cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Share your quitting journey

Day 98 - Remembering those first hard days

Chuck-2-20-2011
0 3 54

The further I progress on the path to freedom, the more I seem to look back at those first days of my quit. I had prepped for my quit for well over a month. I had my reasons for quitting firmly implanted in my brain and I felt no fear as the final day approached. I just knew I was as ready as I was ever going to be.

 

Though the first days were hard, I still found them to be easier then I expected. I think this is because I really expected the worst and when I was prepared for a horrible day it in the end wasn’t quite what I thought it was going to be.

I never really missed the cigarette much. But I did of course crave one. I forced myself to remember that the cravings only last for a few minutes. Soon I was able to identify the onset of an urge. This allowed me to prepare myself mentally for what was about to happen.

I remember when I was prepping to quit. I would do something that I called "practice quits."

This was when I would go several hours at a time without a cigarette. The purpose of this was so it was clear in my mind what the addict within was going to do to me to get me to smoke. It was to gain what I believed would be some much needed experience for my future quit. Thing is that when I actually quit, I used the nicotine patch so the cravings weren’t as bad as my test quits led me to believe they would be.

But the bottom line is that with time it does get easier. The urges lose their ability to ruin our days and they appear fewer and fewer times every day. We simply get used to living our lives without cigarettes. We no longer see ourselves as smokers and soon, the internal addict loses much of its power. It’s thrown all of it’s temper tantrums and has discovered that it cannot make us smoke.

So really, the way I got through those days was to look to the future and try not to dwell on the present to much. I always reminded myself that what I do today will have a direct impact on tomorrow. Today I am deciding how my future will be. And all I really wanted to see was as bright a future as possible.

So when it looks bleak, remember the sun. When it looks impossible, know that it isn’t. So many have gone through this very same thing and come out on the other side a happy individual. A person that’s a little more confident in the future. A person who has gained so much insight into themselves because they had to in order to quit.

There is so much on the horizon if we can just drag ourselves out of the moment and look to see it. It’s there for the taking. All we have to do is find that new perspective and we will find it! It’s the prize of being free not only from our addictions but from ourselves for you see, we lived so long under the thumb of our addictions that many of us have forgotten what it’s like to be free. Many have forgotten what it’s like to be at peace with ourselves. Many have forgotten what it’s like to really believe in ourselves.

So really, although it may be hard now. Although it may seem almost impossible to get through the day, know that the fight is worth it. Understand that freedom is worth all the pain that we must feel at first. Try to see past today and peer into tomorrow and if you can really see tomorrow without cigarettes then you’ll be one step closer to winning back your life!

This is how we free ourselves from ourselves. One step at a time, one day at a time, one urge at a time. And though it may be hard right now, believe me when I say that every craving that we have to deal with. Every urge that we survive brings us closer to the prize. It brings us closer to easier days. And in the end it will bring you closer to yourself then you’ve ever been before!

Keep your eye on the prize!! Onward to freedom!!

3 Comments