Cognitive Quit Smoking

Hi Cat - sent you an email and it got returned as ‘undeliverable’:((
Have you changed address?
Pam

Dear All,
I’m off to go play for a bit. I did want to tell all of you before I
left, though, how great you are doing. It’s extraordinary to read your
writings of your journeys. Wow.
I am going to be turning off the mail while I am gone (otherwise, my
mailbox will get overloaded) so take care of one another while I am
gone…. but then, I don’t really need to say that as this group already
does that for one another. It’s grand, huh.
One note though…. I know that Char turns 5 months on the 18th. I want
to be the first to say Congratulations to you, Char!!! Well done,
darlin’…. just excellent.
I’ll check in when I get back,
Pat

When I re-wrote my ABC’s I had to wonder how I am such a cigarette
addict. I found very few cigarettes every day that I need. Why on
earth do I go through a carton a week unless I’m kidding myself? I
took every cigarette I smoked this week and wrote done why. I don’t
want to be the oddball of the earth so please help me here. Remember
I’m a beginner at this identifying feelings. I won’t write down
every smoke because there’s not enough room but here goes.
A) I woke up
B) I always have a cigarette when I wake up
C) I want a cigarette
This cigarette doesn’t wake me up and I already know that. I can’t
identify my belief here. I have that cigarette because it is a habit
I’ve fed year after year. I’m not groggy, I just woke up. I don’t
need a nicotine fix or maybe I just think that right now. Yet I want
it because it’s a comfort thing that I do. Too wierd, huh? Anyway I
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When does a quit become a routine and normal thing? At what point
does it all fall into place and become part of us? When do we no
longer need to plan out those ABC’s, come up against ‘first times’,
have to think on the fly how to deal with that crave that comes
from ‘nowhere’ and hits us as hard as a truck?
I recently got to thinking about my quit, and commented to Steve
when we were chatting last night just how normal it felt not to
smoke anymore. As he suggested, its almost an anticlimax now to
realise that not smoking any more is a pretty routine thing in the
context of my day to life. If however I look at this state of being
an exsmoker within the context of my personal history its actually
pretty remarkable - I was a smoker for 25+ yrs, after all.
I can’t decide at what point it all became routine. Those first
weeks and months my brain hurt with all the new thinking i was
doing - examining how i was feeling, how to ABC, how to work out
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prepared!
I’m proud of you too. Well done Gail, very well done. :))
Steve
www.cognitivequitting.com

Hi - I know I;m not supposed to be hear and I just popped in to say hi to
anyone who just happened to be about - just in case you see!!!! - now I’m
getting nagged by Katie UK cos told her I was off to bed .
Well my lovely first is that at 5.30 one of my fitters came in and said - oh
I’m desperate will you do me a favour and lend me a cigarette - I felt sooo
proud when I said to him sorry Steve I don’t smoke. He said yes you do - I
said no I don’t I quit over 3 month ago.
I visibly felt my head growing and the halo was definately getting tight!!!!
But it made me feel really good - there were no pangs there like there have
been on other quits - it would have gone something like this - no sorry mate,
boring life for me no cos I’ve quit - but I could still murder one!!!!
So thats another corner I have turned and I’;m getting quite excited about
getting over all of these firsts successfully cos I know it can just build on
strong foundations which means it will get stronger as time goes on.
Well really do have to go now
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More tomorrow - just wanted to report in and tell you all’s going
well. I just got back online for a few mins - had quick hellos to
Steve and Indi (knew she wouldn’t stay offline !!!) earlier on.
Day 16 - sorted out that crave from the other day with Steve’s
help. I’d been working on a complex problem at work, and hadn’t
realised that was my cue to go and smoke while I thunk.
See you tomorrow
Katie
PS 11pm and Indi’s still online, Cat and Pam !!!!!

— In CognitiveQuitSmoking@y…, “Marde Tibbets”

There were some things about my quit that seemed so obvious but took
me a while to figure out. Because I put some brain power into this
quit, I would have revelations about my associations with smoking.
Some of these revelations would take weeks to reveal (amazing to me
since most are so simple) but once I worked on eliminating the
association to smoking, it seemed to only take days to realize the
relief from the craving/urge.
I’m glad you caught the fact that you’re using too much of the gum.
I’d hate to see you OD on nic gum. Can you chew on regular gum in
between the nic gum? Then as you work more and more on your stress
at work, the need to chew will lessen.
And no breaks!!! That’s right, Bad Marde!!! But Good Marde for
thinking about what you’re doing and realizing the gum thing (did the
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I want to thank everyone for their words of encouragement, and
epsecially for your prayers….
I have not smoked since my crack-up(LOL)on the 14th at work-
yesterday, (the 15th) was a breeze…not sure still quite what
happened on the 14th, but I am still pretty down in the dumps about
it…..:-( It was just really feeling good to be able to HONESTLY
say, “I have not smoked all year”–and now, I cannot say that
anymore……and that hurts…..:-( I made it almost exactly TWO
WEEKS, then I cracked… I am probably just feeling sorry for myself here, because I slipped,
and I almost feel like a whiner now, even going on about it……I
really am trying to stay out of the “mindset” of feeling like I “blew
it”–cause if I had truly “blown it”, then I would be back to smoking
again–RIGHT???
I got rid of my SilkMeter, I have been so disgusted with myself…..I
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I had to do an ABC tonight on the fly. When I was running out the door
to my exercise class - which, by the way, I will NOT be able to walk by
the weekend I think - I was feeling a bit anxious because I knew that I
was going to have to go through the typical 4-5 classes feeling and
looking like a fool because I don’t know the routines. I then
remembered that when I used to take Jazzercise classes years ago, I
always smoked a cigarette on the way to the class. Then I remembered
that after exercising, I would pat myself on the back and have a smoke,
kind of like a reward for getting through the workout. I had a feeling
that the thought of the smoke would be pretty strong tonight so I
worked out a quick ABC on the way to the class.
A = Event - Going to a new exercise class tonight. Am feeling a bit
nervous since I haven’t participated in an exercise class in years and
I know it’s going to be hard on me due to the extra weight I’ve gained
and my breathing is still not that of a non-smoker. When I’m done, I
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