Re quitting smoking
I quit 40+ years ago. Everytime I wanted to smoke, I’d crochet. I made a HUGE blanket that could cover the world. Amazing thing, though, sometimes I have a desire to smoke, but I don’t. It was too hard to break that addiction.
And it is definitely an addiction. It is not easy to quit and I think it can not be done in stages, you just have to set them down, don’t let yourself even think about smoking and get past the first month.
I think the trick is replacing it with other things or other thoughts just as you have done and allow the neurons in the brain to form a new path that doesn’t sidetrack to tobbaccoville .