Hi everyone! Sarah asked me to post this for her today...
We do this blog every Wednesday afternoon to offer encouragement and camaraderie to those in No Man’s Land -- months 2-3-4 of a quit. Regardless of how long you’ve been quit, anyone who likes the conversation and wants to offer support is welcome to participate!
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This week’s topic: 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?
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If you're in NML right now, give a shout! Reach out and find each other!
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...
Sarah's page for past NML blogs:
https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/people/sarahp
