DenaliBlues

Way to go, @Katgirl! 12 months, what an amazing, life-affirming change. Looks like there is a party in your honor starting on the upper deck!

Three months is such a big achievement, @JudiMD. Well done!

Nopity nope nope NOPE.

Thanks for bumping this, @jillar. Now that I'm well beyond the chemical withdrawal phase of my quit, I'm noticing that my actual urges to smoke have not gone away. They are more manageable - and I have a stronger toolkit for coping with them. But The deep desire/urge to smoke persists. This post points to part of why. One factor that contributed to my smoking was trying to numb-out and evade some inner conflicts (and some outer ones, too). Another was unmet needs. Now that I've quit smoking, I'm called into a deeper reckoning with these forces in my life. Ouch. I believe that denial is "nature's shock absorber." It serves a purpose in our psyche, and shouldn't be entirely avoided. I used smoking to serve this purpose, but quitting does not mean I have to be relentlessly hammered with discomfort. Talk about a disincentive to keep the quit! All it means is that I need to come up with some different ways to take a break or shift my energies when needed... ways that don't entail sticking something toxic in my mouth and setting it on fire. As @Boo has said elsewhere on the forum (and I'm paraphrasing), there are 999 things I can do with this moment, and just one thing I can't do - smoke. Here's to focusing on the 999.

NOPE!

11 months... that's awesome! Thanks for the inspiration!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms on the Train. My own mother turned 89 last week. Raising me was no picnic. Much gratitude.

NOPE!!

onset of madness

woe is me

tweed

NOPE

tabasco

dweeb

sloe gin fizz

I’m into gentle stories these days, too, Kris. Some Pixar movies, but mostly tv series I can stream/binge with familiar characters and positive themes. Star Trek Next Generation (love Roddenberry’s faith in humanity formula). Great British Baking Show. Somebody Feed Phil. All Creatures Great and Small. Ted Lasso. Downton Abbey. M*A*S*H. Grace and Frankie. The other thing I do is listen to audio books while falling asleep, doing projects with my hands or snuggling with the cats. My favorite soothing audiobook series of all time is the Brother Cadfael mystery series narrated by Patrick Tull. (Start with “One Corpse Too Many.”) Favorite and dependable, for sure!

NOPE

Take your seat.

mowed

Hey, who pranked Captain Yesterday? prank

scuttle the ship