Stressed, Overwhelmed, Namaste!
Sometimes people suck! And life gets hard.
Smoking a cigar makes you slow down and control your breathing.
Even if you pick a petite cigar or Churchill, depending on the timeframe you may have there is a ritual you may have when you get ready to smoke a cigar. It may be simple as a quick cut of the cigar and lighting with a soft flame lighter torch or match, 123 your smoking.
To the long ritual of gathering and preparing your sitting arrangement. If I need time to be away from work and problems and on a good day, I will get my tray I got at a goodwill. It is a faux wood tray with foldable legs.
I will grab my drink of choice, water or sparkling water, or even a light beer when I am reviewing or trying a cigar for the 1st time. This is so I can taste the flavors of the cigar, and maybe a piece of chocolate if I need.
I will choose a beverage that would pair with the cigar or enjoy a whiskey or bourbon nice and neat. Then I choose the cutter, the cigar punch, v-cut, or straight cut. And isn’t a cutter like the tongs when BBQing and give the cutter a open and close test? I grab my lighter making sure there is plenty fluid to light.
Most of the time my go to place is the backyard. If I had a place inside I would use in my ritual either a match, cedar spill, or soft flame.
So as I carry my tray to the backyard like a butler feeling all fancy. and as I place the tray on my table outside, I even say in my head “your Cigar Sir.” And, I’ll sit and say thank you Jefferey. My cigar butler’s name is Jefferey for some reason. What’s yours?
At this point this is where I take a deep breath and take in the air. My view is a nicely cut field with a wall of oak trees with the wind rustling in the leaves of the trees and the sound of birds chirping and flying around. I take a sip of my drink and take my cigar out of the cello and admire the wrapper and it’s smell. As I take my time to use the cutter or punch and you hear that crunch of the cap of the cigar and you take that 1st dry draw of the cigar, as my senses brighten up as the flavor of tobacco and mixed flavors. As I toast the foot not to over burn the tobacco then light with that 1st puff as the smoke allure the air smelling the smoke while checking the foot for full light. while I sit back and start smoking in silence, I am already 5 to 10 minutes forgetting about everything. Sometimes when I get lost in that cigar, I literally catch myself smoking to the 2nd third without even realizing it. And as time passes, not only my mood changes, but my body is calm and relaxed.
There has been times that I have solved many of life’s problems in that 1 or 2 hours of smoking, or at least forgotten them. Sometimes if I haven’t worked it all out, I may have to light a 2nd stick.
I usually smoke cigars as a meditation time to decompress from being in the real world.
But then there are other times the ritual is about the same but have to be around others to talk to either being in a lounge or on social media or virtual lounge.
There has been great conversations and meeting great people doing the same and what’s not more of a ritual when there are 2, 3 people or more choosing a cigar cutting and lighting taking time smoking a cigar.
Do you have a ritual?
