You Literally can’t fail When you are Quitting Drinking Alcohol!

I look at quitting alcohol as a MASSIVE leap forward in your own personal evolution! So why do we all get so down on ourselves for even trying to quit alcohol?

Say you told yourself, “I am going to quit drinking alcohol!”

You are super pumped, and you have every intention of not drinking that nasty stuff. You are committed, ready, and excited for this new venture of healing.

Then the weekend hits, and the texts start coming in. You got friends and family inviting you out, super fun events to go to, sports outings, bars patios to sit on, maybe even a friend’s garage to go hang out in, or just a dinner date with your spouse.

 Or you’re house drinker (you like drinking alone in the comfort of your own home), and you didn’t buy alcohol all week, but it’s Friday night and you are itching to go to your regular liquor store.

These are the moments that not drinking alcohol is going to be difficult! and that’s okay. that is expected. You still want to stick to your commitment. Have a steel trap around your mind and be mindful of going to places with people you KNOW you are going to drink with! Of course, that is best case scenario, and we want to be prepared for ALL the scenarios that comes with life and getting sober.

But what if you didn’t stick to your commitment and ended up going out and drinking? What then?

I am going to say this happens A LOT with alcohol! Because alcohol is so normalized and social, this is a COMMON scenario you are going to run into!

And here is what I am going to tell you:

IT IS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD IF YOU DRINK ALCOHOL AGAIN!

You will have thoughts saying you are a failure, go into negative self talk, laying on the couch the next day wondering why the hell you went and did that, and then the shame and guilt hits you like a brick wall! I know all the ways these sneaky, dark thoughts can come in.

Of course you want to quit it! But, you also don’t want to berate yourself, have negative self-talk, feel guilty for drinking, and go into a shame spiral you can’t get yourself out of. That will create more cravings for alcohol, because you will be in such a low mood. The one thing you don’t want or need!

What I want you to do is, LEARN from this experience! Everything is a learning experience, remember that.

I know the other methods of sobriety healing like AA or 12 steps would say you are starting over (and in a passive aggressive way) tell you, you failed.

I don’t take that approach!

I encourage you to look at the situation with objectivity. Start meditating on the situation without judging yourself. SOMETHING happened, it is why you drank alcohol.

What happened right before you decided to drink? Who were you talking to? Was it a certain day of the week that is triggering you to want to go out and celebrate, like Friday or Saturday night? Was it the event you went to and you wanted to party and let loose? Did something stressful at work happen and all you wanted to do was get home and pour yourself a glass of wine?

We are quitting the negative self talk when things don’t go as you planned! I ‘planned’ to quit alcohol for good. That was what I told myself my goal was. But then life happened and I did drink again! I had jarring information shown to me about my healing, I was invited on family vacations I didn’t passed up because I wanted to ‘hang out’ with everyone, I had things I still needed to heal! What drinking alcohol again at times showed me: I had more healing to do.

THAT IS IT!

I never once thought this was going to stop me from getting sober. I always saw myself sober! I knew the day would come when alcohol would be a thing of my past.. and here I am alcohol free for 7 years now!

It’s just how the healing goes. You have to give yourself time to be in that BUFFER ZONE of deciding to quit alcohol - taking that time to heal that unhealthy habit - to begin completely done with alcohol for good! Where you never crave or want it again. And that time WILL come!

I luckily saw the positives when I was quitting alcohol. I would go months without drinking and that was a win for me! I felt better, I was loving what I was doing, like taking care of my mental and physical health, and not waking up hungover. That was awesome!

But then life through me situations (while quitting) that were apart of my old life and I was still figuring that out. I was invited on not one, but two family vacations and both times I drank alcohol!

What I saw that second time was, I didn’t need to put myself in that situation anymore! Alcohol was something I was still trying not to drink, so to go on a family vacation with a bunch of drinkers was not the smartest decision on my part.

I was like, “Okay… Not doing that anymore!” I was learning from my own situations. I knew what DID NOT WORK for me anymore. The new me - she didn’t drink on vacations and get wasted anymore. I just was finding that out as I went. Years ago? Yeah, I went to Brazil and got wasted the whole week I was there. But now? That is not the person I am now. We can change who we are whenever we want to! That is for you to decide WHO YOU WANT TO BE!

You are also quitting alcohol in the ‘real world’. You are not in an enclosed, rehab facility where literally everyone to be sober! No one’s drinking in there, and you don’t have people asking you to go out and ‘have fun’ with alcohol. Most drinkers are use to that lifestyle! It’s what we do before we decide to quit drinking.

In the real world (which we are all living in), it’s a different story quitting alcohol! I do whole heartily believe that quitting alcohol in your regularly environment and home is a MASSIVE blessing, because once you are done with alcohol, there is NOTHING that can get between you and that healing! You have dealt with living in your ‘everyday’ life AND quit alcohol for good!

You have your boundaries down, deal with stress in a healthy sober way, don’t have urges to drink anymore… that is going to be your sweet spot!

 But you got to do the work to get there.

If you look at it in the bigger picture, it is not the end of the world if you drink alcohol again! You are just healing. That’s it! It takes effort, time, practice, consistency, and dedication to not drink alcohol anymore.

That is what you are doing when these moments arise! You are still healing and on the road to sobriety!

Every time you say “NO” to drinking alcohol, that is a win!

You will also have a much faster recovery when you take this light-hearted approach. You won’t be so hard on yourself or rigid, and that makes the “I can’t have it” energy go away.

You know when we can’t have something we want it even more? Yeah, that is a real thing! You just tell yourself you can do whatever you want, you just don’t want to wake up hungover and feel like garbage anymore! It’s a choice you are making for yourself, rather than depriving yourself of something you really want.

So when you make that first conscious thought of, “I am going to quit drinking alcohol and get sober” whether you drink ten more times or none at all, you are still getting sober!

Don’t compare to other people’s journey, don’t listen to the noise that says you relapsed, don’t listen to your own judgements when that voice in your head said you failed or can’t do this healing, and don’t ever let anyone in your life convince you that all the work you put in is for nothing because you drank alcohol again!

 Nope. That is so not true!

You have put in a massive amount of work; you are trying to better yourself and get sober. Maybe you haven’t even started getting sober, and this blog is taking a lot of pressure off of the ‘seemingly’ daunting task of thinking sobriety is hard. It is much easier to get sober when you don’t feel you have to be perfect at it.

It’s about you being a better, healthier version of YOURSELF. That is all that counts!

The only thing this sobriety healing is going to do for you is get you feeling a lot more connected to yourself and have way more energy! It is a WIN - WIN situation for you!

Are you ready to start your road to freedom and get sober?! Try my ‘Sober for an Hour’ 7-day Challenge to get started today!

 Have a beautiful, light filled day ladies!

Love,

Mahina