THE ART OF LIVING AN ALCOHOL-FREE LIFESTYLE

Tip: # 04 Try not to annoy anyone with your "aliveness"

The Art of Living an Alcohol-Free Lifestyle will be for all the consistent inquiries I receive on whether or not I will talk about alcohol again. Here’s the thing, everything I talk about stems from my choice not to drink alcohol. It just may not be that obvious. But I hear you, and I understand what you have been asking for.

So let's have some fun with it.

THE ART OF LIVING AN ALCOHOL-FREE LIFESTYLE

A series of one-off tips served with some straight talk, a bit of sass, and a penchant for not taking oneself or life too seriously.

Tip # 04: Try not to annoy anyone with your "aliveness"

Today’s tip was going to be something different, but when I got this text from my husband (with the larger-than-life personality), who is currently experiencing his first bachelor party as a non-drinker, I knew I had to dig into it.

I get it. Believe me, I am the first person to recognize that we should be able to share our “aliveness” with anyone and everyone as loud as we want, and if they don’t like it, well, tough shit. And this is certainly one way to look at it, and if you go all in on this way of thinking, don’t be surprised when your circle of friends starts to dwindle.

But for a moment, let’s look at it from another perspective. It’s not that hard for me to remember those god-awful mornings being hungover that I was so privy to. Imagine you are traveling with a bunch of friends, and one of them, who used to drink as heavily as everyone else, decides to stop drinking. Wonderful, applause, amazing, all the good vibes for her. But then imagine this same person needing to show how great she felt in a loud, obnoxious way. You are happy for her, but for some reason, she needs to go on and on about how much better life is without the thing that is still coursing through your body, the thing that may or may not make you run to the bathroom, that exact thing that is making you feel like utter crap.

It probably wouldn’t be all that fun to hear how wonderful someone feels when you are feeling so bad. Of course, your friend is not intentionally doing it to make you feel worse, but you can’t help but wonder what life would be like without this newly enthusiastic person in your life. How much more peaceful your self-sabotaging would be? You wouldn’t have to be reminded that feeling like shit isn’t normal just by her mere presence.

This example is extreme, but I know you know what I am talking about. Being around someone who talks non-stop about themselves and their new thing that has changed their lives for the better could be a bit of an energy suck. Even if we are truly happy for them.

I learned quickly not to be this jerk. I knew when someone was genuinely interested in hearing about my experience as a non-drinker and when they wanted nothing to do with my perspective. This was the beauty of creating The Sober Glow. I could go on and on about everything I was discovering and feeling, and the people who wanted to hear about it did so on their own terms.

But it was a different story in my real life with my real relationships. Not everyone wanted to hear about it, even if our friendship was tight. At first, it hurt a bit, but I learned that everyone has the right to do their own thing in their own way and certainly in their own time. Which may never be. And just because I found a drop of gold in being a non-drinker, not everyone would appreciate it the way I did, and I had to accept that or risk being ostracized by everyone in my life.

My friends now know I am always here if and when they want to talk about it. But more importantly, they can trust that I will never throw any of this lifestyle in their face.

If you are currently over the moon, dancing in the streets, and wanting to shout from the rooftop about how amazing this alcohol-free life is, and you don’t have anyone to share that enthusiasm with…you can ALWAYS SHARE IT WITH ME!!!!

Much love,

XX Mia

PS - For the upgraded subscribers of The Feel Good Studio, this weekend, I will be dropping the next topic we will be taking a deep dive into. This topic is another biggy that, unfortunately, is considered a bit taboo, and as soon as I started writing about it, I was quite taken aback to find tears flowing down my face. I took this as a sign that it’s exactly what I should be talking about.

I will also be sharing our next book pick as a companion of sorts to this conversation.