Welcome to Freedom Dandimae and congratulations on navigating an entire week's worth of normal daily life without once putting nicotine into your bloodstream. It sounds like you have a wonderful outlook. Although excited, I spent my first week in utter fear of failure. It's good to see so many new arrivals doing what I myself did not then know how to do, to know exactly what it takes to both succeed and fail, and to not be so afraid that you fail to notice the beauty gradually unfolding around you.
We see many here with varying degrees of appreciation that as addicts we lived a horrible lie, that instead of leaving a major part of us image behind that the de-sensitization we felt during early recovery was temporary and normal, that everything we did while actively feeding and under nicotine's influence would soon be as well or better without it.
You spent this past week purging your body of nicotine, Dandimae, coming out from under its influence and commencing the process of reclaiming aspect after aspect of life. As you go through your day today try to notice how many activities that were once associated with smoking nicotine can now be done without it. It's amazing how fast cue extinguishment occurs.
Early recovery is a struggle between the deep inner primitive mind that reacts to responses from preprogrammed pay attention reward pathways that were taken hostage by an external chemical, and the conscious, thinking and rational mind motivated by dreams and desires to again taste the full flavor of life. The beauty of the conflict we feel during recovery is that the conscious mind is on the side of right and that as soon as the primitive mind sees that nothing bad happens by skipping nicotine feedings it quickly surrenders.
This can be the most amazing adventure in self discovery we'll ever take. Be proud of what you've done, Dandimae. It is absolutely impossible to fail so long as all nicotine stays on the outside. Yes you can, yes you have, yes you are! You were as free yesterday as any of us and the reason we old-timers admire you so is that our challenges ended long long ago. We're here at the intersecton of Comfort and Easy Streets. You're the one engaged in a mental tug-o-war. But the beauty of your encounter is that although it seems like the conscious mind is winning in reality it's a win win situation for the entire mind and body. Still just one rule ... no nicotine today.
Breathe deep, hug hard, live long,
John (Gold x7)