Things are going well here for me in my housewifey sober life. I am busy - the whole family is - but it doesn't feel out of control.
I've been doing this mindfulness course through a great book and am blogging about it daily on my new blog called 'Mrs D Is Going Within'.
Maybe one day I'll start writing a blog called 'Mrs D Is Sugar Free' but I can't see that happening! I try hard to control sugar intake and manage to most of the time. Occasionally I have a binge (usually when I'm in a funk, no surprises there).. but I can recover from it pretty quickly.
If nothing else I am definitely very mindful about when I am going hard at the sugar! That's a step in the right direction isn't it?!
About to head away for our annual big extended family Easter holiday extravaganza in a remote isolated place. I'm really looking forward to it ... but it definitely does present as a wee bit of a challenge for me as I am the only sober person in the extended family. I've just written a long post about this on Living Sober. You can see it here.
But in general I am feeling calm and good.
I am still utterly delighted and grateful that I recognised booze was a problem for me and worked bloody hard to get it out of my life.
And I am still endlessly fascinated how things shift and change the longer I am sober. It was very noticeable to me after I reached 3 years in recovery that a new set of challenges were presenting themselves. I was starting to experience low-grade anxiety, found myself getting caught in thinking-loops about stuff that was tricky to navigate, and some of my parenting was less-than-calm.
Maybe this was because I wasn't so busy working on my sobriety. Maybe this was because parenting three boisterous boys would be challenging for even the best zen-master! Or maybe this was just something many of us develop in later life (and particularly women as menopause approaches).
I'll never know. But now I find myself delving into mindfulness meditation and it feels so bloody good.
I have a LONG way to go and a lot of practice to do but I'm committed.
Only sobriety would have bought me to this place. I'm grateful, I know Mr D is grateful, and without knowing it our sons are probably grateful too.
In my humble opinion there is nothing bad that can come from getting sober. And so much that is good.
Happy Easter and go easy on the chocolate!! I'm going to try to anyway...
Love, Mrs D xxx
I had a professor in grad school that was in 20+ years of recovery who swore up and down that mindfulness meditation was the best gift one could themselves. I filed that away and learned a lot about how to teach it to others in my career. I hadn't even given him a thought until just now and reading your post. I am struggling to find time for me and know that I must give my sobriety top priority. Have been reading blogs, blogging myself, reading the big book, quietly reflecting, and listening to podcasts. There have been nights that I have been exhausted yet forced an hour upon myself to do these things. Perhaps MM is just the thing I need to ensure I am still getting the rest I need yet also still "doing the work". What is the book you are reading? Thanks for this post!
ReplyDelete"Maybe one day I'll start writing a blog called 'Mrs D Is Sugar Free' but I can't see that happening!" Oh, thank you! This made me smile, laugh... and all of the above! I can very much relate!!! :) Thanks for the entire share... all your posts, your blog! Love.
ReplyDeleteyou know that saying when the student is ready the teacher will come......well you post came at just the right time for me. I've been doing some struggle and not really understanding why, [it's not all about the booze and I am happily sober], but am now aware that I have not been meditating for ages and one of the things I've loved about being sober is going in and getting in touch with myself and developing myself further spirituality and I've not been attending to this part of me hence I think my flat lining.
ReplyDeleteGood post, a timely reminder.
I'm also finding that a daily mindfulness meditation practice is helping me enormously and I can feel myself changing again. This recovery journey is like one big HUGE metamorphosis!! :) xx
ReplyDeleteCongrats on all your hard work! Sobriety keeps getting easier, and mindfulness meditation has really helped me too. I'm determined to keep at it and not be too judgmental about my rudimentary abilities. :) Good work!
ReplyDeleteI have tried mindfulness before but didn't get very far. Drinking and mindfulness are probably polar opposites so perhaps that's not surprising. This day 16 for me and a lot of sober blogs recommend mindfulness so perhaps it's time I gave it another go. Flossie x
ReplyDeleteYou think we'll ever be perfect? I hope not, then what we have to gnosh about. I am on day 1 of weaning off of aspartame, I have been drinking it at lethal levels for years. Have had panic attacks for years to, but linked them to my drinking. Stopped drinking, but the panic attacks remained and lately have started getting worse, so I finally decided to believe what everyone has been telling me for years about my 3 liter a day Diet Coke habit and have decided to kick it. But it pisses me off. I've already given up the one thing I really, really loved, i.e. booze, now this? Don't miss booze, someday I probably won't miss Diet Coke, but it begs the question, What next?
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