Well, I stepped down on the patches yesterday from the 21MG to the 14MG, which means I’m halfway there when it comes to finally clearing the nicotine from my body once and for all. I really only felt a small amount of discomfort, though it was different then when I first quit.
It was more of a steady small craving for most of the day. Pretty much what I expected. But the difference is that although I felt some withdrawal from reducing the nicotine intake, that’s all there was to fight. No cravings like when I first quit. This to me is easier to deal with then when I first put on a patch because something has happened in the last month.
I’ve changed! That’s right. During this last month without cigarettes, I have become a non smoker! When I feel the pangs of nicotine withdrawal I have no desire to smoke. I no longer feel the loss that so many of us feel when we first quit smoking. I no longer miss the life of smoking. And most importantly, I still see myself in my minds eye as a non smoker. I see my life clearly without cigarettes and because of this, the little discomforts that come with my stepping down have no power over me. The only way they could have a power over me would be if I chose to think about smoking, which I choose not to do!
In this case, change is a wonderful thing. I am now living in what used to be my future when I first quit. And because of what I did a month ago, I am living in a more perfect future then I could have had if I’d not chosen to quit smoking in my past.
This just reminds me once again that anything I do today will have a direct impact on my future. And I see a future free of cigarettes. I have changed deep inside of myself and it’s a change that gathers momentum with each passing day. This is one of those times when one can see the benefits of the past. When one can feel the physical changes inside the body because of the choices the mind has already made in the past.
And so I look forward to each new day and see it as a building block for tomorrow. And tomorrow will be the building block for the next day. So long as we remember that we’re always building to the future with every moment that we live in the present, then the changes inside of us that need to take place to be free of the addiction become a bit easier to bear.
So never lose hope in your quit. This is one of the lessons of the elders. The one that says they are now living in a future that they created for themselves long ago and since they are now in that future, simply by being here they prove to us every day what our own futures can look like. They show us that we can pass through the hard present to create a future free of cigarettes. That all it takes is the passage of time and a realization that in this case, change is a good thing.
Change in this case is the one thing that might save our lives because without the internal change that must happen within ourselves, there could be no victory!
Now, onward to the future!!
