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Share your quitting journey

Stark! Raving!

JonesCarpeDiem
5 3 41

Calm

Well, what were you expecting, Mad?

We've come to expect certain words that end a phrase just as

We came to expect smoking when we thought of it.

Quitting smoking involves changing the expected.

It doesn't have to be difficult.

Small changes are enough to unlearn the routine.

Put a picture  in your phone of something that calms you.

Or

Write a word or a phrase on a piece of paper or

the back of a business card.

Laminate it and carry it with you to bring out when you get anxious.

Examples:

"Relax"

"Keep your head up."

"You are making a great change."

3 Comments
About the Author
Hello, My name is Dale. I was quit 18 months before joining this site and had participated on another site during that time. I learned a lot there and brought it with me. I joined this site the first week of August 2008. I didn't pressure myself to quit. HOW I QUIT I didn't count, I didn't deny myself to get started. When I considered quitting (at a friends request to influence his brother to quit), I simply told myself to wait a little longer. No denial, nothing painful. After 4 weeks I was down to 5 cigarettes from a pack a day. The strength came from proving to myself, I didn't need to smoke because I normally would have smoked. Simple yes? I bought the patch. I forgot to put one on on the 4th day. I needed it the next day but the following week I forgot two days in a row I put one in my wallet with a promise to myself that I would slap it on and wait an hour rather than smoke. It rode in my wallet my first year.There's nothing keeping any of you from doing this. It doesn't cost a dime. This is about unlearning something you've done for a long time. The nicotine isn't the hard part. Disconnecting from the psychological pull, the memories and connected emotions is. :-) Time is the healer.