SIMPLE STEPS REAL CHANGE MAGAZINE


HOW TO T A


managed to stop. My initial answer is, “I just did.”


fter a 22-year, almost two-pack-a- day habit, I quit smoking. So I am frequently asked to share how I


That may seem too simple a response for smokers to believe. But yes, one part of the truth is that at 9 p.m. on a Sunday evening, I smoked my last cigarette. For the past 15 years I have not smoked even one cigarette. And my over-two-decade history with cigarettes holds another truth. Quitting happened only after I spent time on the front end preparing myself both physically and emotionally to end the nasty habit for good.


Transforming my decades-long dependency on nicotine took concentration, self-support, self-control,


54 HE H B BY: REGINA CATES


allowed myself to act unconsciously and irresponsibly.


obvious physical dangers, AIT


and a deep desire for my freedom. For way too long I had lied to myself, ignored the


and


I began to regain control over myself and the habit when I stopped believing the lies I told myself, such as that smoking calmed my nerves. The fact was that smoking was very bad for my body. It actually made me more nervous than not smoking. For years I worried about getting lung cancer, to the point where I was obsessed and lived in terror of it. The truth was that I got sick all the time, smelled bad, had a constant cough, and could not walk up one flight of stairs without becoming badly winded.


With the facts of how my body felt out on


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