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Hello friends, and hello, me. I will be offline for a while, going into circumstances that feel perilous, that I associate strongly with smoking. I feel vulnerable. So I am setting an intention here to protect my quit. I’m going on vacation – my first true vacation in a long time - and heading into the backcountry of my homeland. I have spent countless happy hours there smoking and tending the campfire… smoking and drinking strong tea… smoking and glassing the horizon for caribou, moose and bears… smoking and fishing. I am carrying my father’s ashes to a river where memory and sorrow both run deep. Dad died during the pandemic lockdowns, and now it’s time to take him home and set him free in the place where I want my own ashes to go, to intermingle with the ancient glacial silt and flow toward the sea. Triggers abound. While packing yesterday, I found myself fiddling with multiple lighters and tucking matches into tiny ziplocs, “just in case.” Without pausing to think, I automatically grabbed the old film canisters I used for my butts while hiking and fishing. Even with 18 months under my belt, smoking is still deep in my tissues. Triggers, triggers. After more than 40 years of smoking, the associations and triggers are tenacious. I guess I can’t change that past. But today I want to change how I respond to those cravings. So I am coming here to set an intention. I shall build new neural pathways. When the grief and homesickness come, I will greet them and care for them, without shutting them out by smoking. Smoking never healed a wound, never brought anyone back that I’ve lost, never made anything better. Returning to bondage and a life of constant poison is not an option. I will be out of cell range a lot and probably won't be able to post an SOS in real time. So I say it now: NOPE, NOPE, a thousand times NOPE. My quit is too hard-earned to throw it away. When the longing to smoke wells up, I shall channel all you good souls here who cheer each other on and have helped me by explaining things, reassuring me, distracting me, making me laugh, helping me stay accountable. What would you all say? I’ll try to imagine your voices in my head. You’d tell me to keep my quit. And so I shall.

Wow. This is a great, self caring way to secure your quit. This means you wish yourself truth and health. I wish you just that. Have a good time, do what you need to. Its ok to experience every second of it, greeting it like you said. Again, wow.

NOPE!

This might help. You can't unlearn all you know about smoking at this point. We hid behind a lot of lies when we smoked, we don't need to after we quit.

You got this @DenaliBlues, so many of us have found that all the fear and hype up to going away wasn't nearly as bad as they thought it would be. This I hope for you too Have a safe time and just remember to take your tools and leave the can in the garbage where it should be!

NOPE!!

I wish I could say something as eloquently as you often put things but….. One thing that’s been helping me with the sugar/carbs thing but can apply w smoking I suppose is to try to envision beyond the act of eating something (or smoking) (bc most ppl are excited/lose progress when envisioning the lead up and act of eating something delicious (or smoking)) and instead imagine how you’ll feel afterwards, the thoughts, your body, your energy, your zen, etc. and it helps!! All love to you gf and I do hope you enjoy TF outa your vaca!! What an honorable thing you’re doing with your dad’s ashes, I hope to do something like that too one day. P.S. Will you be sending a substitute for chicks or sticks? Between you and Dor missing in action idk what we’ll do

Paul said it best. You can’t unlearn what you know. And besides you said, You say goodbye to your dad in the way that you know he would have wanted. Invoking all that he loved most about your home. But you uphold your vow to protect your quit by vowing to protect the beautiful, pure, unravaged wilderness where you will set your dad free. You can’t do that if you are exhaling 1000’s of chemicals into the air and why would you allow NicoDemon to come in and take control of such a solemn occasion refusing to allow you to give your memories and grief the attention they deserve while placing those chains back on you and why, why, why would you bring those vile, wretched, murderous tobacco companies along to snicker and roll their eyes at your misfortune while planning to trap you into paying for their multimillion dollar lifestyles? You’ve got this, Denali. My thoughts will be with you! Take care!

NOPE!

Nope

Nope!

NOPE…

I joined this forum two and a half years ago and I’ve never noticed the ‘Rate this Topic’ section under the title?! I feel like a complete idiot and now I feel like I need to reread everything and rate it! The sad thing is that I probably will. I feel like my work is incomplete and that is not acceptable. Some kind of OCD…ishness I’m sure. I also want everyone to be happy, so I’ll probably be handing out a whole bunch of five star ratings ! HaHa

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

True this trip will evoke many triggers but perhaps you can also think of it as an adventure to enjoy in a renewed way because now you can do so without being a slave to nicotine. I love what you said about your Dad's ashes. That's just beautiful. He'd be oh so proud of you for doing this for him as well as the fact that you are now quit! His love will warm your heart as he looks down on you. I think you'll be just fine Enjoy!

NOPE!!

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Are you sure? The only stars I can recall seeing is when @Doreensfree hit me with her frying pan!

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

NOPE

Jenny Quit Date: 05/24/2012 Posted March 30, 2014 I love this article on why you can't have just one. It Takes Just One Cigarette to Relapse. January 14, 2013 by Cameron Kellett You will never smoke again. Accepting this is perhaps the most daunting aspect of quitting smoking and nicotine addiction recovery. The thought of never having another cigarette can be so overwhelming, that smokers will willingly go to the grave an addict and never again taste a life free from the disease addiction. If you have decided you no longer want to be a drug addict always in need, the reality of never smoking again is what you must ultimately confront. In order to heal from addiction and achieve freedom you must be completely resolved to never smoke another cigarette again. Why? Because the next smoke is always going to be just one cigarette. As will the next one and the next one and the next one! You see, the thing with healing from nicotine addiction, is that it relies on a large number of neurons and neural connections within your brain metabolizing and breaking down due to INACTIVITY!. The moment you smoke, especially during the early stages, you re ignite weakened connections that have been laying dormant. Instead of allowing them to break down, you re invigorate them and in turn, re enforce them. Quitting immediately becomes harder. To be free, you have to heal, and to heal, you must absolutely not smoke. Having a smoke will always be a step backward. Having a smoke will always be a step backward. There are going to be times, even in the medium to long term, the deceiving allure of tobacco will force you to recall the high of dopamine that came after relieving withdrawal. If you find yourself arguing that “just one cigarette,” won’t hurt, you are in all likelihood, not fully resolved to quitting. Chances are, you’re also not prepared for long term recovery and have possibly quit under false expectations. Full recovery takes many months and there will be many craves and many individual neural connections to break down. Of the very small percentage of smokers who relapse after medium to long term recovery, each and every one started with just one cigarette. If you decide that one cigarette won’t hurt, you will almost certainly spend the rest of your life a miserable full time smoker. Recovery always begins and ends after your LAST cigarette and never, ever, the next. The fact is, until you choose to not smoke, EVER, you will never become a happy and free non smoker. Recovery always begins and ends after your LAST cigarette and never, EVER, the next. If you find yourself debating whether to have just one cigarette, ask yourself this question: Are you willing to undo everything you have achieved, all the recovery you have been through, and waste all that pain you have suffered, just to satisfy an extremely short and momentary whim? A whim that will pass in less than a second if you allow it too. No? Then I guess it’s time to get on with enjoying the rest of your life! Link to original post: https://www.quittrain.com/topic/20-why-nope-is-a-must/

Ohhhhh, okay! I’ll just pick one! Now, which one will it be?

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I think @Reciprocity was the first one to notice them at the top but at that time I think it was a recommend button so he clicked on it and the board blew up I kid, I kid. What we found was a page here called Our Picks and when he clicked on it it showed up there. At that time it wasn't on every topic like the stars are now so I'm not sure if clicking on it still copies it to Our Picks or not and I always say, click on it and see lol. FYI, pick a good topic to test first because if it does post there I can't remove it lol

NOPE!

^ ^ So true!! I quit more than 18 months ago and I can tell my brain is not fully healed yet. It is happening, but slowly. The “deceiving allure” still calls me. Well NOPE on that! Gonna face forward, no going back.

Congratulations on your 2 week quit MLMR. Congratulations on realizations and rationalizations, searching and finding, grasping and letting go, dramatizations and zen. I really do believe you’ve got yourself a forever quit.