[Sober Living] Excessive Delayed Gratification

With focused discipline, you can quiet the mind enough of the rattles of stress and anxiety to do almost anything. You can subconsciously mute the noisy office or do the impossible. What that requires, however, is the occasional respite. Not a relapse or reclusion, just a quick relaxing check-in to see if everything is alright. Without that, motivation breaks, weakness seeps in, and the next time you’re tempted by something bad, you might take it.

This vial wasn’t empty.

I recognized its potential and quickly picked it up. It had a bit of an uneven rattle. When I got to a secluded area, I opened it up to find some sort of used temptation. It almost looked like a tea bag. Most certainly, it was not something – as I reclaimed my sanity – I needed to investigate any further. After taking this photo, I tossed it all into the bush.

Moments like that are what I fear most.

It’s not the hours of slight pressure or the seconds of acute pain that we as a society just accept. It’s not going to the store, seeing alcohol or cannabis freely advertised as innocently as a sale at the supermarket, and impulsively adding a bottle of booze to the cart. It’s not going to a show or taking public transit and being stuck smelling cannabis.

It’s losing control in a moment of weakness.

Even if control is an illusion, how can we use our imagination to regain its semblance? It can be through those quiet moments where we reassert our priorities. Stress at work in the short term can be fine, if rewarded, but too much stress is the quickest way to see good talent leave. Similarly when dealing with the stress of friends, family, and strangers.

It can also be admitting our weaknesses.

Not to others, but to ourselves. Rather than continually push ourselves, day after day, to stop and think about the situation fully. Is this stress I can address or disperse? Can I find a way to release this tension into something positive? Or, as a best-case scenario, does it burst out into destructive complaints to anyone that will listen?

We can be strong even with weaknesses.

Rather than hide or show them off, we can work on them, either as we go about our day or with trusted advisors that understand our specific plights. Sometimes that is as easy as an anonymous phone call or message board post throwing caution into the wind. Sometimes it’s a quick decompression chat with some stranger you’ll never meet again.

Because next time, that vial could be full.

Through tempering our interaction with stress, by not letting it stick around, or linger too long, we can just go through our lives with infinite contentment over the subtle pleasures offered to us with a little bit of adventure and exploration outside our comfort zones to find some new favorite food, place, or conversational topic.

Without occasionally decompressing, we’ll swell and swell until we burst!

Endtable:
Quotes: None
Sources: My personal experiences
Inspirations: Explained
Related: Just all the other entries in this weekly column.
Photo: Explained
Written On: June 13th [20 minutes]
Last Edited: June 24th
My big goal is writing. My most important goal is writing "The Story." All other goals should work toward that central goal. My proudest moment is the most recent time I overcame some fear, which should have been today. I'm a better zombie than I was yesterday. I'm not better than you and you're not better than me. Let's strive to be better every day.