Somebody sent me a very long email with lots of questions. “What is your trick”, “how did you do it” and “how does it feel to give up smoking” and more questions like that.
If you have ever watched “The Shawshank Redemption” then you watched Andy Dufresne’s escape from prison. That’s how I felt at the beginning, I felt like Tim Robins in the movie.
We were sitting in the living room watching TV and all of a sudden I smelled something. It smelled good, a mix of fragrances that I could not identify. I was holding my nose in the air, trying to find the source of the smell.
I told my husband “something smells so good” and he just looked at me “OK, what is it”.
“Well, I don’t know, but it’s yummy”.
“Walhalla“1896 by Max Brueckner.
I like to be prepared and even though I feel a little bit like the guy in the picture, it didn’t discourage me very much. It started to sink in a little bit, I didn’t just give up smoking…I try to overcome an addiction. A friend sent this to me in my early stage of my quit and it became my daily guide!
Avoid…Alter…Accept…Believe…Behave…Cope…Calm…Delay…Distract
“Every day might not be good – but there is something good in every day” that’s pretty much how I look at life in general, but not lately!
One week…OH my Gosh, I haven’t smoked for 7 days…a whole week without cigarettes! Me..the long time smoker hasn’t touched a cigarette for one whole week. Believe it or not, my last pack is still in the freezer…..unopened and untouched!
I smoked for so long it seemed to be just a part of me. I was one of those happy smokers! I knew it was a bad habit, but didn’t beat myself up over it. Life was different 30 years ago, smokers were happy in commercials, famous people recommended cigarettes. We didn’t question it that much; smoking was just a part of our daily life. Of course that changed and more and more smokers started to feel really guilty about it. I never understood that part. If you don’t like something, why would you continue to do it? Addiction…you have to be kidding me, I am not addicted to smoking.” I can stop anytime I want to”! Boing..there you have it, that’ was my statement then! I didn’t know any better.