Gratitude

Some mornings I wake up inexplicably happy to be sober - still, after 12 years! Just a big burst of happy feelings and gratitide. 

There’s a lot of talk about gratitude and how beneficial it is to practice regularly. Gratitude is all about turning the mind away from its natural negative-biassed 'alert mode' ('what problems do I need to fend off?') and toward a positively biassed 'appreciative mode' ('what do I have in place that is good?'). So, in the spirit of gratitude, here is a list of some of the reasons why I love being sober….

* I feel like I crawled out of the dark cave I was in all my adult life where I drank alcohol all the time and never developed any proper strategies to deal with emotional shit, and now I’m standing tall, awake to myself and the world for real now.

* Whenever I get through a tough time and have to do some proper emotional work to deal with things (e.g. listening to Tara rather than drinking crap-loads of wine) I feel incredibly better resolved about the thing I was dealing with.

* I have removed a ginormous area of concern from my life and now don’t have to waste any mental energy worrying or feeling guilty about my alcohol intake.

* I can rest easy that, if nothing else, I am bringing up my sons to have a full understanding of alcohol and all it’s affects, so that they can move into adulthood making their own choices with full awareness and knowledge.

* I have more money to spend on fresh flowers, fancy green teas, in second hand shops & at the deli (and I’ll never feel guilty about any of my purchases!)

* I sleep better, I cook better, I read better, I concentrate better, I sing better, I dance better, I listen better, I hug better, I clean better, I write better, I am better.

I am a better person sober than I was as a person boozing.

How about you?

Love, Mrs D xxx