(For those of you who are interested in playing Trivia, you may directly access the newest game by clicking here: TRIVIA-GAME-FOR-4-26-2022 . Also please note that this week's challenge question is : "How in heck did I manage to lose the "official" answer to the April 12th game on cooking measurements? -- All conjectures welcomed on the newest Trivia post 😆)
And so -- as of today-- I have reached 231 days without taking even one puff off one of those nasty-nasties and I am now approaching my next goal of being eight months quit as of 05-07-2022.
You may ask why I am being so darned meticulous about counting off the days of this leg of my quit.
It's because this quit started way back in 2019 and has involved a number of relapses with the most recent being just last summer. In order to forge ahead, it helps me to stay on the straight and narrow by ticking off each day won.
This past week, our infamous sage @YoungAtHeart posed a great question to me. She noted that I have been at this stage of my quit before but have stumbled (due to my poor coping skills with the unwelcomed appearance of unexpected and challenging life events.) Essentially, her question to me was "What are you going to do differently this time to be prepared when the next life crisis occurs?"
As we are all well aware, life is truly a series of crises in the sense that nothing ever stays the same. So, considering my poor coping history, I must be prepared if I want to maintain this quit.
It's no secret that crises and I are poor companions. And that crises come in all shapes and forms.
One "formal" definition of crisis is: " a time of great danger, difficulty or doubt when problems must be solved or important decisions must be made." (Oxford Dictionary).
Wikipedia points out that "Crises are negative changes in the human or environmental affairs, especially when they occur abruptly, with little or no warning."
It's the "sneaking up on me" factor that unnerves me. I am taken off guard and feel a loss of control. And it topples me. Looking back on my more than 60 years of smoking, those were the times in my life that I have smoked the most. (And I was a chain smoker to begin with, so hard to believe how I could have increased my consumption during these times of trouble--but I managed to do just that.)
Cigarettes seemed to be the answer to my heightened and sorely uncomfortable emotional state.
BUT they did nothing to solve the issues; they were merely my chosen companion in the midst of battle. Together, we would commiserate, bemoan the situation, and rail at the world. And in the end-- my saturated stale-smoke body would end up with a migraine headache and no problems were solved.
And so, Nancy (and the rest of my EX friends), this time around I AM doing something different.
I have come upon the "Let's Get Moving" exercise and fitness group on the EX and for the first time in YEARS!! I am once again walking. Over the period of a few weeks, I have about doubled my distance. Due to my age and sedentary tendencies, I would describe my movements as being mainly ambling or meandering about my neighborhood BUT I AM MOVING!
And, as I move along, I find myself thinking through and resolving issues that are troubling to me; fears of what might conceivably happen; and the shoulda-coulda-woulda failures of my lifetime. When I get back home, my spirits are always lifted and my resolve to remain smoke-free strengthened.
In fact, when I get that recurrent thought that I want a cigarette because of this or that, walking helps me to get to the other side of that negative space.
Walking IS helping me. What works for you?
