~~Patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and do all that we can----working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardships, with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well.~~ Dieter F Uchidorf
So many emotions churn within us when we quit....excitement, fear, depression, anxiety....that we can really roller coaster our way into relapse if we aren't careful.
Being careful is boring, right? Being calm is blah. Waiting is not in our nature, is it?
Sometimes it's simply our addiction that encourages us to live in chaos. And then when we finally take the plunge and quit.....well, it's kinda icky. We want all those bad feelings over with quickly!! "How do I stop feeling stressed?" "Why can't this feeling go away?" "How long before the cravings are gone?"
Patience. In patience, calmness. And in calmness, a quiet knowledge that these icky feelings are part of our recovery and will ease with time. It's ok to feel ickness. It's a blessing, really, because that means we aren't killing ourselves with tobacco.
You can feel the excitement of your quit. You can feel the joy of your quit. And you can definitely look forward to the beauty of living a smoke free life for the rest of your life. But don't forget to have patience with yourself. Addiction doesn't disappear in 72 hours, but the physical withdrawals do. Things get better day by day, hour by hour....with each cigarette you don't smoke.
Have patience, dear quitters. Slow down and simply endure well. Find the calm and cling to that when things feel icky. It won't last forever. You need time to heal, time to find yourself, and time to embrace the changes in your life.
Peace, Sheri
