Good morning all, Hope everyone is doing well this wonderful smokefree morning! 

 

There is this one "cigarette crave" in my mind that is plaguing me. For most of my thoughts of smoking,  most of the time, I can dismiss them before they become a crave. 

 

However there is this one that I have yet been successful in dismissing before it becomes a crave. There is this one...

 

After dinner, with a cup of coffee or glass of wine,  the perfect wind down from a good day or a bad day; so relaxing, just so niceeee. I made it...

 

So everyday I go through the discussion with myself; gotta stop romanticizing this - nothing romantic about you cig; relaxing? hah, that is BS, etc and etc. But I have yet found a way to keep this thing from becoming a crave. For now, I either go swimming (which is relaxing, but not the same) or treadmill, which is not relaxing but I am able to take my crave out on the treadmill...lol.

 

Perhaps after the nicotine receptors have been rendered incapable of hi-jacking my natural dopamine paths, this one will not seem pleasurable...

 

P.S. But you are right Saz...I AM stronger than this crave  

 

 

Edited May 15, 20188 yr by lml

The after dinner one was a hardy. I fluctuated between 'air' smoking (usually with a pen or a straw) and just went through the motions or I did something like play a game like match up or memory where I had to give my focus to remembering something or using my brain to get past the urge... 5 minutes of memory match and it was what crave??? For me I need more than something physical I need to occupy my mind too.

 

You are doing really well lml.

G'day

Every time you face a crave and it fails and you prevale. 2 things happen.

It gets weaker.

You get stronger.

Next time you meet you have the upper hand.

C

 

 

I think all of us have one or more really serious times when cigarettes felt essential to the experience and these are little buggers to conquer.

 

Mine was when I was working painting.  I was often discouraged and it was affecting my work.

I was breaking up a very long term pattern, painting and smoking were together for years !

 

Paul723 had encouraging comments on my blog entry, My Life as One Big Smoke Trigger,

 he said, "You are free, maybe you will see what your new better normal is on canvas. I bet you will like getting to know it"

He was right.

 

Iml, these are epic body memories and addiction binded them together.

All you can do is live through it.  Work through it while time works magic. 

Enjoy your wine even through gritted teeth for a while, even a forced smile encourages release of endorphins.

In short time, you will claim your space back,  that time will be all yours again, believe me.

 

I know you hear us say, it's going to get better

and that isn't great comfort when you are in the trenches but, you won't be here for long and you won't be here again, Ever.

Hang in there lml, you're doing great and like said above that crave will get weaker and weaker each time you go through it

1 hour ago, Sazerac said:

 

All you can do is live through it.  Work through it while time works magic. 

Enjoy your wine even through gritted teeth for a while, even a forced smile encourages release of endorphins.

In short time, you will claim your space back,  that time will be all yours again...

 

I will have a big smile with my wine tonight. And I just thought...i would not enjoy it at all if I had it with a cig. I will claim my space back!!! I like that. Thx Saz.

 

9 hours ago, Cbdave said:

 

Next time you meet you have the upper hand.

 

I will!!! With a big smile on my face.

I am laughing to myself now; because I can't wait to smile this one to death. The things I need to visualize in my mind....right now I am thinking of johnny5 pic of the toddler and feeling like that...i got this!

10 hours ago, lml said:

So everyday I go through the discussion with myself; gotta stop romanticizing this - nothing romantic about you cig; relaxing? hah, that is BS, etc and etc.

 

You are right.  There is nothing romantic or relaxing about a cigarette.  They are nasty, deadly, and will suck the life out of you.  Nothing relaxing about that.

 

You are doing great, lml.  YOU GOT THIS!

This too will pass. It's good to keep an eye on what your mind tells you sometimes and not to listen to it. Well done

Your quit is still young lml. You will get there as all of us do who ride this beast no matter what it throws at us.  We are all addicts and always will be. The difference is that we can all learn to deny that addiction and it does get easier and easier to do that the longer we refuse to allow the addiction to rule our lives. Fight the good fight. Don't expect too much too soon. It comes much more slowly than we would like but, the important thing is that it does come to all of us that persevere - that I promise you!

New better normal are powerful words in reshaping your life.  I wish I could remember who gave them to me.  I know they appeared at just the right time for me to help break an old bad habit.  Enjoy your new space.