A New Day

My in-laws should be arriving any moment. When they do, I will leave my house and drive into southeast Portland to meet with the hypnotist. I've met the man once. I liked him immediately. His work space was a hypnotherapy clinic/photography studio. We talked for an hour and a half on Monday and decided my quit day would be today, Friday. There was no actual hypnosis on Monday but by the end of the appointment, I found that my arms were no longer crossed over my chest, my legs were stretched in front of me, and if I had simply laid my head back onto the backrest of the sofa, I could have taken a nap.

I have a feeling I'm going to be pretty susceptible to hypnotic suggestion. This counselor records his session so that I can hear everything he is saying and I trust him, although I don't know him. Something about his energy puts me at ease. I'm excited to be saying goodbye to cigarettes. I have such a shameful love/hate relationship with the damn things but I can no longer justify it on any level. I just had a peer tell me that she found a lump in her breast. The bar where I work has done a fundraiser for a cancer child. It's everywhere and I don't need to be assisting it.

My reasons for quitting are many but here are some the hypnotherapist and I outlined:
1. My family (Shea and Tracy)
2. My level of desirability with my wife (aka I stink when I smoke, and stinky isn't sexy).
3. Long term health (Cancer, Emphysema, etc.)
4. My aerobic fitness (short term health).
5. Time (Smokes used to be a time out and now they are a time suck. I could be blogging instead of standing on my back patio smoking).
6. Money (Oregon just implemented another increase to the cigarette tax and smokes are now over $5 a pack.
7. Self-esteem. I feel out of control when it comes to the issue of cigarettes. It is something I haven't been able to master since I was about fifteen or sixteen years old. It's time to find some inner strength and conquer my Grendel.

Well, I should wrap this up. My in-laws should be here any minute. I'm off.