CIGARETTES. THE BATTLE. THE VICTORY.

So there I was, 6 years clean from all drugs and alcohol. All drugs except one major one, cigarettes. They had been with me from the start. I started smoking cigarettes heavily around 17 (although I probably smoked my first at  12). My battle to quit smoking was damn hard. For me, it came down to this point, I felt as though I was shitting on my blessing. Every time I inhaled that chemical burn, I spit in God's face. The universe gave me this voice, and my desire to make music, and I was burning it multiple times a day, every day, with this toxic smoke. I loveddd to smoke. I loved the feeling -- but enough was enough. I tried patches, gum, even vapor at one point. I failed every time I tried those methods. Why was I trying to quit nicotine by using nicotine? Or by continuing the same pattern of blowing smoke-like clouds out of my mouth? I had to do it cold turkey. 

I chewed licorice root. I bought crazy amounts of gum. I ate blow pops. I went to a hypno-therapist. I did acupuncture.  I probably gained 10 cavities, but I was quitting smoking. I stayed away from the smokers. I did what it took. Next thing I knew, I had 30 days without smoking. I still craved them, but it was less, and less, and less. Quitting smoking is hard. Might have been harder than getting clean from all the other nasty substances I was addicted to. But I did it because I valued my self enough to really try. It took time to get to that point. I know anyone can do it if I could. July 26th 2018 will 7 years without a cigarette for me.

SKIP AND RUN, JUMP AND FLY..

Exersize. I created a new pattern where the old one lived. For all my cassette tape people, I put some tape over the holes, and recorded over that old song. No use trying to eliminate the habit like it never existed. Instead, create a new habit! Mine was exercise.