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Share your quitting journey

Change your mind

JACKIE1-25-15
Member
3 9 26

We do it every day.  It is simple, like changing what to wear, eat, or route.  Sounds easy doesn’t it.  We change our minds automatically all the time. I call it flipping the switch.  Now if we apply it to smoking it doesn’t sound as easy does it? Well to be honest it's not as easy as deciding what to wear or eat.  It is not automatic but with practice and time it becomes easier and automatically doable.  There’s that word again “doable”.    Changing of the mind is vital for a successful quit.   Our minds are very powerful and what we feed it has power over it.  We can feed our minds negative thoughts or positive.    We can tell our mind that we can’t do this or we can tell it YES I CAN. 

Are you wandering sometimes why it is so hard and a “struggle”?   Partly because we keep telling ourselves that it is.  I remember how difficult the beginning of this journey can be BUT telling myself that I could do this made it easier.   I said it out loud many times a day.   I told my mind I was not going to give up.  I learned to get pass the urges and the withdrawal by using the advice of the Elders.  When my mind told me I needed a cigarette I told my mind it was a lie.  When my addictive mind told me to have just one I told it to leave me alone.  I would yell at it.  “I am not going to smoke so stop wasting my time”.   When I was confronted by a trigger, I talked myself out of it, one of my greatest tools, SELF TALK.  I started telling my mind a new a story.  That I am a nonsmoker.    Once I started believing it  my quit got easier.   I would not consider myself a happy quitter but a positive quitter.    I told my mind that I was going to be smoke free by any means necessary.  NOPE meant a lot to me and it carried me a long way. 

Being here and witnessing others going through some of the most difficult times in their lives and still not smoking was a testimony to me that this is doable.   I considered my journey much easier so I could not complain.  This site gave me strength and encouragement so I came here on a daily basis, reading the suggested material, blogging, learning and feeding my mind new thoughts.  Every morning I looked forward the greeting from Mike or an encouraging blog from Marilyn.  Finding a key for that day would help me.   I was here.  I was a little concerned that I had a new addiction but I told my mind this was a better one than smoking.  My morning coffee was no longer with a cigarette but with EX.  I learned new ways to think.  They said change hands when drinking coffee. I did not take my quit lightly.  I held my cup with both hands and I was okay because I wasn’t going to miss a beat.    I would read the educational and encouraging material from so many like Thomas, Shawn, Storm. SkyGirl , Sheri, Guilia, Ellen, Nancy, Sharon, Terry, MikenAt , just to name a few.    A “joke” from Dale always made me ponder. (go to their pages and read.)  I had quit buddies that helped along the way.  

 Now My mind constantly tells me there is so much more to life living it smoke free because I am living it. 638 days of it.  Change your mind and your quit can be easier.  Like flipping the switch.

https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/blogs/JACKIE1-25-15-blog/2015/05/28/flip-the-switch  

9 Comments
About the Author
Lay aside every weight that may be slowing you down. Make up your mind not to allow doubt cause you to stumble. You can do this! Do not allow fear , False Expectations Appearing Real to hold you down. You can do this! Break the chains of addiction, forgive yourself for ever smoking. move forward and start loving yourself more each day by staying smokefree. Put aside worry, anxiety, depression, any EXcuse that you would use to not get in or stay in the race of freedom. Take one day at a time, one step if necessary. Run the race diligently, steady and sure with endurance. Believe that you can. Keep your eye on the prize. Hang tough, stay close, be mindful, never give in, never give up.