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Nope. Is @Cbdave on hols? Hope the old cobbers OK.

G’day NOPE .....Not One Puff Ever.... (replace Ever with Min,Hour, Day as required.)

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NOPE - Not One Puff Ever

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OK ... the BIG Sunflower reveal Finally bloomed this past weekend. It didn't get much taller than the first shot I posted but it's at least a 10 footer! The sun was in the wrong place to get a decent shot of the flower so it's a little dark but the seeds are just forming so the birds and squirrels have not invaded it yet but ... the big bumble bee on the right side of the flower seems interested

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Wow P What a bloomer lol …. The weather here is fabulous .. Im in Tenerife , Sun , Sand and Sangria

Never give up … giving up

We are all familair with the Quitting Paradox. We need to support people wherever they are at in their process. Not one puff ever! Gene The Quitting Paradox From Alan (QuitNet Staff) on 9/9/2004 3:46:25 PM Hi, everyone: I'm Alan, head of QuitNet's Counseling Department. We rarely venture into public forums because the Qmunity works best member to member, but myself, Liane and Christine felt compelled to weigh in on the recent slips & relapses debates. The slips argument is so intense and eternal because members are fighting from two mutually exclusive points of view, both valid. When you're quit, the only philosophy to live by is: Not One Puff Ever. "Just one" can undo all your hard work, and you can never guarantee another recovery. But if you slip, the most important thing is to avoid the Abstinence Violation Effect, the message from the addicted brain (and sometimes from other members) that says, "You already blew it, so you may as well go all the way." The more a quitter believes in AVE, the more likely they are to relapse completely. A slip is not a moral issue. It's most often a result of weaknesses in one's quit-plan, and doesn't have to turn into full relapse. We all need different things for our quits. Most of us gather information and quit-strategy advice from others; we may not know what will work for us until we try and either succeed or fail. Some of us have hormonal/chemical/mental health issues that further complicate things. Meaning it's not that hard to plan incorrectly for our quits, and be caught unprepared in a crisis. We realize that even suggesting slips may be common will be seen as offering an 'excuse to smoke'. Someone with a weak program may even use that rationalization to relapse. But to say that smokers who slip are almost certain to go back to smoking permanently is absolutely unsupported by any data. In fact, study after study proves the opposite: *nearly every successful quitter has slipped and/or relapsed in the past *many quitters slipped in their 'final' quit *the faster one gets back on the beam after a slip the more likely they are to stay quit. To summarize: N.O.P.E. while you're quitting. Most slips begin by entertaining thoughts that you can have one or two. You may not be accountable for that first obsessive smoking thought, but all thoughts and actions that succeed it are your responsibility. Keep your quit #1, and do whatever it takes to not smoke TODAY. If you do slip for any reason, you are NOT necessarily doomed to return to your old smoking ways, unless you believe you are and choose to do so. Resetting your gadget is a personal decision, based mostly on how you feel about it in your heart, and how important a part of your quit-plan days and numbers are. Identify the weakness in your plan, and set a strategy for how you will overcome that situation next time. And go right back to N.O.P.E. If you find yourself slipping repeatedly, you may simply not be ready to quit, but that's YOUR CALL, no one else's. Seek out interactive tools and examine yourself and your smoking. There's no shame in saying, "I'm just not ready to make this a priority right now"; see what you can do to make it more of a priority, and DON'T QUIT QUITTING UNTIL YOU QUIT.

Something to be generally aware of at this time of year also is that with changing of seasons, there are often new, unexpected triggers that will stir smokey thoughts within you. One of them may be at Thanksgiving. In Canada that comes around early-mid-Oct which isn't far off. Family gatherings are always a trigger as is the great food at that time of year. Other things you might not even connect to smoking like a walk in the woods checking out the changing colour of the leaves; it could be almost anything. If you're aware that may happen, you're less likely to have trouble getting through those times. Carry on and build that forever quit!

Stay strong and you will beat this. You have it in you and your doing great . Best wishes.

Nope, no taller than it is now but the bloom is growing larger by the day. Once the seeds within the bloom mature, I don't know if the stalk will be able to support it or not - we'll see I suppose! Ther'll be some happy critters around when the seeds mature, that's for sure

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It really is a beanstalk...LOL!! It looks great! Do you think it will grow any taller?

Simply The Best: Tina Turner

Hi all,been a while since I posted anything. I come on once and a while and check in and see how everyone is doing. I'm doing good and still smoke free. I tell people about this awesome site and all the great help here.

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Oh ... it's a surfing theme today is it? Nope!

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Good morning. I read this old quitnet post again and realized this is a story about recovery. The only thing that I think I would add to this post is that it is not really about lifiting the cloud in the mind left by smoking. It is all about the mistaken belief that smoking could do anything to help us cope with the normal things that happen to all of us in life. Smoking never did help us cope with thoughts, feelings or emotions. That belief is a MISTAKE. And accepting that we have the ablitity to ride any of the life's waves without smoking is the real juice that powers' recovery from nicotine addition. Keep the quit. REPOST: Taking off your cloak of smoke From AniCat on 1/27/2005 10:55:53 PM Taking off your cloak of smoke From: healing2 on 9/16/2000 11:50:03 AM As the cloud of smoke lifts from our lives when we quit smoking so many of us sit in our wooden chair looking around the room at the blank walls wondering where we are and what we do next. It's like the smoke leaks out of a dryer vent or other small hole in the room, taking its time, leaving behind residue that needs scrubbing. Some of it is entirely hidden for months and months. We are surprised that we had yet to discover these facets of our lives that were permeated by the smell of smoke. It seems that as the layers of smoke are scrubbed away we barely recognize the room we call our lives and ourselves we call the ruler of that life. It's funny how we thought we were present for our lives and yet when we quit, we discover that not unlike the smoke we were kind of hovering around, above, and under that thing which we called living. Just as are bodies become cleansed from not smoking our lives need cleansing of tamped down emotions, unrecognized dreams, and unresolved conflict. Yes, we do have lots of work to do. Knowing where to begin, what deserves our immediate attention, and how to go about cleaning up the mess we feel we've made is a tremendous challenge. But as we sit in the barren room, the old curtains torn down and the windows bare we are but naked as the walls. We've torn off those cloaks of smoke and begun our lives again and we are as naked as a baby. What a blessing we've given ourselves. We get to rebuild, redecorate, pick a new wardrobe, and plant a new garden. Another season of our lives is before us and unlike the baby, we can express ourselves with more insight than we ever thought possible. Something transforming happens when you dispense with something as negative as smoking. The light is turned on; the glasses sharpen the image; and the ability to verbalize becomes simpler and clearer. Even though we feel overwhelmed at the magnitude of the restoration of our lives, we feel in awe that we were so unaware of its becoming rundown. How could we not have noticed that things had become such a shambles? Ah yes, the smoke blurred the lines, it made everything appear a comfortable shade of gray. Now as the vibrancy of life becomes once again apparent we want to hurry the process of reclaiming what is ours. We want to shine every crystal, polish every marble table top, and scour all the negativism of our former selves. We feel an urgency to repair damaged woodwork, paint the flaking and peeling relationships of our lives, and scour our bodies inside and out. Of course a project of this grandeur will take time but oh how anxious we are to begin. Now though it may seem daunting, this rebuilding of our lives, what a more worthwhile project? Would we choose to sit in the dark another five years, waiting for someone to pull us from the choking smoke of death? Would we cover our eyes, and hearts, and minds as life went on around us, just outside our prison walls? Would we perpetuate the false, fog like existence that years of smoking had draped around us? Nope, let's take off that cloak, put on some rubber gloves, grab a bucket and get busy. THE AWAKENING A time comes in your life when you finally get it . . . when in the midst of all your fears and insanity you stop dead in your tracks and somewhere the voice inside your head cries out: ENOUGH! Enough of the fighting and crying and struggling to hold on. And, like a child quieting down after a blind tantrum, your sobs begin to subside, you shudder once or twice, you blink back your tears, and through a mantle of wet lashes you begin to look at the world through new eyes. This is your awakening. You realize that it’s time to stop hoping and waiting for something to change or for happiness, safety and security to come galloping over the next horizon. You come to terms with the fact that he is not Prince Charming and you are not Cinderella and that in the real world there aren’t always fairytale endings (or beginnings for that matter) and that any guarantee of `happily ever after` must begin with you and in the process a sense of serenity is born of acceptance. You awaken to the fact that you are not perfect and that not everyone will always love, appreciate, or approve of who or what you are . . .and that’s OK. (They are entitled to their own views and opinions.) And you learn the importance of loving and championing yourself and in the process a sense of new found confidence is born of self-approval. You stop bitching and blaming other people for the things they did to you (or didn’t do for you,) and you learn that the only thing you can really count on is the unexpected. You learn that people don’t always say what they mean or mean what they say and that not everyone will always be there for you and that it’s not always about you. So, you learn to stand on your own and to take care of yourself, and in the process a sense of safety and security is born of self-reliance. You stop judging and pointing fingers and you begin to accept people as they are and to overlook their shortcomings and human frailties, and in the process a sense of peace & contentment are born of forgiveness. You realize that much of the way you view yourself, and the world around you, is as a result of all the messages and opinions that have been ingrained into your psyche. You begin to sift through all the crap you’ve been fed about how you should behave, how you should look, how much you should weigh, what you should wear, where you should shop, what you should drive, how and where you should live, what you should do for a living, who you should sleep with, who you should marry, what you should expect of a marriage, the importance of having and raising children, or what you owe your parents. You learn to open up to new worlds and different points of view. And you begin reassessing and redefining who you are what you really stand for. You learn the difference between wanting and needing and you begin to discard the doctrines and values you’ve outgrown, or should never have bought into to begin with, and in the process you learn to go with your instincts. You learn that it is truly in giving that we receive; and that there is power and glory in creating and contributing. You stop maneuvering through life merely as a `consumer` looking for your next fix. You learn that principles such as honesty and integrity are not the outdated ideals of a by gone era but the mortar that holds together the foundation upon which you must build a life. You learn that you don’t know everything, that it’s not your job to save the world and that you can’t teach a pig to sing. You learn to distinguish between guilt and responsibility, and you learn the importance of setting boundaries and of learning to say NO. You learn that the only cross to bear is the one you choose to carry and that martyrs get burned at the stake. Then you learn about love: Romantic love and familiar love. You learn how to love, how much to give in love, when to stop giving, and when to walk away. You learn not to project your needs or your feelings onto a relationship. You learn that you will not be more beautiful, more intelligent, more lovable or important because of the man or woman on your arm or the child that bears your name. You learn to look at relationships as they really are and not as you would have them be. You stop trying to control people, situations and outcomes. You learn that just as people grow and change so it is with love. And you learn that you don’t have the right to demand love on your terms. And, you learn that alone does not mean lonely. And you look in the mirror and come to terms with the fact that you will never be a size 5 or a perfect 10 and you stop trying to compete with the image inside your head and agonizing over how you “stack up”. You also stop working so hard at putting your feelings aside, smoothing things over, and ignoring your needs. You learn that feelings of entitlement are perfectly OK, and you learn that it is your right to want things and to ask for the things that you want--and that sometimes it is necessary to make demands. You come to the realization that you deserve to be treated with love, kindness, sensitivity, and respect, and you decide you won’t settle for less. And you allow only the hands of a lover who cherishes you to glorify you with his or her touch . . . and in the process you internalize the meaning of self-respect. And you learn that your body really is your temple. And you begin to care for it and treat it with respect. You begin eating a balanced diet, drinking more water, and taking more time to exercise. You learn that fatigue diminishes the spirit and can create doubt and fear. So you take more time to rest. And, just as food fuels the body, laughter fuels our soul. So you take more time to laugh and to play. You learn that for the most part, in life, you get what you believe you deserve . . . and that much of life truly is a self-fulfilling prophecy. You learn that anything worth achieving is worth working for and that wishing for something to happen is different than working toward making it happen. More importantly, you learn that in order to achieve success you need direction, discipline, and perseverance. You also learn that no one can do it all alone and that it’s OK to risk asking for help. You learn that the only thing you must truly fear is the great robber baron of all time: FEAR itself. You learn to step right into and through your fears, because you know that whatever happens you can handle it and to give in to fear is to give away the right to live life on your terms. And you learn to fight for your life and not to squander it living under a cloud of impending doom. You learn that life isn’t always fair, you don’t always get what you think you deserve and that sometimes `bad` things happen to unsuspecting, good people. On these occasions you learn not to personalize things. You learn that God isn’t punishing you or failing to answer your prayers. It’s just life happening. And you learn to deal with evil in its most primal state: the ego. You learn that negative feelings such as anger, envy, and resentment must be understood and redirected or they will suffocate the life out of you and poison the universe that surrounds you. You learn to admit when you are wrong and to building bridges instead of walls. You learn to be thankful and to take comfort in many of the simple things we take for granted, things that millions of people upon the earth can only dream about: a full refrigerator, clean running water, a soft warm bed, a long hot shower. Slowly, you begin to take responsibility for yourself by yourself, and you make yourself a promise never to betray yourself and never, ever to settle for less than your heart’s desire. And you hang a wind chime outside your window so you can listen to the wind. And you make a point to keep smiling, to keep trusting, and to stay open to every wonderful possibility. Finally, with courage in your heart, you take a deep breath and you begin to design the life you want to live as best as you can. Author Unknown

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Carefull ... what's that saying? Pride goeth before a fall?

Girl Power

Amazing! Congratulations @Mee

Congratulations on such an awesome quit. I hope you reward yourself today for this great accomplishment.

Congratulations @Mee All the best!

Huge Congratulations Mee Reward yourself well today I’ve sent you a lovely cup cake for every year

I knew we had an August Quitter around here somewhere! Big congrats @Mee !

Great Job! You've come a long way since your early days of quitting!