Stopping smoking is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I slipped up and despite being at only 5 cigarettes a day, I’m still not—not smoking. So here we go again, tomorrow morning we start the clock back at zero. I will stop making excuses for myself because when it comes to lighting a cigarette – there is no such thing as a good excuse.
Stress?
Stress is a great excuse to smoke if I have no other ways of coping with stress, but I do have other ways to cope with stress. I have exercise. I have my hobbies. I have yoga. I have meditation. I have more. So if I’m stressed, it’s important to recognize that smoking isn’t going to relieve my stress.
Why not?
Because cigarette smoking constricts the blood vessels and likely increases the tension than it does relieve it. Not only that, the relaxation felt from smoking comes from relieving the habitual need for nicotine and the hand mouth habit. The need for which arises within 5 minutes of putting that cigarette out. So if all you get is an illusion of relief for 5 measly minutes what is the point?
Habits
A habit takes only 3 to 4 days to form, but it takes as long as 3 to 6 months to break a habit. So you can’t expect just ten days to make it all better and go away. It’s an illusion to get past the first five days and then fall off the wagon. So, starting tomorrow, the counter goes back to zero and restarts at zero every single time I have a cigarette.
While it can take several attempts to actually successfully stop smoking, the point is to keep making the attempts. To put out every cigarette when they get lit and don’t say – when I finish this cigarette. I need to be finished before I even light it. If I light it, I need to put it out before I take a drag off of it. If I take a drag off of it, I need to put it out before I take a second one.
No, it’s not easy. No, I’m not making excuses.
Today, I got nothing.
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