The In Between of Drinking and Sobriety
May 04, 2020
It’s ok.
It’s ok to have one foot in both world’s.
You want to quit drinking, but you don’t want to quit drinking.
You might be laughing at the quarantini memes. You feel a bit comforted by a joke about drinking. It gives you a who cares feeling, and you want that right now. Everything seems so serious. Anxiety is lurking at every corner. A joke helps relieve the heaviness of it all.
At the same time you might also be concerned about your drinking. Terrified even.
Are you the only one in your company who will keep drinking through the night after the Zoom Happy Hour ends? Does it end badly for everyone? Or do some people have a their drink and then take a walk? Do laundry? Play a board game with their kids and not keep drinking? How is that even possible?
You want the drink. You also want to stop drinking. The war within in exhausting.
Your relationship with alcohol is an experience, not a title.
It is not black and white.
It is not all or nothing.
It is a spectrum and anyone that drinks alcohol, lands at different places on the spectrum, at different times.
I did not wake up an alcoholic one day after years of being a normal drinker.
In the same way, I didn’t become sober all at once.
It was a process.
It was a messy, slippery slope that brought on my alcohol addiction.
It was a bumpy, twisty way out.
If you desire to quit drinking you are on the first rung of the ladder on your climb out.
Just because it is not a clean and linear path, doesn’t mean there is not progress.
Sobriety is a practice and it needs to be practiced.
When you decide to run a marathon you sign up for a race before you can actually run 26.2 miles.
When you decide to get sober you sign up for my 6 week class, before you actually go 42 days without drinking.
In both cases you put your intention out.
You make a commitment to yourself.
You do not know if you will actually complete the challenge.
It’s a risk.
You could fail.
You take a leap of faith in yourself anyways.
You decide to give it a try, because trying is better than doing nothing at all.
Just like running a marathon you run 1 mile at a time.
Some runs are better than others.
You practice being sober 1 day at a time.
Some days are better than others.
Your body gets stronger with practice.
You gain confidence everyday that you meet your goals.
You don’t have to run 26.2 miles on your first practice run and you don’t have to be sober for the rest of your life on Day 1.
To meet your goal of running a marathon you hydrate, get the right shoes, plan your route, and play inspiring music.
To meet your goal of getting sober you invest in a coach, a quit lit book, a substitute drink, and a meditation app.
You would not expect yourself to run your marathon in flip flops and a hooded sweatshirt.
You prepare and set yourself up for success.
You invite people to cheer you on at the finish line.
Do not expect yourself to get sober on your own, by not changing anything in your routine.
You set your goal and then invite your inner circle to celebrate your success when you reach them.
I lived for years the in between of drinking.
I was drinking, but also questioning my drinking.
It is ok to have one foot in both worlds.
It does not have to be all or nothing.
You can be drinking and wish you could stop drinking.
You can be sober and miss drinking without wanting your drinking life back.
Let yourself be in the inbetween.
Do not expect to complete the race on the same day you sign up.
You do not harvest the fruit on the day you plant the seed.
Start by taking a leap of faith on yourself and giving it a try.
My 6 week, self paced, online alcohol free challenge is open for enrollment.
Give it a try.
