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What is your story?

17 years ago 0 +0 / -0 880

kristilu Can you put hand on heart and tell yourself why you are quitting? In the first instance, what ever the reason, I hope that you are doing it for yourself. That has been a grand revelation for me. This quit, my quit, is all about me and thats it. I am doing this solely for myself. Perhaps that sounds a bit selfish, but that is the way it must be. If your quit is to please others, or out of a sense of obligation to another, it will be difficult. If on the other hand this is all for you, you will find your motivation much stronger. Nicotine is a tough drug, you need all of you all of the time to kick it for good. The good news is that it can be done, and best of all YOU CAN DO IT...Hang in there and stay around the site. I would never have come this far without the support I have found here... nonic [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B]12/25/2006 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 385 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 11,550 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $4,042.50 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 71 [B]Hrs:[/B] 20 [B]Mins:[/B] 40 [B]Seconds:[/B] 22

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$72,145.50

Amount Saved
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Days: 1579 Hours: 13

Minutes: 51 Seconds: 56

Life Gained
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6871

Smoke Free Days
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206,130

Cigarettes Not Smoked

17 years ago 0 +0 / -0 880

den Thank you for the wisdom comment. Many in my life may say I have always been on a fool's errand. But I would beg to disagree. Atleast most of the time... I do feel very strongly on this subject of the internal conversation. It always amused me that people who went around talking to themselves would be considered crazy in one way or another by others observing the person. The truth is that we all talk to ourselves all day long. Maybe the act of verbalizing that conversation may be outside of the norm, but speaking to yourself is as normal as breathing. In terms of changing a behaviour ( ie smoking) we must be very careful about how we talk to ourselves. What I was referring to in the wee narrative about Lenny and George is that we must create a story within ourselves that we can rely on when the temptation to engage in the offensive activity calls our name. In other words why are we making this change? Are we motivated by fear? Are we motivated by love as in wishing to be kinder to ourselves by not destroying our bodies? Are we motivatied by compassion as in "I don't want to get sick and die and leave my partner alone"? What is the engine that drives us forward in this quest? It is important to identify this because that will form the basis of the story that we will envoke when the going gets difficult. I am glad that you are thinking of these things, they will serve you well...Stay with us here, there are alot of good folks on board this train who will help you in many ways. And once you feel strong in your quit you too will help many more... nonic [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B]12/25/2006 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 385 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 11,550 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $4,042.50 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 71 [B]Hrs:[/B] 20 [B]Mins:[/B] 38 [B]Seconds:[/B] 8

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$72,145.50

Amount Saved
Quit Meter

Days: 1579 Hours: 13

Minutes: 51 Seconds: 56

Life Gained
Quit Meter

6871

Smoke Free Days
Quit Meter

206,130

Cigarettes Not Smoked

17 years ago 0 +0 / -0 880

blue cloud Thank you so much for your kind words. I do very much enjoy the act of writing. It has always been a tool for me to make things clearer for myself. When I was a boy (many years ago), I had a very Victorian Grandmother. She lived with us then (extended families existed in that time). When I and my brothers would come home from school, she would insist that we tell her what we did that day. However, we could not simply give her an oral telling of the day's tale, we had to write it in proper English. Then before we were allowed to go out and play, she would read our little narratives. If she was not happy with the quality of the work (god forbid we should split an infinitive or something) she would say I can't "see" what you did. What she meant was that the imagery was not clear enough for her to get our meaning. So if we wanted to play baseball or some other activity we had better make our words into pictures that Grandma could "see"...Ever since then I have really enjoyed not only writing, but using words in a way that create mental pictures. So for any writing skills I may have gained give the credit to my maternal grandmother. She was a wonderful woman. In any case thank you for the compliments, it is always good to know that people can "see" what one writes...I suppose that should be the point of it all... nonic [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B]12/25/2006 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 385 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 11,550 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $4,042.50 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 71 [B]Hrs:[/B] 20 [B]Mins:[/B] 34 [B]Seconds:[/B] 22

Quit Meter

$72,145.50

Amount Saved
Quit Meter

Days: 1579 Hours: 13

Minutes: 51 Seconds: 56

Life Gained
Quit Meter

6871

Smoke Free Days
Quit Meter

206,130

Cigarettes Not Smoked

17 years ago 0 +0 / -0 515

Nonic Where do you come up with your wisdom?! You sure are inspiring and helpful!! Thank you for both of those posts! [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B]1/7/2008 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 6 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 108 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $41.04 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 0 [B]Hrs:[/B] 14 [B]Mins:[/B] 56 [B]Seconds:[/B] 0

17 years ago 0 +0 / -0 392

Wow! My story has been all wrong, thank you for bringing that to my attention Nonic.... I am changing my story and stickin to it. [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B]1/14/2008 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 0 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 0 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $0.00 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 0 [B]Hrs:[/B] 1 [B]Mins:[/B] 40 [B]Seconds:[/B] 7

17 years ago 0 +0 / -0 1160

Nonic, You are a beacon of light for this site. I have been enjoying your writings for some six months now and many things I have copied to my journal. I am just wondering, are you a writer by profession? I'm going to copy a few lines from this thread also. Thanks [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B]7/4/2007 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 193 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 3,860 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $772.00 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 26 [B]Hrs:[/B] 0 [B]Mins:[/B] 47 [B]Seconds:[/B] 59

17 years ago 0 +0 / -0 8760

Members, Just a quick reminder we will be exploring emotions and self-talk in Mod's corner throughout the month of February. Danielle, Bilingual Health Educator

17 years ago 0 +0 / -0 880

den Our internal conversation is little understood and much overlooked. This may be so because it is the very fabric from which our garment of life is patterned. And thus being in such close proximity may be hidden from us. The act of smoking is simply an external activity that is born from our internal struggles. Surely there is no reason on this big blue earth for a human to pick up a cigarette and inhale poison. If we did not have our wee conversation going on inside, and where more like automated machines we would never do it. But for better or worse we are not so created. Because we are not robots who simply cannot just say no to cigarettes, we must engage ourselves and "hear" the thoughts that drive us on to this suicidal behavior. This is the deeper realm of the process that must first be realized and then acted upon. Believe me I have as much difficulty with this as anyone, I do not have a magic answer for you, but you do. It can be painful to delve into the why of the addiction. But I believe that I am a soul that has a body. Thinking and internal conversations are therefore the way in which I communicate with the world. My actions are in effect the result of my thoughts, therefore, if I am to stop acting in a certain way, I must first come to understand what I am saying to myself. This is hard to write, because the process is of a subjective nature. I hope that it will help you in some way to understand that we are both the jailer and the prisoner. In order to release ourselves from the bonds of addiction we must learn to ask ourselves for the key... Good luck and remember you are not alone, there are literally thousands of souls attempting to tred this difficult path. I wish you well... nonic [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B]12/25/2006 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 384 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 11,520 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $4,032.00 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 71 [B]Hrs:[/B] 14 [B]Mins:[/B] 30 [B]Seconds:[/B] 40

Quit Meter

$72,145.50

Amount Saved
Quit Meter

Days: 1579 Hours: 13

Minutes: 51 Seconds: 57

Life Gained
Quit Meter

6871

Smoke Free Days
Quit Meter

206,130

Cigarettes Not Smoked

17 years ago 0 +0 / -0 8760

Great analogy Nonic! Danielle, Bilingual Health Educator

17 years ago 0 +0 / -0 515

WOW. what a moving post from both of you. Nonic, I don't know what brought that post on, but thank you. Really made me think. I will definitely re-read. Misty, love that quote that you used. Very powerful. And you are soo right about perception. Thanks for your posts, really helped me today! [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B]1/7/2008 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 5 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 90 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $34.20 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 0 [B]Hrs:[/B] 12 [B]Mins:[/B] 23 [B]Seconds:[/B] 54

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