Sober Spring
Alcohol GuidanceOne of the reasons Dry January is such a runaway success with millions of Brits is that it gives us a go-to reason for not drinking.
'No ta, I'm doing Dry Jan' is the perfect way to shut down wine-pushing at a dinner party, a colleague with a tray of Jaegerbombs, or that friend who desperately wants you to 'just have one' in the pub.
'Because Dry January' is the perfect get-out-of-explaining-free card. You don't have to answer probing questions like 'So, do you have a problem with alcohol?' or 'Whyever would you want to not drink?!' It is a genius idea that has helped millions of Brits each year to change their drinking for the better. 72% of people who attempt a Dry January had lower alcohol AUDIT scores than they did pre-January six months later.
But for some of us, a month isn’t enough.
Spring is the perfect season for not drinking. It's the season of renewal, fresh starts and hope. Are you up for losing your booze-jacket, as well as your actual jacket? If you had a Wet February and find yourself wanting to swerve the bottle for a longer stint, it's the perfect opportunity. 'Because Sober Spring' will get drink-pushers off your back.
Why could three months off change your drinking forever? When we've been habitually drinking for one, two, even three decades, we have an entrenched 'drinking' neural pathway in the brain. When we stop drinking, we need to forge a brand new 'sober' neural pathway. That takes time. Which is why it gets a lot, lot easier in the third month of being alcohol-free. Automatic, even.
Sober Spring means you will get a chance to truly reap the benefits of an alcohol-free body
Once you've bedded in the new habit of being alcohol-free, once you've learnt the art of socialising, de-stressing and dating sober, hopefully drinking will then feel more like a choice rather than a necessity.
Or you may find that you don't want to ever go back to drinking. Once you've seen both ways of life, you get to decide. So, why not give it a whirl? What have you got to lose? I've found that 'stone-cold sober' is a totally untrue description of alcohol-freedom. 'Sunshine-warm sober' is spot-on, however. Try a Sober Spring to see how it feels. Here comes the sun!