You will almost certainly have cravings when you quit, and they’ll almost certainly be both pretty intense and fairly frequent in the beginning. But, as long as you approach them the right way, they’ll get both weaker and less frequent with every passing day.

The right approach is not to fight the craves. In fact, fighting them is the worst thing you can possibly do: There’s an old saying, “What you resist persists.” Fight your craves and they’ll fight back. And they’ll wear you down; after all, they’ve had years of practice at this, and your resistance actually makes it easier for them to win.

Continue reading When Will the Cravings Stop?

An oak and a willow stood side by side near the bank of a river. The oak bragged to the willow, “I am the mightiest of the trees. I’m so big and strong that nothing can move me. But you: you’re so light and weak, you bend and sway with the slightest breeze.”

One day, a terrible storm swept down the river valley, and the oak, who counted on his size and strength to resist the winds, was uprooted and thrown across the river. As he lay there, dying, he noticed the willow still standing peacefully on the other side of the river.

The oak asked the willow, “You’re so light and weak; how could you possibly have survived the winds that uprooted me and threw me over here?” She replied, “You resisted the wind and it broke you; I accepted the wind and allowed it to blow through me. I bent so I wouldn’t break.”

Continue reading Resistance is Futile