Congratulations! You have tackled something incredibly difficult. You are a nonsmoker. Your self-esteem and confidence is sky-high. You deserve to feel happy and proud about what you’ve accomplished.
You have taken the time to learn a lot of skills – will power, relaxation, and most important of all, recognizing what you really want and working to achieve it. All of these can be helpful in many other areas of your life.
You have also learned personal and interpersonal communication skills that can improve the quality of your life. These skills will help you bring renewed energy to important things you can do with your life, your family, your children, and your world. That is the most important reward of quitting smoking!
You are probably feeling greatly energized by your experience and you might want to direct some of that energy toward preventing today’s young people from starting to smoke. If so, the American Lung Association needs your help in their grassroots tobacco-control initiatives. Volunteers from around the country are working to keep cigarettes out of the hands of children. Call the American Lung Association at 1-800-LUNG-USA, or visit their web site at http://www.lungusa.org for the latest news and details as to how you can help others stay off cigarettes.
