I finally quit smoking! I feel better than
I've felt in many years and I want to help you get there too.
It was several years ago and I was going
through a nasty break-up when I reached over and grabbed a cigarette(cigarrillo electronico) from a friend's
pack. That was the first cigarette(elektronische zigarette)
I'd smoked in over ten years. After all was said and done with the girlfriend,
the only thing that remained was that my old smoking addiction was back and
stronger than ever.
Long story short; after battling that dark,
black rain cloud that hovered over my head and controlled every aspect of my
life for years, I can say that I'm smoke free and a much better man because of
it.
Here's the interesting part. I know that
everyone is different and we all place a different set of values on our
behavior. Some view smoking as nothing more than something they know they
probably shouldn't do. That's all well and good and may make quitting easier
for you if you don't give it too much meaning. If you're anything like me,
however, smoking became a constant, 30+ times a day reminder of how I was not
living up to my potential. I began to see myself as a failure. When a person
attaches that much negative emotion to a behavior, it gains much more strength
than it deserves and can make quitting a living hell!
I'd like to share with you a couple of things
that I did to help make the transition from all of that negative emotion and
'smokers hell' to a smoke-free and healthy individual and also discuss the
change in mental and physical state from smoker to non-smoker. It's an amazing
feeling and I really want to inspire you to finally let go of that awful habit
and live to your full potential.
Because I'd tried to quit too many times to
even attempt to count, I had a fairly solid supply of 4mg nicotine lozenges and
nicotine gum. In the past, I'd always tried to make an about face from
cigarettes(elektroniske
cigaretter) to either the gum or the lozenges. Well, as any smoker can
attest to, a fresh cup of coffee and a piece of nicotine gum in the morning
just doesn't cut it! Then you pace around the house and finally throw in the
towel and go buy another pack. The problem with that is that you condition your
mind into believing that you can't quit and it makes it really difficult to
push through that craving.
Rather than make the sudden switch, I went
ahead and had a few smokes in the morning and then eased into the gum. It was
so much easier that way to begin building the confidence that would ultimately
be needed. From about mid-morning on, I got to where I was comfortably
controlling 5 out of 6 cravings with gum. Training your brain to do this and acknowledging
the fact that you CAN control cravings is the key to success!
Since we all know just how powerful the
morning and after-meal cravings are and because I knew that at some point I was
not going to buy another pack, my next step was an electronic cigarette(elektronines cigaretes). This can be a
really powerful step but it needs to be temporary. What I found helpful about
the e-cigarette(sigarette elettroniche)
was that I still got to go through the motions of going outside for a smoke
break just as I had done for years. By being able to still go through the
motions, it wasn't near the system shock that you get from cold-turkey and we
all know the games the mind plays on us when we try that!
What I noticed right away with the e-smoke
was that I felt much better physically within just a day or so of not ingesting
all of the crap that we take in with a regular cigarette(elektroniske cigaretter). I was
feeling better physically and my confidence was really on the rise. The next
step was to slowly replace the e-cig cravings with gum. At this point, I can
honestly say that it was becoming almost fun. My mouth was so much cleaner, my
fingers weren't yellow anymore, I had more energy and most importantly, instead
of a dark cloud overhead, I had a little voice in my head that kept saying
"you've got it this time, nice job!"
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