November 7, 20178 yr I was told many moons ago ,very early in my quit... It's OK to wobble ,just make sure you don't fall over.... I have never forgotten this..it's stayed with me...I wish I knew who to thank ..it got me through some tough times... Has anyone else got a favourite...
November 7, 20178 yr In one of Joel Spitzer's videos he said: it's okay to want to smoke, so long as you don't smoke. That resonated with me because in the past when I attempted to quit, I convinced myself I was supposed to lose any desire to smoke. Terribly faulty thinking on my part. I'm an addict, but I thought in one fell swoop I would just erase all that and be done with it. That phrase also led me to the realization that I was complicating the process by fighting passing thoughts thus giving them more attention and power than they deserved. And in a few of the rough patches in the early days the acronym FIDO helped. I'll go with the family friendly version here: Forget It, Drive On!
November 8, 20178 yr Author Don't smoke ...even if your arse falls off....my junkie brain took this on board ... There is no circumstance where its OK to smoke !!!!!
November 8, 20178 yr ^^^^ What you say above is such a simple concept. People understand it but then when they get a little way along their quit path, the junkie brain starts up with all the excuses you can think of to make it OK to smoke just that one. That's when your resolve and commitment to that self promise needs to really kick in.
November 9, 20178 yr So many things people have said were a help and inspiration for me. Here's one. You have to learn how to accept The Desire to Smoke. You just have to tell yourself, "Okay now I'm having this desire so I'm going to just sit with that desire and tolerate it. Hi, desire, what's up. I see you, desire. It's okay. Hush, hush, sweet desire, there, there."
November 11, 20178 yr Don't know the wise man who first said this, but ids been repeated many time, and keeps me on the straight and narrow... "I'm one puff away from a pack a day habit" (it's not a habit though...it's an addiction)
November 21, 20178 yr I had loads! The Snot and Nope obviously The one I used most was Do not put something in your mouth and set fire to it, you can do anything else. When I phrased it that way it seemed a pretty silly plan anyway. "For Milly and I" was my go to in the early days, I would say it over and over until the thought lost it's hold. I quit when my daughter (Milly obviously) was 8 and I'd had my first puff of a cig at age 9. The thought of enabling her to be like me turned my stomach and I would highly suggest a personal mantra to everyone.
November 24, 20178 yr Couple I like. Favorite by far is - Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock the the door shall be opened for you. Another one - When in doubt, know your way out.
December 8, 20178 yr Never fry bacon naked. “There was a young lady named MaeWho smoked without stopping all day;As pack followed pack,Her lungs first turned black,And eventually rotted away.” ― Edward Gorey, Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey & Peter F. Neumeyer
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