~~Your craving is temporary but the damage to your lungs is permanent.~~ Unknown
Wow, icky thought, isn't it? And icky thoughts never helped me in my quit. Cancer, emphysema, heart disease never made me put the cigarettes down.
But it did for a friend of mine. She carried around a picture of lungs damaged by smoking. She quit 13 years ago. My sister quit after smoking for probably over 20 years. She never told me how she did it, she just did it. Didn't complain or whine or even shine. She just went on with life. A neighbor made a list of her reasons for quitting and kept it on the refrigerator as a reminder. Another quitter put the money he saved aside and went on vacation with it.
Everyone quits differently. Their way. It's really the only way to do it. You've got to make it work for you. In your life with your attitude and temperament and lifestyle. You can read what works for others to get ideas, but don't think what they do will automatically work for you. It may or it may not. You get to decide. You get to chose what to do. You get to explore and discover untapped courage and undeveloped strength. You get to marvel in your quit and delight in your changes. Quitting is a gift to yourself because on the other side of smoking is...well....life. Free of damaging chemicals and clouds of smoke and those darn urges to have 'just one more'. Gone and truthfully, even almost 9 years later, I still delight in that.
Everyone quits differently but everyone can quit. Even you. Open your mind to the possibilities of a smoke free life. Choose it, then create it. Nurture it, then grow it. Because you can.
Peace,
Sheri
