Nonic, I always enjoy your post. There always seems to be that little bit of information I need to keep. Thank you so much. I will now begin to use my imagination a little bit more. I hadn't really thought of it this way. My motto is Keep it Real. but then again the imagination is real. [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B]7/4/2007 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 158 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 3,160 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $632.00 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 21 [B]Hrs:[/B] 1 [B]Mins:[/B] 21 [B]Seconds:[/B] 28

Very true! [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B]1/8/2007 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 335 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 5,025 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $1,407.00 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 31 [B]Hrs:[/B] 0 [B]Mins:[/B] 57 [B]Seconds:[/B] 5

Imagination is the ability to form mental images, or the ability to sponteneously generate images within one's own mind. It helps provide meaning to experience and understanding to knowledge; it is a fundamental facility through which people make sense of the world,[1][2][3] and it also plays a key role in the learning process.[1][4] A basic training for imagination is the listening to storytelling (narrative),[1][5] in which the exactness of the chosen words is the fundamental factor to 'evoke worlds'.[6] It is accepted as the innate ability and process to invent partial or complete personal realms within the mind from elements derived from sense perceptions of the shared world.[citation needed] The term is technically used in psychology for the process of reviving in the mind percepts of objects formerly given in sense perception. Since this use of the term conflicts with that of ordinary language, some psychologists have preferred to describe this process as "imaging" or "imagery" or to speak of it as "reproductive" as opposed to "productive" or "constructive" imagination. Imagined images are seen with the "mind's eye". Ok, now I have either managed to cure your insomnia or perhaps awakened a sense of inquiry in your mind's eye. I can not know that from here, but I do hope it is the latter. And if in fact you are experiencing the former then I maintain that sleep is also a good thing�Perhaps to dream etc. etc. etc. It has often occurred to me, as I go through the quitting process, that the role of imagination is not often cited. We tend to talk about will, resolve, strength and commitment. These are indeed necessary elements of the human spirit that need to be honed and sharpened if we are to break the cycle of addiction. But in a way these concepts are of a singular dimension. They live in the realm of �I will not do this���I will do that.� They represent a view of addiction as a single act that � I must not do�. In this case �I will not smoke�. Mind you I do not object to the use of will, resolve and commitment. In the early days of my quit they were essential elements and needed to be deployed at full strength. But sooner or later, I realized that I do not have unlimited reserves of these precious survival elements. And it is when I sensed the drying of those particular wells that I expanded the vision of the addiction cycle to include more subtle and delicate aspects of the human soul. I began to realize that the addiction cycle emanated from a deeper longing of the heart. On the face of it, there was no logical reason for me to continually subject my otherwise healthy body to the chemical abuse of cigarettes. However, when I quit, my body revolted in a way that told me there may be no logic in it, but there was an artificial necessity. Well that was when I went through the physical side of withdrawal and make no mistake that was hard. That was when will, resolve and commitment paid big dividends. There was no subtle side of physical withdrawal for me; it was all snap and snarl. But I survived and so can any of you who are now facing that rather uncomfortable process. Now nearly a full trip around the sun reborn, I am still struggling with the rise and fall of the addiction tide. But now the healing is in a different realm. The physical breaking of the cycle is well behind me. What lies before me is the daily reexamination of how I view myself. And that brings us back to the original definition of imagination. My addiction rose out of my own mishandling of the negative feelings and unfulfilled desires that make up the person I am. In short I failed to imagine better things for myself in terms of my own insecurities and perceived failures. To quote one of my own wee missives: �When I was angry it told me everything would be alright and I believed it And I never learned to communicate� The role of imagination is huge in overcoming an addiction. I implore you to look deeply for the reasons that drive you on to that next puff. If your experience is anything a kin to mine, you will understand that you are using cigarettes to cover something that needs to be brought out into the light. What ever it is you are feeling, anxiety, sadness or fear, cannot be kept at bay with a cigarette. Why destroy the vessel (the body) in order not to experience the soul. Where is the logic in that? I believe that the soul is where the imagination lives. Open that door when you are sad and see if you cannot use your imagination to construct a better view of the sadness. If you are angry, do not run to the old remedy, but create a gentler scenario for yourself. If you are lonely, remind yourself that you always have you and you are the greatest self-creating machine on the planet�Imagine that� nonic [b]Text[/b] [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B]12/25/2006 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 349 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 10,470 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $3,664.50 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 63 [B]Hrs:[/B] 16 [B]Mins:[/B] 38 [B]Seconds:[/B] 17