One year today

[Daniela2016]

And a few of my experiences and words of support for the newbies:

1. quitting is not by far as difficult as you think it would before you actually quit
2. your mind is the one responsible for the quality of the quit: it can make it a breeze, or one of the more dreaded experiences of your life; talk yourself into how easy it is and it will be just that
3. educate yourself about the addiction to nicotine, and the psychological dependency on smoking; it might make the difference between sticking with the right decision, or falling back in the old patterns and bringing back a whole array of negative feelings of self-worth, making it more difficult every time to quit again
4. life is full of challenges for all of us, smokers or EX smokers; having a cigarette does not make it any easier to work through life challenges, it just makes it more expensive
5. the thought of smoking never really goes away; it comes back regularly, but it is just a thought not a command to action; it is up to you to recognize it as such, and take another action/activity instead and let the thought of smoking fade away
6. and for those who have not quit yet, please do it, counting the days of freedom in its own is such a beautiful present you can give yourself every day

Thank you to this community for nudging me along the way, I would not be here today, if not for you all!

Daniela