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Perspective Is Everything

SimplySheri
Member
3 5 84

~~The enemy is not after your money or your stuff.  He wants your mind.  Your attitude.  Your heart.  Your faith.  Your peace.  Understand that you're not being attacked of tangible things in your life.  The enemy is fighting you over things you can't see.~~  Unknown

Ah, the enemy.  Nicotine.  Addiction.  Evil little things that can take over everything in your head even when you aren't actively using.  What power it has!!  What strength!!  It keeps you in agony.  The wanting.  The hanging on by a thread.  The temptations.  The failure.

Well, not really.  Seriously.  Nicotine isn't an evil being (although it may feel like that).  Addiction isn't the enemy.  And the power it has over you?  All in your head.

Sometimes it seems like quitting is full of constant drama and battles and warriors and victims and just everything bad you can think of all tossed together and put into a blender.  You feel out of control.  You think too much and feel too much and are frozen in fear yet jumpy and shaky.  Nicotine is winning because you can't NOT think of it and functioning seems to be a totally foreign concept.

Perspective is everything.  Nicotine is a substance.  Nothing more.  Like sugar or caffeine.  It alters brain chemistry, yes.  It is addictive, yes.  But it's not some scary monster you have no control over.  You do.  Of course you do!!  

Perspective is everything.  And while quitting smoking is difficult in that you have to change habits and you have to find different things to do and you have to learn how to live without the addictive substance, quitting is also a path of freedom and finding out who you really are.  It's about honing in on your talents and creating healthier habits and learning that you can be in control rather than nicotine.

So maybe that fear can be eased.  Maybe the scary thoughts of quitting can be comforted.  It's not about not being in control, it's about finding out that you do have control.  Over your actions.  Over your thoughts.  Over your life. 

Perspective is everything.  Go into your quit knowing that your brain is going to be out of wack for  awhile.  Go into your quit knowing that old habits are indeed difficult to break.  Go into your quit knowing that you need to find other things to do and other things to think about and other things to...be.  Go into your quit knowing it may not be easy but it will 100%, definitely be worth it.

Addiction isn't an evil being and nicotine isn't a monster hiding under your bed.  It's simply a chemical reaction in your brain that has been allowed to live and to grow and to take over your daily life.  It's deadly if not stopped, yes.  But it is stoppable.

The best thing about quitting?  It can be exciting to find out who you are.  It can be fun to come up with other things to do.  It can be rewarding to simply smell clean and feel better.  It can be a journey of discovery rather than a fierce battle between monsters and helpless victims.

Perspective is everything.

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