last cigarette, wish me luck

[dreamer]

I am turning 30 today, and as a gift to myself and my family, I am quitting cigarettes. Please, may your hopes and prayers be with me, I need it. Just a simple request, I don't want my children's last view of me to be with tubes and needles coming out of my cancer riddled body. they deserve better . thanks guys.

[DeDukshyn]

No attention to it, change ALL your routines - make a new life - not just a "quit"

My 2 cents as an ex-smoker.

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by dreamer (here)
I am quitting cigarettes.

What you mean is -- I am now a healthy non-smoker.



Always talk and think positive affirmations. Using negative terms (even unconsciously) keeps what you want to be rid of right there.

If anyone says to me "I'm going to give up smoking", then I know for sure that they won't (at least, at that time). They're still trapped.... by considering that they are "giving it up". (Images of struggle, difficulty, sacrifice, loss.... etc).

Always focus on how healthy and free you will be -- starting right now. You're not giving up something bad. You're embracing and committing yourself to something good.

And it's got nothing to do with 'luck'. No-one should wish you luck! That makes it like a throw of the dice.

You're more powerful than that. You can accomplish absolutely anything that you really want to. Your friends should wish you freedom, health, longevity, and lasting happiness for you and your family.

[D-Day]

Hi dreamer,

If you're ready and you want it bad enough, you'll do it.
After 17 years as a smoker, I finally decided to quit on New Year's Eve just gone.
I haven't had a smoke since... and haven't missed 'em one bit either.
Quitting is mostly psychological IMO... if you can control your mind then you can control the ciggies.
Don't let an inanimate object get the better of you... YOU ARE AN IMMORTAL SPIRIT for Christ's sake!
Now go do what has to be done!

[Christine]

May the force be with you dreamer.....

I smoked from the time I was sixteen up until a couple of years ago. What happen for me was in some ways miraculous. I knew that my body which had tolerated my smoking very well was reaching a point where it couldn't continue to keep up with the detox it needed to do.

I started asking that all desire for cigarettes leave me. I really loved smoking and I didn't have the energy to fight with myself.

What happen was that I developed a dry cough. I couldn't possibly smoke during the week I was coughing. I coughed day and night until I was exhausted. As I started to heal a voice came into my head, probably just as I was thinking I could grab a cigarette. "If you ever pick up a cigarette again you will die from the effects of smoking." I was so startled that I froze. Then I heard " You have a pack of cigarettes in your purse, give them away right now." I did exactly as told.

The miracle is I never ever desired another cigarette. Never, not once and it has been two years. I agree so strongly with what Bill says above... ask for what you want and make an affirmation. For me I asked to have no desire - it took me getting sick but the desire left me 100%.

I am grateful every day for the gift above and I feel like I was never a smoker.

[Anchor]

Posted by dreamer (here)
I am turning 30 today, and as a gift to myself and my family, I am quitting cigarettes. Please, may your hopes and prayers be with me, I need it. Just a simple request, I don't want my children's last view of me to be with tubes and needles coming out of my cancer riddled body. they deserve better . thanks guys.

This certainly gets my vote, and any energetic influence or support I can render, may it be gladly given.

[cacophony]

You're doing a great thing, dreamer. What a wonderful gift to give yourself and family. My dad has been smoking for almost fifty-five years, and has cancer now...Seriously, you're giving your kids the best gift they'll never have to understand you gave em'...It will be two years april 1st since my last smoke (thought I was fooling myself).

[Reaver]

You know, you should really sit alone one day with zero interruptions and ask yourself if you have some psychological issues which are related to your craving for a cigarette. From the looks of it, you just don't smoke for the sake of smoking and I've found that many people can't stop or find it very difficult to stop smoking because they have some psychological issue and smoking relaxes them for a while.

I won't wish you any luck because luck doesn't have anything to do with the actual ability of letting go of cigarettes, nor I will tell you to think positive because that's just a mask, you may stop smoking, but you'll have pretty thoughts as a substitute.

As Manly P. Hall put it:

No man who is sick should be healed merely because he is ailing. He should learn the lesson that accompanies the disease that he has brought upon himself. To affirm health is foolishness; to find out the reason for the ailment, make right the wrong, and become healthy again, is wise and proper. To be so moderate, so wise, so thoughtful as not to become sick, is still better philosophy.

[RunningDeer]

Great decision Dreamer. Good for you. I send you continued health and 100% all natural, fresh air for you and your Family.

[SKIBADABOMSKI]

I just quit also.. 2 months now.. feel great. My biggie was giving up booze 8 years ago. That was when a huge turnaround happened in my life. I always said though that before I'm 41 I'll be straight and that was my timing. Between 30/40 is a great time to simply say "goodbye & thank you" I took a leaf out of a book that a very old friend of mine used.
He just did it and never mentioned it to anyone.. I noticed after a week he wasn't smoking and he just shrugged and said " it's over I don't smoke anymore" I found that very impressive. Although I wasn't as smooth as him I did take on the stern attitude of 'goodbye' as in goodbye forever. Then your head works in ways thats quite interesting as you start to find substitutes and find many great things in life that start to introduce themselves to you.
I never regret it and enjoy the fact that I have grown out of something that didn't suit me.

Freeing yourself from a physiological attachment feels brilliant.

[nomadguy]

Posted by dreamer (here)
I am turning 30 today, and as a gift to myself and my family, I am quitting cigarettes. Please, may your hopes and prayers be with me, I need it. Just a simple request, I don't want my children's last view of me to be with tubes and needles coming out of my cancer riddled body. they deserve better . thanks guys.

You CAN do it! It may help to also ditch sugar. and/or corn syrup.

[jagman]

Drink lots of water ( Fluoride free )Remember the words of Lao Tzu, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”

[sigma6]

Posted by dreamer (here)
I am turning 30 today, and as a gift to myself and my family, I am quitting cigarettes. Please, may your hopes and prayers be with me, I need it. Just a simple request, I don't want my children's last view of me to be with tubes and needles coming out of my cancer riddled body. they deserve better . thanks guys.

Congrats,

My advice to a fellow 'quitter' (lol)

It takes the body 3 days to get the bulk of nicotine out, and I find you must go through the 'mental' struggle at least three times before you can put it 'behind you' ie. you must WIN that struggle 3 times... you know that feeling, the one where you are fighting with yourself at 3am to run down to the store in your pajamas and grab a 'sweeet' butt... you must wrestle with yourself, walk up and down the hall if you have to but DON'T give in to that 'just one time' (or you have to start all over again!)... when you wake up the next morning you will look back and ask yourself 'what the heck was I thinking?! who was that guy?...

The other aspect is the behaviour, try to avoid going to places, or hang with people at certain times, especially if that is what you did as part of a ritual... as one of the most powerful influences that draws you back in is the environmental cues, especially if you were a 'ritual' smoker... Believe it or not drug tolerance is psychologically 'triggered' by your association with repeated environmental cues (ie. the same time of day, the same room, the same people, etc...) these 'cues' initiate physiological responses in your body which are counter or opposite to the 'anticipated' stimuli, very much similar to how a dog will salivate when it has been trained to associate food with a 'dinner bell'... in this case an association is created from a repeated environment to a particular drug, the 'response' is a tolerance buildup, ie your body is creating an opposing or 'compensatory' response in anticipation of the incoming stimuli, hence a 'compensatory conditioned response... (Sheppard Siegal - compensatory conditioned response)

Basically in a nutshell, for example, if you 'partake' an addictive substance at the same time, in the same place, your body learns to associate and anticipate the 'stimuli' and immediately initiates physiological responses in the body that are opposite of the anticipated 'stimuli' Thus the 'compensatory conditioned response' This is what really causes 'tolerance' (I actually had Siegal as my prof!)

Anyhow, it means a couple of things... for one, putting yourself in that 'environment' will trigger that physiological response and can actually make you 'crave' a cigarette to balance the 'response' itself! You may be sitting in that bar, listening to that music, hanging with your friends, sipping on that beer... and for some reason it will seem like the most 'normal and desirable thing right now' to just have a 'nice' smoke... not realizing you are being 'prompted' by your own body reacting to the external environment...

And certainly don't even consider having a smoke in the absence of that environment, that would be even WORSE, (again this is especially true for people who are 'ritual' smokers, or drug users) as the 'absence' of any repeated 'environmental' cues that normally trigger the body to compensate in anticipation (which is essentially what 'drug tolerance' is...) will cause you to have NO tolerance or significantly LESS... and will make whatever substance you take seem 'overpowering' like the first time you ever tried it... again this is caused because you 'tricked' your body by taking away the normal cues it usually 'anticipates' and responds to before you 'light up'...

I hope this helps you, gives you some insight... on how subtle and powerful these 'influences' can be until you 'learn' to substitute them with different behaviours... I wish you the best of luck... keep your focus, avoid places you used to smoke, and figure out alternative activities and behaviours to keep you moving into your new life! and just wanted to add, she certainly is the best reason for your quitting, well done!

[lookbeyond]

Bless you Dreamer- You will succeed!

love lookbeyond

[778 neighbour of some guy]

Posted by dreamer (here)
I am turning 30 today, and as a gift to myself and my family, I am quitting cigarettes. Please, may your hopes and prayers be with me, I need it. Just a simple request, I don't want my children's last view of me to be with tubes and needles coming out of my cancer riddled body. they deserve better . thanks guys.

I....................am now a healthy breather!


And congrats with your 30th birthday too......."old fart you have become young dreamwalker", Yoda

[Simonm]

I stopped smoking over 10 years ago now after trying several times. I read the book by Alan Carr - How to stop smoking. People say that his book is rubbish, but it has worked for everyone I know that has read it. Thing is, you have to want to stop.

I wish you every success in your quitting.

[Zampano]

Congratulations on your decision to quit this nasty cigarettes. Now after smoking for 10 years I decided that I am gonna quit on my 28th birthday. This was last week and bought myself the book "Stop smoking now" from Allen Carr.
I read it in a couple of days and slowly the need to smoke went away. At the end of the book you should smoke your last cigarette and that was an hour ago. Some minutes later, I found the thread :-)

Welcome to the Non-Smoker-Club

[Watching from Cyprus]

Posted by dreamer (here)
I am turning 30 today, and as a gift to myself and my family, I am quitting cigarettes. Please, may your hopes and prayers be with me, I need it. Just a simple request, I don't want my children's last view of me to be with tubes and needles coming out of my cancer riddled body. they deserve better . thanks guys.

Hi there... i will join you for mutual support, and quit smoking myself... easier when we are two ;-) who can support each other and maybe there will be more to join so it can be a mass stop smoking event.

One thing you have to know, smoking does not cause cancer... cancer is only possible to get if your PH is below 7, which it probably is due to bad diet. Smoking causes our lungs to be destroyed by the tar which packs up with time, and further there are over 400 toxins in cigarettes, which effect all the body, and probably also increases risk of cancer, but the main source of cancer is meat (especially fried meat) which increases the acid level in the body and thereby grow-bound for cancer.

In Honesty and Love
Peter

[Chucky]

Its a bad habit alright. I have just been diagnosed with emphysema. So they say in early stages. One doctor said likely asthma and a whole year just to get that from them. Not happy but quitting is hard. My personal Doctor told me I will know when I am ready and like Bill said. Think of the benefit not maybe's or luck. I too feel the need and look forward now so good on you. Be healthy and free!

[Zampano]

Good idea Peter...Count me in...and congratulations to you too!!! Lets do it :-)