I hope the day finds you happily smoke free! There are so many things to learn when we choose to take our lives back. There’s the science of it and the human side of it. The science is pretty straight forward. We have three days of withdrawals from nicotine and then a few months of relearning life without cigarettes.
The EXperts know the science well and can explain most every aspect of quitting. This is crucial knowledge when we prepare for our quits and long after for if we don’t have a solid foundation to begin with then it becomes much harder to complete the task of losing an addiction.
And then there’s the human side to a quit. This is really where a web site like this one is unique because the reality is that we all view our quits similarly and yet differently. Sure, we all have the craves and the science tells us that they only last a few minutes. This is one place where I think each quit is different. Some people seem to be able to accept this fact with ease and as such survive each crave with that basic knowledge while others seem to have one long endless crave.
I think the trick at this point is to differentiate between the physical and mental realities of our quits. If we can manage to separate one from the other, then we have a better time of it. Sometimes it takes some real thought to do this. To me this is because the brain is unconvinced of our quits and as such it continues to not only demand the nicotine but also for some it recreates the crave because that’s the method of communication that it always uses.
Once we survive the crave then we have to try to forget that the crave ever happened in the first place. As many on this site have mentioned, we have to find a distraction in order to get the mind focused on something else. This again is where there are differences in our quits. Some can distract themselves easily while others have a really hard time of it.
I used visualization as my tool for this. For me it worked well and was always available to me at the times when I needed that distraction. And because my visualizations also incorporated the very essence of my quit, it reinforced it at the same time. The mountain of freedom was a formidable goal in my mind but was also one that I knew was attainable!
And when a crave hit, I would see myself preparing to traverse a boulder field. Hopefully stable but filled with possible traps, depending on how firm the footing was. I would see myself on the other side, once again confident and continuing on in my journey.
We must all find our Mt. Freedom, I think. Whatever we choose to call it whether it be the ocean or a river that must be followed to the end. Perhaps for some Mt. Freedom means taking a walk or calling someone to talk about ANYTHING but smoking. Or perhaps deep breathing exercises. It really doesn’t matter exactly what distraction we use so long as it performs that all important task of calming our addicted minds.
So no matter what method you find, in the end it will help you to survive. Knowing how you will forget the addiction can make life so much easier during a quit. Always remember to stay focused first on the prize of freedom but never forget that to get there we must learn ourselves in ways we never thought of. We must learn to motivate ourselves with different incentives then the reward of a cigarette. We must never forget that it’s our future we’re fighting for and the love of life that we are living, right now with every crave that we beat. Every day that we succeed on the path to freedom. Every moment that we’re happy with the fact that we’re taking our lives back from the slavery of addiction!
ONWARD TO FREEDOM!!
Chuck
