How A Year Without Booze Helped Me Live A More Meaningful & Fulfilling Life
Happier and healthier than EVER, getting ready to go out for NYE, 2017 (aka day 364 of being alcohol-free).
Today is the day - my 365th consecutive day without a single drop of alcohol. No cheat days, no “tastes,” nothing. I’ve written a lot about being sober. A LOT. In fact, if you’ve milled around my blog much, you’d probably think that it was a blog about sobriety, or being in recovery, but it’s not. When I started this blog, the intention was to share my own path to finding a more meaningful life - a life where I felt deeply connected to myself, spirit, and those around me; a life where I allow myself to shine and encourage others to do the same.
It just so happens that one of the biggest things that was dulling my sparkle - both inside and out - was alcohol. I wanted to change, but didn’t know how without becoming a loner. You see, I didn’t identify with many of the social groups who cut drinking out of their lifestyle. I’m not an alcoholic or addict, so I couldn’t hang there. I am “spiritual’, but not religious, so that group didn’t seem like a fit. I like meditation and wellness, but I also didn’t fully fit in with that circle. Rather, I was a single, 30-something in a vibrant city - all logic told me I belonged with the drinkers. So, even though I knew drinking was not helping me to live my best life, I kept on with it; afraid that if I didn’t...I’d belong nowhere.
Finally, I had to ask myself a really important question - a question that guides so many of the decisions in my life now from the things I focus on to the things I choose to sacrifice: how do you want to feel. This question manifested from Danielle LaPorte’s Desire Map technique that focuses on attaching feelings to goals. I wanted my life to feel joyful, meaningful, and purposeful. I was tired of going through the motions and knew that changes had to be made in order to make room for the types of feelings I wanted to feel.
So, just like that, I parted with my social drinking habit and shifted my focus to the things in my life that would most clearly allow me to access the feelings I was looking for. While drinking wasn’t the only thing I had to change, it was the single most significant factor that led to my ability and capacity to make all of the other shifts that occurred in 2017. It worked: I went from feeling drained, unsuccessful, and like I was just going through the motions to feeling energetic, joyful, peaceful, and powerful.
Nearing the end of 2017, I was called to share my transformation with others who might be feeling the same. Others who don’t identify as an “alcoholic” or “addict” or any of the other titles and groups we often associate with sobriety. People who simply had a relationship with alcohol that was getting in the way of them living a more meaningful life...their best life. While I’ve had some push back here, I will argue that anyone who allows alcohol to be a significant presence in their life is probably not living this best life...no matter what they think. I, for one, know I was convinced that my social drinking lifestyle was completely fabulous at one point. Now I see a different reality - my intention is to reach out to those who want the same, not change the mind of those who are currently satisfied with whatever lifestyle they’re living.
With this in mind, I wrote the 30-Day Alcohol Detox program - a month-long, self-guided program to help social drinkers change the way they think and feel about alcohol. If this sounds like you, I’m either giving away this program for FREE or at a highly discounted price during the month of January (2018).