Quitting Smoking, The Big Sit, and Twittering

As I promised I will continue to write of the continuing saga of my quitting smoking cigarettes. This post will describe a little more of my life and what has been this new journey of quitting. As you can probably imagine it is not easy to write about a topic so difficult, especially one that is about something so prone to failure.  I imagine that it is often difficult for people to even admit their attempts in trying to quit smoking to their family and friends, just based on the knowledge of how difficult it is to find that final resolve to finally quit and quit for good. 

Has it been really much of a saga?

About the time I started writing this blog I had contemplated the goal of finally quitting smoking.  I had started writing posts on the subject of quitting and various things I was doing, feeling, and trying, as well as my trials and tribulations with quitting.  The idea behind writing such posts was really two-fold: one was to set in writing “my goals” in a place I would return to often enough to remind myself, and two, to share my goals so that I would find support in my community of friends and family. I figured that my friends would apply some gentle prodding that would helpful for me to maintain my focus on my goals even in spite of brief failures.  In those two respects, writing on the topic of quitting has definitely worked well for me.

Although it is difficult to think that I could ever forget that I wanted to quit smoking cigarettes, my dear friends have applied the most wonderful gentle support in helping me in this one goal.  I am very grateful to them. 

One reason I have continued to write about quitting is the number of hits to the posts I have written about quitting.  When I first noticed the interest in the topic  I thought that if something I could help someone else in something as difficult as this then it was worth writing. 

So, has it been much of a saga?  Well, some of it feels like it.  You will have to read the articles and be the judge.  At times some of it felt pretty darn hairy, at other’s not so bad at all.

Here is some of my journey in posts where I have written about the topic directly or mention it in relation to other topics.  One day I will write up the different feelings that I have expressed, but this time I will leave you to use your browser search to find the nuggets.  Looking over it quickly, it is quite interesting and a more diverse set of thoughts than I would have imagined.

The first time I quit online:

• Status – Not Smoking – May 23 2008

• Quit Smoking : Is There a Buddhist Way? – May 28 2008

• Skillful Means is 30 Days Old – 30 Days in a Life – A Retrospective – June 15 2008

• Smoking: Status – Not Smoking minus a pack  – July 17 2008

After I had returned to smoking:

• Discussion Notes November 18th – A Path with Heart (Chapters 8 and 10) – November 19 2008

• Skillful Means – 6 Months Old – New and old Habits – December 19 2008

My second online attempt:

• Break is over – Time to Expose the Cats – January 05 2009

• In Opposition to Cats… – January 06 2009

• Discussion Notes January 6th – Discussion on Selected Mp3’s – January 07 2009

• More Photos… A Visual Meditation – January 22 2009

• Discussion Notes February 10th – The Art of Happiness (Ch 9) – February 11 2009

• Quitting Smoking – Part Deux – February 16 2009

• The “Big Sit” Starts Today! – Creative Approaches To Reality – February 23 2009

• Discussion Notes February 24th – The Art of Happiness (Ch 12 & 13) – February 25 2009

• Where has the time gone? Skillful Means Turns 8 Months Old – March 05 2009

One thing to note was that the second time I quit was while I was working.  I think writing on the subject helped me think through some of the quitting process and kept me focused.  Quitting while I was working was much more difficult, and sometimes I felt a little crazed. The post The “Big Sit” Starts Today! – Creative Approaches To Reality describes one of the harder times I had while quitting.  I have been nicotine free for quite a while now. I think the last time I smoked was about January 15th, and at least for a little while now it has been getting easier. Well, on most days.

Reducing stress is a good way to increase the odds of successfully quitting smoking – The Big Sit

This may be the most obvious thing to say while write about quitting smoking, but it is so key a point I will type it anyways: reducing stress is a good way to increase the odds of successfully quitting smoking.

In some ways this last time quitting, I have really just tried to focus on things in my life that will give me the best chances of being successful. One thing that has been helpful for me has been participating the Big Sit.  I have mentioned this event in a few of my posts so I will not describe it here. But if I had to describe what I have learned in the simplest terms I would put it this way: meditation every morning has certainly upped my odds of staying quit.

Another Tool to Helping me Quit Smoking? Twitter?

One unintended consequence of the Big Sit has been my various explorations of the tool Twitter.
0; While using Twitter I did a search for people who were quitting smoking.  What I found was the most interesting culture.  I found a whole list of people who made tweets of the number of days and the amount of money they had saved by not smoking.  So for a while I would watch day by day, and I would also watch these fellow twitters and their accumulated “quit-ness”. 

When I first started to follow these people, I was taken by their public dedication to kicking the nicotine habit.  I collected and followed a bunch of these people, and watched for about a week.  Then I started to notice that most did not tweet about anything but quitting smoking, and more unfortunately most didn’t last a week without cigarettes.  The sight of this made me a little sad and a little discouraged so I quit following them.  Looking back, it feels weird to have stopped following them.  One reasons was that I really didn’t feel I could be of any support to those who I saw on twitter that were trying to quit.  Maybe it was also because I was so new to twitter and that I feared that following could put my attempts in danger. 

I hope it was just a bad week in twitterdom for people who were quitting smoking. Usually I find sub-cultures and rituals fascinating, but the thought and knowledge of what suffering these relapses represented, at least to me, made me have to tune out.  One day I will go back to look, just not today.

Well that’s where I’m up to…

That is the long and short of it.  I am still smoke free.  I still have pangs.  I still get crabby and the mediation helps with that quite a bit.

Thanks to all my friends who have asked how I’m doing and make me smile when it has gotten tough. 

—

(source of cigarette image: Rodrigo HerRaz’s by creative commons attribution and share alike)