Quitting the cigarettes

A great wall of water jacks up only metres away. What was once a peaceful rise and fall in the ocean is now the mother of all waves threatening to crash down on top of me. I crane my neck looking up at the beast; can I make it over the lip or will I get smashed on the reef below if I fight it? With effortless timing I push the nose of my board downwards, propelling me underneath the wave with minimal resistance. As I slip silently under the thunderous wave I look upwards, watching it roll over the top of me as I break the surface to see it rolling towards the beach. I’m through it – for now!

Day one of my quit was tough. I could lie to you and say I didn’t have a cigarette but I’m not going to. I folded and gave in. It was during ‘hell hour’. That time around 5 o’clock when the kids get crazy – fighting and screaming at each other for no apparent reason while you’re trying to get their dinner ready. I’d had enough and needed a break. What had I been doing for the past 12 months or so to take a break? Light up. And that I did. Habit got the better of me. The thing was though, I didn’t enjoy it and at one point I looked at it and thought, ‘What the fuck am I doing?!?’ I put the cigarette out.

Cravings for me come and go like an anxiety attack or stress might do. It builds to a crescendo like a wave might then dissipates as it passes. My ‘go to’ ACT (Acceptance Commitment Therapy) technique is to visualise my thoughts (or anxiety, stress etc) as a storm cloud passing through the sky. The skies may be stormy but the storm will still pass and blue skies will prevail. By doing this I feel that the unhelpful thoughts (cravings) are defused and whilst they may remain there for a while acknowledgement and acceptance gets me through.

A close second though is the visualisation I describe in the opening paragraph. You can choose to fight unhelpful thoughts (or cravings) or make room for them and watch them pass much like you’d watch a wave roll overhead as you duck dive underneath it.

I’m now in day five of my quit. I’ve added 30 hours to my life, avoided 30 cigarettes and saved about $150. More importantly though I’m back at my gym. I’m lifting heavier than I ever have and feel my lungs opening up again. I feel good. I’m on a roll. I still get cravings though so my strategy for the next week is to beat one craving at a time. When we break tasks down into manageable goals we are more likely to succeed but I’ll speak more about this in my next post.

Keep on kicking.