To me, quitting was a learning experience. And one of the first things to learn is what happens in a given situation. Sometimes relaxation is actually a trigger in my opinion, because while we were addicted, we always associated relaxation with smoking. Another of the lies we fed ourselves as addicts.
When we become confident that we'll never smoke again, the addiction isn't quite done with us yet. It's like the divided mind sits there in the background, waiting for an opportunity. The thing is, we'll always remember smoking. It's just a fact of life in addiction, but we don't have to give those memories any power!
When we have idle time, most of us smoked to fill the time, as if that was really doing anything. But these kinds of things are remembered when we quit and a crave can pop up any time when we once again have idle time. Rather than relaxing, the brain remembers smoking at those times.
For me, the best thing to do in this situation is to change the thought patterns. Think of something else. Anything else! You know you want to because you want to succeed!
To this day after over six years quit, I still have smoking memories pop up. In fact, I just had one today. But that's all they are. Thoughts! If you can move on to a new thought, then the crave will lose it's power. The key is to stop thinking about smoking, because the mind will stick to a single thought so long as we let it.
I wish you the best and hope that this passes and the rest of the day is wonderful! Just don't give in to an errant thought, or rather, a piece of a thought that still remains from the past. Take some deep breaths, remember that relaxation has nothing to do with smoking and then remember how you'll feel tomorrow depending on the decision you make today!
ONWARD TO FREEDOM!!!
Chuck
