Good Morning, great EX-er's! During the past year, I have been 'toying' with my cigarettes. That is, I have smoked for maybe the weekend, and then gone without for the week, a number of times. Then, as a mindfulness exercise (I'm a meditator), I would purposefully notice my first smoke in the morning. After a few days of nonsmoking, on the first cigarette back, it was very easy to see what the first smoke was doing to my body. I could feel it as the nicotine was sent into my limbs and created a sense of heaviness. I could actually feel it as it went to my head. I noted a sense of heaviness or sluggishness take over my brain. I even noticed that my hearing decreased slightly as my head became filled with nicotine. I also could feel a difference based on my posture. I like to sit cross-legged in my chair, and I found that, with my legs crossed, more of the nicotine was rushed to my head instead of my legs, and I would get an even more powerful feeling of sluggishness and being in a fog. I think this experimenting was instrumental in getting me to a point of wanting to quit--of not wanting to short my brain of oxygen and walk around in a fog. I realized I just wasn't as mentally sharp when on cigarettes...
Back to Day Five--I have more of a desire to smoke when I have caffiene, so I'm trying to cut down on it, but I still enjoy having a cup or two of coffee throughout the day, and I find I can handle that and still not smoke---I just pop a piece of Trident Perfect Peppermint gum in my mouth after the coffee. I have also been walking to get rid of any heebie-jeebies, preferably before they start!
I'm wishing everyone a great quit today, and remember you can vow with me:
"Just for today, I will not smoke any cigarettes, and I will be patient and kind to myself and others. NOPE, thanks, not today!"
