Sazerac

Personal commitment Positive thinking, Pushing through discomfort (embracing the suck), Time

No wonder I was thinking of you ! It's time to celebrate your first month of Freedom. Congratulations, Rose ! Thank you for all your contributions and sharing your world. Reward yourself ! You've a solid quit running.

I am so glad to hear you are good. Beautiful Smoky Mountains and Spring ! I see your NOPE every day and it makes me smile. Yes, we are all super grateful we don't smoke anymore, it really is the best.

Hello Iml, Very exciting about your new day ! Your second day sans nicotine. All of our hearts are with you and our faith too. There isn't one reason in the world that you wouldn't succeed, Doreen is right, REJOICE, you don't smoke ! Your body is expelling poisons and getting into gear healing yourself, give it the best of chances, watch your blood sugar, deep clean breaths, cool refreshing water and all the kindness you can muster. S

Thinking of you Rosewothorns.

I am bumping this for @Iml, because of the chrysalis

Congratulations Sslip on Four Months of Freedom ! Hope you celebrate Wildly ! Thank you for being here, your presence is greatly appreciated.

Wow Iml ! Wow ! What an exciting day ! Congratulations. You ARE strong....even on patches you are strong. You are going to win. You have education and intent on your side, all of us are on your side. Please protect your quit and if you need to do patches again do not hesitate to go on them. Patches or no, the most important thing is You have Quit Smoking. Returning to patches will not signify failure. The only way you will fail is if you put a smoke in your mouth and set it on fire and that ain't going to happen. I think you are going to feel better the sooner nicotine is out of your body. Well, you might hit a few bumps but, just knowing it is leaving your body will give you extra powers. Super Powers. Have no doubt, you are going to win. You are already ahead of the game by your work these past 10 days of not smoking. Please stay close to the board and let us know what is happening. pm me if ever you should need. Love, S Here is my jasmine wall with a special message for you, YOU GO GIRL !!!

Thanks for addressing my Sunflower's preferences, Sarge. Have fun in your lower forty and hope the crops are good this year. Love to you and The Missus.

You are over four hundred and twenty three hours ! I like big numbers. Big numbers encouraged me in the early days . Also, you have some ducats adding up.

Sweet darling Quitter, In the beginning, you just say NO, with all the bravado you can muster. You say NO, as in N O.. That is all you can do, just say NO and commit to NOPE a zillion times a day. Your job is to root out the romantic thoughts that addiction has planted in your brain, root out your junkie thoughts because they don't serve you anymore. You Don't Smoke. Stand up straight and realize, you don't smoke. End of discussion.

Dear, Darling Smoke Free Creatures, Ren reminded me how important accolades and appreciation are to someone quitting smoking. We may not find it at home, non smokers don't really understand and smokers....well you can't count on them anymore. So, I want to take this opportunity to tell each and every one of you, how marvelous you are for quitting smoking. It is a really big deal to conquer a deadly addiction and all y'all are succeeding in a grand manner with a lot of grace. Considering how crazy the journey can be, I want you to know how admirable you are, for sharing your stories and helping others we may not even hear from or see. I want you to know that our collective experience can save lives. That is a mighty precious gift. Thank you all for your presence, for the gifts you bring and your honesty. I hope you hear the roar of applause and accept my heartfelt thanks for helping me stay on the good foot. Y'all are awesome. S

I didn't feel romantically inclined once the reality of my/our addiction set in. This takes some time but, it happens if you learn and understand. Study till your eyes bleed if that's what it takes. Don't allow it to take up space in your precious brains. Save romance for ROMANCE. Spring is here, go fall in love again. Go encourage a crush or something. Nicotine is a fierce opponent but powerless when you understand how it worms it's way into your consciousness. Addiction makes you lie to yourself. Addiction is completely self serving. I understand that it takes time not only to identify it's hold over us but, to mercilessly weed it out. But, you need to be the aggressor here and squelch any idolized version of smoking. There is no use for addiction, no reason to woo addiction. Smoking is not romance, it is not glam or fun. That is just junkie talk. Stop Listening. The junkie wants to kill you fgs, and keep you enslaved. What kind of life is that ? What kind of death will that be? Nicotine addiction is a burden and Smoking, however romantically applied, may provide you a long, gruesome and painful death, that is if you are lucky enough to die early. Otherwise you get to linger..in horror of yourself and a horror to your family, to your carers. A complete Horror show, ask Doreen, ask others how romantic it is. I'm sorry for the rant. Please, take what you need and leave the rest. This romance siht is holding you back, making it harder on yourself. Be merciless and rip out all the roots of smokey romance and give yourself a hug from me.

I just posted this on my writing blog but, it really belongs here. "...A fine romance, my good woman. My strong, aged in the wood, woman. You never give the orchids I send a glance, No, you like cactus plants. This is a fine romance..."

Hey Suz, is there another welcoming thread for you ? I hope there is and I welcomed you there. I'm too old to remember Everything ! I smoked for 40 something years and while I may be too old for some things, trampolines may not be a good idea today, living a smoke free life is the best choice I have made in nearly a half century. Welcome !

We all believed the lies of addiction and they replaced our own thoughts. We basked in avoidance. Addiction replaced truth about damage and our own truth about our ability to put it down. Addicts love denial and we all worked it to extremes to one degree or another. The quantum leap for me was admitting I am an addict, that is just a raw truth. I don't need to feel sorry or shame about that, it is just a fact. I am an addict. When I could no longer deny that truth, the healing began, the strength I forgotten I had returned.

Give is right and not a misanthropic ass at all. You will garner strength and confidence with every crave crushed, every body memory reaching for a smoke denied. Already, you feel different and better and kinder towards yourself, right !? It is great you are educating yourself about addiction, our addiction. Education is POWER. Believe us, when we assure you that gets a lot better after a while. A whole lot better. Stay focused and exercise your re-discovered strengths. You Don't Smoke Anymore.

This is the reality, the truth. "Really, you can play whatever game in your head but in reality you are getting worse if you are smoking. Full stop." Thank you GITW.

Don't forget, You quit smoking. That is friggin' AWESOME. Quitting smoking as YOU HAVE DONE, will bring you a lot of rewards, you'll see. You will acquire strength incrementally every hour, every day by just witnessing you own success. Quitting has enabled me to trust myself better and you will feel that inner trust too before long, I promise. We are all here because we are addicts and we will always have a special place in our hearts for others beating this addiction. I am going to be really chuffed watching your progress. You quit smoking, the rest will follow. Let us know if there is anything you need. Think about posting your own pre-response to a SOS. It will serve to remind you why you are quitting and also let us know how to help you if need be. Tomorrow will be your second day on step 2. Hope you find more strength and joy, you deserve it. You quit smoking.

Well, I am certainly honored to welcome you. Where the fck is the band ? here they are ! and thank you for your compliments, A. You blazed an honest, clear and informative trail for me and many, many others to follow.

I don't want one but, if you go to the top left of the main page, you will see TICKER or, here, Miss A, use this handy link Ticker. Are you The Avian from QSMB ? If so, I've been a lurking fan for years. So sorry your site crashed, gah...all that information and history lost is heartbreaking. Hope you will feel good here, it is an honor to see you. You were very influential helping me to have a successful quit, thank you.

Late to the Weegie's party but, I come bearing cheer and goodwill. Congratulations on your six months of Freedom, Weegie. I really appreciate your posts and learn a lot, thank you for being here. These splashes are from me , don't worry, there's more where that came from.

I am so glad you took my post in the spirit in which it was given. Ha ! I went cold turkey and was useless for a lot longer than 5 days, Iml. I was in the Great Smoke Free Fog for month(s?) Nicotine withdrawal is quite, the individual adventure but, luckily, sometimes similar and relatable to other addicts. Yay , Weegiewoman ! This place is so great. As I follow your and other quits, I will be interested to see how your quit proceeds, how your quit Succeeds. Thank you for your posts, informative and clear. and remember, my only advice today is... 'you are stronger than your crave'. You are.

Oh, Fluffy ! Look at that color ! That beautiful purple-blue-y- purple ! I've only seen them purple-y pink towards fuschia colored or pink, red, white rhody-s. Those are lovely ! I had a horrible freeze and we're not really supposed to go deep freeze but, we did. Do you have any special heathers ? what else you got ? Thanks for your take on the Sunflowers. I didn't want to think it was too weird but, it is pretty weird. I look forward to more eye candy on this thread. Thanks for jumping in.

J, I am sorry your nerves are a mess and you are locked into being easily annoyed by stuff. There are better ways to deal with your nerves than romanticizing any relief you think smoking will provide. That ain''t getting you anywhere, it's just keeping yourself tied to smokes. I know the idea of intensive concentrated breathing , meditation, sometimes sounds cliche but, it is the best thing on the planet to deal with nerves, annoyances, anger, fear, craziness, idiocy. Ask me ! I've used meditation successfully for all those things and I'm here to tell you, when you get serious...it friggin works.