Dry January
Anna Pittard • 23 January 2019
Begin by focusing on the benefits
How to approach dry January?
How we approach a challenge will influence the outcome...
"Do you begin with a dread, a worry about how difficult this is going to be and how much you are not going to enjoy it? Or instead do you visualise what it is you hope to achieve and keep that in your mind?"
For any of you who decided to have a break from alcohol this month, now you’re almost at the end of January I wonder how you’ve found it?
So often, especially if it’s for a set period of time, such as a month, we spend the whole time counting down the days until we can drink again. It doesn’t help when you only need to turn on the radio to hear presenters laughing that surely no one is still doing dry January? Go on pour yourself drink! Almost from January 1st the pressure is on to go back to drinking. We are told that abstinence is boring and difficult, and most of the things we read or hear seem to confirm that.
Imagine if you saw an advert that claimed it could “help to improve your sleep, help you to feel energised and wake up feeling good, it could reduce your anxiety or help to relieve the symptoms of depression. It can make you less likely to crave high fat/sugar/salt content foods, it will probably lead to weight loss, give you clearer skin and improve your memory”. Is that something you would consider buying? If we have approached dry January realising that that is exactly what we are choosing to gain and that we are actually benefitting in lots of ways, it becomes something we are positively choosing to achieve, rather than something we are depriving ourselves of.
The secret to success for going alcohol free for however long is to look forward to the benefits. If we started off on January 1st believing we were missing out then we set ourselves up to fail - nobody wants to miss the fun. However by choosing to spend January hangover free you’re more likely to be having more fun because you have more time, more energy and more motivation.
I realise that the timing for this post might seem a bit late, because if you did choose to try dry January you’re either still going strong and almost at your goal, or you’ve given up on it. But whatever your situation it can help to consider what your approach has been so far and also consider how you approach any of life’s challenges.
Do you begin with a dread, a worry about how difficult this is going to be and how much you are not going to enjoy it? Or instead do you visualise what it is you hope to achieve and keep that in your mind?
As with anything in life, be it big important things or small chores around the house, If you begin by focusing on the benefits that you are going to experience you can maintain an optimistic approach which makes the task easier to undertake and more likely to result in success.
Anxiety affects the mind and the body If you experience anxiety, do you notice unpleasant feelings in your body? When our minds start worrying it leads to the production of stress hormones which affect our bodies, leading to ‘fight, flight, freeze’ responses. If I had described my anxiety when it was at its worst, I would have thought of it as the flight response, needing to get away. But I only ever actually ran away once. Usually, I would in fact freeze, rather than try to escape. I would hold my body tight and practically stop breathing. I just did the absolute minimum; tiny, shallow breaths. Whether this was in a meeting or in the pub, most likely no one even noticed, they had no idea of the turmoil I was experiencing. This is probably the experience of many people with anxiety. Often on the outside everything looks fine. I didn’t realise it at the time, but restricting my breathing was probably the worst thing I could do. It seems obvious now, but when you’re in it you just can’t seem to think rationally at all. Instead of keeping me safe, it made me dizzy and spaced out which just increased my anxiety. Anyone experiencing fight or flight responses may start breathing heavily and quickly which can also lead to dizziness and feeling spaced out, leading to even more anxiety. So, what’s the answer? It’s not the whole answer but a handy thing to keep in mind is to think, “how is my breathing?”. There’s a lot of talk about breathing and how we can use it to our advantage and it all sounds fascinating. I’m not an expert and there are many different techniques. Experimenting to find out what’s best for you could be really helpful. What many clients have found helpful is going back to basics. When we inhale, our heart rate rises slightly, whereas exhaling slows our heart rate slightly. So, if we breathe out for longer than we breathe in, and do that for a minute or two, it might well help us to feel calmer. If you’d like to try it out it’s good to be curious and experiment, see what length feels right for you. Some people breathe in for three and out for five, whereas others may breathe in for five and out for seven. It also depends on how quickly you’re counting. Everyone is different so it’s worth trying it out to see if it helps you, and adjust the speed depending on what feels right for you. When we are in the grips of ‘fight, flight, freeze’ it is very hard to think rationally, but if we give breathing some thought from time to time, we might be able to prevent or at least reduce some of the physical symptoms of anxiety. When we are thinking about our breathing it’s worth also considering how we use our voices. Speaking calmly is an indication that we are calm and is reassuring to our minds that everything is ok. So, as well as being mindful of how we are breathing, and perhaps slightly adjusting it if needed, we can also use our voices to help us to feel calmer and more in control. Often when anxious, we can speak quite quickly. So, being mindful of the speed we are speaking at allows us to include some small pauses or just slow our sentences down a little bit, which may also help us to feel more in control. So, as the sign says…”Take a big old breathe. Go on”, from time to time. Of course being mindful that breathing too deeply, too many times might make you a bit dizzy, so whatever makes you feel good, always at your own pace!
This post explains steps that we can take to improve our chances of success when we want to declutter
As my last blog post looked at the best way to start the day, it seems like a good idea to look at the other end of the day too and think about sleep.
