I mentioned in my last post My Dry August that since my month-long no alcohol challenge yielded so many benefits that I decided to do 100 days to see what else might happen. I can tell you, it was mostly more of the same that I already shared but with one big difference!
During those 100 Days last Fall, I decided to make my decades-long dream of becoming a yoga instructor a reality. I knew I wanted to be a yoga teacher shortly after I began practicing back in 2000 but I wasn’t sure if I had what it takes. The fact that I was 23 years older than when I started didn’t help either. You may be wondering what being on a break from alcohol had to do with my decision to finally go for my dream.
It comes down to this-I believe that my nightly glass of wine was making it easier to NOT do things I knew I wanted to do. There are a number of reasons why but I think the most important is that alcohol helps us stay comfortably in our comfort zone. Life can be really hard. Taking on new challenges doesn’t make it any easier, at least not in the short term.
It’s so much simpler and more comfortable to veg out in front of the TV at the end of the day than it is to pursue something meaningful. Alcohol, even one glass, helped me to set aside the nagging feeling that I could be doing something better and with purpose. I think it makes it easy to choose to do nothing.
After being alcohol-free for a month, I was in a yoga class and thought to myself, “I could do this. I want to do this! I am going to do this!” The very next day I signed up for a yoga teacher training program before I could talk myself out of it. Obviously, not drinking alcohol wasn’t the only reason I finally went for it but it helped. For one thing, I wouldn’t have been in the yoga class where I had the epiphany if I had wine with dinner that night. I also felt better than I had in a long time. I found the courage to follow through and I don’t believe I would have if I had been indulging in my nightly cup of comfort.
You may be wondering if I started drinking again after I completed the 100 Day Challenge. I did during the holidays and I enjoyed it but not as much as I used to. So, I decided to stop again on January 1st for six months to see what happened. I have since completed my Yoga Teacher Training Program and will begin teaching my own weekly class next month. I am also working on some other projects that I’m excited about.
Will I continue the challenge when the six months are up? I don’t know yet. It might be interesting to continue until my birthday or even go the whole year and compare it to last year. Stay tuned!