Author: melisajohnson

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The end of 2019 I started seeing a trend with drinking and I didn’t like how it was making me feel or what I saw it do to others. Now I didn’t drink much but had 5-6 drinks per week. I had gained weight not just from drinking the empty calories, but by making poor food choices along with the drinking.

I was going to go the month of January without alcohol. What surprised me was the will power it took. It is so engrained in our lives that it is what you do at the end of a bad day, how you celebrate good news, a way to pass time… The month of January was a battle to try and not drink, which really worried me.

This got me to doing some research and a friend had used a program called No Beer One Year. It is program run from Scotland and its members are mainly in the UK, but they have an online program. I signed up for 90 days, not knowing what I got myself into. The group chats have been really scary, with people talking about drinking bottles of wine or 8-10 pints nightly (it made me realize I didn’t drink much at all). But it has taught me to change my habits. When I have a bad day at work, going to the gym or for a run makes me feel better. I have lost 10 lb this year so far just by making these changes.

I have to say I am finally feeling better and so much stronger. I don’t have any desire to drink and I have managed several social and work events without drinking! Below is an excerpt from one of our daily emails.

The biggest challenge with creating any positive change in your life is breaking old habits… it’s no different when you’re trying to stop the drink.

Maybe it’s resisting the glass of red that calms your stress levels after work, or trying to avoid the weekend binge that leaves you feeling slow and sluggish.

Just removing alcohol from your cupboards and fridges isn’t going to have a lasting effect. It’s more of a cover up and thats why the majority of people cave in to their temptations so quickly.

The real key is to break those old habits and create new, more powerful ones… rewire your whole relationship with drink so it is no longer a crutch to you.

Not giving it up forever, but regaining control over how and why you consume it

I subscribe to a becoming minimalist newsletter and this mornings really hit home. I think most people could benefit from a do nothing day. Below is an excerpt from the email:

Doing nothing. The mere thought gives you a sudden twitch, right?

Me too, my friend, but despite the twitch, I would like to make a proposal: for one day out of each week, you do absolutely nothing. This doesn’t mean you don’t go anywhere, or just sit on your couch and stare at the wall. It means, simply, that you clear your calendar and make space for what could happen.

You remove any social obligations, you let projects sit idle, you turn off your notifications, and you simply take a day to just be.

Recently I heard someone say if you want to see where your priorities really lie, look at two things: your calendar and your bank statement.

If you believe your priorities are what truly matters to you, look no further than those two places to confirm or deny your hunch.

The “Do Nothing” Day

Let’s do an experiment. Take a look at your calendar, and take an inventory with me. How much of it is work related? How much of it is spent in social engagements? With family? Doing hobbies? Self improvement?

And how much white space do you see?

We have become a culture that is severely uncomfortable with white space. We don’t like being left alone with ourselves, and that’s because it’s not always fun.

We then have to face our true feelings, our negative emotions, our relational drama, and figure out what to do with it. It is much easier to simply turn on the TV, check our phones, and continue numbing.

We are terrified of silence, of nothing on the agenda—who are we without these things to hold us up, to give us significance?

We pack our schedules full, hoping that will keep us from stopping long enough to notice our inner lives are in great need of attention. The essence of simplifying your life is recognizing you have intrinsic value by simply being.

You matter, your life matters, and you have worth. Period.

You matter without the stuff, without the outside approval and conferred significance, without the career, the projects, the friends, without anything.

Just. You.

It takes the absence of an agenda to really learn yourself. It takes quiet. It takes room. It takes time. But everything in the world is going to fight you for it.

Learning to be comfortable with a “do nothing” day isn’t going to come easily. It is hard work, but it is work worth doing.

So today, look at your calendar. What can you say no to, just this time around? If there is a colored notification on each day, which of those can you clear out? Which day can hold some white space, some possibility, some openness?