THIS IS A WALKING MARATHON NOT A 100M SPRINT OR 50 YARD DASH!!

I was speaking with someone the other day and the words of the title just ‘popped’ into my head and it just seemed so right to use it as a heading for a blog.

We are all guilty at some time or other in our quit journey of wishing ourselves further on the road than we actually are. At the very beginning as we set off, this thought could be in our heads, because we are all very acutely aware, especially those that have ‘fallen’ and are starting again, of just how much effort and strength of will is required on our journey. I have experienced it myself, when I have seen people celebrating 6 months or more so, 12 months, smoke free I tend to think, I wish that was me but it isn't, so I carry on albeit slowly!

We want to quit so much and that badly that it hurts, that we try to run long before we can walk so the title in this respect is very apt to and for us all. I liken it to when we were very young and our very first tentative steps – we want to run to mummy or daddy who is on the other side of the room but as we can’t walk properly yet, we stumble and fall down and hurt ourselves. This could well be the case on our quit journey as we are really and truthfully in too much of a rush to complete the journey and even at the ages that we are when we stumble and fall by having just that one cigarette, it bl**dy well hurts but more so because we should have learned the lesson from being young, in other words, we should have known better.

It would be wonderful if we could start and end our journey on the same day even more so if we could complete the course so to speak in an hour or two, but we all know that this isn’t the case it just DOES NOT happen overnight, it DOES NOT happen within an hour, in fact, for most the urge to smoke remains strong for a long, long time and that is why we have to take it easy, take it slow because by taking it slowly, we are building defences and we learn techniques to squash those nasty cravings. We learn how to deal with a craving as depending on when and where the craving strikes depends on our strategy to defeat it.

We HAVE to go at a snail’s pace i.e. by taking one minute and then one hour at a time. By doing this, the minutes will turn into hours, those self-same hours will turn into one whole day and that one whole day will become two, and so on and so forth. In the same way as my parents used to say to me ‘don’t wish your life away’ don’t wish your time away because if you do, then the tendency is that you may fail before you’ve left the starting gate or just got a few metres away from it. It takes time to quit and we have to allow for that in our journey.

It is a fact of life that the best things in life are free – fresh air, sunshine, wind, even rain, to name but a few and one big thing that is free is our freedom of choice. The choice to smoke or not to smoke is one that we alone can make and can make true. Our journey may be long and hard but there is help at hand in the form of NRT or an e-cig and this absolutely wonderful site and the people on it. This journey is one that I definitely would NOT want to make alone because at some time or other, being a smoker I have been alone in the wind and rain puffing my little heart out on that white stick whether it be outside my own home or in a pub ‘smoking shelter’ which doesn’t, I hasten to add, give much shelter at all!!! As they all seem to be open to the elements and put in the worst possible place!

You won’t know, but there have been times when I have felt like a pariah and not just once but many, many times and I look at people on the street these days that are smoking away and think to myself did I look as bad as that? Was I so desperate for a fag that it’s like my whole life depended on me lighting that fag and smoking it? Did my face look like that as I walked along puffing away? Did my face, expression and mouth look like that when I left my fag in my mouth because I needed something out of my handbag or shopping bag? I sure hope not but I bet it did and probably worse because I’m female and no, that is not sexist, but my Dad always hated the sight of a woman with a cigarette dangling from the corner of her mouth and I must admit it does look worse when a female does it. Isn’t it strange the things we think about that just seemed so ‘au natural’ back in the days when we were smokers and now, as smoke free people, it seems horrible and unreal and totally unbelievable that that was us.

However, having said all of that, it is now firmly where it should be and that is in our past, it most definitely DOES NOT form any part of our future in any way, shape or form. If we start to feel a tad down-hearted, then I would suggest that we look back to those times and think to ourselves, do we really want to go back there? The answer is obviously NO we don’t so we have to learn the lesson of taking things nice and easy and definitely slowly, slowly because that is part of our plan, in fact, it should be one of the main points, of the plan we have prepared to help us on our quit journey.

Help is available to everyone no matter who they are; how many cigarettes they smoked on a daily basis, this site does not have a criterion that must be matched before you can join. The fact that you want to quit is enough to access all the extra help and support that you need to make your journey as easy as is possible because everyone, yes everyone is there to help, everyone on this site has and still is to some extent on this same journey but at different stages but have no doubts, that together, we can make it happen and it will happen, for you, and you, and you as well.

Remember everyone, as the title says, this is a walking marathon of a journey, definitely not a sprint or a dash, the journey though long and hard is well worth the effort and by walking we gain extra benefits which are, I hasten to add, all free, like being able to look at our surroundings, look at what is most definitely beautiful scenery, watch passing traffic and people watching. Generally it is a stroll in the park as let’s face it the only runners in parks are the children or adults on a fitness journey and I wish them good luck as walking is much nicer. All this instead of fumbling in our pocket or bag for that packet of cigarettes and then having to fumble again for a light for it – that’s too much like hard work for me, how about you?

Oh, just before I close, whilst out with my dogs this morning at the unearthly hour of 6 am (never sleep in on holidays for some unknown reason I always wake at the usual time) I walked along our road and heard quite a commotion. When I looked up there is a heron flapping its wings like mad and it was being chased, yes honestly, chased by two big black birds (I think they were either ravens or crows but am now too sure). The heron landed in a garden and these two birds then proceeded to dive bomb it – literally – it was really and truly unbelievable – they kept swooping down and when the heron then took off again they chased after it. Now if someone had told me this, I tend to think I wouldn’t have believed them, but it is the truth – I have never, ever in my whole life seen this before. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes I couldn’t have believed it. Even the dogs were watching with their ears up which I think was because of the noise they all three were making. It was incredible and I still don’t quite understand why a bird as big as this heron was, was being chased by these two other birds. Perhaps someone on here can give/offer an explanation? Seen blackbirds chasing magpies and have also seen robins chasing birds two and three times bigger than them but never before have I ever, ever, seen the likes of this morning’s happenings!

Take care all and a lovely evening to each and every single one of you.

Luv and hug and a lovely because it makes the world go around and around and it don't cost nuffink either!

Kath.

PS I honestly had no intention of doing a blog today but once the memory of the blog title came back, I'm sorry, but I just couldn't not resist!