3 years

June 26, 2020 

Today, I celebrate 3 years of sobriety. It is an odd time to be celebrating sobriety (or anything, really). But I have to say I am thankful that I am sober. I can’t imagine spending most of my days at home trying to avoid or hiding drinking. There is a lot going on in the world and it would be far too easy to numb myself to it. No one wants to focus on uncomfortable or difficult situations most of the time. Right now there are more than ever. Everyone needs a healthy distraction sometimes. And if you are unemployed then you might have a lot of time to be distracted. I am fortunate that I have found healthy distractions. 

Many things have changed especially recently. Although the there have been some amazing and challenging things happening in the world, personally, the last 3 years have been a time of growth and positive change. I have listed many of those before but here are a few examples.  (Obviously, having more time due to shelter in place has helped recently but I’d be spending all this time differently if I had not stopped brewing and drinking) 

Meditation-although I started meditating before I was sober I didn’t develop a meaningful practice until recently. 20-30 minutes a day of meditation and usually some time listening to a master teacher to learn more. 

Diet-I have been vegan off and on for years. And when I 1st got sober I didn’t need 1 more restriction. But now that I have been sober for awhile I have been able to stick with vegan diet. Not looking for greasy, salty, food in a haze at 1am helps 🙂 

Exercise-although it isn’t strictly because I am sober, I have returned to mountain biking in a pretty big way. Selling the home brewery paid for a big portion of the mountain bike. And no hangovers has made it a lot easier to make early morning rides. And see below for the difference (that ride in 2018 took much longer and was much harder) 

There are many other benefits of being sober but that’s enough for now.  I hope that that if you or someone you know is struggling with alcohol you will reach out to me. I am happy to share more of my story. 

Every day is new. Today I am happy to be sober another day.