3 Days In
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 1
3 Days In
Hello All,
I actually found this site over Christmas after a bad night and wondering how to get rid of my red face, lol. I lit the "this has to change soon" fuse then and this site was helpful in seeing the many faces of recovery through the lens of the different members here.
I quit smoking cold turkey 8 years ago. I woke up the morning after my wife's birthday and decided I was tired of feeling like crap. I made my mind up that day that I wasn't going to do it anymore, and I quit. The next day I bought some nicotine lozenges to help with the oral fixation and panic moments, but only used a couple and moved on to the ever trusty sugar-free peppermints. The best part of that is that I know that I can quit anything. Literally anything. Nicotine is the worst substance on the planet, at least it was for me. I smoked for 12 years and tried to quit dozens of times throughout. The worst part was that in quitting smoking, I effectively eliminated hangovers as the poisons from the cigarettes were more powerful in that regard than I had previously known. As any drinker here knows, once the hangovers are manageable it's game on! Flash forward 8 years and I'm 38 and ready to end this miserable ride with the booze.
The other big push for me to finally get here and end up on this board is that I have found myself for years being pulled towards certain spiritual proclivities. In the past, rather than dive deeper into them to see what was pulling me, I brushed them off as "stuff for hippies" and "things trustafarians do because they're bored". Now though, I'm seeing that there is a calling there of some sort and with no surprise, my need to discover these has coincided with my desire to become sober. So today, I'm 3 days sober and on my 3rd day of Yoga, 2 weeks into heavy reading into Buddhism and in particular the Art of Mindfulness and mastering the focus on the day and moment at hand, rather than my mind racing all over the place and right back into a bottle of bourbon, and over a week into a Paleo-ish diet to help slim down from the dreaded booze bloat. I feel great so far. Down 8lbs already and my face is getting back to it's normal slimmer self from days of old.
The best part of this site for me so far is that I realize now that this journey is very individualized as not all addicts are created equal and in accepting that, I know that though I may not have ever drank a 12 pack of beer a day, 3 bourbon cocktails after dinner before bed are just as bad. For me, it's the stacking of days that is the killer. One drink a week after work and some beers during the Arsenal game on the weekend slowly morphed into where I am now. So turning that off is priority and I see it now as a response to not being mindful of my other triggers. Getting my act together with my low-grade depression in particular and taking 5htp regularly to help counteract that has been a huge step in the right direction.
I am grateful to find this community and am looking forward to sharing in everyone's journey. I leave you with a favorite quote of mine as I have began this very new journey:
"In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you"
I actually found this site over Christmas after a bad night and wondering how to get rid of my red face, lol. I lit the "this has to change soon" fuse then and this site was helpful in seeing the many faces of recovery through the lens of the different members here.
I quit smoking cold turkey 8 years ago. I woke up the morning after my wife's birthday and decided I was tired of feeling like crap. I made my mind up that day that I wasn't going to do it anymore, and I quit. The next day I bought some nicotine lozenges to help with the oral fixation and panic moments, but only used a couple and moved on to the ever trusty sugar-free peppermints. The best part of that is that I know that I can quit anything. Literally anything. Nicotine is the worst substance on the planet, at least it was for me. I smoked for 12 years and tried to quit dozens of times throughout. The worst part was that in quitting smoking, I effectively eliminated hangovers as the poisons from the cigarettes were more powerful in that regard than I had previously known. As any drinker here knows, once the hangovers are manageable it's game on! Flash forward 8 years and I'm 38 and ready to end this miserable ride with the booze.
The other big push for me to finally get here and end up on this board is that I have found myself for years being pulled towards certain spiritual proclivities. In the past, rather than dive deeper into them to see what was pulling me, I brushed them off as "stuff for hippies" and "things trustafarians do because they're bored". Now though, I'm seeing that there is a calling there of some sort and with no surprise, my need to discover these has coincided with my desire to become sober. So today, I'm 3 days sober and on my 3rd day of Yoga, 2 weeks into heavy reading into Buddhism and in particular the Art of Mindfulness and mastering the focus on the day and moment at hand, rather than my mind racing all over the place and right back into a bottle of bourbon, and over a week into a Paleo-ish diet to help slim down from the dreaded booze bloat. I feel great so far. Down 8lbs already and my face is getting back to it's normal slimmer self from days of old.
The best part of this site for me so far is that I realize now that this journey is very individualized as not all addicts are created equal and in accepting that, I know that though I may not have ever drank a 12 pack of beer a day, 3 bourbon cocktails after dinner before bed are just as bad. For me, it's the stacking of days that is the killer. One drink a week after work and some beers during the Arsenal game on the weekend slowly morphed into where I am now. So turning that off is priority and I see it now as a response to not being mindful of my other triggers. Getting my act together with my low-grade depression in particular and taking 5htp regularly to help counteract that has been a huge step in the right direction.
I am grateful to find this community and am looking forward to sharing in everyone's journey. I leave you with a favorite quote of mine as I have began this very new journey:
"In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you"
. Welcome!
Member
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: California
Posts: 13,044
Welcome! I am working on mindfulness this year as well. I have spent too much time obsessing about the past, and worrying about the future. I am trying really hard to stay in the present. I found an app called mind pilot that I downloaded onto my phone, it is free and a good one for mindfulness. Is the title of the book you are reading "The Art of Mindfulness?" I may need to get that one.
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