I was just thinking about a time in my past when I was diagnosed with hepatitis C. I had no idea that I had this chronic disease until it was discovered quite by accident from a blood test taken at a health fair. When the diagnosis was made, I was floored! How could this be? I felt fine!
I began studying the disease and discovered that over time, it could destroy my liver or create liver cancer. I was horrified! But also, this was the first time in my life that I started thinking about life. It seems like over time, we tend to take life for granted, or rather we just don’t think about it much. When something life threatening hits a person, we tend to create scenarios. We invent a mental picture of our futures and the mind sometimes accepts that picture.
The same kinds of things happen with nicotine addiction, I think. We start smoking with confidence in our health and assume that we could never be harmed by the effects of this highly addictive drug. We create this perfect image in our minds of a completely healthy self. In our mental picture, we see ourselves smoking with no consequences. We become our own worst enemy.
After being firmly addicted, at times we realize that perhaps our mental picture of ourselves isn’t actually helping us to achieve the goal of a wonderful life. We challenge the mental image of ourselves, and as is normal for the mind, we create a new scenario, or rather, we think about creating a new scenario.
This generates fear because we’re challenging what we’ve always accepted as normal. And because of our addictions, the mind rejects the thought of a different perception of life because it’s just not convenient. It’s easier to keep the same mental picture in place. But if we really start thinking about it, the mind starts creating all new scenarios. Ones where we’re suffering from the pain of withdrawal. Ones where we see all of the discomforts that we somehow know that we’ll feel.
This is why preparation is so important in my opinion. This is the time when we begin accepting a new picture of ourselves. When we prove to ourselves that we can change our mental image into something more positive and over time, we become convinced that we really can beat the addiction and change ourselves forever!
Quitting in reality is a truly positive experience. And it’s one that teaches us a lot about ourselves and how we perceive the world around us. And I think that along the way, we find a new love of life. A desire to see things a little more perfectly than they were before.
Once we get past the initial first hard weeks, or for some months, we begin to naturally create a new scenario of ourselves. A new image of what we are and we see ourselves as nonsmokers. Once the image is changed, I think the journey becomes easier.
So when you’re struggling, and you think the journey will never end. When you find your resolve waning. These are the times to remember the image of yourself as a nonsmoker. These are the times to think of the seeds you are now sowing for the future. Seeds of health and freedom. Seeds of peace and happiness.
And with each passing day, these seeds grow! But we must nurture them at first. They’re very precious to us and as such must be cared for throughout the journey because in the end we prove not only to ourselves but to those that love us that we will fight for our future! We will fight for our pride and for our freedom! We will fight for the new life that only we can create for ourselves!
How will your future look? The choice is yours and yours alone. I do hope you choose freedom and life . . . .
ONWARD TO FREEDOM!!!
Chuck
