Even though it may be difficult at first, there is still sort of a "high" at the beginning of your quit. As you begin to see that you REALLY are doing this, there is a rush that rivals anything that can be purchased on the street!!!! 🙂 You're experiencing the success that you barely dared to believe was even possible, you're implementing strategies, new routines, and everyone is cheering you on from the sidelines. It's exhilerating and exciting, and you feel like you could conquer anything right now!!!!
But time marches on.....and little by little, the excitement and newness starts to wane. You've got a somewhat established quit underway and may even begin to wonder if it would be that bad to have 'just one."
This is a defining moment in your quit journey! This is where you stop "quitting" smoking, and start "creating" your new smoke-free life. This is where your focus shifts from "stopping" to "becoming."
This is time to dig deep and begin to discover and explore your dreams, passions, talents etc. and begin to become the YOU that has been suppressed and stifled by this addiction. Who are you? What makes you come alive on the inside? What creative outlets have lain undiscovered or discarded because so much of our time and energy was spent focused on feeding addiction.
It may get messy before it gets pretty. Many of us never thought much beyond our next fix. We avoided and buried emotional and spiritual issues....not dealing with them but just escaping in a cloud of smoke. There may be some things you need to face and actually confront instead of ignoring and running from them. But be assured, IT IS ALL GOOD!!!!
My mantra when I was quitting was a bible verse found in Galatians 5:1. It says "it was for FREEDOM that Jesus set us free." I am convinced that this is God's vision for my life.......FREEDOM!!! Some things I have been freed "from" and some things I have been freed "for". Since quitting smoking, that has been my life theme.......experiencing greater and greater levels of freedom in every area.....embracing the FREEDOM that Jesus died to secure for me.
It's time to begin to LIVE. There is so much more to you than you can even imagine!!!!!! It's been buried and stuffed to make way for addiction, but it's time to set it free and begin to live in the excitement of all that you can become!!! Explore and share your talents, creativities, experience and knowledge. What are you passionate about? Live from passion!!! Look around you, what opportunities are there for you to make a difference in someone else's life? You may find that there is much that you have been oblivious to because so much of who we were and what we did revolved around smoking.
Be intentional!!! Embrace your FREEDOM, make it count!!
