So often in my quit I notice the steady roar in the background of my brain. This really isn’t an urge but rather it’s the argument in the mind that we all must face. Like a small torrent that is constantly turning in the back of the mind.
To me this little scream in the background is the evidence that even though I’m pretty much over the physical part of the addiction, the mind still has not accepted that I’m no longer a smoker. It’s like a child within that continues to throw a little temper tantrum because things aren’t like they used to be for so many years.
The child within doesn’t understand that the cigarettes are killing us. No, the child only wants to live the life of the past where it wasn’t told that it can’t smoke anymore. The child screams until I simply place it into a corner of the mind. Once that happens, you can still hear the scream within but it’s behind a door. It’s pushed to a part of the mind where it can be ignored.
Still, it chooses to scream it’s miserable song, trying to nudge one into smoking. And just like a child, the child within will eventually give up on it’s tantrum as it realizes that the tantrum is doing no good.
This is the period in our quits when we are the most vulnerable I think. The time when the physical urges are almost nonexistent and yet there is still this child within us who doesn’t seem to understand that we’re quitting.
It’s the part of our minds that must be trained just like a child for it’s own good. It’s amazing that we carry this child within, but when you see it for what it is it’s easier to deal with it. It’s easier to quiet that child. All we have to do is use the same patience we would use with any child and explain to ourselves that there really is no reason to throw a tantrum because it won’t make me smoke.
We have to train the child that throwing these little fits will do no good for we won’t give into the child no matter how loud it gets. As much as we can, we continue to ignore the child for it’s own good because if we don’t then we give power to the tantrums of the child within.
And the good thing is that once the child understands that nothing will ever get us to smoke again, the child grows and becomes a part of us that actually helps us with our quits. So never listen to the child within. His tantrums will do you no good. We must realize first that the child can be ignored and second that in the end the child within will indeed give up. He will stop the tantrums simply because they do no good. They don’t get him what he wants or thinks he wants.
This in the end is a battle worth fighting for once we control the child within then we have taken a huge step toward winning not just the battle but instead, the whole war!
Now, onward to freedom!!
