The word “dry” is unappealing isn’t it? Arid, featureless, desert. We’ve seen way too much of this sort of thing in the past couple of years.
Here’s the good news, you can call it what you like. Dry is just a word that has become associated with not drinking alcohol. I mean how did that happen? It disparages the whole idea of cleansing the intoxicants out of our lovely bodies after what is, for many people, a whole month of excess. Call it Cleansing January, Detoxing January (although that has a suggestion of the health industry doing a number on the alcohol industry).
“Step aside Big Alcohol, we’ll take it from here. You can have them back on 1st February, primed and ready to go. “
“Ok Health, but just for this one month. Meanwhile we’ll be stocking up and preparing them for party time!”
These industries are in the business of relieving you of your money and will stop at nothing to achieve that (see Annie Grace’s seminal This Naked Mind, 2018). You’ll get bombarded with images – even the charities encouraging you and benefiting from Dry January will use trays of frothy pints to remind you (and your donors!) of the massive sacrifice you’ll be making.
Find a support group where you will find people seeking the same goal as you, discovering what life can be like without regular doses of alcohol. Flip it on its head, reframe it from sacrifice to adventure, from denying yourself to giving yourself an opportunity for research amongst people who understand why this matters to you. Soberistas.com would be a very good place to start.
I suggest going into this with an open heart and an open mind. “Minds are like parachutes, they function better when open.” (sometimes attributed to Frank Zappa).
Good luck to you,
Namaste, Nana Treen xxx
Womanwalksintoasupermarket 