I've set myself the challenge of Dry January this year for the first time ever. I've never considered myself a big drinker; Saturday night at our 87 year old neighbours house with 2 G&Ts is about the biggest drinking night out in my social calendar, although she does know how to pour a 'stiff' Gin! So it's never really seemed like a worthy challenge but this year I decided that if it wasn't a big deal then it would be easy to do so what was stopping me?
Well we are 18 days in and I can tell you that no month in the history of my adult life has gone so slowly! I cannot believe that we are not in March already and I still have 13 nights to go. I might not drink in large quantities but a glass of wine at the end of the working day has become very much a norm for me and I am amazed at how long it is taking me to break that habit.
I'm sort of relishing the pain because the harder it is, the more I need to do it and the more I have to learn about myself from doing it. But it's also making me consider what other things in my life I rely on and would be beneficial to question and turn back into a luxury rather than a habit.
Luxuries are a blessing that few people in the world have the benefit of experiencing and I feel very blessed to have the money and the resources to enjoy so many and a lovely bottle of wine definitely comes into that category. But it is all too easy to overindulge in those luxuries. Periods or abstinence and reflection can be a really productive thing for all of us. So Dry January will be a regular fixture of my annual calendar but so will a good quality glass of white
wine of 1st Feb!
