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Share your quitting journey

When You Take the Time

SimplySheri
Member
3 8 59

~~Good things take time, as they should.  We shouldn't expect good things to happen overnight.  Actually, getting something too easily or too soon can cheapen the outcome.~~  John Wooden

So I was giving out badges and points the other day to those whom I am close to and those whom I admire (if you haven't gotten one yet, no worries. I'm not done ).  I sent one to a member that said something about not only elders have good advice, so do you.

Yikes!!  The gracious lady informed me that she had entered elderhood this past December!!  I had seen the date but didn't look closely at the year so I mistakenly thought she wasn't one yet.  She was so kind about my mistake but I really felt bad about it.  I knew I had to do a  better job at taking my time to get things right.  When I rush, I make mistakes.  When I am stressed and not thinking, I make mistakes.  When I am tired, hungry, lonely, angry....I make mistakes.

Makes sense then, doesn't it, to learn to take time with our quits?  To be present in the moment.  To not rush towards the end....because there really is no end to your quit until there is an end to you.  Yet we ask "When will we feel better?"  and "Why is it still so hard?"

Maybe because we aren't taking the time to nurture our quits.  Maybe because we aren't working through the craves, we are just focusing on the craves.  Maybe because we aren't remembering what our poor little brains are going through.  Maybe because we aren't using our tools.

If quits were easy, we would quit all the time.  Smoke as much as we want, then quit for a while, then pick it back up.  Serial quitting at it's worst.  Quits are hard because they are WORTH it.  Because when we quit, we know we don't want to go back to day 1.  Because when we work through it, we know we don't want to ever do that again.  

So take the time with your quit that you need to solidify it.  When you are craving a cigarette, take the time to work through it.  "I'm craving a cigarette so I need to deep breath and remind myself I don't do that anymore" rather than "Omg, I can't do this because this is a really, really big craving!!!!!"  Take time to work it out.  Take time to actually list the things you want to do other than relapse.  Take time to learn about addiction, about recovery, about brain paths.  Take time to build that support system, to learn about positive thinking, to build your confidence.

When you take the time to do it right, you build a solid quit.  When you take the time to work through it, you don't relapse.  When you take the time to educate yourself, you'll have a better understanding of what's coming up so you can prepare.  

Take the time.  You are worth it  

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