Never in my 61 years have I ever lived through this type of craziness. I vaguely remember the Hong Kong flu when I was in grade school. I guess I paid no attention to the swine flu when that rolled around or even the other various strains that went around the country during my lifetime. All I was doing was chain smoking and going along my happy-go-lucky way.
I'm part of the self-employed section of the population. I don't have any employees. I work for no firm or corporation. I am a sole proprietor. I don't receive vacation days, sick days, personal days paid. I have no unemployment benefits normally entitled to me since I have not been in the “workforce” for over 24 years. I have never taken this much time off since the birth of my last child and that was 28 years ago. I haven't worked since March 13th.
Now, if I was still smoking, I would have been scrambling to pay my bills, chain smoking through every day wondering where the next dime comes from. How am I going to afford another pack, let alone another carton. Since I stopped smoking 4 ½ years ago, I've learned to slow down. Take 10 seconds before reacting. Find solutions instead of creating more problems. Take one day at a time. Look to the brighter side of things. This will not last forever. This will come to an end.
Now, not knowing exactly when this will end is driving me insane, but, hey, I went through the exact same thing when I quit smoking. I wanted an exact timeline of when this stops, when this begins, when am I ever going to feel “normal” again. Reflecting back, I realized that I alone had to create my new normal. I had to rearrange my routines and my habits to my new life. I had to take those 10 seconds to think about how to react to certain things happening in my surroundings. Develop positive ways to deal with conflict, stress. All those tools are helping me to cope with the situation at hand.
Be sure to use the search feature on this site to research the emotions or physical symptoms you are having during your time of going through the quitting process. You'll find many, many blogs and discussions pertaining to your inquiry because I'm sure there's someone somewhere down the line that felt the same way that you are. Always remember you are never in this alone. You will always be validated here, heard here. Speak out or share your feelings. You can allow comments or not allow comments to your blogs and discussions. You can tailor this to your personal preference. You are in charge of your quit. You can make this as easy or as hard as you want it to be, https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/groups/general-support/blog/2018/01/17/trust-the-process?sr=searc.... Just always remember this is the most important decision you'll ever make and you'll be glad that you did. Stay safe everyone. I've been thinking of you all and wish you well.
1538 DOF (days of freedom)
Thank you for sharing this great post I'm sending you a humongous caring hug along with lots of positive vibes......
