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Share your quitting journey

To crave for a thing...

Storm.3.1.14
Member
1 7 6
   Crave for a thing, you will get it.
   Renounce the craving, the object will follow you by itself.  
   
   ~~    Swami Sivananda
   
  When I came across this quote, how could I not think about the village here! And, how could I not write a blog about the facets and angles I saw within that quote!
   
  Here we go…
   
   
   
   THE QUOTE AS A WARNING: If we obsess over cigarettes (miss them, mourn them, crave them, believe in them), then we’ll surely exhaust ourselves until we end up with a handful of them in our mouth. Yet, Sivananda seems to say here that if we turn away from temptation and renounce the craving, then we’re just doomed to be haunted by the cigarettes. (Say what?!) So, if we give in to craves, we smoke. But, if we resist craves, we’ll just always want to smoke? How can that be fair?! What’s the point of quitting?!
   
  Well, wait a minute now…wait.
   
  What if the key word here is that bold “renounce”? If we grandly renounce cravings with one sweeping gesture and  a stern speech, but are   unprepared and   unwilling to   dig into the dirt of our underlying addictive habits and triggers, then our bold words just leave the   roots of all the craves intact, and the object of our urges keeps growing back. 
   
  The angle, for me, is this: Renounce the cigarettes, yes! Renounce the smoking, yes! But,   do not dismiss all the work of the greater process yet to unfold. In this light, I only renounce the   objects of my addiction (cigarettes), not the necessary pieces of my recovery, which I must   feel to   understand. If I walk   with my addiction (craves, urges, smokemares, seasonal triggers -   all of it!), then I can   manage my reactions and choices. I can   lead my addiction, not be stalked by it. Or chased. Or hunted.
   
   
   THE QUOTE AS A MOTIVATION: If we crave to be quit (want it, need it, study it, rehearse it, do it, work it), then we’ll earn that quit. We’ll get it. But, if we run away from quitting (not ready, not capable, not strong enough, too hard, too long, too slow), then we only wind up hiding in a cave, hounded by our fears   and the same ol’ reasons to quit (smoking is poisonous, gross, embarrassing, shameful, expensive, deadly). 
   
  Turns out there’s nowhere to hide from the truth about smoking…or quitting. And that’s what the Swami is saying, I think: If you want to quit, then do it. But, if you deny you want to (or can) quit, you’ll always wonder “ but what if”.
   
  There is a mindset around this community that states: “I would rather be a quitter who occasionally thinks about smoking, than a smoker who constantly thinks about quitting.” Sivananda’s quote can be seen as supporting this: “Crave for your quit, and you’ll be free. Renounce your recovery, and the desire to quit will only return to follow you.”
   
  Wow, at this very moment, I just thought of a tough-love spin to the mindset I mentioned: “I’d rather live as a quitter who will not smoke, than die as a smoker who will not quit.” (I   did say it was tough love…)
   
  So, anyway, which would you rather contend with in your head: A working process that will guide you through both the fears and joys of your quit, or an endless swarm of worries that will follow you around for the rest of your life?
   
   I crave the process! 
   
   
   STORM: 906
   
   
   
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