[b]Mon Renouncer e'tage *
My quit story[/b]
When I began this trek I was tired of smoking. I wanted to be free of the �companion� I'd grown to hate. Nevertheless, I doubted my own ability to quit! You see, I would light a cigarette and be ready to put in out within three puffs. Yet, the minute I smashed it out it began to summon me (again and again). The more I thought about quitting the more I smoked.
Thankfully, after several failed attempts I found the Stop Smoking Center. The information (and people) replaced my fear, and then some! I have not only learned smoking is an addiction, I learned how to identify and break the habits that lead to smoking. I�ve learned how to deal with stress and depression without lighting up. I�ve learned how much damage nicotine does to our brains. (And how to assist the healing). I now understand �why� continuous smoking �will� lead to illness and death. (I won�t be able to cheat illness because my family has �good genes� and neither will you.)
I've come to see quitting smoking as a [I]powerful[/I] gift I have given myself!
Quitting smoking has taught me to believe in myself. It has also taught me in a very real way to be �accepting of help� from others and it taught me how to let go. It has put me in control, rather than feeling stressed from fighting the addiction. It's just a difference in perception to think of a craving with acceptance rather than something I must fight, but it has made a huge difference in my attitude. I don�t feel deprived anymore. I am healing from a lifelong habit and an addiction to nicotine. I know I can smoke if I want to. I don�t want to. I�m done with that nasty, smelly, expensive and health threatening lifestyle choice.
It�s a great feeling not to feel guilty about smoking. I no longer worry about illness or a slow and painful death when I awake in the morning, because I no longer cough in the morning. I don�t even crave a smoke when I wake up, or get in the car or finish a meal.
The cigarette dictated what I did for about 20 years of my life. Now all those concerns are gone and I have achieved a very comfortable sense of freedom in only a matter of months! It�s very exciting. I also have a calmness, joy and peace o
