No craving lasts forever

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I just started Monk Mode. I know some of you might say it’s cringe or etc., but I think it’s working. I started monk mode because I love challenges like this. I love the 21-day challenge, etc. Even though sometimes I don’t succeed in the challenge, at least I can learn something from it.

I thought cravings would last forever. So, whenever I have a craving to play video games, I just go straight to my laptop and play video games. I feel like it’s worthless to "hold" my cravings, but in reality,

No craving lasts forever.

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Problems with changing one’s life

We knew how to do it, but we didn’t do it. Why is that?

It’s because it’s hard! The cravings you need to deal with feel like a year's worth. The urges that you felt will eventually make you relapse.

We might have planned and wanted to achieve some life-changing goals, but we failed to do that.

source

Dr. K

I learn a lot from him. I learn about urge surfing and how to deal with cravings too. So, what is urge surfing?

Urge surfing is when you just become aware of your cravings and urges for your bad habits and wait until they go away. It’s pretty effective, though. I do urge surfing when I’m watching podcasts. 

While watching podcasts, I always find myself wanting to check my bathroom or my phone. There are a lot of urges to avoid me watching podcasts or doing something productive.

This could be a tool you can use to deal with cravings.

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How long do cravings last?

According to hse.ie, individual cravings usually pass in 3–5 minutes. You may get the most cravings 2 to 3 days after you stop smoking. You should stop getting cravings 4 to 6 weeks after you stop smoking. Varies for other bad habits.

Cravings are not only caused by your mind. It could be triggered by external factors. Such as smoking ads, movies like "Peaky Blinders" (there’s a lot of smoking there), or a box that looks similar to cigarettes. Those could be triggers for smokers.

Those triggers could affect your dopamine levels. That’s why there are a variety of cravings. The more you block the triggers, the faster you will stop the cravings.

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Well, is that easy, huh?

It’s not. It’s easier said than done. It’s so much easier to plan than to implement. I have stopped smoking a lot of times. Well, I still fail sometimes. Even so, the more I learn to stop, the more I know how to deal with it in the next run.

There’s no vainness in trying. You might fail a hundred times, but the more you fail, the easier it gets. Until you feel like it’s an easy task,

About triggers, if I want to stop watching pornography and I find triggers on social media, That means I need to stop using social media too.

Well, yeah! It could help you a lot to reset your brain, but if you don’t want to, you can still reset your brain. Although it would become much harder because your cravings will get even stronger the more you see the triggers,

It’s your choice!

Conclusion

We wanted to change our own lives but failed to do so because of the instant gratification and cravings of our own bad habits. Remembering that urges don’t last forever, you will eventually change your life. It may seem difficult at first, but everything is difficult at first. Great quote from Miyamoto Musashi.

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I am Kevin Nokia, and I hope that from this article we can learn together and improve together. I hope you guys can give me criticism and suggestions to improve my writing. 

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