Giulia reminded me that yesterday was my NINE YEAR quit anniversary (Thanks G!!) It was also our 29 year wedding anniversary......I didn't forget that, thank goodness, but it never crossed my mind that it also meant that I have now begun my tenth smoke-free year!!!!
Far cry from the time that I counted the minutes, hours, weeks, and months since my last puff. I never could have imagined then that there would come a day where I didn't think about smoking or not smoking. Yet here I sit, focused on so many other things, that it never even occurred to me that I was nine years quit yesterday.
Maybe that will lend some credibility to a previous blog I wrote, which I am including here, on how THE key to getting quit and STAYING quit, is all about mindset. As you will read, I CHOSE to think other thoughts, to give no place to ANY thoughts about smoking, but instead to focus on where I was going. Please read the blog...
A little over a week ago, I watched as our oldest daughter got married. She is the first of our nine children to get married, so it was a significant milestone for me/us. This past Friday night, I had my three year old granddaughter for a sleep over, which always means sleeping in our bed with her knees and elbows firmly planted in my back!! 🙂 Next year, our second oldest daughter is getting married.... These are all the things that I'm not sure I would have been here for if I had not taken responsibility for my addiction and kicked it to the curb!!!
I don't know what the challenges are for you, but I know that if you're here it's because you want to be free!!!! Don't miss out on all that the future holds for you, just to feed an addiction that is killing you. Take back control, starting with taking control of your thoughts....
My name is Connie and I have 3,285 smoke free days under my belt!! There are 49,275 cigarettes I have NOT smoked over the past nine years. That's over 1,900 packs of cigarettes that I didn't buy!!!
Here's the blog....
This doesn't have to be as hard as you think it is.....
"I know that my next comment may go over like a lead balloon for some, especially those just embarking on this journey to freedom....BUT...this process can be as easy, or as difficult, as YOU allow it to be!! I have it on perfectly good authority....ME!!!
I was a serial quitter! I truly thought that if I could just get a good quit going, that I would be able to enjoy the pleasure of a cigarette (gag, choke, puke) every now and then. We all know how that plays out...and whether it took a day, a week, a month, I ALWAYS ended up back in full-blown addiction, feeling like a total loser!!
All those trips around the same dumb mountain, and some things finally became crystal clear. You can argue with me if you want, but you are wasting your time and energy, and I would respectfully remind you that I AM where you say you want to be....smoke-free!
At least 97% of this addiction is a mental one!!! Within a few days all of the nicotine has left your system and what you are left with is the task of living YOUR life without cigarettes. The place where this battle is won or lost is in your own mind. Don't skim over that statement!!!! It is THE determining factor that ended my serial suicide, and helped me to quit and STAY quit!!!
What you allow yourself to think, where you allow your thoughts to park, the thoughts you entertain or dwell on, will determine both the success and the ease of your quit!!! If you allow yourself to sit and think about how much you want one, how your brother has the same brand you smoked right downstairs, how good one would taste, how you could have one now and start again tomorrow, how no-one knows how hard this is for YOU, how your cravings are worse than other people's.....blah, blah, blah....you will be absolutely miserable, and unless you get a grip and take control of those thoughts, you will talk yourself right back into addiction.
We are to "take every thought captive..." (a scripture verse). Early on in my final quit, I suddenly began to listen to myself think!!! What a freaking eye-opener that was!!! I realized that I had negative thoughts playing through my mind 24/7 like a stock market ticker tape....and that although most of the time I was totally unaware what I was thinking, those thoughts were the driving factors in my life!! I determined that my life was worth more than I was getting and that the only person that could change that was me, and it would start by changing my mind!!
You don't change your negative thoughts by trying not to think negative thoughts....you change them by moving to positive thoughts instead. If your focus is on trying to stop thinking negative, you're going to think.....negative!! When the smoking thoughts would come, I wouldn't even acknowledge them, I'd just begin to think something else. However, if that is a little unrealistic for you, then try this....acknowledge those thoughts ie., "Yes, I really do want a cigarette right now, but I want ___________MORE!!" Then fill in the blank with YOUR reasons for quitting. I wanted to watch my 9 children grow, AND I wanted them to know that they were so much more important to me than my addiction. I wanted pink skin instead of shrivelled up skin that looked like old boot leather. I want to breathe freely in the morning instead of hacking up a lung. I wanted to smell good, save money, live longer, be healthy, enjoy functions without having to run out for a smoke, or miss events altogether because I didn't want to be the only smoker.... The list is endless....you have your own. Focus on THOSE things!! Focus on the free you!!! What life will be like when you are no longer enslaved and held captive!!!
This is SO doable!!! Contrary to everything the addict in you wants you to believe.....you CAN do this!!! You are no worse off, no weaker, no more addicted than anyone else on this board!!! We are living proof that you CAN be FREE!!!! How easy, or how difficult this is, is entirely up to you!!!
Get a grip! Think a different thought!! You have no idea how far reaching the benefits of quitting will be. You will begin to hold your head up, walk with confidence instead of feeling like a defeated, pathetic excuse for humanity. Addiction, EVERY addiction, robs you of your dignity, your potential, your FREEDOM to be the you that you were meant to be!! It's time to take back your life....and it starts with taking back control of your mind!!"
