Good morning Exer’s!!!
I hope all is well with you!! When we quit smoking we have to be ready for an amazing amount of changes. I mean, we have to change our thinking, how we live, what we do when we drive and what to do when we’re angry or sad or - the list goes on and on!
No wonder it’s so hard to quit! If you think about it, there’s a lot to process and at times processing all of this new information and learning new actions can be quite overwhelming, especially when you’ve got the addiction itself screaming in your ear the whole time. No wonder we get tired!
And with so much to do that is different along with changing how we do things in our everyday life, it just gets confusing. I think this is why everything is so intense at first. Because there’s just so much for the brain to process all at once!
That’s also what makes the first days the hardest. So hard in fact, that we often want to just give it all up and give our overworked minds a break! So long as we realize what is happening we can deflect some of this. That’s why deep breathing works so well in my opinion. It changes the focus of the mind and gives us a feeling of relaxation. It slows down the mind for a moment so that it can sort of catch its breath for a moment. And after that moment of slowing the mental process, we just feel more invigorated and ready to continue processing all those changes.
That’s why I think visualization worked so well to me. The serene place that I created for myself became very comforting over time. In fact, I still visit that place to this day but the thing is when I was in the throes or beating my addiction and I’d go to this place, when I opened my eyes I just felt invigorated and ready to face my challenges once again.
Not everyone wants to use visualization or meditation as a tool, but it was a good one that worked for me. I think that anything that you can find to change the minds focus for a moment will be a huge benefit. I do hope you can find your calming technique so that you can kind of take a break every now and then.
The main thing to remember is that we do get used to change over time. We evolve into a new and better world and as we accept each change; As each change becomes what is normal to us, we find peace. As we continue to accept what our new world is like, we continue to grow and so long as we stay on this wondrous and sometimes crazy path, then one day we’ll be free and on that day when we can really look at what we just did, we’ll just smile and that smile will split our face from ear to ear because it’s the smile that can only come from acceptance and the glorious feeling of freedom!!
ONWARD TO FREEDOM!!!
Chuck
