Self-Compassion doesn’t mean feeling sorry for oneself. It means understanding oneself better than ever.
If you Care for your own well-being, you already know that smoking is harmful to you. TODAY is a Great Day to become an EX!
Self-Compassion requires being Sensitive and vulnerable and that takes COURAGE!
Then you have to allow a Sympathy for yourself. How can one sympathize with oneself? It’s opening up to your God created Being – that person who is beyond your thoughts, even your feelings! The Real YOU!
Can you imagine how much Distress Tolerance that embraces? We must learn distress management skills.
Then we’ll actually become Empathetic to ourselves. Empathy means the ability to imagine or project oneself into another person's position and experience all the sensations involved in that position.
You’ll need that both to grieve the Smoker You you are letting go of. You’ll also need to imagine the Happy Quitter You that you will transform into. Nobody can tell you who that person is. YOU get to decide! And that takes empathy!
And all of these challenges must be wrapped up in a Non-Judgemental bow because YOU are worthy of FREEDOM!
A BIG Order, right?
But you can achieve all of this with a certain skill set.
Pay Attention – to how you are (remember, without judgement, now!) Tracking leads to the perfect time to do this but you can do it throughout your day. It doesn’t take time – it takes awareness!
Allow your Feelings and learn little by little how to deal with them. For many Years we have smoked our feelings away and replaced them with artificial dopamine hits.
Choose your Behavior. Easier said than done but practice does make a huge difference!
Use Reasoning. Remember that saying: Don’t believe everything you think? Check your Thoughts against your Values and you will have more clarity about which thoughts you want to listen to.
Use Imagery. This will allow you to imagine what it would be like to actually BE a Happy Quitter. Let your imagination guide you. The more you use this skill the stronger it gets and the more you become that person.
Rely on your Senses. Your sense of taste, smell, even touch have been numbed by smoking. Along with your sight and hearing you can enhance your attention toward this moment.
All of these skills will help you get through the difficult physical withdrawals of the first few days and mental withdrawals that you’ll experience in the Months ahead.
YOU can do this! Many of us have! We’re here to provide you with the skills that make it possible!
