For many, drinking is associated with festivities, cheer, and celebration. And what better sums all that up than the holiday season? These days our so called holiday season starts in October when grocery and home goods stores realize they can make more money the sooner they put out their plastic trees, stuffed Santas, and peppermint scented trash bags (yes, that exists, please don’t buy them.)
But have you ever stopped to wonder why that is? And when did it come to be that alcohol – a known carcinogen and depressant – is our substance of choice to spread holiday cheer?
The answer is marketing. I know because I work in the industry. Well that, and I’ve read my fair share of sober curious books. I’d be remiss if I didn’t attribute many of these concepts to, Annie Grace and her book, This Naked Mind. There are very few books that changed my life and this is one of them.
Us marketers and advertisers are trained right from the very start to convince people to “buy things they don’t need with money they don’t have” (The Minimalists). So that’s how the big alcohol lie started. The lie that alcohol is the answer to all of life’s problems. That alcohol is how we celebrate, congratulate, cope, mourn, destress, connect, belong.
Well it doesn’t have to be. And hate to break it you, but it doesn’t work like that. It’s actually not some magic solution, in fact it’s quite the opposite. We’re often left with more problems than we started after a big night of drinking.
One of my favorite quotes is sobriety gave me everything alcohol promised. I’ve never heard anything more true.
We didn’t need alcohol as kids to have fun. If it’s no longer serving you, you might not need it either. Kids aren’t pregaming gingerbread making, or ice skating, or downing a bottle of wine at Christmas Eve dinner. I mean it’s an absurd thought, right? But it’s equally absurd that we fill our lives with activities that can only be enjoyed when there’s booze involved.
Well you might want to consider quitting those things that are only fun if you’re blackout drunk, but it’s also an opportunity to reflect on WHY you drink. Because accidentally blacking out, throwing up in public, stuffing yourself with greasy late night pizza, waking up with a pounding headache, smoking weed in the morning to attempt to make it all better? Been there done that and, trust me, it’s not fun.
When you start to reflect on something that is so normalized, such a huge and largely unquestioned part of our culture, there’s no going back. There’s no unlearning what you’ll soon find out. At least for me there wasn’t.
I have absolutely zero regrets in lifting the veil to uncover the lies and promises I believed about alcohol. To slowly but surely decide to live differently than those around me. Now I often find myself saying that that not drinking is my superpower.
Because I have my mornings and my weekends back. I have my health, my sleep, my vitality. I mean, just imagine a hangover free life. It’s just as great as it sounds. There’s more time in the day. There’s more capacity to do what I need to do and have extra space for boredom, creativity, and rest.
Oh and I can’t forgot to mention less stress and anxiety. When we think alcohol is helping us calm down and destress, it’s really just pouring oil on a fire. But when you take it away, that fire slowly starts to burn out. And one day you’ll look around and realize that you can handle anything that comes your way. Sobriety is a superpower. It has a trickle down effect that will improve every aspect of your life and health.
So what am I looking forward to now? Waking up hangover free on New Year’s Day. There’s truly no better feeling.
No matter how your holiday festivities went, I invite you to join me for Dry January. This blog has all my best tips to set yourself up for success.
Xo Liv
