A challenging year indeed
I finally did it! After 35 years of smoking, I managed to quit 28 days ago and it's not really something I wanted to do, but rather needed to do for the sake of my health. Having overcome an 18 year opiate addiction, I am familiar with the triggers, cravings and behavioural patterns that are challenging. Smoking was my friend, my comfort, my crutch and I attached that story to it whenever I felt stressed, depressed or bored/lonely or unable to regulate my emotions. I enjoyed smoking and tbh miss it, but my new story is that I'm a non-smoker. It's only 3 and a half months since my mom died, so I rode out the trauma, shock, grieving, anxiety around arrangements etc. until I became so concerned about my breathing that I thought "it's now or never". My chest does tighten up when I'm anxious and I feel it in my stomach too, but boy, it is so nice to be able to fully expand my lungs now and take deep breaths again. Not to say that I haven't already caused a lot of damage to my lungs and the rest of my body, but coming from a family history of COPD, emphysema and macular degeneration, it was time to take responsibility for my actions and my body, which I've mistreated in the past. I met with the attorney handling mom's estate and I am going to have to sell the house. Having taken care of mom for the past 4 years and not having an income, I've been left in a financial predicament. I've inherited a beautiful home, but also her debt. Now the pressure is on because I need to sell fast and buy another smaller home just as quickly. That way, the house will be transferred into the new owner's name directly and save me the transfer fees. So the pressure is on big time to clean, sort, prepare and search. I tackled cleaning the huge front and back gardens yesterday. The refuse removal guys gave me a talking to this morning, as there were 30 bags of garden refuse on the pavement this morning π and my hands and arms are torn to shreds from all the pruning bushes, branches etc. I couldn't walk by 7pm last night, as my 59 year old body has seen that much action in one day in ages π€£.