Tag Archives: anxiety

Quit Smoking with the WordPress Support Group

Posted in Blogging, Life by

Daily Foglifter:  The average smoker takes five years and seven attempts to quit smoking.

Today is the first day of the rest of my life–as a non-smoker.  Last week, I was puttering around in the WordPress forums and came across the thread, “Who wants to quit smoking with me.”  I hovered my mouse arrow over the title, contemplating the question.  Do I want to quit?  Yes.  Do I need to quit?  Yes.  Am I ready to quit? Yes.  Can I commit to quit?  Um…yeah, maybe, no, yes.  I clicked it.

It was mideavalmaiden, a blogging friend, and she was being reasonable.  We can commit to “cut back in the near future.”  It didn’t sound so bad.  It was more of a plan to plan to quit smoking.  I agreed.

Ach.

The thread took on a life of its own, with dribblingpensioner, agringa, harrythehandyman, laavventura, and marcialoyd making the commitment.  Suddenly there was a contract and a badge to display on our blogs, declaring to the WORLD we were quitting the infernal cancer sticks, fags, cigs, smokes, or whatever other name there is for that blissful, stress-reducing, perfect-with-a-cup-of-coffee-or-a-long-drive-or-after-a-meal item, otherwise known as the cigarette.  And the near future was Monday, exactly one week away.  I had a mild panic attack.

Of course I had to go through with it.  I’d look like an idiot, otherwise.  Or a wimp.  I can’t have that.  So now it’s Sunday night and I’m starting to rethink the whole idea.  So what if I’m a wimp?  Sticks and stones and all of that.  So what if I can’t laugh, talk, or vacuum without hacking up a lung? I just won’t do those things.  So what i f I can’t sing along with the radio without my voice cracking?  I can’t sing worth a crap anyway so it’s better if I don’t do it at all.  So what if I end up talking through a tube in my esophagus?  That’s a wicked awesome way to freak out the kiddies.  So what if I die by drowning in my own lungs?  I can’t think of a rationalization for that one.  Death by drowning would freakin’ suck in any form.

Of course I’m going to do it.  It’s a disgusting habit that makes my breath and clothes stink and my body ill.  It’s expensive.  It’s unattractive.  And it gives me wrinkles.  It will be difficult but I know that, with a little help from my friends, I can do it.

To give you an idea how wonderful this support group is, take a look at this contract written up by the always funny and wise Harry the Handyman:

Stop smoking self help group.

A contract between member’s of wordpress.

As from Monday the 9th of May 2011 at 11.00 am, we all intend to try and stop smoking.

We will report daily to all member’s on the progress we have made and how we feel.

We will also report if we had to call the police because we nearly killed some-one.

If any other member would like to join the group you will be welcome, please send each member a £20 joining fee. ($32.98)

If we all fail to stop smoking, we will all meet and kill midaevalmaiden for starting us on this path of torture.

Any member who fail’s to stop smoking will impose a 2 week blog ban on themselve’s.

Good luck to all, see you in the clinic for nervous tension therapy.

If you’re interested in the group’s progress, wish to join, or simply offer your support, click on the “My Pledge Stop Smoking Badge” in the sidebar, courtesy of midaevalmaiden, the mastermind behind this horrible wonderful idea.

“Oscar Wilde: ‘Do you mind if I smoke?’

Sarah Bernhardt: ‘I don’t care if you burn’”

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Escapes

Posted in All Posts, Kids, Music by
photo of miraj sitar

Image via Wikipedia

Daily Foglifter:  Listening to music assists in pain management, reduces blood pressure, soothes migraines, boosts immunity, enhances intelligence and memory, increases productivity, and promotes relaxation.  Source

A few weeks ago, I received a gift from a reader named Jeff.  After reading my Autism entry, he e-mailed me asking if he could send a relaxation CD to play for my son.  Music is an effective method of relaxation, particularly for those with Autism.  Never one to pass up free stuff, I agreed. 

I will confess that I was a little worried.  When I hear the term, “relaxation music”,  I think of sitars and chanting.  Neither of these things relax me, as I can’t relax when being creeped out.  I had a massage once with some very disturbing demonic chanting.  Completely counter-productive.  When the CD arrived, my apprehension grew when the blurb on the back of the CD case read, “the ideal tempo and rhythm for creative inspiration, massage, yoga, scenic drives, or just winding down.”  At least it didn’t mention meditation.  I don’t have anything against any of these things, I just don’t understand the particular soundtrack people use to do them.

It took a while for me to actually play it.  I usually tune the DIRECTV to my favorite music station (Channel 832, Adult Alternative) or listen to my Playlist on the computer.  I play CDs in the car and since I’m always running late, I never remembered to grab the CD off the desk.

I was feeling really guilty about not listening to it.  Jeff wasn’t pushy.  In fact, he never once contacted me and said, “Why haven’t you mentioned my CD?” or “Have you listened to it yet?”  Of course, that made me feel more guilty.  I immediately put it in my car for the next trip.  And it sat in the CD changer for a week, unheard.

Then, on a day when the kids were being particularly loud and irritable, I remembered the CD.  If it could calm down my rowdy bunch until we got home, that would be high praise indeed.  I turned it on, hoping for the best, preparing for the worst, and was pleasantly surprised.  Not a sitar, singing bowl, gong, or chanter anywhere.  Just a guitar and a piano, playing pleasant relaxing music.    It was playing for a couple of minutes before I noticed the kids had gone silent.  Seriously, not a peep.

I drove for another five minutes when the 12-year-old asked, “What is this music?”

I answered, “It’s instrumental.  It’s nice, isn’t it?”

He said, “It’s making me sleepy.” The other three kids agreed.

DING DING DING!  We have a winner!

This is now my “go-to” CD when the kids are getting rowdy.  They immediately calm down.  They may talk, but it’s in a quieter voice.  I use it sparingly, in fear they’ll acclimate to it, but it still works every time I turn it on. For them and for me.

The CD is  “Escapes” by Jeff Gold.  You can buy or download “Escapes” and more music by Jeff Gold by going to

http://jeffgold.bandcamp.com/album/escapes-music-for-relaxing or

www.jeffgoldmusic.com 

When you enter the code “momfog” in the shopping cart you will receive a 20% discount.  A free download is included with the purchase of a CD. 

“Almost all children respond to music. Music is an open-sesame, and if you can use it carefully and appropriately, you can reach into that child’s potential for development.”  ~Dr. Clive Robbins

Nordoff-Robbins uses music therapy to help over 100 handicapped children learn and to relate and communicate with others.

Sun, Sun Go Away

Posted in Life, Writing by

 

Daily Foglifter: Australian researchers have found that bad moods make people less gullible, more critical and also boost memory.

Apocalypse Thunder via Dimitri c and http://stockx.chng

I woke this morning to utter darkness and a heavy thunderstorm.  It set a tone.  A tone that was furthered by some disappointing news from a friend.  The battle she has been fighting appeared to be coming to an end, but dense thunderclouds have obscured the glowing horizon, yet again.  She’s tired.  She’s sad.  Worse, she’s discouraged.    My heart breaks for her and her family.

There are days when all I can see is what’s wrong with the world.  Today is one of them.  People are dying in Japan, Libya, and in plane crashes and a so-called pastor is getting press for being a hateful, Satanic idiot and Charlie Sheen is getting a standing ovation in Chicago for being a jackass and the best candidate for “The Next Celebrity to be Found Dead in a Hotel Room Of An Apparent Drug Overdose” Award.  It’s disgusting.

The weather today has been perfect for this kind of mood.  Cold, windy, gray, with a constant mist.  It was appropriate.  But now the sun is shining and it’s cramping my style.  I’m in the mood to brood.  I spend most of my life looking on the bright side of things and it’s exhausting.  Sometimes I want to sulk, put on some maudlin music or a depressing movie and have a glorious pity party.  The sunny weather is not conducive to this.  My only consolation is the distant thunder I hear, perhaps the herald of more stormy weather.

Just for today, please sun, go away.  Tomorrow, I’ll welcome you with open arms.  By then, I’ll have gotten the gloom and doom out my system and be again my positive, find humor and good in everything, self again.   The calm after the storm.

“Be still sad heart and cease repining, behind the clouds the sun is shining; thy fate is the common fate of all; into each life some rain must fall-some days must be dark and dreary.”
—      Henry Wadsworth Longfellow