Yesterday, I was fixing something in my garden that really should have been done last year. You see, last year I was given a bunch of bushes that weren’t in the best of shape. They’d been neglected for weeks. And so I decided that everything has a right to live, and wanted to give these guys a shot.
Well, the summer was rapidly turning to fall and I added mulch over everything to help protect the roots during our hard winters. As it has been warming up, weeds have been popping up everywhere! That’s when I realized I needed to put some landscape fabric down.
In a quit, if we just rush headlong into it without giving it much thought, it diminishes our ability to succeed. If we don’t give our quits the proper respect, our addiction tends to surprise us. We need to have our solid foundations in place to prevent the cracks that might develop in our quits.
If we don’t and we fail, the next time is even harder. Like the garden, when I failed to prepare the foundation properly, I had to pretty much start over. Removing the layers that were already there in order to build a more harmonious environment. In order to create a stronger foundation for success. I have confidence that rethinking things will improve the overall ability for this garden to succeed.
And so it is with our quits. Since for the most part we step into an unknown world when we first face our addictions, quits tend to evolve over time, making them stronger and clearing the weeds that can pop up at any time along the way.
If we take the time to evaluate each previous day and learn the lessons of how we survived that day, then we can add that knowledge to the next day, improving the foundation that we built with each new experience that we face along the way. We can use the previous day to evolve further into our quits.
Ignoring the lessons of the past can help us to lose sight of our futures. And in a quit, when we lose sight of the future, it becomes harder. When we stay stagnant in the present and forget about why we’re quitting, it becomes harder. But if we continue to adapt by using the lessons of the previous day, then we begin to once again look to the future where the rewards of quitting actually lie.
When we look at each trigger and urge, and learn what caused them, then we can use them to strengthen our foundations. And once the foundation is solid, it becomes easier to focus on the prize of freedom. It becomes easier to believe that we really can quit. It becomes easier to evolve into the new nonsmoking self.
If nothing else, our minds are made to adapt. But It becomes hard to adapt when a part of the mind doesn’t want change. When the mind has decided what normal is, especially when physical addiction comes into play as well.
The reality that we all know is that the physical part of the addiction ends in about three days. What becomes the issue is adapting into a nonsmoker. This is the part that takes time. The addicted mind creates pleasure whenever we feed the addiction. As far as the addicted mind is concerned, nothing needs to change. Everything is fine.
It’s up to us to see the positive in quitting. The addiction won’t do that for us. Rather than looking at discomfort, look to the positive of what you’re doing. Your becoming the beautiful butterfly that can soar into the heavens and flutter about happily, completely confident that everything is bright and so peaceful, seeing the beauty of life because they let themselves evolve and be free!! It’s there for the taking! Go for it!!!
ONWARD TO FREEDOM!!!
Chuck
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