Get Mindful

Practicing mindfulness can feel overwhelming if it’s new. If you’re in autopilot and sort of rushing through life, the idea of having a moment-to-moment awareness of one’s experience without judgment seems impossible.

Start small!! Especially if it’s a new practice for you. Cultivating mindfulness truly requires practice and patience. A great way to sink your toes into living more mindfully—which helps so much with quitting drinking—is a basic meditation practice.

I’ve been meditating for a couple of years now, but I wasn’t making it a daily priority until March of this year. About two weeks after I stopped drinking for good I realized the mornings that I was meditating I felt really good and sitting in the stillness felt really freaking good. It felt very supportive to my whole being and I was proud of myself for nourishing my body. It was a great way to spend time that I didn’t think I had when I was drinking. For the first time ever, I downloaded a meditation app and found out that it counts your daily streak and I have not broken it!! I have meditated morning and night for 168 days!

So many of us drink to decompress or numb from the day. I certainly did! For years I declared “I deserve this! I worked so hard today!” as I poured my nightly wine. But this never actually allowed my body and mind to reset and get true rest. I was going through the motions day in and day out and never actually processed or let myself feel my feelings. I drank them down with the wine. Getting still and getting mindful about what I was thinking and feeling throughout the day, every day is what opened the door for me to actually step into real feelings of inner peace, clarity, and feeling restored in my body.

I truly believe in my alcohol-free journey I wouldn’t have felt so much ease and flow without learning to be mindful about what I was doing day-to-day. Meditation is absolutely a practice that you have to work on to get better at. Years ago it felt incredibly hard to get started. But it is worth a try because it will do wonders in supporting you on an alcohol-free journey.

If it’s brand new and you’ve never attempted to meditate, try sitting still, closing your eyes, and taking some deep breaths in through your nose and out your mouth for just a couple of minutes. Start at even 1 minute if it feels hard. Google ‘meditation’ and you’ll get endless results on ways of doing it and how to get started. But just sitting still and breathing deeply for a minute is meditation and it’s all you need to sink your toes in.

Guided meditation is what really solidified my practice this year. Have a Spotify account? There are so many awesome meditations and styles available. And starting at five minutes is good enough! Some of my personal faves are Molly’s Magical Mornings, Purely Being Guided Meditation, and Meditation Mountain. YouTube is a great option for guided meditations as well. Find one that speaks to you, press play, and give it a try!