I'd like to make a post addressing something Manu called me into after last week's call when I revealed my struggle with vaping, which has intensified mostly unmitigated the past 5 years. It is something that has weighed particularly heavily on me this past year as I returned to coaching and started carving time out of my mornings for healthier routines. I would meditate and stretch in the morning, then sit and sip tea and vapour while mindlessly reading news articles or job notes for the coming day. I started leaving it at home to prevent abuse during the day, but that revealed how deep the attachment truly was, as I noticed its residence in my mind on the drive home. I would use abuse it mindlessly until bed, and suppress the voice telling me it was affecting my sleep - and instead focus on the other healthy things I was doing to balance the guilt. The group pushed me to identify what would become available for me by redesigning this relationship, and it was very difficult emotionally to finally reveal it into a space where it would be challenged. I think the only person who knew the reality was my partner and even then I was hiding it from her often to control an illusion. But I had faith in my new routines to support me, so I made a commitment to change it. I went the following week without using it once. I was shocked it wasn't more of a challenge. It was difficult, to be certain, but only a fraction as hard as I imagined. Last Sunday we had 35 people in our house, and there were smokers. I chose to consume again to sooth social stress, and I took note of how much more intense the craving got when I was surrounded by people. I said in the call I wanted my relationship with it to mirror that with alcohol. I enjoy it when I choose to, but don't need it every day and understand why I'm doing it when I am. Conscious consumption. A year ago I was inhaling 25+mg of nicotine a day. 6 months ago that was down to 15mg, after leaving it at home during the day. The average over the past 2 weeks would be 1mg/day. That's a 95% reduction since last year.