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Give and get support around quitting

Pops
Member

My EXer family! What's UP!!!!??????

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In case you didn't know...here is my best friend Sebastian...chillin out while he's watching me...I am such a lucky man!

Good afternoon EXers.  I haven't blogged in quite awhile.  Not really sure what that is about, but last night, one of my dearest EX friends on this site...the often heralded, "ShawnP"....shawn and i.JPG

she had asked me to resume my blogging, as she thought that there were quite alot of members here that benefited from them.  So, here I am, in all of my humble presence...attempting to share some of what I know today is one of the greatest journeys that I have ever embarked upon.   About one month and earlier, prior to the changeover to the new Jive platform, I felt that I was reaching members here on the site because of all of the interaction that would come from the morning blogs.  As I write this blog with 265 Days of Freedom from the deadly grips of nicotine...(yay!!!!!), somewhere around 200 days, I noticed a significant drop in EX family members interacting on the site after I posted a blog.   I like to think of myself as a relatively stable adult most of the time.  However, admittedly, I sort of felt that my usefulness to the site family had somehow run it's course.  There were days when at the end of the day, I might have only had one, or two replies at best.  Well in the beginning of my journey to freedom, I was blogging to a very responsive community, and often we would have as many as 30, or 40 different responses to a blog.  I then felt that I was making a difference, and more importantly, that the community itself had a genuine interest in my own recovery.  That was critical to the process of me gaining enough self-confidence to be able to successfully fend off the sometimes very stubborn crave to go back to smoking.  Now, as I am entering my fourth quarter of the first year of my quit, I rarely feel any pull from the demonic urges of nicotine.  If and when I do feel them, they are easily dispatched with any one of many tools that I have close by inside of my quit tool box that I built under the guidance of this very site.  (A huge thanks for that is in order @ this time...) So now I find myself in a new chapter of my recovery from nicotine.

As I'm sure most of you know by now, we have this new venue called the EX_cafe' of which I was asked by c2q to be a part of.  I have found a renewed interest in my presence there, and feel that I am contributing to not only my recovery, but any others in the community as well.  Shawn asked me last night to please not forget to blog as well.  The "last" thing that I want to do is give any member of this wonderful community...any reason to doubt my never ending desire to be humble and grateful, and helpful to this community.  Because, as I am typing in this blog, I sit here on my tablet with tears in my eyes remembering the day that my doctor told me that I would most likely be dead within six months if I continued to smoke.  (that being after I had a massive aneurysm surgery)  I came back here where ShawnP had asked me to come back on several texts, and this community welcomed me back with open arms.  I will never be able to fulfill the debt that I have to this community.

So, if this blog seems to be flat, on not very interesting...then you are just going to have to get over it...because it is of extreme importance to me.  In closing, all of my EX family members that have been here for me from the beginning...a huge cyber hug to all of you...and I apologize for the wet tears on your shoulders...

Pops and Sebastian

 

OUTCOMES

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2 Replies
ShawnP
Member

I am happy that you have blogged today. 265 days of freedom is fabulous. I am glad that you did come back. I know at that time you probably thought i was a pain in the butt LOOOL. As it looks now, i was a good pain . I encourage anybody new here to read Pops first blogs and read them now. What a difference!!!! Can't wait to see you in May!!! (((((((( U )))))))

Daniela2016
Member

Hi Sebastian, it is so good to see you and your friend Pops.  We missed you guys!

Glad you are both back

And Pops, I believe what happens to you is the normal evolutionary process of our quit. 

At the beginning, our blogs were all about analyzing what phase we've reached and hoping for a comment, help, a similar experience from one of our peers, or from our elders.  And everyone was coming through to our "rescue".

Just look at the blogs posted by our newbies and the reaction they are prompting.

And on the other hand, look at the blogs Thomas, Dale, myself, even our dear Marilyn, and the responses we are getting.  Some of the blogs are extremely useful, educational, inspirational, some are funny, the majority are meant to help with the quitting process.  But not all are getting many responses.

And here is what I think.  If we get people to read them, either or not they agree with the content, it is a gain non the less.  Sometimes what it takes it is just changing one person's mind, or attitude for one moment, to get them to make the right decision for that moment, and that can change a life forever.

There are so many types of quitters, one blog has a high change to touch at least one of them for the better.

Plus, you have Sebastian on your blog, you can be sure one will stop to at least as long at to give him a big, cyber hug!

Have a great week my friend, and don't ever doubt it; our presence here, or at the Café is making a difference for the better, and that is all that matters! This community helped us grow into the EX we are today, now is our turn to help it grow!

Daniela 339 DOF

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