Sober Thanksgiving?

By Nicola

Although this article is meant for the freshly Sober, it’s, in fact, a fantastic message for ANYBODY searching for a more tranquil, healthier, and Sober Thanksgiving holiday season. It is also a terrific article to store in your quit drinking toolkit for any high-stress holiday scenario.

Enjoy and if you have any suggestions to incorporate of your own, feel free to slide them in the comments area underneath.

1. Enter into it recognizing you really are going to have a Sober Thanksgiving

This I can not emphasize enough. Drinking alcohol does not start with drinking. As all activities do, It starts with an idea.

A seed is cultivated in our thoughts, and our bodies perform the activity.

If you blow hot and cold as you enter into the holiday season about whether you are planning to consume alcohol, you are sowing the seed that you may, and for that reason, setting yourself up for some significant war of will, needless shame, and – probably – a not so Sober Thanksgiving.

The stamina to do originates from your undistracted choice.

So make up your mind right now by getting rid of the choice entirely and tell yourself you are not going to consume alcohol. Regardless of what happens.

2. Get fired up about it !!!!

Once you’ve made up your mind, get incredibly driven about it.

Even better, begin imagining yourself clear-headed and enjoying sparkling water as the remainder of your group ends up being intoxicated, and actually, EXPERIENCE the feeling of satisfaction in your restraint.

Picture the additional pieces of cake you can eat or whatever the heck it is you cut corners on.

Envision just how much MORE ATTRACTIVE and HEALTHY you’ll be.

Picture recalling the entire evening, what it will seem like to not be hung-over or bloated with the holiday weekend in front of you, and going back to work on Monday revitalized.

3. Get your Sober Thanksgiving toolkit ready.

Create a checklist of 5 things that assist you to deal with tension, keep you glad, and in your tranquility. Some of my favorites:

Jasmine oil or peppermint oil. When I feel overloaded or uneasy or detached or even miserable, I put a drop on my palms, massage my hands together, cup my nose, and breathe in intensely a couple of times.

Immediate state of mind transformation.

Use a lemon or lime based essential oil if the holiday season often gets you down (not everyone loves it). You can grab essential oils on Amazon.com or at health foods stores like Whole Foods.

Doing meditation is fantastic for getting away from a detrimental frame of mind, focusing, grounding, and also feeling more alive and awake.

Take Ten BIG breaths.

If you can regulate the breath, you can regulate the brain, and ten deep breaths can completely shift your state completely.

You may do this non-ceremoniously (such as while in line at a retail store and even at the table – simply breathe in for a count of 5 and breathe out for a count of 5), or you can locate a secluded nonpublic place and do this meditation style as follows.

Breath in through your nostrils for a count of 5, eyes shut and furled upwards to your pineal eye area preferably. Breath out of the mouth, letting out your breath to a count of 5. For extra freeing, stick your tongue out as you breathe out and make a noise, blasting out the negative feelings, the warmth, and the tension.

Amino Acid Comfort.

If you still feel stressed out, drop a GABA Calmness capsule under your tongue and let it melt. It’s essentially a relaxation capsule.

If you are yearning for booze or carbs or just seem like your entire nervous system is “begging”, open an L-Glutamine tablet and empty the contents underneath your tongue and let it melt.

4. Act like a vegetarian.

Keep in mind that you are a non-drinker, it’s a preference you have taken, and you are never bound to participate in conversations regarding your preference. You do not push it on other people or ask them why they consume alcohol, and you are never mandated to rationalize or clarify your decision.

You do not consume alcohol. End of story.

5. Be ready for the push back

Remain in your tranquility and potential by utilizing these 4 methods.

Keep in mind what anybody points out to you or how they behave towards you is NEVER about you. It has to do with them and their viewpoint of the environment, their opinions, their narrative. Your response to them – nevertheless – is about you.

Maintain concentration on that. It’s the only point you have command over.

Think about every person an angel.

I discussed this recently and it’s without a doubt one of the best devices in my toolkit. I think about every encounter as spiritual, a superb instruction created to assist me to grow in my own skin and space, and every individual an angel or messenger.

It really stops annoying Aunties and drunken Uncles from getting under your skin during the holiday season.

Be a witness.

After one especially trying holiday season where I LOST my crap, I waited in my counselor’s clinic totally worn down, zapped and weeping.

Asking when does this get less stressful?

I had worked so hard, I informed her. I had come so far, I said to her. How could it still be this unpleasant and even more, how could I have fallen back so much?

She considered me with a BIG gleaming grin and said “Congratulations. You just precisely experienced your first really sober Thanksgiving. You were aware of all the negative stuff that goes on when alcohol is involved”

Now let’s do something with it.

What she suggested was, by doing the work I had performed in my rehabilitation – while it didn’t stop disasters and disputes and friction then – it had presented me space and consideration and knowledge to see. To witness. To analyze. And now I could fix it.

I had transferred from auto-pilot to enabled, from careless participator to enabled witness.

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While things might be rough for you, and as long as your lifestyle (particularly the life that continues to thinks about you as a drinker/possibly a wreck) may not be caught up with the improvements you have developed, give yourself a breather on being flawless.

Just make sure to observe and watch, and then you can calibrate the next time around based upon what you found out.

Set SIGNIFICANT limits.

You do not have to participate in every discussion – you need to primarily look after yourself and your sobriety. Your own oxygen mask on first, right?

When a discussion starts heading down a road you do not wish to go, keep in mind you have the capability to withdraw – excuse yourself, alter the topic or even state “I’m not going to have that discussion.”

When a romantic relationship – Regardless Of HOW close or significant or developed or whatever – is doing more damage than good, pause from it.

To a few, I explained why I had quit drinking, to others I could not be bothered. Your wellness, your fitness, and your soberness are your business.

6. Reward Yourself.

Engage In MAXIMUM SELF CARE, and prepare a perk. Exceptional self-care is over and above essential – particularly throughout the holiday season where our eating routines go to crap, we’re taking a trip, out of our regimen, and potentially participating in demanding associations.

Stay hydrated, take hot baths, do tai-chi, keep your mindfulness process, set aside time to journal, read some good books, consume great meals, unwind and live life.

A reward is much more essential.

Strengthen the good you are doing by offering yourself a unique and substantial perk.

Book a weekend away, buy a brand-new tube of lip gloss, take yourself to the theatre, or perhaps even simply allow yourself a couple of hours in your PJs enjoying crappy series on Netflix.

Make a decision what it is now, and choose when you’ll do it, and put it in your diary along with a true Sober Thanksgiving.

Ready to have a Sober Thanksgiving?

Quitting drinking is the easy bit. Staying quit is a big challenge.

It only needs to be difficult if you insist on using willpower.

Follow the instructions of Craig Beck, The Stop Drinking Expert and you will have you first Sober Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year – and love every minute of it.

Click here for more information.

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