Today Is my Birthday!

# ****~TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!!~****

*/Today I celebrate all the blessings I’ve received in life to this day! /*

The realization that I have achieved ultimate freedom to choose:

- how I feel,

- ways to achieve my goals,

- forgiveness

-to be grateful for being on this planet and enjoying the entire experience of a human being with everything that it brings!

All the love and support

And all the knowledge that I learned

#But it wasn’t always like this#

A Child In War

When I was 6 years old, a war broke out in Bosnia. Overnight, my family and I became refugees.  We had to leave home to seek safety from death and destruction.  Eventually, our town became just safe enough to live in.  Yet, every day, we went to school and lived under constant threat of bomb shells. 

Children are very resilient. We often heard the whistle of bombs overhead.  But we continued with our lives the best we knew how.  We could not know the long-term effects of that experience.

College

I eventually went to University to study Economics. It was challenging.  I enjoyed it.  But I couldn’t understand why I was in a low, but increasing state of anxiety.

It was then, about age 19, I started smoking cigarettes.  It was the cool.  Everyone smoked.  I fit in!  And as students, we always had no money. For a few dollars, we could share a pack of cigarettes and drink coffee all day.  The calming effect of less oxygen to my brain helped with my slowly increasing anxiety levels too.

I was smoking a little more.  Yet, smoking wasn’t helping enough with the anxiety. I was moving into a depressive phase.

Adulthood

I finished University. It was time to face real life.  I secured a Government Tax Officer position.  I was a degreed Economist. But those jobs were scarce. I had a stable, Government job. But there was no professional growth.  It was unfulfilling.

Worse, common in former Communist countries are bosses who are bosses due to political support; NOT competence.  My boss was THE example of that. I constantly had more than my share of abuse from him.

My job was unfulfilling with an abusive boss. My anxiety levels were going up fast.  I was more depressed than ever.  My drinking and smoking greatly increased.

Personal Crisis

Life sends you what it sends you. You must find ways to deal with it.  A few years later, I suffered a great family loss. Shortly after, there was a great National Disaster that strongly effected the entire population.

I did not deal well with these matters. My depression deepened. I increased my self-destructive behaviors of drinking and smoking. I hit my all-time low.  But I thought to myself, “I have lived through a war. I want to live through this!”

Re-Awakening

I got medical guidance. I was diagnosed with clinical depression. I began to deal with my childhood war experiences that had so greatly impacted me as an adult.  I learned of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP).  I found the tools that would forever change my life for the better.

Smashing the Grip of Nicotine and Breaking the Chains of Addiction

Still battling clinical depression, I raised self-medicating with cigarettes to 2 packs a day.  That’s one EVERY 24 minutes. I did NOT realize their influence on me!!

One week, I had money for 2 days of cigarettes AND food, but wasn’t getting paid for 5 days. I COULDN’T see I had money for 5 days of food if I just DID NOT smoke for 3 days. I thought about NOT eating for 3 days SO I COULD SMOKE!!  I was an ADDICT, a SLAVE to nicotine!!  It was THAT MOMENT I decided to SMASH the grip of nicotine and BREAK the chains of addiction!!  I was in charge, NOT cigarettes!!

A Happy Ending

It was difficult at first. With the CBT and NLP therapies, I have SMASHED the grip of nicotine and have BROKEN the chains of my addiction!!

I am in charge of my thoughts, my actions and my life.  There is no little voice in my head that is screaming at me to smoke a cigarette every 24 minutes.

I live the life of a Li.O.N.S. (Life of a Non-Smoker), and so can you. We can make the journey together. You CAN do it!!  We Can Make This Journey Together!

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I hope this makes sense to you!

And that you can see, no matter

what is your background

you can conquer your demons

you can thrive and achieve great things!