Let’s be honest. Nobody comes to this site feeling all excited and happy about quitting.
Most people who come to EX aren’t even sure that they really want to quit. Or they know they SHOULD quit, but they don’t really WANT to. Or...they’ve really wanted to quit for a long time, but they don’t BELIEVE that they CAN quit.
That’s the way most of us felt when we came to this site. So you aren’t different.
I know, I know...
It’s easier to accept what you THINK is true; that you are DIFFERENT, that other people who quit smoking simply didn’t NEED it the way that you do, that YOUR need for cigarettes, and the way you LOVE smoking, and the way it calms you down and helps you deal with life and gives you a break from stress is much more REAL and NECESSARY than what the other people here ever felt—ESPECIALLY the people on this site that have already quit successfully. They just don’t NEED smoking the way you do. In other words, YOUR addiction to nicotine is much stronger and much harder to beat than anyone else’s. Maybe THEY could give it up...but you CAN’T.
But, here’s the thing... (now, listen carefully and read this again and again...)
IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE WAY YOU ARE FEELING ABOUT SOMETHING, THEN YOU MUST CHANGE THE WAY YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT IT.
Okay, now go back and read that again. Don’t blow it off.
Whoa. WHAT??? Okay, maybe that’s too much therapy for right now. But put that phrase in the back of your mind and try to remember it when you are feeling like crap about something in your life...including quitting.
Because you have the ability to DECIDE how you will feel about quitting.
Let me guess how you are feeling...
You feel you are “giving something up”. You feel that you are making a “sacrifice”. You feel that life without smoking will feel BAD and that you will always feel that you are missing something good. You feel that you are facing the idea of “doing without” something that really improved your life and made it easier.
Um, no.
What if you DECIDED to see quitting differently? What if you DECIDED to see quitting as finding FREEDOM from your nicotine addiction? What if you DECIDED to believe that life would be BETTER once you were free of cigarettes? What if you DECIDED to listen to the people here on EX who have come before you and have quit and who tell you that life IS better without smoking?
What if, even though you can’t quite buy into that idea yet, that you just made the decision to BELIEVE that you CAN quit and that it won’t leave a hole in your life? That life WILL be better after you quit smoking?
It’s not easy to quit. And anyone who tells you that they didn’t struggle in some way may be not quite remembering it accurately.
But here’s the thing that we all grasped on to when we first quit: “This is hard, but it will get easier and I will be so happy that I did this, I will find that life without cigarettes is really good, even if I can’t make myself believe it yet”.
And we were right. Life IS better. And we don’t miss smoking. It’s not easy. But it’s SO worth it.
And here at EX, we will help you. All you have to do is introduce yourself and start talking to us.
You CAN quit. We did. And your nicotine addiction is no stronger nor any harder to beat than ours was.
xxxooo, Sky
