Simple isn't always easy

[Sarah]

Sarge keeps saying Easy Peasy. To quit smoking you just don't put cigarettes in your mouth and set fire to them. Easy!

 

I was sat with a friend last night. A smoking friend. And she said how I made giving up smoking look easy!

 

But its not easy. Its simple. And they are not the same thing.

 

Its simple to take a pet to the vet for its last ever injection. Not easy.

 

Simple to paint a fence, not easy.

 

Simple is in the complexity of the task. Its actually less effort not smoking than it is smoking. I don't have to make sure I've got a lighter, skins, filters and tobacco. I don't get a sinking feeling if my skins got wet and stuck together. Trying to light a cigarette in a high wind. Setting fire to my fringe. All these things are gone.

 

Not easy though.

 

I don't have a point or some ground breaking revelation here. It just came to me and I thought I'd write it down.

[rww]

It gets easier with time. I believe at one point it actually becomes easy.

[action]

Good point. Simple, not easy - I like it.

 

But one day it does get easy. In fact one day you won't even think about it being 'easy' anymore, you just won't think about it at all. And it is wonderful. I realise that if someone told me this at 2 weeks (which they probably did) I would call them crazy lol

[Gemzee]

Good post :) Although, I can predict what Sarge is gonna say....it is easy! Easy.peasy.

 

:D

[Still winning]

I nod to your simple, not easy. I once described it as the hardest and easiest thing I'd ever done, I meant that and it's kinda in agreement with what you say.  

 

It did get easier. Then it got a bit easier again. Then the bat sh.. moments were rare and really noticable because there weren't many the same anymore. Then a kinda low level hum. That's my experience if it helps to know. It does move forward. 

 

It made me think the simplicity of the message is probably the only reason I could follow it. 

 

I am so pleased how well you are doing. It may not feel like it but your friend is right in one way. Millions of smokers DON'T ever get as far as you have Sarah, millions! You are steadfast and resolute about your quit as you have to be. You may have just motivated a friend to consider her quit, that's massive news!! Think on that, if one person saw you do it and it inspired them, how fab would that be!

 

You're doing great. Not every moment feels great but some do, it's a journey. xx

[Leanna]

Definitely simple and not easy at first, but like everyone has said, it does get easier in time. :) I know you've heard this lots, but it's true. Once you get past all the awkwardness of first quitting, things get much easier. Action's right -- you will get to a point where you forget you even smoked. It will be a distant memory.

 

That feeling is worth all the struggling in the beginning. :)

[rww]

Yes, indeed. And another thing - at first everything revolves around smoking, or more like not-smoking. Your first fight with a spouse you survive without smoking, your first beer, your random inappropriate cravings, as well as euphoria about the newly discovered awesome life as a non smoker. But at one point it gets old. And the more boring you become in your quit, the easier it gets. It just becomes more and more normal not to smoke. No more new realizations and epiphanies. There is no great victory anymore with cooking dinner without a cigarette in your hand. You don't even think about it anymore. Even if you get a bad craving once in a long while, as soon as it is over, it's over. As Annael said - at one point it's a distant memory that your smoked.

[Ladybug]

OH Sarah..I know what you mean.

 

At the beginning of my journey I read the "Easy Peasy" and just shook my head "what's wrong with people" on bad days I thought "I am going to find this guy and I show him how easy peasy I bite his head off :-)

 

Now I agree with him! It is actually easy compared to so many other things, it's easy if you really want it. If your mind is set to be a non-smoker...then a non-smoker you will be. 

 

It is actually simple as well....you just don't smoke! Scram, yell, laugh or cry....everything is allowed ...just don't smoke!

[Still winning]

Exactly that Ladybug, your only rule - do not put something in your mouth and set it on fire - anything else is possible!

[sgt.barney]

But its not easy. Its simple. And they are not the same thing.

Most definitely they are not the same thing ... But quitting smoking is both.

 

Easy and simple.

 

Both.

 

 

 

Easy Peasy

[JackiMac]

Sarah exactly, quite scary how easy and simple it was to give up, after years of trying, the first few weeks are tough as it definitely is an emotional journey, I remember looking at posts from seasoned quitters and thinking "yeah right, there is no way I will ever feel as positive as that" but you know something I do, I am a non smoker, I will never put anything in my mouth and light it, I will have difficult moments but I will overcome them.........................As Chief Sitting Bull AKA The Sarge has quoted on one or two occasions Easy Peasy

[Jonny5]

I get what your saying, further down your journey you'll get what the Sarge is saying :-)

 

for me initially, I would say that the process that I needed to follow was simple, and easy to follow, but not as easy to do as it is now.

 

the only thing that made it less than easy after the initial 72 hour withdrawal was the inner chatter, but once that was silenced, by a combination of determination, time, and education, then the easy became easy peasy lemon squeezy :-)

[El Bandito]

Looking ahead, I feared it was impossible.

 

Living the first days I feared it was Hell.

 

Looking back, it was easy.