Doing Dry January with Joy

Doing dry January

Dry January is a wonderful opportunity that can be so much more than giving up booze for a month.

Approaching it from a mindset of lack is doing yourself a disservice. When we give something up it’s natural to feel something is missing, it’s the thoughts we choose to think when we feel that feeling that makes a difference to the actions we take.

Have you defined your “Why”?

Your why is your purpose, it’s what you value and your beliefs. Doing dry January because you over indulged in December, or because it’s the thing that people do and you think you should do it too is not very inspiring or motivating for you.

With every dry day that passes fully acknowledge that you are valuing your health, your time, your energy and congratulate yourself for doing that. This will make you feel good and make the month a more enjoyable experience. It could even change your drinking habits in the longer term if you really get into feeling good about your achievement.

If you find yourself feeling bored and thinking thoughts like “only X number of days to go before I can have a drink” do a U-turn with your thoughts. Switch your thoughts to why it’s been worth it so far. It’s very likely you will be sleeping better for one thing, and sleeping better gives you more mental clarity which makes you more productive. Look at how you can work that to your advantage, it will give you more time, what can you do with that time which will give you a positive benefit in your life?

There are always things in our lives that we have been meaning to do for the last 6 months but somehow, we don’t get around to it. Having more time and more energy is the perfect time to get around to doing those things. This will again make you feel really good about yourself and it will distract you in a positive way from feeling bored.

If you’re someone who likes to reward themselves with a drink to de-stress or let go of the day, then get creative as this is something that needs replacing otherwise you will miss that drink and crave it. You may be thinking “It’s only for another couple of weeks”, that’s a mindset of lack or deprivation which invites the belief that you need a drink to feel better in some way, and that’s not actually true. What you need is a release from that stressful feeling or to let go of the challenges of daily life, and there are many ways to do this that isn’t an alcoholic drink. If you can disassociate an alcoholic drink with feeling better in some way you will change your whole belief pattern way past dry January.

My own dry January’s only used to last a couple of weeks. I never made it to the end of the month. I got bored and thought about what I was missing rather that what I was gaining (lack mindset). However, when I changed my perception around alcohol everything changed, and I felt so good I actually quit for good. I’m not suggesting quitting for good, though you might when you discover how amazing you can feel.

What I’m inviting you to do is ask yourself “how can I make dry January the most fun and fulfilling month of new discoveries”?

I’m going on radio Sheffield this Tuesday at 2.30 to talk about this so do tune in if you’re around. I’m also going to send out an email tomorrow with a few extra tips to help you enjoy the rest of dry January, whether you are doing it already or want to jump in now. If you’re on my email list then watch out for it tomorrow evening, if you’re not on the list then click on this link to get signed up HERE

If you would like to discuss living a more sober lifestyle (you don’t have to give up drinking completely) then please get in touch jaynespenceleywellbeing@gmail.com and we can have a complementary discovery call. I can help you change any habits around alcohol that you’re not at peace with and help you make a personal plan so you enjoy your life with less or no alcohol

Enjoy the rest of your month