Even today…sometimes I get too big for my britches. I’ll feel I’m all that & can stand anything. I have this quit under control & everyone should listen to me cause I’m doing it right. Those are the times when some little thing will happen & I’ll feel that I should be smoking. Some occasion…a hidden or forgotten trigger. We are most dangerous to ourselves because ultimately we are the ones to make the excuses & then the decision to smoke again. We forget where we were in the beginning, why we quit & how miserable we were. After a time it’s hard to put ourselves back In that place.
We need to keep our quits green. Green as in fresh.
I do this by going back & reading my very first thread two or three times a year. It feels as if I’m actually there. Again I know the agony, the tight chest, the scratchy throat & the dismal feeling of failing so many times in the past. I don’t stay there…just long enough to really get a taste of where I was.
I also “keep it green” by putting myself in the shoes of every newbie that I read. They’re right where I was that October 1st so long ago. They are me & if I can remember how it was I can help them in a much better way. And by helping them I’m helping Mike.
I invite you all to “go back” & revisit your first pathetic plea for help knowing you couldn’t do it alone…knowing what losing you would do to your family…knowing others had done it but feeling you weren’t strong enough. But isn’t it great when you find that you do have that strength?
I’ll even let you read my first plea for help.
http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?msg=14567.1&nav=messages&webtag=ab-quitsmoking#a1
Give yourself a chance. Keep it green & don’t forget where you came from.
M n @
