"When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college -- that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared back at me, incredulous, and said, 'You mean they forget?'" -- Howard Ikemoto
We are here on this EX site to re-learn life without cigarettes. Ikemoto's daughter might well shake her head over us, too. But for many of us it may have been years, if not decades since we didn't smoke through anything and everything.
I am asking you to search your memories for a time when you didn't smoke. It's okay if you have to reach back all the way to your childhood -- just picture yourself as a person who went through life without smoking. How did you deal with problems and setbacks? I can bet that you didn't smoke over them. Can you imagine smoking over not being invited to Betty's birthday party or because you got a "D" in Math? That tells you that you CAN get through a stressful situation without lighting up. That there is life beyond cigarettes. Being able to see myself at various points in my life getting through without smoking helped me a lot in the beginning of my quit. There was a time when I didn't smoke, so I could be free again.
So reach back in your history to get a reminder of what being smokefree means. No, we don't really forget.
