Most of us churn our way through life balancing a bunch of competing priorities, juggling a range of responsibilities, and dealing with a host of internal and external stressors. In other words, even on a good day, we’ve got a lot going on. Life can be complicated, even overwhelming.
As a result, we eventually have to develop coping strategies to manage everything going on in our lives, just for our own peace of mind. Some folks become super organized, Type A control freaks. Some become accustomed to a certain level of chaos or disorder, letting it build up periodically and then letting off steam when it gets to be too much for us. Some of us find procrastination or avoidance our cup of tea.
And smokers? Well, no matter what type of coping strategies we favor, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that nearly every smoker has, at one time or another, used a smoke break as an excuse to avoid dealing with something or someone. A sort of one-stop stress-busting break, if you will. It might even have been the only break we got from the craziness. Because of that, as damaging as it might have been, we still kind of loved it for that.
For a lot of us, those moments might also have been just about the only time we were alone with our thoughts, or able to step away from everything. To walk away (temporarily, at least) from a thorny problem at work or a stressful scenario at home or school. To regroup. To (ha!) “catch our breath.”
Most of us don’t operate in a vacuum, or live in a state of isolation 24/7. Even those of us who live comparatively solitary lives — those of us working in isolation most of the day, those living alone, those new to an area or not close with many people, those who are geographically isolated or whose social lives are limited by shift work or constant travel (their own or others’), even the die-hard introverts and hermits by choice — probably spend at least some of our time dealing with others: family, friends, colleagues and fellow students, service sector workers...even people in online communities (who we all know are just as capable of testing our patience there as are the people we interact with IRL). Chances are not slim that at least one of these types of people in at least one of these settings is going to piss you off at some point. It’s just science!
How do we cope once the tried-and-true Smoke Break is no longer an option? Are we doomed to a life filled with stress and no chance for escape? Because make no mistake, a lot of us became very attached to our little escape strategy, rationalizing the need for a smoke as a somehow legitimate excuse to step away from situations or people who were bothering us, no questions asked. Our brains grew to equate those breaks with piece of mind (instead of the complex biochemical reaction we were perpetuating), and that in turn provided positive reinforcement we may struggle to un-learn.
Go on, take a moment for yourself. Life isn’t going anywhere for those few minutes, I promise.
Who’s Your Little GUS Buddy?
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