"Move a muscle . . . Change a thought"
My hint/title of "Move a muscle . . . Change a thought" is not original. It is heard frequently by the members of Alcoholics Anonymous because it works. Actually, it was passed-on to me by one of the toughest and brightest people I know . . . my youngest son. Here I sit at 69 years of age and my younger son is my teacher. He became a recovering alcoholic about 9 years ago when he joined AA and he has regularly shared the gems of wisdom he picked-up at the meetings. Don't fool yourself into believing that any one addiction is better than another . . . because it is not. An addiction is an addiction. It is the relinquishing of control of at least a portion of your life to a chemical substance. It is admitting that a chemical substance running a portion of your life is preferred to you running all of your life. Relinquishing your free-will to nicotine is no more classy than relinquishing it to alcohol or to your drug Du Jour.
The story of how and why I quit (re: https://www.icanquit.com.au/story/7090/dont-become-a-butt-in-the-ashtray-of-life) holds the secret of when, why, and how I quit. Do yourself a favor and read it. At 2:30am on July 12, 2012, I quit smoking after 53 years of non-stop smoking. I am very pleased to tell you that I have stayed nicotine free ever since. My son passed along the "Move a muscle . . . Change a thought" hint to me and it has helped many times during my "weakening" moments and during times of high stress. It may be a hobby, exercise, problem solving, or any combination of these things that capture your thoughts long enough to get you past the urge so that you may look back and say "That round goes to me Mr. Nicotine, so kiss my butt." My motto is simple . . . "Never Again!" In living-up to that adopted motto, I have moved many a muscle and changed many a thought. Today, 3 years, 3 months, and 6 days after adopting that motto, I can honestly say that staying clean of nicotine is easy for me. That was not always the case, but moving lots of muscles and changing lots of thoughts has made it so!
Whoa....awesome story....a great read and plenty of encouragement gained from your story....well done
Love it!Thank you for your inspiring post, Also well done to your son on his sobriety. There are so many gems of wisdom in the rooms.Keeping it Simple ;-)
Yay - thank you for coming back and sharing your story. I am not familiar with 'move a muscle' but if it is about creating new, productive habits after relinquishing entrenched, destructive habits then it sounds like a good plan.
Congratulations on 3 years, 3 months and 6 days - I shall look forward to that milestone.
