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Repost
From misty101 on 6/10/2005 11:31:55 PM
A few have asked for help - they are starting their QUITS (YAY) this weekend! Get the guards out! They
want any suggestions we can post to help them along!
Oh, those first few days. Deep breathing exercises, drinking lots of water/fruit juices, distraction/keeping busy....walking/dancing
.... remind yourself why you CHOOSE to NOT SMOKE! Make a list - implant it in your thought and deeds.
Get rid of any
&%^ related paraphernalia: store the ashtrays, etc. Craves last only as long as we let them last, but usually only about
3 minutes. So moment by moment, hand-to-hand, heart-to-heart - and yes, post-to-post, you can quit. You can pledge to not
smoke "Right Now." Forever is made up of millions of "right nows". So is 3 minutes, sometimes....but it is possible! And you
can - just prepare your mind. Your body is addicted and you will need to take care of your body while it detoxes. jan - day
45
PS: Ye may wish to print this out so that ye can refer to it later, and it will be easier to read & highlight
any pertinent text.
~~~~Quote~~~~
For Everyone Just Beginning Their Journey:
From robfouryqr on 2/23/2005
5:10:52 PM
“Take it ONE DAY AT A TIME” This concept is taught by almost all programs which
are devoted to dealing with substance abuse or emotional conflict of any kind. The reason that it is so often quoted is that
it is universally applicable to almost any traumatic situation. Dealing with quitting smoking is no exception. Along
with NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF! ONE DAY AT A TIME is the key technique which gives the smoker the strength to successfully quit
smoking and stay free from the powerful grip of nicotine dependence. When first quitting, the concept of ONE DAY AT
A TIME is clearly superior to the smoker thinking that he will never smoke again for the rest of his life. For when the smoker
is first giving up smoking, he does not know whether or not he wants to go the rest of his life without smoking. Most of the
time the smoker envisions life as a non-smoker as more stressful, painful, and less fun. It is not until he quits
smoking that he realizes his prior thoughts of what life is like as a non-smoker were wrong. Once he quits he realizes that
there is life after smoking. It is a cleaner, calmer, fuller and, most important, healthier life. Now the thought of returning
to smoking becomes a repulsive concept. Even though the fears have reversed, the ONE DAY AT A TIME technique should still
be maintained. Now, as an ex-smoker, he still has bad moments every now and then. Sometimes due to stress at home or
work, or pleasant social situations, or to some other indefinable trigger situation, the desire for a cigarette surfaces.
All he needs to do is say to himself, I won't smoke for the rest of today; tomorrow I will worry about tomorrow. The urge
will be over in seconds, and the next day he probably won't even think of a cigarette. But ONE DAY AT A TIME should
not only be practiced when an urge is present. It should be practiced daily. Sometimes an ex-smoker thinks it is no longer
important to think in these terms. He goes on with the idea he will not smoke again for the rest of his life. Assuming he
is correct, when does he pat himself on the back for achieving his goal. When he is lying on his deathbed he can enthusiastically
proclaim, "I never smoked again." What a great time for positive reinforcement. Every day the ex-smoker should wake
up thinking that he is not going to smoke that day. And every night before he goes to sleep he should congratulate himself
for sticking to his goal. Because pride is important in staying free from cigarettes. Not only is it important, but also it
is well deserved. For anyone who has quit smoking has broken free from a very powerful addiction. For the first time in years,
he has gained control over his life, rather than being controlled by his cigarette. For this, he should be proud. So
tonight, when you go to sleep, pat yourself on the back and say, "Another day without smoking, I feel great." And tomorrow
when you wake up, say, "I am going to try for another day. Tomorrow I will deal with tomorrow." To successfully stay free
from smoking, TAKE IT ONE DAY AT A TIME and - NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Day One
Meditation for the First Day
I don't
have to quit forever; I can go back and use tobacco tomorrow if I want to; all I have to do is just not use it today.
We
can do anything for this one day. Nothing will be too much for us. We can even break the day down into each of its 24 hours
if the struggle demands it. We can then focus on just one hour at a time. We can survive 60 minutes at a time without a cigarette.
How freeing it is to realize we only have to quit smoking for today.
I will do whatever I need to, to live without
a cigarette today
Just For Today
Just for today I will try to live through this day only & not tackle my whole
life problem at once. I can do something for twelve hours that would appall me if I felt that I had to keep it up for a lifetime.
Just
for today I will be happy. This assumes to be true what Abraham Lincoln said, “Most folks are as happy as they make
up their minds to be.”
Just for today I will adjust myself to what is & not try to adjust everything else
to my desires. I will take my “luck” as it comes & fit myself into it.
Just for today I will try to
strengthen my mind. I will study; I will learn something useful; I will not be a mental loafer; I will read something that
requires effort, thought & concentration.
Just for today I will exercise my soul in three ways: I will do somebody
a good turn & not get found out; if anybody knows of it, it will not count; I will do at least two things I don’t
want to do–just for exercise. I will not show anyone that my feelings are hurt; they may be hurt, but today I will not
show it.
Just for today I will be agreeable. I will look as good as I can, dress becomingly, talk low, act courteously,
criticize not one bit, not find fault with anything & not try to improve or regulate anybody except myself.
Just
for today I will have a program. I may not follow it exactly, but I will have it. I will save myself from two pests: hurry
& indecision.
Just for today I will have a quiet half hour all by myself & relax. During this half hour, sometime,
I will try to get a better perspective on my life.
Just for today I will be unafraid. I will enjoy that which is beautiful
& will believe that as I give to the world, so the world will give to me.
It’s a great day to be alive!!
http://members.chello.nl/h.wesseling6/
YESTERDAY TODAY AND TOMORROW
There are two days in every week, about which we
should not worry,
Two days which should be kept free from fear and apprehension.
One of those days is yesterday, with
its mistakes and cares,
Its faults and blunders, its aches and pains.
Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control.
All the money in the world cannot bring back yesterday.
We cannot undo a
single act performed;
We cannot erase a single word said.
Yesterday is gone.
The other day we should not worry
about is tomorrow
With its possible adversities, its burdens
Its large promise and poor performance.
Tomorrow is
also beyond our immediate control.
Tomorrow the sun will rise,
Either in splendour or a mask of clouds,
But it
will rise.
Until it does, we have no stake in tomorrow
For it is as yet unborn.
This leaves only one day - Today.
Any
man can fight the battles of just one day.
It is only when you and I add the burdens of those two awful eternities -
Yesterday
and Tomorrow -
That we break down.
It is not the experience of today that drives men mad.
It is remorse or bitterness
for something that happened yesterday
And the dread of what tomorrow may bring.
Let us therefore live but one day at
a time.
Author Unknown.
Day 2
While getting through the first 72 hours is important to overcome the physiological grip of nicotine,
getting through the first 24 hours is overcoming a great psychological hurdle. For before a person quits, he or she often
thinks a whole day without smoking is going to be an impossible task. He or she often feels that some crisis or ritual is
going necessitate smoking. But when the first day is successfully overcome, the ex-smoker to be has proven to him or herself
that a day is really possible. By getting out of bed, brushing teeth, combing hair, preparing and eating meals, talking on
the phone, logging into a computer, seeing friends, some who even smoke, driving the car, going to work, doing all the projects
that happen in a typical day at their place of employment, coming home, cleaning, washing dishes, paying bills, watching television
and the countless other tasks that the person does day in and day out, all without a cigarette proves beyond a shadow of a
doubt that it is possible to live without smoking. That is not to say that the person is enjoying it, just that these activities
can be done without a cigarette.
Once realizing the day, and more important, the multitude of individual events of
the day were surmountable without a cigarette, the next day is basically just a repeat. That day may be physically easier
or harder. Physical withdrawal runs its own independent course. But psychologically the ex-smoker has the advantage of knowing
that these little hurdles that seemed impossible are in fact, quite possible to accomplish. Again, this is not saying these
events are fun without smoking yet, but they are possible.
The other advantage of the second day is the ex-smoker now has a personal investment of time, effort, and even some
pain. One puff is now seen as a loss of effort. A first day a relapse can be viewed as no big loss, after all he or she was
a smoker when he or she woke up that day, so he or she is just one again at the end of the day. Sure the desire was not to
smoke anymore, but that desire may have been in existence for years on a daily basis. So again, this can be written off as
no big deal or defeat. Another smoking day in a life filled with smoking days.
When you have a day under your belt
though, now you realize something is different. You have made a personal commitment that is undeniable now. After all, you
went a day without smoking. You in a more real sense realize that you have something to lose now if you take a puff. A puff
now is basically a relapse because you did have a quit going. Again, this gives you a little bit of an edge now. While quitting
smoking, you want every little bit of edge you can get.
So don't worry about tomorrow, or next week or next year for
that fact. Focus on another day. If that still seems too big, then focus on another hour or even another minute. But focus
on what you are trying to accomplish here. You are quitting smoking. You are freeing yourself from another drug addiction.
You are improving your health, quality of life, and your length of life. When I made the comment above that a first day relapse
can be interpreted as no big loss, this was not actually a true statement. For while the smoker may have rationalized it that
way, the fact is it was another day of smoking. Another day of constantly assaulting your body with thousands of chemicals
and poisons, increasing your risk of developing a multitude of horrifying diseases. Every day of smoking is a major tragedy
in the making.
Everyday you quit is then in contrast a major victory. Tonight you can celebrate the thrill of victory
as opposed to the agony of defeat. Then you will be able to do the same tomorrow, the next day, and the day after that. All
days will be glorious accomplishments as long as you remember to never take another puff!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Day
3
Today is a pivotal day--it is going to get better today, worse today or stay the same today. But once
you get through today it really will ease up. One way or another, get through today and tomorrow will be better. That is a
much better goal than we could have told you yesterday or the day before. Then we were saying take it a day at a time. Don't
even think about tomorrow. After all, tomorrow might be worse. It wasn't guaranteed to be worse, but it might have been. Now
we can say get through one more day and it WILL be better.
Of course there will still be thoughts and many awkward
moments. If you had quit on a Monday or Tuesday, the weekend will be awkward, with lots of possible new triggers, but the
physical withdrawals really will have eased up. The first three days everything you were doing was new--on top of drug withdrawal.
By tomorrow you will still have the new situations occurring, but you won't have withdrawal complicating it. So there will
still be moments but they will not have the same intensity that you have encountered up to that point. There were a lot more
frequent psychological triggers the first few days, with physical withdrawal hitting simultaneously, and you successfully
overcame every one of them. If you overcame those you can beat the triggers that are happening now too.
So hang in
there and be assured that things will soon be better. Soon meaning in hours, not in days, weeks, months or years. You are
in the home stretch. Make it through today and your longer-term commitment to stay smoke free will be much more under your
conscious control as long as you keep your quit going a day at a time with your resolve intact to never take another puff!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Days 2 and 3, will this get better?
In the first few days of a quit the question is often asked, "will this get better." If the concept
that the physical and psychological reactions occurring are short-term and temporary is not understood, the person often gives
up on the effort and ends the quit. They try to stop, get some big time physical discomfort, think this is what life is like
as an ex-smoker, and go back to smoking. It is a cycle repeated over and over throughout the world throughout the history
of tobacco use. I always advise people that if the way they felt the first day or two or three was the way they were
going to feel the rest of their life by quitting, they should just smoke and die prematurely. To quit smoking only to live
20 extra years in chronic pain wouldn't be worth it. But when quitting smoking, the way symptoms and reactions that may be
experienced don't feel like this forever. What they are experiencing when the quit is not what it is like to be an ex-smoker;
it is what it is like to be a smoker in drug withdrawal. This is a very temporary state. Once they get through the third day
the physical withdrawal will ease up. For those in your first few hours or days of your quit, understand the reactions
thus far are temporary, it is quitting running a normal course, and it will end and you will feel better. When you get flu
symptoms from the flu you accept this method of accepting the temporary state of the feelings because you have had the flu
before and know they improve and basically, you don't have a choice. With withdrawal, you don't believe it will end and you
know you have a choice to stop it. You can smoke. But smoking does not stop withdrawal. It just delays it off for
20 to 30 minutes. Then it starts again. Then you smoke another one. That holds you for 20 to 30 minutes. Then you need another.
Get the picture. This is your life now, constantly smoking to put off withdrawal again another half hour or so. All the time
poisoning your body with hundreds of poisons. By stopping
- you go through withdrawal for a few days, and then get better the rest of your life.
Soon you will recognize that
your life will go on without smoking. You will be able to face miserable tasks, celebrate life happy events and even just
do nothing without smoking--basically live without cigarettes and without the preoccupation of smoking. The longer you are
now off and the more life circumstances that you successfully overcome smoke free, the sooner this concept is believed and
the fear of life without smoking will be conquered. Hang in there during this time of uncertainty just know that it will improve
and get continually better and better as long as you maintain your focus and never take another puff!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://whyquit.com/whyquit/LinksAAddiction.html
grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change...
As
smokers trying to stop smoking, we cannot change the craving for cigarettes, but even if we can't change the craving, we can
accept it. The truth is that until we can accept our craving for cigarettes, we will not stop smoking. Lighting another cigarette
is what we do if we decide we cannot accept the craving!
It's that simple: If you want a cigarette and you will
not accept the craving, then you will surely light a cigarette. Or maybe you will have "one puff" to get you through, but
even one puff is "not accepting" the things that you cannot change.
Accepting the craving does not mean we want
the craving or like it. Accepting it means, first, recognizing the craving for what it is: a strong desire, physical or psychological,
not a need, for a cigarette. That's all. We do not fight this craving; rather we look at it, letting it be, not getting panic
stricken or feeling sorry for ourselves, but saying, "Yes, I really am craving a cigarette right now."
IT WILL PASS
~~~~ you can do this Rob "
misty101-jan-D45 / thanks, Rob!
~~~unquote~~~
jan. <:} now Day 177 <~~ One day at a time! They just keep adding up! And now Day 879
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