Two weeks now and as much as I hate, coz I’m too skeptical about myself, to admit it, that things have been under control. The physical cravings were still there, a constant nag but it is nothing that I haven’t handled so far. 

One of the things I realized that I missed after giving up smoking is that whatever time you spend smoking is a private time that you get with yourself and that’s not something that can be easy to miss. Sure, you can do it without a cigarette in your hand but it is not the same thing. Those ten minutes at every opportunity where I got to sort a lot of things in my head are now reduced to vacuum and an hour or so every day goes utterly useless. Not that it was put to good use earlier, but there was no concern about it. 

Since two weeks have passed, it’s now about time to have a closer look at the pitfalls. The first one of them always would be about that other smoker friend you knew who managed to quit about 2 weeks or couple months and now smokes again. It is an easy trap and very convenient to fall into it again, so I got to be wary of that. Good thing is that since I don’t trust entirely that I have got myself rid of this habit and hopefully I will always be on the lookout for the triggers and make an honest attempt at avoiding them. Till date I’ve done alright, but to do it every day for the rest of my life would be a different challenge which may require a diverse skill set.  

I’m still not able to concentrate for on anything for an extended period of time, and tend to get fidgety and nervous when I have nothing to do and can’t get sleep, but I hope I would get used to it eventually. The importance of going back to normal life can’t be understated coz there would be no point if we can’t be what we want to be and keep blaming something or the other about it constantly. Anyway, I give this feeling another couple of weeks and see how it looks then, but as of now I’m more than willing, and actually quite happy, to sacrifice these days for a greater cause. 

There isn’t anything else to report in terms of smoking, and I don’t even know if I have something else to write about smoking anymore. It has come to a point that I knew what works and what doesn’t for me in this endeavor and I’ve found a method. Beyond that this journal would just be repetitive and pointless, so unless I have anything to add, or any particular struggle I face because of smoking, I don’t think I would be writing much on this.

Also, I will definitely make a note on this journal if ever I smoke another one, coz I can’t lull my readers into believing the task at hand is easier than it actually is, or should be. No matter what anyone says, I still believe that giving up smoking is the most difficult and painful task I’ve ever done and I have only managed two weeks so far, so if ever someone reads this ever, I want the person to know that it is an achievement. Dear smoker/ex-smoker, I write for us.