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I Want to Stop Drinking Alcohol | Make Yourself a Priority | SDA29

by | Stop Drinking Alcohol, Year One | 0 comments

All Time Low

I feel great. Took my blood pressure on one of those home gadgets and It’s never been so good. I know they’re not the best for accuracy, but over time they show generalised increases or decreases. I’m not sure how much of that is quitting drinking and how much is due to my overall change in lifestyle and diet. It makes no difference. One leads into another I think. Quitting drinking gives you the time and energy to focus more on yourself and your needs. Once you feel the great effects of being poison free you’ll want to continue with the new version of you, see how far you can go, how healthy you can really get.

I’ve changed my diet a lot over the past few weeks, trying to eat healthier. My weight has been going up and down a lot but I feel good. The heat is really climbing over the past few weeks; we’re touching 40 degrees this morning, so it’s hard to get anything done. A lot of Spaniards take as much time off as they can around this month; I think I’ll do the same.

I got a question the other day about which books I would recommend.

The book I would recommend for alcohol is Alan Carr’s ‘Easy way to control alcohol’. He dispels all the illusions that we have about alcohol from the pleasures that we supposedly get from drinking to the benefits of taking the odd one. There’s a section at the back that I used as affirmations for the first two or three months after I quit. It’s really helpful to say these things over and over to yourself, or even write them down once or twice a day until they get stuck in your head.

Ding Dong The Witch is Dead

One of my favourites was “Don’t mourn the death of an enemy. Rejoice the bastard is dead.” (The last part is mine!)

Your Conviction To Quit Drinking - Whole T Colin Campbell

Whole – T. Colin Campbell

On overall health I would recommend the book ‘Whole – Rethinking the science of nutrition’ by T. Colin Campbell. Dr Campbell talks about the benefits of a whole foods plant based diet. I love this book. Not only is there proper research, done over many many years, it also makes perfect sense to me.

Your Conviction To Quit Drinking - Tuesdays With Morrie

Tuesdays With Morrie

And a book that I would recommend to anyone who’s feeling sorry for themselves is ‘Tuesday’s with Morrie’ by Mitch Albom. My little sis has my copy, but she doesn’t like giving my books back. I’ll have to start charging her late fees as my books are dimishing and her library is getting larger by the week!

Tuesdays with Morrie is an account of the author’s Tuesday mornings spent in the company of his old teacher Morrie Schwartz who is dying slowly of an incurable disease. They are what he calls his “lessons in how to live”. It’s a great book if you think that something is missing in your life.

The Conviction to Give Up Drinking Alcohol!

Do you have the conviction to succeed, to give up drinking? It all boils down to your state of mind. If you don’t believe you can quit, you won’t. You have to hold onto the conviction that you will give up drinking. It’s the one thing that’s going to get you through the difficult spells. And it must be a conviction based on the fact that you’re doing the right thing for yourself.

Like the flight attendant will tell you in case of a crash, look after yourself first. If you don’t think about yourself first when quitting you’ll find it harder to succeed.

Many people try to give up because of how their drinking is affecting the kids. Or maybe they’re afraid of losing their jobs. Your main focus must be you. You are giving up because you want to, because it’s good for you, because you are going to benefit. Not because you want to help someone else, or impress someone else, or make your wife and kids love you, or to make sure your boss doesn’t fire you. Those are all very noble reasons. But if you’re not giving up for you, if you still think that you are missing out on something, you’re screwed. You’ll be looking for reasons to quit your quit. You’ll blame others for your deprivation.

Make Yourself the Priority

If you don’t make yourself a priority who will? If you think anyone else will make you a priority, think again. They won’t. How can they? They’d need to be with you 24/7. You are the only one who can do it. You’re the only one who can put your needs first. Self-sabotage is something we all do. We put others needs before our own, we don’t look out for ourselves like we should, we don’t stand up for ourselves when we should.

Just because you make yourself a priority doesn’t mean you can’t help others, you can. Imagine how much more capable you are going to be of meeting the needs of those you love when you don’t fuck up your body with alcohol anymore!

I beat myself up for years about not being there for my kid. But that’s all it was. I was there. He’s a great lad. Everyone tells me I did a great job raising him despite everything that happened. And he still needs me. He’s 21 years old and having a good life with his mates. He doesn’t know what he wants to do in life yet, but who did at that age. He trusts me more now. He sees that I’m doing the right thing and he can look up to me again, just like he did when he was a kid.

Start making your own happiness a priority – Your needs matter. If you don’t value yourself, look out for yourself, and stick up for yourself, you’re always going to be sabotaging yourself. Remember, it IS possible to take care of your own needs while simultaneously caring for those around you. And once your needs are met, you will be far more capable of helping those who need you most.

Until next time…
Onwards and Upwards…
Kev

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Stop Drinking Alcohol Week 26
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