Great quote!! :)

I quit for 5 days and had one this morning. So back I go, today is a new day, with a fresh start. I'm using nrt, so that seems to help.

Hey Tiny,

Any day we don't smoke is a good day.   Your lungs thank you for 5 days straight.   That's a lot of cigs not smoked and chemicals not ingested.   

Keep trying.   Freedom from the need to smoke is worth it all.

Verywell Mind

Why Do People Smoke?

People who smoke may find it difficult to quit given the positive attraction to their habit they have built over years of smoking.

Read more from Verywell Mind

I totally agree with that article. The pros and cons are right on point. It's easy to slip into the hopelessness that feels like you'll never be able to quit. I've been there and it sucks. I'm going to have to read more articles on this site about quitting. I think information is key.

Hi Tiny,

This part below from the article still strikes me today - that I actually believed I was leaving happiness behind when I quit.  I could feel the poison's effect of smoking every morning with 'the cough' and reluctantly  decided to quit when I did. 

Nicotine addiction is powerful.   The first months of the quit, the first thing I thought of in the morning was an almost disappointment that I had quit.  It was like, why should I bother to get up(quitter's depression).  Then, one day along the way I didn't think of smoking when I woke up but later in the day.  That was a beginning.  These days I am so happy not to 'have to put those chemicals and that smoke into my lungs.  Keeping our eyes on the prize is the only way we can get free.   One day at a time you can do this.

'I believed I could never be truly happy as an ex-smoker. I now know that this belief was conditioned in me from a young age through my early experiences with smoking and constant advertising attacks by cigarette companies. I now know I need to question everything I ever thought I understood about smoking. I can be truly happy and healthy as an ex-smoker'.

You also have to question everything that is advertised. 

I wish I could wake up in the morning happy to be a non-smoker. Mornings are the worst. I'm planning on sleeping in this weekend and going to brunch as a treat. I almost got up early enough to meditate this morning, but I would have been late. How do I wake up with excitement to be a non-smoker?

Don't smoke.

Honestly - you decide your frame of brain.  It is up to you if you are happy or not.  You should be pleased that you are able to make a choice that will make a difference in your life and the lives of all the people in your life. 

What if you were diagnosed with cancer - have to go to chemo and radiation, just to prolong your life and, you have to pay for all the meds and treatments yourself.  Then you have a reason to be sad. 

But today?  Today you have a choice.  Be happy you have a chance to make that choice.

Seriously,  its your responsibility to make your life better - even it it hurts.  Make the right choice and be happy you can and that you did, every single day.

In the early months of our quits I don't know if we can expect to wake up happy or excited to be a non smoker.  I sure wasn't. We have to go through the pain of the quit to get through it.  There are no shortcuts.    It takes time and patience and is a process.

Verywell Mind

10 Practical Tips to Help With Nicotine Withdrawal

Learn about the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal a new ex-smoker should expect to experience and what you can do to maintain your quit.

Read more from Verywell Mind

I woke up absolutely elated that I had not been smoking and still wasn't each and every day since my quit, day one.  Just made me so happy that I had decided and did quit smoking (cold turkey).  My cravings or urges never came to me until late in the day.  When I smoked, I used to wake up and the first thing I would do is smoke.   I would smoke 5 cigarettes before I even got dressed to go to work.  Coughing and smoking.....ewwwwww

When I woke up after I quit, first thing I thought to myself was hay, I quit smoking - no smoking for me, oh my god its a miracle I quit.  See, I didn't miss smoking, I couldn't wait to get aware from it.  I hated smoking.  I went to bed every night so pleased with myself that I did not smoke that day.  The only morning I woke up feeling poorly is when I had a dream about smoking and thought I still had a cigarette in may hand.    Took me a few minutes to realize, phew, just a dream.  So happy.  

When I read about those people who are dying of cancer or other smoke related disease and wish they had decided to quit smoking - I am so relieved that I made that choice to quit and, knock wood, so far, I am healthy.  Happy, happy, happy, yes siree.

Cheers