Sobriety, celebrations and traditions

On the face of it, sobriety, celebrations and traditions are difficult bedfellows.  Take a moment to think about the traditions that you are familiar with, and how many of them have an association to drinking. Births, deaths, marriages, new job, new house, Friday nights out, and that is before we get to the stuff such as New Years Eve and Christmas.

When you look at these things through the eyes of a committed drinker, it is potentially impossible to see how they can be enjoyable without booze - it is after all, a must have ingredient.

When I look at these things through my own eyes as a committed non-drinker, I just don’t focus on the alcohol element.  I focus on the reason for the tradition - the sadness of a loss, the huge joy of a new life, of new beginnings, or simply the excitement of seeing friends at the end of a long week.  

Christmas Day is a great and timely example.  I wake up early, feeling rested and energised.  I’m able to 100% focus on the joy of my kids opening their presents, 100% able to focus on enjoying delicious food, without any blurring of my thought processes or my senses.

Being sober means that you can engage with your feelings so much more readily, even the ones involving grief and loss.  What that means is that you can process and deal with anything more easily - you get to really feel the highs generated by an excited child on Christmas Day or the sadness of a loss.   But you also get to appreciate the fact that you can feel these things, and that in itself is joyful.

One definition of a tradition is “an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behaviour”   As humans we are blessed with determining our own our own patterns of thoughts, actions, and behaviours.  

SO… don’t be scared of creating your own traditions and retiring the ones that no longer serve you - a 5k run on Christmas morning because you can - yep - do it.  Going to bed at 10pm on NYE because you are tired and have a busy day the next day - do it.   Friday night drinks - go and feel great about leaving early and climbing into bed in clean PJ’s and waking up ready to smash the hell out of Saturday.  

It’s your life, live it as you want to.  Feel everything.  ❤️‍🔥