Repost: Why "One Day at a Time" - Living in the NOW! I really like...

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Repost:  Why "One Day at a Time" - Living in the NOW!

I really like this.   Yes we need to learn from the past, but we succeed by living and moving forward in the present.
KTQ
Cara
D6825

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When you’re new (and even when you’re not new!) life can be pretty overwhelming sometimes.

We can spend a lot of time assessing blame and dwelling in the past "if onlys" and preach about "what everyone else "needs" to or "should" do" but in reality, we have one primary purpose here: to help the person still using tobacco to quit. Our secondary purpose is to provide support to those struggling to maintain their smoke-free life. How do we do this? One day at a time...

Maybe it would be easier if there was a quitting smoking island or something where you could go and paint watercolors and listen to Beethoven symphonies until you feel strong in your quit, but there isn’t. You still have to live life, go to work, walk down the streets, deal with people, places and things, all of whom could cause problems, stress and many of which we perceive (because our inner addict is a liar and wants to kill us) "smoking triggers” in the past.

Maybe it was great if we could sit around all day and make a list of blame or fault or responsibility as if any of this would help us quit - it won't.

So, what we do is we focus on this not smoking thing just one day at a time. “One Day at a Time” is hardly a ground-breaking phrase or concept: it’s been around for centuries.

When we spend too much time focusing on the past (creating nostalgia or regret or blaming or making excuses or whatever) or the future (which can elicit hope, but also a lot of fear, since the future is unknowable), we’re not living in the NOW and therefore missing the whole point of life and living – we only have right now – the past is gone, the future not yet here – so why focus on anything other than right now whether that be to quit smoking or do anything else?

This does not mean we don’t care at all about examining what we may have done in the past to inform us on what to do or not do today, or forget about the future entirely, it just means that we try to have a more balanced approach and stop telling ourselves stories about "those good old days" or "what we deserve" or what "we're afraid of."

If we try to take on too much at one time it certainly will lead to disaster because we are loading ourselves up with guilt, fault or blame about the past, or worries and stress about a day that has not even arrived. Again, your inner addict is a liar and wants to kill you.

One day at a time is even a more sensible approach to quit smoking – we focus on not smoking today, or even 1 hour or 10 minutes at a time when need be – certainly even a person with just 8 hours without smoking can not smoke for another 10 minutes!

This breaks it down to a more manageable set of time within which to focus. We can breathe, relax, meditate for 10 minutes – we can stand on our heads – whatever it takes.

Here are a few things to try as you move through this:

Repost: Why "One Day at a Time" - Living in the NOW!

I really like this. Yes we need to learn from the past, but we succeed by living and moving forward in the present.
KTQ
Cara
D6825

*******************************************************************************************

When you’re new (and even when you’re not new!) life can be pretty overwhelming sometimes.

We can spend a lot of time assessing blame and dwelling in the past "if onlys" and preach about "what everyone else "needs" to or... Show more

Teach

3 days ago

6,828 Days Quit

3 days ago

Live through just one day and not try to deal with all of life’s problems and challenges at once. 
Commit simply to being happy for the next 24 hours - BE GRATEFUL FOR WHAT YOU HAVE! 
Promise to learn new things and strengthen your mind - become more resolute. 
Commit to do things for other people and act in an agreeable manner. 
Follow a non-smoking program with as much effort as possible - forget about everything else right now - this is a matter of life or death (yours).
Commit to take at least 30 minutes for relaxation and quiet reflection, especially in a moment of craving, and repeat this for 10 minutes whenever you need to 
Promise yourself to enjoy life smoke-free and not be afraid of things beyond your control (which is pretty much everything) – you certainly have LESS to fear if you are not killing yourself with cigarettes.

Most of all, just focus on today – don’t worry about what happened before or whose fault it was or whether you're to blame or not - who cares?

Finally, you don't need to think or worry about staying smoke free after that big dinner Thursday, when your mother-in-law is visiting, over all the stress-filled holidays, etc. etc., because those days are not here now. You'll have plenty of time to develop your mind before then, and when you get to that day, staying smoke free on that day, period.

If we learn how to do this the easy way now, one day at a time, we can be assured that we will be successful, one day or even 10 minutes at a time, smoke-free, whatever life brings us on whatever day it comes. Then whatever did or didn't happen in the past and whatever may happen in the future is completely irrelevant to the fact that we are SMOKE FREE TODAY!!!!

Houston
Day 3353