Dry January - A Reflection

So we're at the end of January, a month when traditionally many of us pledge to be DRY for 31 days.

At the beginning of January I always like to encourage those I love to do a bit of a body check and I do it too. How am I feeling, what are my aches and pains, how am I sleeping at night, am I feeling in control mentally or am I a bit scattered, have I had a re-occurring health issue that repeatedly raises it's ugly head, how strong are my nails, do my eyes look bright?

These sorts of questions always spark more questions, so I sit and journal the questions and the answers for 20 minutes or so as a marker to reflect on. 

With January being a time of year when

• we make pledges for better health. When we make ourselves promises to keep up the good work after our detox from the over indulgences of the festive season,
• we've spent the month clearing out our systems, adding in much needed nutrients, vitamins and minerals to repair, energise and invigorate,
• we may have done some work on our mental health. Asking ourselves what we want from 2020, where do we want to be in 12 months time, what do we want to have celebrated with our family and friends through out the year? Made promises to take more care of ourselves this year and implemented a self care regime or started a new exercise plan

by the end of Dry January if we have opted to take a break from the booze things should look really different when we reflect back and ask ourselves the same questions.

Now I consider myself a mindful drinker so Dry January was a pretty challenge free event for me but the over indulgences of Christmas have still played on my health....way to much chocolate, way too many lunches out  and defiantly waaaayyyy too much cheese - I wasn't convinced there was such a thing but apparently there is, shock horror!!

So even if you're not a heavy drinker this is still a really good exercise to do to reflect on how your body is feeling. Even if you didn't do it at the beginning of January you can usually remember how you were feeling and compare it to how you feel today.

So now it's time to think about the plan for February being as you've gone to all the effort and taken so much care to get into shape? 

You may know some dry January participants that will have been looking forward to the end of the month so they can 'get back on it' or 'end the suffering'. Many that will have set the 31st of January as a target to reach using just willpower alone and will have struggled as a result. Unfortunately having a target often becomes THE target that we count down to and become more desperate the closer we get to it.

My hope is that as a friend of Mindful Sips you will have used all our resources we made available to help you progress through January, learning about your drinking habits as well as setting yourself up with new ways and thoughts about your future. If you choose to do the exercise above asking yourself a set of questions you will see the amazing progress you have made in just 31 days; you could make this a habit to do a review at the beginning of every month and compare it to the last to see what has improved so you can see a real transformation as you journey into a life of being a more mindful drinker. Maybe you're considering extending your dry spell.

Whatever your mindful drinking decisions, take the time to congratulate yourself on the changes you have made and make a few promises to yourself about moving forward in February. Write them down somewhere you can see them or turn them into a daily affirmation.

As luck would have it, the 1st of February is a Saturday so you can celebrate all your wonderful January achievements in style and brag about how well you've done to your friends and family.

Whatever you have achieved, however hard you've tried, whether you stuck to your goals or had to be a little more flexible due to unexpected events, every step you took, big or small, all count towards a more positive future and you deserve to congratulate yourself and celebrate........Mindfully, of course!

With Love

Claire x