Mystic Pymp on DMSI 2.4→2.5→3.0.1A→3.1A/B→3.2A/B→3.3D→3.3.1D

[AlphaRomeo]

DMSI 3.3D Day 23


[*]Smoking really helps me with stress and my work. During work going out for a smoke gives me this 10 minute break when I can let my thoughts wonder and it really helps. You have no idea how many times I found solution to some problem at work fresh after such a break.
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And thus I certainly want to limit my smoking but not necessarily quit it just yet. Maybe I will change my perspective in the future, cons outweight the pros for sure.

I'm curious with the reason posted above. If you need a break why not just take one and go for a walk? Would it not serve the same purpose as a smoke break? I often go out for a walk for a bit during the workday to get out and take a break and it helps me feel refreshed and more awake...especially after lunch.

I was thinking about something like that as I was writing the post and you're right. The thing is I started doing this because smoking gave me an excuse to take breaks I think. So all it would take to do is making new habit.

Ok, I respect your decision. I guess that maybe you are younger than me.

I know that when I started smoking around 16 years old, I made a deal with myself that I didn't want to smoke past 30...

I had a very hard time to respect that deal. After many failures that I attribute to the pleasure associated with smoking. At every attempt, I was sad and depressed with the idea of not ever again experience that pleasure.

Finally, I succeeded when I was 33. It was time... Just running a mile when you smoke is terrible... Every morning, I was coughing and my lungs were hurting. That was wake-up call.

For when you are ready, if there is 1 thing that I would have wished someone to tell me to give me hope it is this:

Once you get rid of the habit, after some time, there is ZERO regret and ZERO desire to ever smoke again... This is gone for good...

So know that at the beginning, there is a lot turbulence and it is very hard but there is definitely a light at the end...

You will know when it is the time to quit for you.

Happy new year!

Thanks for all the wishes, I appreciate it a lot! Also it's always a reinforcement to know that more people went through this and managed to succeed.

I smoke for only 2.5 years or so. Before that I would smoke during the parties, I started smoking when I was dating my ex and I was doing it more and more when we started arguing. So, in some kind of way, breaking the habit for me means finally dealing with the scars of that relationship.

I definitely want to quit smoking but it requires a lot effort. Right now (from what I experience) that I would not be able to easily stop smoking, but limiting myself to 5 per day is quite possible. Then I can make leap from 5 to 2, from 2 to occasional smoke with friends and then even stop doing that.

I may also think that because of my father. He was smoking for something like 30 years (and I don't think he would have stopped if not for how poor we were back then) and when he finally quit he started eating candies as a habit. Now he looks like he's pregnant. I just fear I might catch some other bad habit in stead of the current one.

Hey man. The sentence that I made bold...which is why it´s a good idea to proactively to develop a positive habit to replace the old one. So think about what you can do INSTEAD of smoking, something positive, and whenever you need an urge to smoke you do the new habit instead...if you can manage to do it continuously in the beginning then the urge to smoke becomes an automatic trigger to do the new behaviour instead...until you do the new stuff without even thinking about smoking. The biggest challenge is of course to be able to do it in the first place...but just thought to give you one tool/method/way of thinking that might be helpful. You have to fill not only the habit of smoking with something else, but also think about what will you do with that TIME that now frees up when you are not smoking anymore, so that you have already thought about what to do for those few minutes that smoking would take...so that you don´t go like "Need smoke...oh wait...f**k, now what!?" I hope this is helpful.