Early on in my recovery from food addiction, a mentor would walk me back through what my crazy-mind had been saying just before I ate stuff I shouldn’t have. Each time we did that–and we did it a lot of times before my food got really cleaned up–I had an earlier sense of when the nudge-brain was taking over. You know, the one that says, “This time it’ll be different,” or, “Just this once,” or, “You deserve this.” Fast forward a few years. Today I made a couple of little bloopers while driving. No one was hurt and nothing was damaged. Olden days I would have beat myself up for the near-misses. But instead I just breathed and watched the negative thoughts bloom–and because I only watched and didn’t glom onto them and add thoughts and let the thoughts sprout more thoughts, they passed. I had a moment of nervousness–appropriate when you almost back into someone–but then it passed. Being present–not running way, not making it worse–is what made the difference. And I was able to go about my day as cheerful as I had been before the near-miss. Whew! Miracle!