imageCongratulations on 18 days of freedom and healing, Wilmien!  It took years to walk this deeply into dependency's forest and patience will see us out!  Just one hour, challenge and day at a time.

It's probably getting a bit more difficult to notice improvement, especially after all the dramatic changes the first two weeks.   Although harder to see, like a rose bud slowly opening, each and every hour moves you a bit closer to extended periods of mental quiet and calm, where the addiction chatter ends.  But that doesn't mean there won't be a few bumps along the way.  When moments of significant wanting strike, think back to how long it had been since your last significant challenge and then smile.  It's a good problem to have, not bad.

This can be the greatest personal awakening we've ever known.  Not so long ago we were totally convinced that smoking was central to our life and so tied to it that breaking free was just a dream.   Now here you are 18 days later and beginning to realize that everything you did while an actively feeding nicotine addict can be done as well as or better without it.  How can that be?  How could we have been so horribly wrong?

Nicotine dependency is a brain wanting disorder and mental illness where highjacked dopamine pathways, the mind's priorities teacher, are taken hostage, making nicotine use thinking unworthy of belief.   Now you're getting to look years of false use beliefs squarely in the eye.   Those same imagepathways teach us that it is critical to eat food and drink liquids.  Those lessons are true for if we don't we'll die, while when when we stop using nicotine we thrive!

Wilmien, that small mountain of nicotine replenishment memories that continue to tease you were generated by a drug addict in need of a fix, not you.   We encourage you to use them as opportunities to challenge any and all remaining use rationalizations that you created to explain why you'd smoke that next fix.   The sooner we're willing to let go of remaining romantic drug addiction fixations the sooner that pile of remaining memories becomes laughable. 

Staying free and living honest motivations is as simple as remaining true to your original day #1 commitment to not allow any nicotine into your body today!   Eighteen days ago you trusted in dreams.  Now here you are at a quit smoking where every word is smoking related and yet at this very moment you're probably not wanting to smoke.  It's amazing!  Be proud of you, Wilmien, as you've come far and invested much. 

Breathe deep, hug hard, live long,

John (Gold x11)