Do It For You
I hear so many people say “I wish I could give up drinking” or smoking, or eating junk food or whatever else it may be. But they don’t. Why? (JFDI!)
It’s a relentless cycle of social pressure combined with their own desire to change their habitual ways. They want to stop something, for 30 days or 6 months or however long it may be, but more often than not, something ‘social’ comes up in the calendar and they just think “Ah no, it’s John’s 50th, I can’t do it now.”
With all due respect, bugger John, he doesn’t care if you’re drinking alcohol or not, he just cares that you are attending his birthday bash and going to pull his party popper! (That’s not a euphemism).
“Hey up love, do you remember when I was thinking about stopping alcohol right before John’s 50th?”
“Yes Dave, I do, and he’s now almost 60 and you’ve done sweet FA about it!”
Poof! And just like that, the moment for Dave has gone, and he continues his everyday life, what was once a real determination to make a stance and stop something to challenge himself, is now just a passing memory, a distant thought and something which more often than not won’t be discussed for a long time with his lovely wife, let’s call her Beverley.
If you’re from Yorkshire and reading this, please note there are no intentional negative aspersions being cast on people from your neck of the woods or ‘tup North’. Neither am I insinuating you have any form of problem with alcohol.
Laugh about the little story above, but in all seriousness, if you want to stop something, do it, there is NOTHING stopping you.
Northern Rambling
Okay, even I will admit I started to go off on a tangent about fictional Dave and his lovely wife Beverley.
My point, is that even challenging. yourself for a few weeks or 30 days can improve your mental health, especially if you are abstaining from something which you are consuming too much of in the first place, i.e. alcohol.
It’s very easy to get sucked into the daily routine:
-
- Wake up
- Walk the dog
- Work for 8 hours
- Come home
- Have tea/dinner
- Have a couple of beers/wines
- Bed
Breaking that cycle of consistent alcohol intake can do wonders for your mental health, also your general health. If we gentle brush over the psychology of it, resisting the temptation to do something which you are craving, can boost your overall will power, ability to say no (when’s it difficult to) and your awareness of consumption of ‘bad’ things.
Go on, give it a go for our Dave & Bev (Yorkshire accent required!).