Evolution can’t back up. It can erase only painfully and over centuries. No possibility of going back to the drawing board, the species has to survive.

A line from Edna Millay goes like this: "Impetus is all we have." Impetus is all our body has, impetus is all our horse has, but we, fellow homo sapiens, have other options. Impetus is defined as the force or energy of a moving body. It means that smart money would bet we’d keep on going in the direction we’ve already been going. Picture yourself on a moving train. The track is laid. To change direction you’ll have to figure out a way to stop the train, lay new track, then get it going again. Even so, it will be hard to change the direction entirely.

I want you to grasp how big a task it is to change, not to discourage you but to get you prepared. Life is a gorgeous, rich, full adventure, especially in the process of growth that we call change. Like a lot of adventures, its rewards are long lasting. Sometimes at the time it just looks like struggle and the adventure and reward labels go on later.

First, assume that everything you do was once logical. You comforted yourself with food, cigarettes, work, spending at a time when you needed to be comforted. It seemed to work, so your horse labeled it a solution. Similar problem, solution seems to work again. Your horse learns to count on the solution working, and that sense of control gets the serotonin flowing in your brain. The act doesn’t comfort anymore, but the serotonin still does.

Serotonin is the reason panaceas work. Do you see that it is the key to changing your relationship to the stuff that doesn’t work anymore? Which brings us back to words. The words you tell yourself determine whether you pump or drain serotonin. If you pump it, you feel great, satisfied, and you are more attractive. You pump it when you see yourself as a winner. You pump it when you reward yourself. More accurately, you pump it when you eat, smoke, etc. and tell yourself it’s a reward.

To change your reward from something that abuses you to something that nurtures you requires taking that process apart and putting it back together with new parts, sort of the track laying process. It’s all done with words.

Albert Ellis, who created Rational Therapy, told me it works like this. "You figure out the healthy thing to do, and you do it. At first it’s difficult, but you acknowledge yourself and keep doing it. After a while it becomes easy, you keep doing it and soon it feels natural, then it feels pleasurable."

At that point serotonin and horse impetus will take over. The keys, no surprise here, are repetition and intention. Your words, your self-acknowledgment, form the intention part.

Twenty one to twenty eight days, less time than it takes for a cherry blossom to become a cherry. That transformation takes place every spring in my front yard. Yours, too?

--- © Jeneene L. Brengelman

If you’re interested in the Quit Kit which includes a tape, book, and toys at the rock-bottom PNN price of $15 plus $3 shipping, e-mail me for ordering information.