YES ANOTHER HURTLE JUMPED !!!!! YEAA !

[Opah]

KINDA been putting this off fo a little bit, but went to visit with one of my best buds and hunting partner Joe, Now Joe and his wife are smokers and have no plans on not being smokers,  ( its their Life's) But both are very good friends.

Was worried about being in that much of a smoking environment, now back in my last quit when I lost it Joe was one of the ones I was with so here is where my conviction comes in.   and I did just fantastic, he asked I said no thank you he said great and the day went on just as it did before I lost my quit.

I know it is poison, I know it if allowed will kill me, I know I Know I Know,  why is my mind putting it in front of me as such a nice,  soft,  pleasant thing ?

Surely my mind knows it is poison and refusing to portray it as such, so I still have much work to done on my mental aspect of smoking,  AH yes you all have mentioned this before Romancing smoking I believe it was. so here comes some more work !  Reconditioning my thoughts and mind to see smoking as a very bad thing, not this morning with a cup of coffee great thing.   I have jumped these hurtles before but now that I think of it I never got over how atracrive my mind portrayed and displayed smoking  and that is where I failed.   I claimed success far to early let my guards down and lost the war.

Now it has been over a year and I have just come to understand this ?  I guess the only good thing there is about this is I have shown it to my self, I cant blow it off as some over zealous non smoking advocates pushing their agendas on me.     Have to do some work I'll be back  

[Rosewothorne]

Yes, you did fantastic saying no!

 

I was just thinking about that kind of situation and what i would do around my smoker friends and realized I was "romancing" it.  No suggestions or help for you, just I get how hard retraining our brains is...but we're doing it! 

 

11 minutes ago, Opah said:

I claimed success far to early let my guards down and lost the war.

 

You didn't lose the war, just a battle.  You're still standing. 

[Sazerac]

Congratulations to you, facing down a huge trigger.  You don't smoke anymore.

 

7 minutes ago, Opah said:

Reconditioning my thoughts and mind to see smoking as a very bad thing

 

I found it helpful to accentuate a diverting thought,

'Free Your Head',  I would think and say/scream/yelp out loud

and then aggressively replace smokey thoughts with thoughts unrelated to smoking/not smoking,

look at that light on that leaf...what bird is that...

 

[Lin-quitting]

Good job Buck on your weekend of "resisting the allure".

 

Yeah, you're gonna have to find a way to retrain your brain. I remember working on associating wanting a cig to either (1) drinking antifreeze, or (2) stuffing my mouth full of butts and ashes from a full month-old ashtray. Both visualizations made me gag and retch and it really helped to get the romancing out of my head.

 

I also remember that it was you that gave me the visualization of a blue-faced Braveheart Mel Gibson shouting FREEDOM. It was another huge help to my brainwashing.

[Opah]

Thank you guys

The Brave Heart Freedom isn't working for me now, because I am slowly acknowledging that there is no freedom from this, at least that I can associate with.  A bluesy thing, but I know I failed due to been over confident after all those months, it s was the I.m free , I,m free, praise the Lord I'm free that I allowed my self to slip back into bondage.

I most be smarter this time, I most be stronger this time, and I must maintain my commitment to NOPE,  I must !

I Love you Lin not slapping  down a Brave Heart, we all must have one to succeed here

 

Edited April 16, 2018 by Opah

[Lin-quitting]

You might try my idea of thinking of something personally repugnant, something that makes you gag. Then every time you have a craving, which is really just thinking of that lung hit or that pull of smoke into the mouth, immediately turn your brain to the "gag me with a spoon" thought.  Do that enough times and your brain WILL learn to not associate smoking with pleasure. I think it will help, anyway.....

[Opah]

Sound like a plan to me Lin,  thinking about a stinky old cigarette butt nasty smell that I can carry with me.

Get a crave pop the top sniff and Gag,  I agree with you I want the mere thought of smoking to make me gag !

Well how about this i'll get a sealable container something I can carry in my shirt pocket take some cotton balls and let them set in Joe's ash track over the weekend we are at the refuge and then put them into the container and anytime I start to romance the smoke I'll take a whiff and GAG.

sounds good.   Huston we have a Plan ! 

[Sazerac]

Well, Opah, you are right in a way, 'there is no freedom from this'.

We will always be nicotine addicts. 

I grieved about this but, not for long, grieving didn't free me.

Accepting that I can put my addiction to rest DID free me.

I saw the choice.

Part of reclaiming the addict's brain is replacing smoking with chosen rewards.

Nicotine gangstered our brain's reward receptors  and we need to re-wire.

Maybe, during your coffee...a time when nicotine hijacked your 'pleasure' points,

you can purposefully reward yourself with something else, make yourself smile.

You may have read this, it was a visible thread for a while, I think it is very important.
The Significance of Rewards

 

p.s.  I remember reading something about wearing a rubber band on your wrist and snapping it every crave or smokey thought.

I tried this for a day and had a mightily bruised wrist and then I asked, why am I punishing myself for a smokey thought ?

I am beating the damn crave, why am I linking that to pain?

I needed to switch up the association and get busy replacing smokey thoughts with pleasant thoughts with a sense of pleasure.

[Whispers]

Good job and you become more confident you can do this as your quit becomes stronger

[Opah]

Sazerac, damn you make too much since !   I really didn't want to smell that stink over and over.   OK so a new plan emerges ?

A Rewarding Plan ?   starting to feel like a ping pong ball,  maybe I could also be over thinking this I'll start and stick with NOPE and throw in some rewards as I go   

[Sazerac]

1 hour ago, Opah said:

Sazerac, damn you make too much since !   I really didn't want to smell that stink over and over.   OK so a new plan emerges ?

A Rewarding Plan ?   starting to feel like a ping pong ball,  maybe I could also be over thinking this I'll start and stick with NOPE and throw in some rewards as I go   

 

I am in total support of ANY plan that helps.

If a jar of tobacco juice helps you, I say, go for it.

We're dealing with addiction and it is serious business.

There is no wrong way to quit.

 

My rubber band experiment really made me think.

Because I was committed to surviving the crave or the trigger

(this is a key component)

I didn't want to punish myself anymore, looking at my ugly wrist that day was so visceral.

 

Rewarding yourself is FUN and rewards needn't cost a dime

I know we may think of rewarding ourselves at one week, two week...one year etc.

but, here I am talking about rewarding yourself for an especially twitchy crave.

A short wild dance gets your endorphins flowing, smiling does too.

Orgasm can't be beat for a reward and reminds you to appreciate your new, non smoking circulatory system.

I like rewards.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 16, 2018 by Sazerac

[Opah]

Strike up the Band for Orgasm rewards !    AH maybe that was the thing about have a smoke after sex, I never did ?  why move away from a soft warm heart throbbing body to smoke ?  never made sense to me, I was always working on seconds !