Here we go then, as promised. My first post which isn’t moaning or self-loathing when I’m trying to get back onto a sober streak. I’m starting this sub-category, if you like, as another reminder of why not to pick up that bottle when temptations present themselves. Weekends can be a real struggle. Especially when it hits about 7/8pm on a Friday/Saturday. It can be really difficult. So instead of picking up that bottle of Shiraz which has been laughing at you in the cupboard since you took your vow of alcohol celibacy, pick up your phone and open up this thread and remind yourself how brilliant life is without the drink.
So, the first instalment in this saga I want to focus on is the absolute Mental Clarity you are gifting yourself once you take a vow of abstinence from drinking. It’s really quite eye opening how different the world really is once you spend a few weeks not intoxicated or hungover.
After just a few days out of the boozy haze the clarity which shines over you as the clouds part is absolutely incredible. Food tastes amazing, freshly cut grass and the like smells so much stronger and more vibrant. Having a shower and feeling clean, fresh and ready to attack the day is my personal favourite feeling. The endless creativity, positivity and ambition to achieve and succeed in whatever you put your sober mind to is frightening and, last but not by any stretch of the imagination least, the absolute aura of happiness, normality and content that you emanate is mind-blowing.
I used to wake up with crippling anxiety, trying to piece the previous night away. Mental fog, unhappiness and feeling my life was in such a rut. Since putting the bottle down, clarity has been the main word in my vocabulary. The only way I can describe it, which is ironic considering I’m preaching mental clarity and having to use a synonym but, it’s like seeing the before and after the rain fell in Australia. I don’t know what date you will read this, but at the beginning of 2020 there were some awful bush fires in Australia. Broadcasted across the world was this absolutely horrific looking chaos as the wildfires were spreading at a catastrophic rate. The wildlife was perishing, animals being burned to death and an orange chaotic glow was visible for as far as the eye could see. A week or two later the rain fell quite heavily and you could see in the pictures, after all that destruction, there was a strange atmosphere of tranquillity and a general relief that the fire had eased. The land began to produce new sproutlings underneath the mess that the monstrous flames had left in it’s relentless path. New life was beginning to cultivate. A new beginning almost, and for the first time since the fires started everything was clear to the eye. The chaos has settled and peace was restored once more. That is the only way I’d describe the transitioning from drunk to sober and the clarity that we can all achieve once we stop chucking that poison down our necks.
As always, thanks so much for reading I really appreciate it. A bit more of a deeper post this week and hopefully something that can inspire us for years to come and help us resist our temptations when the devil becomes visible on our shoulder.
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Jack X
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