The 12 Things I Absolutely Love About Being Sober
Sometimes I really feel like sobriety’s Andy Rooney – the ironic, curmudgeon of the running a blog set, stating the pitfalls and snafus that nobody else will inform the world about quitting consuming. I have been recognized to smell on the sophomoric crowing of those that extoll the advantages of residing clear and sober. As if, like that different killjoy Groucho Marx, I don’t wish to be a part of any membership substandard sufficient to have me as a member.
Then two weeks in the past, one thing actually horrible occurred. Someone I beloved died unexpectedly and everybody else tiptoed round me, as in the event that they thought it is perhaps an excessive amount of for me to take with out happening a bender. It made me notice (like a cartoon POW!) that, unhappy and shocked as I was, I didn’t even take into consideration consuming. Not as soon as.
Which received me considering, that after two years and three months of sobriety, so many features of my life have modified for the higher, it’s time to be a part of the ranks of the blissfully temperate and inform you (with out even a smidgen of sarcasm) what I love about my life now that I have put away the wine for good.
I am an alcoholic. At the top of my tenure as a drinker I was consuming three bottles of Chardonnay a day (generally extra), and it managed my life like a demanding stage mom – orchestrating each transfer and making inappropriate calls for on my time and expertise.
Three months in the past I hit the benchmark known as “Advanced Recovery” and all of a sudden issues started to fall into place like they didn’t do within the early days of my sobriety. I don’t imply to say it takes that lengthy for everybody (I have all the time been a late bloomer), however for me the 2 yr level marked the top of my resistance and the start of my overwhelming gratefulness.
The 12 Things I ADORE About Being Sober:
- The Mornings: My very favourite factor about being sober is the way in which I really feel when I open my eyes within the morning. I am nicely rested, I keep in mind what I did the evening earlier than with out a sense of dread, and I really feel nice. Tony the tiger “GREAT!” and able to begin a brand new day.
- My Memory: I had gotten fairly good at faking it, however I couldn’t keep in mind something in my late stage consuming days – I was like a sham fortune teller, expecting physique language clues to assist me determine what I was presupposed to have carried out or stated.
- My Looks: Everything about my look is best: my hair, nails and pores and skin; the whites of my eyes; and I lastly misplaced the “Freshman 15” of sobriety – the load I gained as a result of I handled myself to something however booze, together with a newfound weak spot for party-packs of Charleston Chews and Debby Snack Cakes…
- The Length of the Day: Drinking three bottles of wine takes time. I’d go to mattress with a glass of wine on the bedside desk like a safety blanket and within the morning I’d lean over and drink the dregs – beginning the vicious cycle of a brand new, bleak day with too little time to do anything…
- The Night: If it occurred after seven o’clock at evening, I was not there. I missed weddings and funerals and the milestones of family members as a result of I was too drunk to rise up and go. There is such nice pleasure now in a night stroll, or a celebration or simply trying up on the stars.
- The Freshness of My Emotions: Remember when the Grinch feels his face and it’s moist from crying and he’s like, (*12*) That’s me. I spent so a few years anesthetizing my emotions, I am as uncooked and emotional as a toddler, and it feels superb.
- My Energy Level: Drinking makes you sleepy and dumb. I have began working once more (after a 20 yr trip) and I am shocked every single day by how sensible I am – how desirous to study new issues and contribute, how energetic I really feel.
- Sleeping and Eating: I have had a lifetime of insomnia, constipation and bulimia – the trifecta of “women’s complaints” which have GONE AWAY now that I am sober. I eat. I sleep eight hours. I poop. Yay.
- My Relationships: I suppose alcohol makes an individual shallow and self-absorbed. I really feel myself reaching out now: being friendlier and caring extra about others than about myself. I have rekindled some relationships that had been negatively impacted by booze, and I have fashioned many new friendships with these within the restoration group.
- How I Cope With Stress, Sorrow or Disappointment: I used to take care of all my emotional triggers (demise, taxes, misplaced love, slights, harm emotions) by pouring a drink or ten. The manner I dealt with the demise of my good friend, is one of the best ways to emphasise the change in my habits towards emotional setbacks. I handled it. In the second and full on.
- Community: I hate the time period, however I suppose I was a “dry drunk” for some time. I transferred my alcohol habit to processed sugar and low, I remoted and pouted. One of the saving graces of my sobriety has been my foray into group – (I’ll admit it) I generally pressure myself to get out, meet with pals, attend conferences and be part of the world, and magically, I really feel higher.
- My Faith: I danced with the satan for a lot of, a few years. This just isn’t a metaphor – I really tangoed with some actually unhealthy guys who took benefit of my vulnerability and my deep-seated insecurity. Last, however definitely not least, I have discovered solace and pleasure and energy in prayer.
Those of you who know me, don’t be alarmed. I is not going to grow to be a kind of restoration advocates who bray the phrase “amazing” like a verbal tic, or smile too vacantly at a child, or submit images with kittens and daisies and aphorisms like “Sober is the NICE way to be!!” I promise I is not going to start to make use of double exclamation factors. I may actually have a day when I wish to discuss one thing that annoys me about my newly woke up senses…
But know this: I am a grateful, blissful, joyfully tearful, lucky, sober particular person. And I am feeling each a kind of feelings on this minute as I write. Maybe, simply perhaps that deserves an exclamation level. Or two…
