Good luck Poppets!!! I admire you all! (I could never even think about giving up any of my many, many vices.) To help calm your nerves and give you something else to think about, look this up on YouTube: “The Fibonacci in Lateralus”. Very cool video and really neat info about that TooL song. Hang in there!!! Looking forward to hearing how well you do!!!

[...] We’re almost a week past the Quitting Smoking show, which means it is time to check in on how everyone has been [...]

If any of you guys want, I can be hired to follow you around and slap cigarettes / matches / lighters out of your hands with a disgusted look on my face. I promise to use optimal comedic timing.

Remember, it is not the cigarettes you are returning to but you are avoiding the interal state you have when either withdrawing from the substance and from the internal state you experience when you do not return to the behavior after you withdraw from the substance. Have you really thought about quitting forever and watched your mind go back an forth between never doing it again and doing it again? Are you trying to make that go away before you quit because your mind will keep doing that after you quit. If you aren’t going to do it anymore you would do better to face the internal feeling you will when when not engaging in the behavior. Learn to observe your internal state in a mindful manner where you are not try to change it. Stop fighting your internal self when you do not engage in the behavior. Trying to control your mind is like fighting yourself and can keep you dwelling on what you are not doing. Make room for what you are feeling internally and control your external self. Do not use your hands to pick up cigarettes and put them in your mouth to smoke. Follow your values instead of your fleeting interal state brought on by not engaging in the addictive habit. The desire to smoke was caused by smoking. That feeling to do it again is really the reason to quit. Look at what the substance has done to make you feel so stongly about doing it again when you know it is wrong to do it again. Stopping smoking because you are not going to do it anymore works better than on day at a time or one urge at a time. Keep it up. Those who quit forever do better than those who just put if off for now. Detox can be the most difficult part but it is all the same. You control your hands and not pick it up and use it. Why not? Because of your values you quit forever. If you smoke again, you went against your value and avoided a feeling or internal state. Return to your values of quitting forever. Mindfully observe what goes on inside you when you do not use your substance when you feel like it. Mindfully accept that feeling as something you are willing to experience in the process of quitting forever.

Potential problem with e-cigs:

http://www.ohgizmo.com/2009/07/24/us-health-officials-warn-against-e-cigarette-use/