No pity from me! I smoked for years - 14 of them - and me and the hubs gave up before we came back to Australia- just like that, as you guys did. You make a decision, and do it without excuses, which is absolutley the ONLY way to give up smoking. Anything else is weak mindedness. I was sooo sick of being beholden to this addiction when all it needed was me to say 'enough' - I mean, you just have to reset those neural pathways, as the nicotine itself leaves the system fairly quickly, so for me, I just gave myself a talking to!
However - I do feel for you having COPD. I've always had a shitty relationship with my breath, being asthmatic. It affects my anxiety as well. Pranyama helps enormously. I suppose you are already onto the herbs that might help - turmeric comes to mind.
At the risk of sounding sappy, there is something extra special about doing such a big, problematic, stressful thing together. I remember a quote from years ago, I am almost certain it was Jim Rohn, it said something along the lines of
People get together, start a life and promise to look after eachother. It is a pretty erroneous goal over which you don't have too much control. What they should say, is I will look after me for you, if you promise to look after you for me.
I guess in many ways, it is like saying I will stay fit and healthy and not let myself go and we can enjoy a long, 'hopefully', happy life together. We have a lot of control over how we treat our own body. Shit, that should probably make me feel a little guilty, especially as a Dad. Still the future is the most important destination, not the past.
I have a funny feeling that I actually have fairly sever asthma rather than COPD, some of the triggers and effects seem more likely after research. I hope that proves to be the case, m'lady and I have had far too many dealings with COPD and family members over the years.
Yeah I'm trying to add various herbs to my routine for various benefits to different issues.
Happy weekend my friend, sorry about the delay, getting back to you. 😎🌞