In honor of Quit Train's anniversary the first post written by our founder MarylandQuitter......

MarylandQuitter

Administrators

Quit Date: 10/07/2013

Posted March 28, 2014 

Remove the desire to smoke and you will never smoke again.  Practice on removing the desire to smoke until you firmly believe that you get nothing from it.  Until then, use your smoking addiction to help you quit smoking.  That’s right, you read correctly.  You, me and millions more rationalized smoking even though we knew the consequences.  Use those same veteran rationalization skills to rationalize quitting smoking.  Think about that for a minute.  If we could rationalize smoking knowing full well the damaging effects it had on our health, why can’t we rationalize quitting smoking knowing full well the health benefits of quitting?

Based from my experience, the most important attribute to a successful quit, which is a non burdensome quit, is to remove the desire to smoke by understanding and believing that the cigarette has nothing to offer.  This and only this will allow for a lifetime of freedom and never leave you feeling like you’re giving something up or missing out by living life as a non-smoker.

So many have relapsed and so many more are too afraid to quit smoking because of all the horror stories they’ve heard about nicotine withdrawal when you quit.  That horror only exists in our minds, if we let it.  Of course we’ll have mild withdrawal and mental triggers that may cause cravings, but they’re far from horrific and certainly nothing more than we’ve already experienced.

Quitting smoking is not hard.  In fact, the whole process is quite enjoyable if we only focus on the benefits of being a non-smoker.  There is no need to focus on anything else because we’re not giving anything up.   We’re not missing out.  The cravings come and go and soon will be gone forever.  Even while we were smoking, the unwavering loyalty of our body was trying to heal itself while we kept poisoning it.  It never gave up on us despite that we were putting things in our mouths and setting them on fire to feed our addiction.  Once we quit smoking, our bodies take a huge sigh of relief and work overtime to make up for lost time and starts healing and repairing the damage that we caused it.

The easy part for some is the initial quit while for others it’s staying quit.  Ask 10 people and the answers will vary.  The reality is that everyone can quit smoking and stay that way.  If you’re finding it difficult to stay quit it’s because you think the cigarette still has something to offer you.  This is why I relapsed.  This is why others’ invariably relapse.

Never give up and just continue to remove the desire to smoke by knowing with every ounce of who you are that the cigarette offers you nothing.  It can’t do a thing for you.  It’s impossible that it can relieve stress, doesn’t taste good and certainly is no reward.  Some get this right away.  Others, like myself, it took a little longer.  But now that I know this, the desire to smoke has been successfully removed and although I still get a trigger here and there (just part of being a nicotine addict), I know it won’t do a damn thing for me.  You can get there too.  Never, ever stop striving to get there.  Never smoke again. Not one puff, ever (N.O.P.E.).