well....crap.

In article ,
"JC Der Koenig" wrote:

"Luna" wrote in message
...
Bad things happen to everyone, over and over.


No, they don't.

Sure they do. Or do you know some blessed people who never have a tire
blow out, never have a person or a pet they love die or get really sick,
never get sick themselves, never get fired or laid off, never get
dumped, never get injured, never get abused, never lose their wallet,
never are the victims of a crime? I don't know anyone who hasn't had
most or all of these things happen to them. No one gets a perfect life.



Anyway, I hope your comment wasn't meant to imply that I made up all the
bad things I've been through, because I also have had my fair share of
wonderful things in my life.


I meant to imply that some people make poor decisions over and over, and
others have the Hardy Har Har syndrome.

My poor decisions were to use smoking and eating as a palliative for the
stresses in my life, but most of the major stresses themselves were not
a result of any decision on my part. I probably would have been a much
more physically healthy person if I had chosen instead to just let
myself react to things, just go ahead and cry and crawl into a hole for
a few weeks, rather than trying to do what I thought at the time was
"butching up," but what in reality was denying and suppressing my
feelings and self-medicating with food and nicotine.

A lot of the things we think of as "bad luck" really are "bad choices,"
I will agree with you there, but I think I'm pretty good at knowing the
difference in my own life. Having my house broken into: not my choice,
not my fault. Letting that be an excuse to start back smoking: my
choice, my fault.


But now that you've mentioned it, I
guess I'll always have to wonder how much of the stuff you've simply made
up. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

I haven't made anything up. If I were in the business of making things
up to get sympathy, I think I'd have made my life out to be a lot more
tragic than it is, because all in all it's pretty boring and no one will
be making a Lifetime movie of my life any time soon. I think for most
people, myself included, most of the time life is pretty good, which
just makes the bad things stand out more and make more of an impression.
I mean, how often do you hear on the news, "Today at such and such high
school, kids learned a lot of stuff, hung out with their friends a bit,
ate lunch, went to some more classes, and went home," as opposed to
"Today at such and such high school there was a shooting in which 10
students were killed" even though the first scenario is actually the
one that happens the overwhelming majority of the time?

It's the same with the way a lot of people filter their own experiences.
The good days are the norm, so the bad ones seem more important just
because of their rarity.

In article Bw7qe.1628354$6l.633612@pd7tw2no,
"Tom G" wrote:

"JC Der Koenig" wrote in message
...
"Luna" wrote in message
...
Bad things happen to everyone, over and over.


No, they don't.


Although random "bad luck" events can occur, often they can be traced to
neglecting a prior, easily repairable problem that has now compounded.
Avoidance of fixing a popped out board in a fence that would require a few
nails and 5 minutes of time, could morph into having to spend even more in
time and money to get a new board, cut it, and finding the right color of
stain. It could easily turn into a 4 hour job due to neglect.
Some people may think it was a string of bad luck that, the board got
popped out, then after a month it got lost, and then a dog came in and dug
holes all over the lawn, and then to top it off, it takes half a day to fix
the fence. This same person may even have had to also buy a new handsaw
because he was unlucky that old one got rusty from leaving it in the rain
from the last unfinished repair job.
Being prepared for something in advance of it happening is also a way of
avoiding "bad luck". Factories would call this, Planned Maintenance. If the
fence in the above scenario was checked occasionally for loose boards, the
event of the popped out board may not have even occurred in the first place.
It is impossible to be prepared for every event, but steps can be taken to
minimize many problems. This pertains to all aspects of life. Not just in a
mechanical sense.


Yes yes yes!! That's totally true. The kicker is that "it is impossible
to be prepared for every event." I think the way we live now, so
dependent on ever more complicated machines for our day to day lives,
adds a lot more things that can go wrong. And a lot of those things
that can go wrong are really outside the expertise of most people. With
a newer car, for instance, so much of it is computerized that the
average Joe isn't going to be able to fix a problem in his own garage at
home any more. That's just one example, but you get my gist.

In article ,
Myra wrote:

On Thu, 09 Jun 2005 15:45:05 GMT, Luna
wrote:

Now I've got this superstitious fear that every time I quit smoking,
life will throw something even worse at me to test me, since that's been
the pattern so far. But, it's bad luck to be superstitious, so I'm
quitting again this weekend.

I've been reading Allen Carr's "Easy Way to Stop Smoking." Actually,
I've read it for the third time, and I've laid 'em down and stopped.

Occasional twinges, but nothing I can't handle. When it's been a
month, I'll declare myself a nonsmoker.

The book is worth it - it's a completely different approach than
anything I'd seen before. It was recommended to me by my best friend,
who used it to quit smoking, too, and I would have sworn I would have
quit before she did.

Best friend recommends reading the book until it truly sinks in.

Myra

Thanks Myra! I'll look for it tomorrow. Since I'm doing this one
without NRT, I'll need a good plan.

On Fri, 10 Jun 2005 05:05:12 GMT, Luna
wrote:

Thanks Myra! I'll look for it tomorrow. Since I'm doing this one
without NRT, I'll need a good plan.

Good because Carr absolutely does *not* approve of nicotine replace
therapy. He also says to keep right on smoking while you're reading
it.

I paid $6.95 at B&N for the book.

Read it as many times as you need to.

And I'm your quitting buddy! LOL!

Myra

In article ,
Myra wrote:

On Fri, 10 Jun 2005 05:05:12 GMT, Luna
wrote:

Thanks Myra! I'll look for it tomorrow. Since I'm doing this one
without NRT, I'll need a good plan.

Good because Carr absolutely does *not* approve of nicotine replace
therapy. He also says to keep right on smoking while you're reading
it.

I don't know if that's going to work, since I've got half a pack left
and my plan was just to not buy any more, but we'll see.


I paid $6.95 at B&N for the book.

Read it as many times as you need to.

And I'm your quitting buddy! LOL!

Myra

Cool! I try to participate in alt.support.stop-smoking, but the chaos
in there drives me nuts, especially in the early stages of a quit. I
get so foggy I can barely read anything anyway, so it's tough trying to
deal with all the acronyms I don't know, inside jokes, replies that
don't quote what they're replying to, and posts that seem like people
have programmed macros for "One day at a time, you can do it, just don't
smoke no matter what!" instead of actually _responding_ to the actual
words someone's actually written. They mean well, but gawd.

Myra wrote:
: On Thu, 09 Jun 2005 15:45:05 GMT, Luna
: wrote:
:
: Now I've got this superstitious fear that every time I quit smoking,
: life will throw something even worse at me to test me, since that's
: been the pattern so far. But, it's bad luck to be superstitious,
: so I'm quitting again this weekend.
:
: I've been reading Allen Carr's "Easy Way to Stop Smoking." Actually,
: I've read it for the third time, and I've laid 'em down and stopped.
:
: Occasional twinges, but nothing I can't handle. When it's been a
: month, I'll declare myself a nonsmoker.
:
: The book is worth it - it's a completely different approach than
: anything I'd seen before. It was recommended to me by my best
: friend, who used it to quit smoking, too, and I would have sworn I
: would have quit before she did.
:
: Best friend recommends reading the book until it truly sinks in.


Honey, all this time I've been under the impression that *I* was your best
friend!

I don't even know what that is.

In article ,
"JC Der Koenig" wrote:

You have a bad case of the Hardy Har Har syndrome.

This is OLD news, peeps. I cant believe people are STILL even commenting
on this, each one repeating over and over that wine has calories. I GET
IT.

Have you not read my post from last Monday, I think, where I said Im not
drinking wine AT ALL now?

It's really not necessary to KEEP offering this same council---I GET IT,
I GOT it and it's a DONE DEAL. You're addressing a problem that no
lonegr exists.

Im a quick study---I screwed up, I GOT the lesson, changed my course
and left the problem behind almost a week ago, LOL.

Not to even mention I STILL lost 9 lbs
in three weeks---which Im pretty ok with.
OK--I MIGHT have lost 12 or even 15, but that's the breaks. I have the
rest of my life to make up for it.

Let's move on!

LassChance


Start LC~5-16-05
202-193-165
(i usually weigh on Sunday)

Luna----ry to not let yourself believe that smoking keeps the 'devil"
away, OR that stopping begs for disaster. It was coincidence---nothing
more!

Also, perhaps the "bad" things that seem to happen when you stop
smoking, not only would have happened, anyway, but just wouldnt have
SEEMED so traumatic IF not for the extra stress of having to deal with
the bad thing PLUS stressing over wanting a cigarette. That extra bit of
stress tips the balance.

I take my hat off to you---quitting smoking IS DAMN HARD. I've heard
ex-coke heads say quitting cocaine wasnt as hard as quitting smoking.

I did quit, for three whole years once---and all it took was ONE "Hey,
gimme one of those!" to start me back.

I know I will have to quit again. I did it before...so, I can do it
again. (I keep telling myself) I want to lose my weight first---THEN
tackle that last addiction.

One thing I remember that helped me a LOT was, whenever I wanted a cig,
I'd take a deep breath, then force it out very slowly thru partially
closed lips. In other words, let your lips create some pressure so your
diaphragm has to really PUSH the air out.
This seems to relax the diaphragm and releases the immediate urge to
smoke.

LOL, another trick I just remembered was, whenever I wanted to smoke, I
would say out loud, "How strange! that a NON smoker like ME would think
I want a cigarette!"

I found it VERY empowering to remind myself that I was a NON smoker, not
just a poor smoker trying desperately to BECOME a non smoker. In other
words, making that switch in your mind, immediately when you quit ,
from, "Im trying to quit", to "I AM a non smoker" made a huge difference
for me and may for you, as well.

All the many new-age books about creating this or that change in our
lives stress the importance of visualizing the desired event AS IF it
has ALREADY happened. I heard Jim Carey say that for years, before he
became rich and famous, he would sit on the hood of his car, staring at
the Hollywood sign, holding a check he had written to himself for a
million dollars---thinking over and over, "Im RICH!...and everybody
knows me!".

Certainly there is something to be said for creating reality thru our
thoughts. I personally believe that virtually ALL reality follows
thought. For this reason alone, it's important for you to NOT allow the
thought, "Quitting smoking makes bad things happen" to set up
housekeeping in your mind---or in your life. Just thinking it sets
events into motion.

You might even consider deliberately changing that thought to, "Being a
non-smoker brings incredible GOOD luck into my life, every day."

In other words, say this AS IF it were already true--that you ARE a non
smoker and your luck IS fantasatic.

Im a big believer in affirmations. I use them all the time!

My spiritual guide and Master, a man named Brad Brown, told me once,
There are no more powerful words than, "I AM". He went on to say, "When
we say, "I AM" and mean it....the entire Universe bends to support our
quest."

I firmly believe that this is true. The Great Truth, in fact, the One
Truth that changes everything.

Im not a Christian, myself, but I find MUCH Universal Truth wthin the
Bible. One of them is, "In the Beginning, there was the Word."

I take this to mean that, preceeding any real event, there is, first,
the word, the idea, the thought---THEN the thought (word) is made
manifest into reality. For instance, before you can build a house, there
must first be the thought, "I think I'll build a house." The actual
building of the house FOLLOWS the "word". You could say the reality of
the actual house was made manifest THRU the Word.

From the Christian perspective, I think we're supposed to glean from the
passage, "In the Beginning, there was the Word", that, just as God
created the Universe from His Word, WE, TOO, (being made in His image)
can and do create our universe from our word, whether conscioulsly or
unconsciously.

Im sure we've all known people who say, "If it wasnt for bad luck...Id
have no luck at all." Or, "Life is just SO hard...seems like nothing
ever goes right for me." or some variation of this. And, sure
enough...one stroke of "bad" luck after another seems to happen in their
lives.

They have NO idea they are manifesting bad luck FROM their Word!
Callling for it, in fact, every time they form the thought in their
minds. LOL...Im starting to think the Universe is always
listening....and hurries to bring us whatever we "ask" for----even "bad"
luck. In other words...IT doesnt judge our thoughts as "good" or
"bad"---it just brings us whatever we "call" for.

IF Im right about this, then we need to be very aware of negativity in
our thought patterns. What I mean is, spending five minutes a day
CONSCIOUSLY saying positive affirmations doesnt make up for a hundred
hours of UNconscious habitual negativity.

LOL, I just had this mental image of us all as cowboys....and our
thoughts are the cattle. We have to keep an eye out....watch for those
wandering strays....go after them and rope em back in.

Head em up! Move em out! Rawhide......



LassChance


Start LC~5-16-05
202-193-165
(i usually weigh on Sunday)

"Having my house broken into: not my
choice, not my fault. Letting that be an
excuse to start back smoking: my choice, my fault."Luna

absolutely. This is a great thing to know. In other words, the break in
didnt MAKE you smoke---

Something amazing is, during the three years I didnt smoke, my husband
got cancer and died. Even the trauma of that, plus the sitting around
in the waiting room all day waiting for the ten minutes each hour I
could spend by his bed, did NOT make me smoke! In fact---his mother, a
smoker, was sitting there with me in that waiting room, smoking her head
off....and still didnt even think of smoking. Looking back on it...I
realize how strong my belief was that I was a NON smoker, period.

To think that, having gotten thru that horrible time without even
thinking of smoking.....only to succumb to an impulse on a lovely Spring
day, sharing a bottle of wine with a smoking friend...that the thought,
"Hey, gimmee one a those..." was all it took to send me back, all the
way, into SmokerVille......sheeeeesh.



LassChance


Start LC~5-16-05
202-193-165
(i usually weigh on Sunday)