Saturday Morning Ramble...

[Nana20]

So I have been doing a lot of lurking and reading, I post everyday in the daily pledge( I know, I know I missed yesterday), I check the S.O.S board and make sure nobody needs support and I then I go to the discussion board and read any new post there. I then start searching older post and blogs and read. I usually don't post unless I have something to say, add, or help(mine and others). I found that words have power and it is up to us to use them the right way. So yesterday I sat with the computer in my lap, board pulled up, a "Create New Topic" up and I just couldn't bring myself to post. I just didn't have anything to say, Well that isn't true. I couldn't figure out what I did want to say. So I waited and I thought on it and I read some and here I am. So, here is my ramble for today. 

 

Subconscious and how it affects our quit. The night the night before last I woke up and immediately reached to my nightstand for a cigarette. I then realized what I was doing and told myself that I don't do that anymore. I would then rolled over and went back to sleep. I woke up a couple of hours later and it happen again. I then told myself I am no longer smoking, that I am a non-smoker and proceeded to roll over and go to sleep. I woke up yesterday and I just had one hell of a day. I felt like crap and I had some pretty mean craves. Even with that I couldn't put into words what I wanted to say. So I pushed through I stayed on the board all day yesterday trying to figure it out. Just reading and thinking. This morning I read a post that went straight to the heart of what I have been pondering on. Our subconscious minds. The reason why is because I realized that no matter how long we are quit, our subconscious doesn't say oh hey we gave up smoking, NO it doesn't. It is wondering why we aren't doing something that our subconscious had us doing on autopilot. Just like the other night I woke up, I didn't have a dream about smoking, I didn't do anything other than wake up and during the time it took my brain to take over, my subconscious had me doing something that I had been doing for years. Wake up light a cigarette, get up, go to the bathroom, go outside, finish the smoke and go back in and go back to sleep. Now that I am quitting smoking I am having to relearn so many things and I think that if we want to be non-smokers we have to take our subconscious and take it off autopilot. I also think because of our subconscious we have a harder time truly believing that we are non-smokers. Just like Greenlight's dream. He had a smoking dream. He said "In reality I've not smoked a single puff in 8 years, I have no cravings or yearnings or anything whatsoever and never think about it when I'm awake. Why do I still dream about it every now and then? I always wake up confused and it takes a few moments to realize I've not actually smoked, my quit is real and all is well. Are these dreams ever going to stop? Is this the power of addiction?"( @greenlight 6/19/2020) I think the reason why he still feels that way is because he is still  at war with his subconscious. He knows that he is a non-smoker, but he continues to allow his subconscious to think of him as a smoker. When you or anyone has a dream, we have to have confident in our conviction that we are no longer smokers. We can continue to link feelings and dreams due to our prior smoking history, or we can do like non-smokers due and just chalk those unconscious thoughts and dreams up to what they actually are. In reality we probably did something or saw something that triggered our subconscious into auto pilot. It is up to us to change our conscious and unconscious thoughts to that of a non-smoker.

 

Now this is where I was struggling. How can I change my subconscious/unconscious thoughts? Well that part in reality is easier said than done. We have to chalk our occasional thought that pops up out of nowhere or a dream that just happens and we have to put the blame where blame is due. (this is more for the mental and later part of quits, but good to start practicing now.) Most of the time when a dream comes and were smoking in it we just assume it is a smokers quitting smoking dream and those cause a lot of relapses. when In reality we probably just watched a program on TV with smoking in it, we were talking/discussing smoking, or it could simply be we were around smokers. Something triggered that unconscious thought of smoking that plays out in our dream, and instead of saying oh that was a smoking dream. We need to start having a non-smokers reaction to it. Acknowledge the dream and chalk it up to some random weird dream. I know a lot of non-smokers and even they have smoking dreams every once in a while. They also dream of being naked in class, being a clown, whatever their brains were thinking about or saw right before we go to sleep. WE as ex-smokers have to realize just because we have a dream(with/without an urge or crave) doesn't mean our junkie side is coming out it just means we are like everyone else we dream what is on our minds whether thought or saw. 

 

So that is what has been going on in my little corner of the world and been going on through my head. I hope this makes sense and I hope it helps someone.

 

 

 

 

@greenlight using your dream as and example.

 

 

[Sazerac]

Our subconscious will catch up to the conscious with repetition.  The longer you don't smoke the more smoke free memories will be implanted.

 

Body memories were an issue.  The hand to mouth thing was broken, I didn't use a fake smoke to mimic, I wanted to change my patterns asap.

 

Sitting on my back stoop taking a break meant a smoke.  Then it meant taking beautiful deep breaths and finding beauty to look at.

 

Little changes, over and over and over until they, too, become patterns.

 

Time is our friend, Nana.  

You are building a beautiful quit.  Cherish it, defend it with your life.

 

 

[Nana20]

6 minutes ago, Sazerac said:

Our subconscious will catch up to the conscious with repetition.  The longer you don't smoke the more smoke free memories will be implanted.

 

Body memories were an issue.  The hand to mouth thing was broken, I didn't use a fake smoke to mimic, I wanted to change my patterns asap.

 

Sitting on my back stoop taking a break meant a smoke.  Then it meant taking beautiful deep breaths and finding beauty to look at.

 

Little changes, over and over and over until they, too, become patterns.

 

Time is our friend, Nana.  

You are building a beautiful quit.  Cherish it, defend it with your life.

 

 

 

I agree with this. I just think that WE HAVE TO retrain our subconscious mind right along with our bodies. Because in my readings  I have noticed it is the subconscious that causes the most relapses. That part of our brain that is on autopilot. So I agree we have to keep making those changes over and over, but we also have to be honest and realize that we can say that is a smokers dream(just an example) or that is a way a smoker thinks. If we continue to look at ourselves as smokers we will never change the patterns we have already established. You can't change the patterns if you don't change the way you think. 

 

I truly think our brains are like that saying "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, Teach a man how to fish he will eat for the rest of his life." We have to teach our brain that we are non-smokers.

[Mona]

I believe that we have to work on mindset as non-smokers.  We must truly believe to our core that smoking does nothing for us.  When we get to this point, there is nothing to worry about if we have a smoking dream or a random smoking thought.

[greenlight]

10 hours ago, Nana20 said:

I also think because of our subconscious we have a harder time truly believing that we are non-smokers. Just like Greenlight's dream. He had a smoking dream. He said "In reality I've not smoked a single puff in 8 years, I have no cravings or yearnings or anything whatsoever and never think about it when I'm awake. Why do I still dream about it every now and then? I always wake up confused and it takes a few moments to realize I've not actually smoked, my quit is real and all is well. Are these dreams ever going to stop? Is this the power of addiction?"( @greenlight 6/19/2020) I think the reason why he still feels that way is because he is still  at war with his subconscious. He knows that he is a non-smoker, but he continues to allow his subconscious to think of him as a smoker. When you or anyone has a dream, we have to have confident in our conviction that we are no longer smokers. We can continue to link feelings and dreams due to our prior smoking history, or we can do like non-smokers due and just chalk those unconscious thoughts and dreams up to what they actually are. In reality we probably did something or saw something that triggered our subconscious into auto pilot. It is up to us to change our conscious and unconscious thoughts to that of a non-smoker.

 

Now this is where I was struggling. How can I change my subconscious/unconscious thoughts? Well that part in reality is easier said than done. We have to chalk our occasional thought that pops up out of nowhere or a dream that just happens and we have to put the blame where blame is due. (this is more for the mental and later part of quits, but good to start practicing now.) Most of the time when a dream comes and were smoking in it we just assume it is a smokers quitting smoking dream and those cause a lot of relapses. when In reality we probably just watched a program on TV with smoking in it, we were talking/discussing smoking, or it could simply be we were around smokers. Something triggered that unconscious thought of smoking that plays out in our dream, and instead of saying oh that was a smoking dream. We need to start having a non-smokers reaction to it. Acknowledge the dream and chalk it up to some random weird dream. I know a lot of non-smokers and even they have smoking dreams every once in a while. They also dream of being naked in class, being a clown, whatever their brains were thinking about or saw right before we go to sleep. WE as ex-smokers have to realize just because we have a dream(with/without an urge or crave) doesn't mean our junkie side is coming out it just means we are like everyone else we dream what is on our minds whether thought or saw. 

 

So that is what has been going on in my little corner of the world and been going on through my head. I hope this makes sense and I hope it helps someone.

 

 

 

 

@greenlight using your dream as and example.

 

 

 

It's a she, I'm female

 

Yeah, the subconscious mind is an interesting one. I really don't feel that my mind is at war at anything about smoking, my quit is extremely secure and it's completely out of my mind when awake. The dreams don't happen often, just every now and then and there's no risk of a relapse at all. But it is interesting how it still features sometimes after all this time, the subconscious mind definitely works in a different way than the conscious mind! The good news is I'm always appalled in the dreams about blowing my quit, which I absolutely would be if this somehow happened in real life  - obviously it won't. 

 

Great thoughts Nana20!