Balance. How do we achieve it?

We have two feet to stand on. The feet are designed to support our weight. The natural arches allow our feet to support an immense amount of weight and still remain balanced and upright. In fact, in our culture, because of how we’ve had to adapt our bodies to design of our furniture and tools, we easily forget where balance is. It is lost in slump toward computer or TV screen. It is lost in squinting and straining to see a blackboard. The daily mis-use of our bodies, over time, becomes permanent habits. Keeping that in mind, we begin to look for balance in our feet.

The World Health Organization has been studying smoking trends and statistical patterns across globe and has come up with following statistics:

A good deal of variation exists from one part of world to another. Many more women smoke in Eastern Europe than in East Asia and Pacific Region. Eastern Europe itself has a particularly high rate of smoking, with up to 59 percent of adult males smoking.

As with other substances of abuse, such as alcohol and cocaine, global frequency of tobacco use varies by social class, historical era, and culture. Historically, smoking had been a pastime of rich. This trend has changed dramatically in recent decades. It appears that economically advantaged men in wealthier countries have been smoking less. The more years of education you've had, less likely you are to be a smoker.

Most smokers begin early in life, before they are 25 years old. According to World Health Organization studies, majority of smokers in affluent countries begin in their teens. A decline in age of starting smoking has been observed worldwide.

As a wannabe quitter, you're in excellent company. People all over world are trying to quit and stay away from cigarettes. There appears to be a correlation between a country's standard of living, level of education, and income and number of people who have quit smoking. The more and better-informed people are, more likely they are to quit smoking.

Current estimates are that over 1 billion people in world smoke. (In other words, approximately one in three adults on planet smokes.) The majority of these smokers reside in countries on low end to middle of socioeconomic spectrum. Of this majority, about 80% live in low and middle income countries. The total number of smokers worldwide is expected to keep increasing.

But are things in USA any better? Not really, as you can see for yourself in figures of National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics