobacco History In All Public Places

Hello everybody and Happy summer !

 I don't know what your summer plans are, but mine include embarking on a four month campaign blitz to help my favorite local City Councillor Mr. Mathieu Fleury get re-elected for Ward 12, Rideau-Vanier. Mathieu made history when he was the youngest City Councillor ever elected in Ottawa. He has know-how from his Master's in Kinesiology concentrating in Sports Management.

You have only to google Mathieu's landmark
52 SPORTS IN 52 WEEKS

52 sports in 52 weeks" short video clips introducing us to such novelties as sledge hockey and pickle ball and roller derby to learn just how committed and engaged he is.

Be A Community Builder!

Adorable lovely lookalikes..Get with us, become a cool love cat

Hello y'all! I met two incredibly cute Rex cats today. I'm a huge cat lover. I was surprised to hear the owner tell me he must hire a babysitter if he goes away for the weekend. Hairless cats require human interaction, and out came his not-shy cat out into the hallway, following me and checking out my canvassing colleague.

I am a community builder. I am a highly social person. I value teamwork and sharing ideas. I believe "Birds of a feather flock together". We stand to gain so much by coming together. Just look at the photo of these intriguing creatures. They bring to mind Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street.

I knew I met the man for me when I shared with him my vision of eliminating tobacco whilst simultaneously bringing about toilets for everyone. 1 out of 3 people worldwide has no access to a  toilet. Wha???????  Toilets and tobacco...not very sexy topics. But they turned him on. Yay! I knew he was my kind of man because he cares so deeply about community building and social justice.

Why Our Kids Need Tobacco Free Parks

Hello my friends! Wishing you an exciting summer day, full of exercise, fresh air, chitchatting with the neighbours and civic pride.

What is the definition of sport?

Here's your new definition of sport: exerting yourself physically to help others quit, helping you quit, and losing

 weight and having a blast! Who said you had to gain weight upon quitting cigarettes? And you didn't think 

that dictionaries could be exciting. Let's take up definition 2. "Go on, 

be a sport!" What if all of life is a tussle between what we should do and what we feel

 like doing instead? Do we as a society use sport as a symbol to convey the arduous nature

 of life? Should I have been a good sport recently and endure an unpleasant situation? 

Maybe enduring it would have brought me closer to my husband instead of speaking out

 and asserting myself ...What if we went  one step beyond allowing sports to serve as 

venues of pent-up release through either releasing it ourselves directly through physical 

exertion or psychologically through vicariously watching others live or telecast...

What if sport helps us overcome challenges because it's a chosen adversity? What if the 

sense of spontaneity, risk, and thrill of success helps us have a sense of play as adults?



And let's "go one step further" as good mental athletes. What if sports can become an 

arena of preventative psychological medicine, as mental toughness training to help 

strengthen us?

Let me introduce my favorite sport, YOGA. Yoga might at first glance not seem like much 

of a sport...who are you tussling with? How can you be possibly competing against anyone,

 even yourself? There's an implied notion that nothing about yoga is strain, that you 

proceed ever so gently never upsetting the delicate equilibrium of your being...  But look 

closer, yoga poses strengthen, stabilize, and prepare the body for balance, movement 

and at times speeding up your reaction from coordinating from a sequence of poses one

 to the other. Please check out the famous "World-Cup" equivalent of yoga teachers, Mr. 

B.K.S. Iyengar who brought yoga to the west. Did you know that the United Nations gave

Mr. Iyengar honorary PhD status to for his life-saving legacy of teaching yoga to all.

 Check out his beautiful book, The Art of Yoga 

I leave you with this novel thought...All sport as meditation...Meditation in motion as 

art...Sport as art... Sounds like a new way of thinking about physical fitness...

I'll drink to that!

I dream of traveling worldwide on a mission to build a tobacco-free world.
Think this is farfetched? The World Health Organization has been celebrating World Tobacco Free Day on May 31 for over a decade now.
 Almost all doctors, health promoters and politicians are on the World Tobacco Free Team. Wanna be a winner? Wanna make world history? Register your email up top.
Most notably India's Mr. Narindra Modi talks about a tobacco-free India.
 New Zealand's anti-smoking groups boast by 2017 that New Zealand may be the first tobacco-free nation.
Go team Canada go!Tobacco free! And inspire other nations to follow suite, that, YES, it can be done.

Let me affirm, pray, visualize, dream, think, write, blog, cheerlead, spearhead, sing, act, crack jokes,give speeches, encourage, support and educate with love a tobacco-free world.

 Join me. Follow me and comment at  nikkidiamond.ca

Give yourself the Maximum Success for "Starting" a Tobacco-Free Life!

That's right, people. By quitting tobacco, you are actually starting living more fully
Best of success in quitting with this link

Nothing Is Permanent, Not Even Tattoos, You Can Quit Tobacco

Hullo? Who'd want this? uh, how expensive was this? 

O.K., so what's the harm? As long as you and Kitty like it. I mean, some people have dyed their pet poodles pink. Yes. After paying exorbitant sums to practice topiary-like hairstyles out of their doggy locks.

I mean, nothing's permanent. None of our habits. You may know someone who swears they love to smoke, that they have rights, that they will always be a smoker.  Everything changes.

The Tao Te Ching talks about constant change within a dynamic stillness, is-ness...

Back to the cats and tats. Focus. Would you shave your animal? What about if it was a really hot day? What if you had a rescue cat like mine, with the ferociousness of a pitbull, won't ever let me brush him without a fight kind of cat. Ugh, a cat fight... Wouldn't you rather delegate that annoying job to someone else? I can't take my cat to most groomers. Most only do dogs. Cats are more dangerous. They are tenacious. Keep in mind, dogs have been domesticated for over 10,000 years, horses about 5,000 years and cats only 2,000 years. Still wild, eh?

I am an inveterate cat lover. You gotta read Jason Galaxy's book "Cat Daddy." He is the world-famous cat whisperer. And he loves his tats. If you know of another one, please tell me. I can use all the tips I can get. My Mr. Luxurious Greezoo Diamond is a bit ornery at times. He's a grey long-haired Maine Coon, what 90% of folks call a tabby. I'll tell you the story of how Greezooks and I met another day. Focus here, haha. (Sorry, I don't lol. Unless I'm lolling around on the ground. Haha, that rhymes. I prefer onomatopoeia, the actual sound of laughter rather than an unnecessary acronym. Rather, I hate acronyms. OK, I use them myself. Just did. Another haha.)The Tao Te Ching talks about constant change within a dynamic stillness, is-ness...

Back to the cats and tats. Focus. Would you shave your animal? What about if it was a really hot day? What if you had a rescue cat like mine, with the ferociousness of a pitbull, won't ever let me brush him without a fight kind of cat. Ugh, a cat fight... Wouldn't you rather delegate that annoying job to someone else? I can't take my cat to most groomers. Most only do dogs. Cats are more dangerous. They are tenacious. Keep in mind, dogs have been domesticated for over 10,000 years, horses about 5,000 years and cats only 2,000 years. Still wild, eh?

I am an inveterate cat lover. You gotta read Jason Galaxy's book "Cat Daddy." He is the world-famous cat whisperer. And he loves his tats. If you know of another one, please tell me. I can use all the tips I can get. My Mr. Luxurious Greezoo Diamond is a bit ornery at times. He's a grey long-haired Maine Coon, what 90% of folks call a tabby. I'll tell you the story of how Greezooks and I met another day. Focus here, haha. (Sorry, I don't lol. Unless I'm lolling around on the ground. Haha, that rhymes. I prefer onomatopoeia, the actual sound of laughter rather than an unnecessary acronym. Rather, I hate acronyms. OK, I use them myself. Just did. Another haha.)The Tao Te Ching talks about constant change within a dynamic stillness, is-ness...

Back to the cats and tats. Focus. Would you shave your animal? What about if it was a really hot day? What if you had a rescue cat like mine, with the ferociousness of a pitbull, won't ever let me brush him without a fight kind of cat. Ugh, a cat fight... Wouldn't you rather delegate that annoying job to someone else? I can't take my cat to most groomers. Most only do dogs. Cats are more dangerous. They are tenacious. Keep in mind, dogs have been domesticated for over 10,000 years, horses about 5,000 years and cats only 2,000 years. Still wild, eh?

I am an inveterate cat lover. You gotta read Jason Galaxy's book "Cat Daddy." He is the world-famous cat whisperer. And he loves his tats. If you know of another one, please tell me. I can use all the tips I can get. My Mr. Luxurious Greezoo Diamond is a bit ornery at times. He's a grey long-haired Maine Coon, what 90% of folks call a tabby. I'll tell you the story of how Greezooks and I met another day. Focus here, haha. (Sorry, I don't lol. Unless I'm lolling around on the ground. Haha, that rhymes. I prefer onomatopoeia, the actual sound of laughter rather than an unnecessary acronym. Rather, I hate acronyms. OK, I use them myself. Just did. Another haha.)

Freeing Yourself From Cigarettes

How I so LOVE my new fresh, clean coffee breaks

"Oh Happy Day, Oh Happy Day,
Oh Happy Day, Oh Happy Day
When People threw, when People threw
When People threw, when People threw,
When People threw, when People threw
Their cigarettes away!"

Thank you for allowing me to improvise on a beautiful classic hymn...It truly inspires.

YOUR freedom from tobacco is OUR freedom. We are all in this together. 

Fast forward to the year 4014.
No one smokes. Period.
It's done. Finished. This song from the future plays on a futuristic radio type program... 

Let's speed up things, shall we?

Clean Your Home Of Tobacco Smoke

Make your life FRESH 

Hey folks! The lovely summer we are having is a great time to conduct a thorough so-called #spring cleaning from top to bottom of your dwelling. I highly recommend you check out Flylady for amazing real-life tales,tips and tools for getting motivated and staying on top of it.

To anyone ready to #quit smoking tobacco, I salute you! Congratulations! Awesome! Keep up the great work! As a recovering addict friend of mine tells me, "#Trust God and clean house." Well, we are going to take his mantra one step further

Tobacco Almost Destroyed My Family Visits

Tobacco wedged a deadly sword between me and my family. I hated visiting, seldom went due to tobacco nor could I stay long. Trying to spend the night was intolerable. I was coughing and gagging with a burning throat and dry eyes. I had to carry eye drops with me. I would use aerosols to mask the tobacco, burn incense, burn candles. The smokers would even offer to smoke outside, but the lingering second-hand smoke was next to impossible.

Ice Cream Wins Versus Tobacco For Superb Flavor, But You Are Not Surprised, Right?

Greeting fellow foodies. Wishing you all a safe hot glorious summer. I know you all would rather be having a mouthwatering scrumptious scoop of ice cream. Whether you're out at the cottage or camping or visiting friends or just plain enjoying your own company, I'm with you savoring a great classic cool treat. Only a block away from my Mum's is a classic québécois french fry shack and ice cream hut and I indulge frequently. Oh boy, they also sell the famous dish uniquely found in La Belle Province known as poutine which is french fries with cheese curds and hot gravy, all melted. Truly heavenly, but watch out, if you are vegetarian like me the sauce might not be:)

 It's always a special treat to go for a leisurely stroll down the tree-lined shady picturesque bicycle path right beside my Mum's.

What Part Of, "NO, WE CAN'T BREATHE!" Do You Not Get?

Hello Friends of clean air. Just how annoying is smoke to us? This blog is in no way an attack at any time of smokers. I use very descriptive analogies in a plethora of settings and contexts to share with smokers what it is like to be a nonsmoker, how trapped we feel. I dream of my blog uniting smokers and nonsmokers in a friendly, useful, relevant, dialogue towards a mutual healthier future.

One horrible day a couple months ago as I was shopping for my weekly supply of almonds and nuts and having a friendly chat with the store keeper up front at his cash a young man threw open the door yelling, "It's on fire!"  As soon as he opened the door, huge gusts of stinking black #smoke invaded the store. I panicked. Just weeks ago, my boyfriend started talking marriage. I closed my eyes and thought a short prayer, "Dear God, I want to live to see my own #wedding!"

Say To Yourself With Power "I release all old habits that no longer serve me!"

Greetings everybody on this Magnificent Monday July 28, 2014. You know what Mondays are best for. Starting a new week. You say to yourself.. "This week starting Monday I'm quitting smoking. My mind is made up." Friends, here at NikkiDiamondTobaccoFreeWorld by nikkidiamond.ca I am here to give you that extra push. 

Let me introduce you to best-selling author Louise L. Hay's thoughts on smoking. In her groundbreaking classic book, "YOU CAN HEAL YOUR LIFE" author and minister Louise Hay declares that any habit we want to get rid of we simply "bless with love and release." I bet most of you didn't know she was also a minister? Now maybe you'll take me a lot more seriously when I tell you I almost became a woman of cloth myself? I was debating between Unitarian church and Unity. I've decided to reach out to people through my blog as I am a lot more frank and businesslike than most people can handle in a minister. I really do practice tough love. And I would have been one tough doctor. So let's save time and  get as many people as possible reading The Truth and Health.

Apartment Renters Deserve Smoke-free Living Now Worldwide

"O my beautiful little home" is the English version of one of my favourite French country songs. Home is where the heart is. How much all of us long to have a decent home, one where we feel safe and secure. I sure know how I long to come home, hang up my hat and relax next to my man.  I am a hat wearer and I have the cutest straw hat for gardening, boating and long walks. But nothing is better than a long walk full of fresh air except coming home.

One small problem.

Why Do I Demand A Tobacco Free World? Because We are ALL Involuntarily Smoking

Good morning friends. Are you safe from tobacco smoke in your home, whether it be an apartment or house? Are you free from guests and visitors who may smoke near you? Are your children and elderly relatives safe? Is your workplace safe? The social clubs and associations you frequent? Does anyone, anywhere within 110 feet smoke near any of these places you live, work, worship and play? And, sad to say, even if you can't smell it and it seems to be more than 30 or 40  feet away from you, you are still being adversely affected. I can certainly smell it 110 feet away. I have carried a measuring tape with me! I dare you to try this experiment today. I want to shake up your world.

Friends, all of us non-smokers and smokers are smoking. That's right. We are all involuntary smoking. And I mean it, I am some MAD. Furious. And I am fed up of living with this anger and I intend to do something about it. Yes, I hate war, hate nuclear pollution, hate acid rain, hate all pollutions of any kind. And, yeah I would like a nicer kinder planet, and, yes, I do hug trees, I do think we don't have enough trees and I do refrain from eating any animal products and all that. But unlike all these other challenges, involuntarily I am smoking tobacco every hour on the hour, and unless I move to some exotic Brazillian rain forest protected area and take up living in trees with completely different garments and possibly bodily decorations , I and you and most all of us are forced to smoke against our will. And smokers will tell you that most of them want to quit! They are many of whom are quietly agonizing and suffering and want a way out, but this scourge of tobacco is STILL not being taken seriously by our world leaders. And I am calling for more action NOW.

Some of my posts will address nonsmokers, and at other times I will speak to smokers. I will examine the history of smoking, the psychology of addiction. I will address this problem of tobacco from every angle. I will talk a bit about spiritual tools. I will cover all nicotine replacement therapy, and please now, drop everything you are doing and run out and buy some right now. Whether or not it is the best what have you to lose by trying? Help pay for someone struggling. Please dear friends, take tobacco and nicotine addiction as seriously as drug addiction. Because it is a drug. Let's please all stop saying it is more socially acceptable. You and I and each person is part of society. We have a part to play in making it LESS ACCEPTABLE. Are you with me? We need to start somewhere to drop the percentage of all smokers in every country by at least one percentage point by the end of this year. Are you with me? On your mark, get ready, GO!!!

I am now researching the next post about tobacco and clothes in many different aspects. Stay tuned.

I'm Telling You: "If I Can Still Smell Your Cigarette More Than A 110 FEET Away, I'm STILL Smoking Along With You"

Hello everybody. Stop for a moment and think: When was the last time you smelled cigarette smoke? I'm sorry to say this, but you were smoking it. We are not simply smelling a memory or vague impression. I've taken a measuring tape and calculated tobacco smell coming  from over 110 FEET from an outdoor picnic table where 2 people smoke near my apartment. There was no detectable wind that day either. I was astounded. Could I really be smelling it? Or was my olfactory sense surpassing that of a bloodhound? Well, I know I'm still human. 

Welcome To My New Blog Devoted Solely To Tobacco Cessation

Thoughtful Thursdays are Here. What Do You Think About This? Comment and Follow Me

1.  I would like to demystify a certain urban myth  that it is hard to quit smoking created by "they" or
  " society". First let's demystify "They". Who are "They"? Do "They" have any real power, or just some imaginary power? Who assigned "They" that power? Look closely and you will see that "They" is nobody's name. At the end of the day, each society is made up of individuals, and a society is only as healthy as its individuals are. Simply put, you and I and each person we know and are surrounded by make up this society and smaller societies.

2. It is like assembling every single food item sold in all the stores and mixing it up to create some gigantic soup pot. Pretty hard to get any grasp on what it would taste like. It certainly wouldn't be vegetarian, and I think I'd be hard pressed to find anyone to sample. It sounds pretty disgusting, nightmarish. but yet people pile on and add every single person of a society into this equation called society and then they utilize this word society as if it is some giant collective authority, some impersonal entity.

3. When I am calling for a tobacco free world I am not trying to offer an opinion. That would be like saying I am offering an opinion if I want to help put out forest fires or save a drowning person. I am trying to create a tobacco free world, I need to create a tobacco free world, and I am all too well aware of some lingering false notions perpetuated by societal attitudes. I could liken these societal attitudes to a thermometer result. It is just an indicator. The societal attitudes fluctuate. The societal factors don't need to keep influencing anything. 

4. Now I know that the people who cling for dear life to smoking tobacco will squeal their rights are being trampled. I'm not talking about does society as a whole have influence in helping people quit? I am trying to deconstruct notions perpetuated by society that are unhelpful. As much as tobacco smokers may fight to keep smoking anywhere, it is proven beyond a doubt that tobacco is lethal. Such die-hard smokers should be redirected to counselling to overcome such irrational thinking. Hmmm. They could also try out gas sniffing and glue sniffing, and insist they have a right to practice such a poisonous drug addiction. That's about how useful and safe both tobacco and inhalant drug use are in the eyes of most people, including tobacco smokers themselves. I had a burning desire to study sociology all my life. But I think I would have spent most of my studies trying to unravel this unseen glob called society. Now I understand full well societal pressure, societal norms.

5. I really think that the key to ending this addiction and many others is to begin to look under the bed at all our so-called monsters and slay them one by one. Why let anyone or anything make it harder for you to make a necessary, healthier, life-saving, money-saving choice as quitting smoking? Because you can make quitting much, much easier. First, it'll take some re-education and re-thinking. Please start discussing this new concept with everyone you know around you and please refer them to my blog. Please comment  for additional tips and prayer requests. I'd be more than glad to help. I'd be ecstatic to help in bringing about a tobacco free world.

6. Now please be patient as I make my case. I know very well the power of the bogeyman, and the power of the monster under the bed. These are very real and terrifying to young children. What monsters really serve is the child's way of externalizing his or her's fears. The child is too young to be conscious of fear as an abstract. The child is unaware that fear rises up within the child. What might the child really be afraid of? The unknown dark recesses of the bedroom closet, or fear of the unknown after we fall asleep or fear of what transpired during the day or even a future real fear facing them at school or in the family.

7. But because the child is afraid of fear itself, the fear becomes associated with an immediate, pressing concern. Even though it is irrational it seems very vivid to the child. Friends, you are unknowingly making a bogeyman out of tobacco. You are repeating a negative, unproductive mantra, "It is hard to quit smoking." And you are believing it, hook, line and sinker. Why are you doing this?

8. Remember the childhood game Telephone? Where we would stand in a circle and each person would whisper a secret word or two into the person's ear. By the time the phrase had gone round the whole circle of twenty or thirty kids, the end product was a garbled incoherent message or at the very least some words were altered. This is the garbled message, the junky error message you are hearing about tobacco. You are amazed that one guy you know from work quit tobacco cold turkey overnight it seems, with no effort, no complaining. You are amazed and say, bemoaning your circumstance, "Why is it so hard for me?" That is you self-talking yourself into staying a smoker. No need for this.

9. I am just going to introduce this concept. That you are fooling yourself with this erroneous message. Because this self-dishonesty is practiced on such a wide scale it is almost impossible for us to be immune from it. But we can start now, by equipping ourselves with critical thinking skills.

10. I bet you think Philosophy in very loose terms has got to be the weirdest tobacco cessation method you ever heard of. Please stay tuned. For as much as you want to quit, and for as much as you grapple with every nicotine replacement device, if your underlying thoughts are full of cognitive distortions and urban myths, you will have a harder time, trust me. Let's untwist your thinking, shall we? Have a great day. Tell me how this has helped you in the comments section below.