GREENimage
Here's some thoughts on making it to Green...
Even though one month is still relatively early compared to all you long-termers out there, I want to say that this is definitely getting easier as time goes by...
I did 2 prior quits in the last 3 1/2 years and there is a very significant difference in this quit, and that difference is a direct result of the education I have received at Why Quit.com and at Freedom.
The biggest difference to my mind is that I have finally and deeply accepted that fact that I am an addict with nicotine, that this truly does mean 'one equals all,' and that I have to choose NTAP if I want to be free from my addiction, just like a crack addict must never pick up a crack pipe again. In past quits, that slippery addict's mind of mine held on to the thought that, sometime in some unspecified future, I could occasionally let myself have a cigarette, even if I never consciously admitted that that thought process was going on. It was as though I had accepted the fact of my addiction intellectualy but not emotionally.
Oddly enough, this new and deeper realization of my addiction is resulting in less thoughts of smoking as time goes by. My acceptance of my addiction is non-negotiable in that now there is no more room for the thought of the 'occasional' puff to slip in and become rationalized away as something that will be ok. One puff leads me back to full-blown smoking with all that entails - it always has and I know now it always will. It is a relief to finally face that, and an invaluable tool to keep me free and clean from nicotine.
This trip has been hard at times, with my biggest hurdle being finding new ways to deal with stress and frustration. I hold onto the knowledge that nicotine will never help me with the stressor at hand. And it certainly is not worth losing my hard-won quit. Life is simply better without active addiction.
So thank you for the education and support on this site, managers and members, and keep going to all of you, in each and every day of your quits.
NTAP!!!
pat
free and clean for 1 month and one dayimage
p.s. congrats Nadine!!!!image