Hi Sparky,
You’re an amazing person and I’m glad you’ve never quit on the quit! You’re so right, you do not have to keep doing this.
Over the years, I’ve noticed a few things that seem to be common threads with all the successful quitters I’ve met here. I’ll share my observations in case something might help you stay quit or it might help one of the new people.
1. Refuse to fight the addiction and start embracing YOUR quit. This is easier for some than for others and it’s often done unconsciously. Some people are actually strong enough to white-knuckle their way past the fighting part, but it's an unusual quitter who can make that claim. We are all nicotine addicts here…and the only way to STOP the nicotine addiction…is to stop smoking! To stop fighting, we need to get powerful in our thoughts about this addiction and KNOW it only has control over us if we let it! Throw out the words: I will try, I want to (stop), I hope, and all the words and thoughts that gives the addiction control over us. WE are not powerless. Replace those words with: I can, I will, I do, I have and all the positive words that give us a perspective that can’t be clouded by the sneaky, underhanded nicotine addiction (it's just an inanimate substance waiting very patiently for us to get tired of “fighting” and cave in). Refuse to cave in by refusing to fight! We can, with our free will, go off and do something other than smoke and have a fantastic smoke-free life!
2. Think in the NOW. It makes no difference what happened yesterday, last week or last year. We can’t change the past. We also have no control over tomorrow, next week or anything the future will bring us, even one second from now. What we have control over is NOW. How we react in any situation boils right down to...either we smoke, or we don’t. It’s really that simple. After an unidentified, personal period of growth and recovery time, the choice to NOT smoke becomes our new NOW “habit”. That’s when I think the feeling of freedom everyone talks about comes into play! It’s truly exhilarating during this time and leads to the last hurdle in staying quit.
3. Don’t EVER let our guard down! When you feel this intoxicating freedom, don’t allow the horrible, patient, nicotine addiction to get even the tiniest foothold in your life. There will be good times, bad times and life changing events happen to each and every one of us at some point in our quits. Prepare for these days. I think these times are when so many quitters out-and-out loose our quits or have that slip that gives the addiction a life of its own again. Instead of worrying about some near or distant trigger, make plans for it NOW…imagine your least and worst-case-life scenarios and prepare mental/physical/emotional plans of what to do INSTEAD of lighting up (and write them down to carry with you as long as you need to)!!!! Then when that little smoking “thought”, the mother-of-all “craves” or the GIANT-over-the-head “trigger” hits….pull out your plan and use it like a hammer over the head of the addiction, instead of lighting up a cigarette.
Hang in there Sparky. You will beat this addiction, if nothing else, simply by outlasting it!
All the best to you and Dewy,
Pat
