Splash!
This question may have already been determined in a prior
post. I’m not sure. Personally, I don’t have a problem
with it. There is strength in numbers. What say you,
moderator Steve and other Polar Bears?
BTW, my last extinguishment was at 1:01:am EST 01/01/03.
(Didn’t plan it that way, just coincidence.)
Was at SpinChat before, but the room seemed empty.
Will try again in a little while, surely someone will
show up? . . .
Good luck (and hard work) to all,
Glenn
May 21st, 2005 at 8:06 am
Good Afternoon (if you’re on this side of the atlantic)
1:01 on 01/01/03 easy to remember.
Glenn, nice number on the quit
Carmen, looks like you’re a Polar Bear.
As for ’strength in numbers’, I’m not convinced that applies to quitting.
At least not in the way most of us usually use that term. This may be
splitting hairs, something I’m know to do on occasion, but ’strength in
numbers’ is accurate only where many are engaged in a single job. A group
quit is actually each engaged in their own quit, just all at the same time.
I can help you in a support capacity but I can not do your quit for you,
just as you can not do someone elses quit for them. I’m pointing this out
in order to once again nag you to DO THE WORK! Most important, your ABRs
and ‘what ifs’.
I was speaking to one of you this morning and we discussed the fact that
the past several days had been difficult for that quitter because they had
been ‘coasting’. Instead of actively planning for events that would be
encountered within the day, they were simply taking at as it came. We can
‘take it as it comes’ after we’ve retrained Warren. Until that’s been done,
‘taking it as it comes’ results in automatic responses that are rooted in
our smoking past. This is were urges come from, this is why it can be a
rough day.
We are not in the habit of paying attention to the physical ways in which
we experience our moment by moment day. Warren, however, is an expert at
recognizing and responding to the most subtle physical cues. The ONLY way
for us to consciously become aware of those physical cues, unles they’ve
reached an extreme level, is to prepare to be aware of them. If you’re
unsure how to prepare to be aware, try this…. take a kitchen timer (60
minute timer or the like), set it to ring in 30 minutes, prepare an abc or
a ‘what if’ for something (an event) you will be engaged in or encounter
during the next 30 minutes. When the anticipated event occures, observe how
you bring your prepared thinking into play. Notice how you can fairly
easily offer Warren a different response when you are ‘in step’ with him.
When the timer goes off, reset it for another 30 minutes and prepare
another ABC or ‘what if’. and on and on. I know this sounds like a lot of
work, and I doubt anyone will do it for an entire day, but if you can do
it even a few times a day, you’ll quickly get very good at recognizing what
you feel as you feel it.
Steve