We're back from South Dakota and our visit with fellow EX'er Cindy (Determined in Dakotas). It was a great trip. Two of the folks in our group were smokers and I really truly felt sorry for them. Always sneaking away to have one. Worried that we could smell it on them, or that their exhaled smoke was drifting toward us. I'm glad they cared enough to be concerned, but it just made me pity them. Life is so much simpler as a non-smoker.
Anyway, back to business. Thanks Dale for posting NML last week! Let's get back into the rotation now with this week's NML blog, Bumps in the Road:
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Bumps in the Road
New quitters are generally advised to live in the moment – to get through this one day, this one hour, this one minute. New quitters live craving to craving, with all their focus and energy spent on not smoking. This is how it should be, how it has to be, for a brand new quit.
But what about a month later? Two months later? You can’t keep up that kind of intensity forever. That’s what No Man’s Land is all about – the transition away from quitting and back to living your life. This can be a surprisingly challenging transition.
One of the keys to this transition is to step out of that moment-to-moment focus and start looking at the big picture again. One bad day, one stressful situation, one flat tire, one bounced check, one bit of bad news, no matter how bad, it’s all part of the big picture of your life. Bad things happen, whether you smoke or not. And smoking doesn’t make bad things get better. We all know this, but NML is when you have to go from “knowing” to “doing”.
Keep your head up, keep your eyes forward, and keep moving! Those bumps in the road are just that – bumps. Not roadblocks. Don’t dwell on one bad day, one bad thought. Keep the big picture in mind, the journey, and you will see that bumps may be unpleasant but they don’t have to knock you off course.
Quitting is a journey, not an event. Do you know what road you’re on?
Click here to read the original No Man’s Land blog on Dale's page:
https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/blogs/jonescarp.aka.dale.Jan_2007-blog/2011/05/24/no-mans-land-da...
