DenaliBlues

N O P E

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NOPE!

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NOPE

NOPE!

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Two months is wonderful! Well done, @Slow progress. I love the strong quit you are building!

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NOPE. Definitely not.

What a BEAUTIFUL thing, Nancy, to be free for 10 years and to still be sharing your support and inspiration here. Happy anniversary! Sending love to you and your mom.

For sure!! Sorry you got slimed by a smoking dream, I hate those. So sneaky to pounce while we’re sleeping, for Pete’s sake! I, too, sometimes have those dreams. It can take hours or days to shake the feeling of being haunted by them. Very normal for addiction recovery, but still, YUCK! I also had a weird moment the other day leaving the house: I was preoccupied with other stuff and found myself patting my pants pocket to be sure I had my smokes and lighter with me. !?!? That pocket has been empty since early 2022, yet the muscle memory still lingers. It’s just bananas. A good reminder to always actively “tend” my quit… to engage here, do daily NOPEs, and keep reading.

Me three!

NOPE

Hurrah!! Congratulations on achieving a whole year smoke free, Overcome. So happy for you. We’re having a party in your honor tonight on the Lido Deck!

NOPE

NOPE

Hoping that you are benefiting from some well-deserved ZZZs, Kate. Sleep deprivation absolutely messes with our emotional and physical equilibrium as well as our judgement. Do what's needed to get a couple of nights under your belt. I, too, suffer from insomnia. I haven't found any magic solutions, but avoiding sugar and caffeine after 1 pm, 1/2 a unisom an hour before bed, practicing good sleep hygiene (especially around screen time), and audiobooks (both to drown out tinnitus and soothe/distract me while awake) keep me out of the red zone most of the time. Definitely talk to your doctor. You know in your heart that smoking would NOT help you sleep, would harm your mental and emotional wellbeing, and would trigger its own shame and despair cycle. You've shut the door on all that, for good reason. Keep it shut, dear. COVID may have been your final tipping point, but there are probably 100 additional reasons that you've STAYED quit. If those reasons start to get hazy when you're coping with a bipolar swing, right them down on paper in big, bold, print, and read them aloud. I've resorted to that a few times. Please take good care and keep us posted on how you're doing. You have a team of supporters here on the Train who have faith in you and are here to support you, just like you've supported so many of us. Sending you love and fortitude.

NOPE, count me out too.

5. Mark a Fire Lane

…I sing along with Van Morrison’s Moondance album. Another thing I love from the 70s is…