Good morning Exer's!
Man, what a world we live in. You just never know what might happen next in our lives. Sometimes it's good stuff and sometimes it's bad stuff but I think the bottom line is that if life were perfect, it would get rather boring. So I guess it's probably for the best to take the good with the bad.
And yet when we quit smoking, everything seems to be so magnified! Every little problem becomes a monumental burden that the addict within tries to use to derail our quits even when we know that smoking won't fix a thing! It's so easy to look for excuses to start again and every time we create one of those excuses within our minds, we have to fight even harder just to stay quit.
This is why it's so important for us to stay in-tuned with ourselves. This is why we can never let our guard down in those first weeks as we travel the path to freedom. I always found that for me it was good to look forward at first. To start visualizing that freedom that we so badly desire. To think about what life will be like when we're finally free of the monster that is our addictions.
This is where the hope lies. In that place in our minds where we finally find peace. That place where we know that though we made mistakes in our past, we also know that we have learned and will never make that mistake again. That place where the addict within can send that old signal to smoke and we can go “Huh?” And then find ourselves laughing at that very thought that used to torment us so much.
Oh yes, there is so much to look forward to once we take that first step. Once we commit to ourselves once and for all that we will never ever smoke another puff. That we will never again give into ourselves as we learn our new life.
So never look back to that old life that we had other then to remind ourselves why we quit in the first place for once you find that wonderful freedom then suddenly that past life of smoking doesn't look so rosy. It doesn't look anything like we remembered it on those first hard days. You won't be able to find a thing that was pleasant mainly because once the mask of deception that we created for ourselves is lifted then we can see things so much more clearly. We can see things as only a free spirit can see them.
Don't ever give up! Never give in to yourself! Always remember the incredible rewards that await you if you can just stay free long enough. If you can just cast aside those old thoughts and never let the little problems in life effect your resolve. The problems will be there whether we smoke or not. The difference is that when we're free what used to seem so monumental and so upsetting suddenly doesn't seem like much at all. And you know what? Since I no longer smoke when I think of those problems, I suddenly have the time to do something about them!
ONWARD TO FREEDOM!!
