Good morning Exer's!! I hope your having a calm day today. There's always so much to think about and take care of during our quits. There's the constant nagging sensation that we all must feel at first. A kind of confusion that at times can be really hard to understand. We wonder about our quits and what might happen next as if we're helpless to change the circumstances of our lives even though we know that when we quit, we actually did change those circumstances.
It really doesn't matter if it's about quitting smoking or any other major change in life, when we hitch a ride on the wings of change, it can be both a wonderful and terrifying experience. Change never comes easy it seems, especially if it's a major change to one's life.
It's human nature to fear the unknown. I know no matter how confident I am that I've always been nervous on the first day of a new job. Though I have an idea of what would be expected of me as well as how to perform the needed tasks, I still always find myself nervous on that first day. I think this is more a fear of the unknown. Of not yet experiencing the change in life.
When we're about to embark on a journey that embodies a change in our lives, we use what knowledge we have and because of a little nervousness we begin analyzing the situation and we create all kinds of scenario's to try to be ready for the change. When we decide to quit, we see ourselves in situations without cigarettes and somehow we just can't visualize this. For me there was a kind of resistance from the mind and at first I just couldn't see myself as a nonsmoker. This made me wonder if I was capable of achieving the change that I desired.
And so I created things that I could fixate on. Like Mt. Freedom and the addict within. This allowed me to perceive a little normalcy because it symbolized a journey. It symbolized in my mind a cohesive path to follow. Though I never really knew what I would face in the next turn of the trail I could at least visualize progress. I could visualize a journey with a clear beginning, middle and end. This helped to calm my fears before I actually quit to the point that one of my first quitting blogs was titled, “No fear!”
In that blog I described my last cigarette and what amazed me was first that I never even finished that last cigarette and second that as I went to bed that night I actually smiled because I knew in my heart that I felt no fear. I went to sleep with a confidence that I would be able to successfully ride the wings of change. That the journey would indeed be a doable one even if I still wasn't completely sure where the wings of change might take me.
Most of what I feared might happen never really did and things I'd never even thought of did happen. That's the nature of riding the wings of change. We can soar high into the air, seeing our future for what it really will be. We can land softly in our new changed world by simply understanding the new world we're in. You know, the one without cigarettes in it.
We can indeed create a journey of wonder. It really depends on how we want to see the journey. One thing is certain. On this journey you will come out a better person. A healthier person and yes, believe it or not, a happy person. One that lives a life of freedom. One who takes what is given to them and turns it into that magical thing that we call peace.
So if you haven't already, grab hold of those wings of change. Let them take you high into the air so you can see your future as it really well be. So you can visualize the freedom that lies ahead in your future.
Trust in yourself because it is us who must really make the journey a success. Together we will weather anything that tries to stand in our ways. Together we will climb Mt. Freedom and leave our fears and doubts at the trail head because that's just baggage that we don't need. We can climb over those boulder fields and yes, sometimes we can even completely miss them and blaze a new trail around them that others can use when they choose to ride the wings of change.
When the fear tries to get you, look to the summit. When the world seems so different, look only to the summit. That's where our futures lie! That's where we can at last stand tall, grab that banner of freedom. Wave that beautiful banner high over our heads and shout out to the world, “I did it!! I'm Free!! And all I had to do was ride those wings of change out of a world that I thought I knew and into the land of freedom!!”
It really is worth the effort!!
ONWARD TO FREEDOM!!!
