These blog posts document my journey of abstaining from alcohol for a year with the help of the One Year No Beer program. Please feel free to comment because I know there are others that could benefit from hearing your voice as well. I would be thrilled if we could be on this journey together. I started this blog about 60 days in the challenge, so there’s plenty of time for us to be goal friends.
I skipped blogging for a few days in each sprint because I’m finding that many of the inspirations are repetitive from prior sprints. While doing the program, this is great because the repetition helps. Over time, even as I’ve changed my relationship with alcohol, I thrive on reminders because I am confronted with new temptations and thoughts. As I near the end of my pregnancy and end of this challenge, I wonder what will be my new relationship with alcohol. It’s helpful to get reminders from the past as to why I’m choosing to abstain. Nevertheless, I didn’t see much utility in reflecting on the blog about repeated topics or topics that didn’t move me. Although my future blogs for the challenge may have less content, I still hope you find them to be insightful and thought provoking.
Sprint 16- May 20, 2022- June 2, 2022
Day 217
Today’s inspiration was about challenging thoughts using the skills of NLP. Tonyrobbins.com states that NLP “studies the ways our thoughts affect our behavior. It looks at the ways our brains interpret the signals they receive and how these interpretations affect what we do. It does this through language” During Sprint 15 we encountered Language of Wellbeing question 1: “Never?” “Everyone?” This inspiration encouraged me to avoid thinking in absolutes. Today’s Language of Wellbeing question was, ” who says so?” The intention is to recognize opinions stated as a fact as opinions. I also liked that the inspiration went a step further to ask the person carrying the opinion why they felt that way.
Example:
Person 1: That restaurant sucks!
Person 2: Who says so?
Person 1: I do!
Person 2: Why do you think they suck?
Person 1: The pad thai was awful.
Person 2: Fair, but there might be other tasty items on the menu.
Day 218
Today’s inspiration challenged me to think about a time that I had flow. I’ll take this time to think about a time I had flow at work. I occasionally had flow at work in which I would be in the zone. The hours would go by quickly and my energy would be flowing. I have flow with a few cases here and there at my full time job, but I’m still searching for having a full day of flow at work. I’ve also realized that I have flow when it comes to my private practice. Essentially, I hope to learn more about flow in order to get an idea about what is at the crux of my flow experiences.
Day 219
Today’s inspiration was about finding flow. The inspiration encouraged my to read “Flow” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. I opted to listening to the highlights of this book on Blinkist. As I listened, i thought about a time where most people find flow, but a lot of programs are hesitant to mention, playing videogames. Anyone who is a gamer or knows one, knows that these people are completely in the zone. A concept of the book that stood out was that flow is typically independent of external rewards or punishments. The book also discussed pleasure vs enjoyment. They saw pleasure as something to merely escape and took little skill while enjoyment required skill and challenge. The book described how drinking alcohol was a pleasure that lead to negligible gains. After reviewing the book on Blinkist I thought about a time I have flow. I love to plan trips. It’s obsessive, but so much fun. I make itineraries for most of my trips; even the ones that are 5 years in the future. These are very involved and take me days to months to perfect each one. I make a basic plan and then fill in the blanks from You Tube travel vlogs. I can spend hours doing this and never regret a minute of it. I spend so much time with my itineraries that they are internalized by the trip. I like a random unplanned trip here and there, but I absolutely go wild on planning trips that are focused on food and tourism.
Sprints 17 and 18- June 3, 2022-June 30,2022
I wasn’t moved to blog about the inspirations for these sprints. Once again, much of the information was repetitive and great for personal reflection. Nevertheless, these weren’t thoughtless sprints. I thought a lot about my journey after the challenge. I decided that I want to remain as alcohol free as possible. I likely won’t drink at home or indulge at a wine dinner. However, I can’t shake that I’m still passionate about critically tasting alcoholic beverages. I want to complete my trainings and help others in their pursuit of making and enjoying beer. I can’t shake it. I decided that I will be mostly alcohol free…spit out my samples. I debated crossing over to the wine world because spitting is more acceptable. However, my heart lies with beer. I even brewed my first beer in months. I’m so happy I didn’t get rid of my equipment. It felt awesome to brew again. I felt more like myself than I have in a while. However, my new self doesn’t have an interest in chugging down a bottle when my brew is complete. I’ve learned during this challenge to be unapologetically me. If people can’t understand why I spit, I could care less. Despite my relationship with alcohol, I know others will still indulge and I’m still passionate about helping them indulge in the finest way possible. Realistically, there may be some times that I decide to drink, but those will have to be few and far between because drinking alcohol doesn’t have that lure that it used to.
If you want more information about the One Year No Beer program. Check out this LINK. I strongly recommend this program if you question your relationship with beer. Even if you’re doing a “dry” month, it could be helpful for you to meet your goal.