If you had been planning to embark on Dry January this year, your good intentions might have flown out of the window some time between hearing the phrase ‘Tier 4’ and frantically trying to find out if your kids’ school will be reopening this month.
I wouldn’t blame you: alcohol is a common coping mechanism for dealing with everything from stress and anxiety to loneliness and boredom, so it’s no surprise to learn that the stats show many of us drank more than ever in 2020. The trouble is that, although drinking numbs those negative feelings in the moment, alcohol is actually a depressant that depletes dopamine levels to the extent that the drinker needs more and more to get the same effect. Dopamine depletion is also associated with tiredness, anxiety, insomnia, low motivation and depression. NOT what you need right now.
So, if you feel that the first part of 2021 is going to be enough of a challenge without also trying to wean yourself off your G&T, then there is another way. Mindful Drinking is a more achievable goal than Dry January, because it takes the pressure off. Follow these tips and, you never know, you might actually prefer the less-alcohol you.
SET SOME RULES
Alcohol-free days are an important part of cutting back, so decide how many days a week you are going to allow yourself to drink. I generally go by the Rule of Three, so I have three drinking days each week, with no more than three drinks on those days. Keep track of your progress in an app like Dry Days or Drinkaware’s Track & Calculate Units.
DEFINE YOUR INCENTIVE
What are your reasons for wanting to drink less? Perhaps you want to improve your mood and have less anxiety. Maybe 2020 made you more aware of your physical health, and you want to improve your digestion and immunity. It could be that you want to lose weight and have clearer, firmer, glowier skin. Or maybe you simply want to save money. Whatever is your most powerful incentive, remind yourself of it every day.
KNOW YOURSELF
While many of us are drinking more than ever, interestingly, there has also been a rise in people stopping drinking altogether. This doesn’t mean that some people have adapted ‘better’ to a difficult year, or that they have more will power. It simply means that their triggers are different. Many people’s drinking danger zones are social situations, so they find it easy to drink less in a year of almost no IRL socialising (and they’ll struggle to control themselves once we’re all allowed out again). Maybe your danger zone is having a drink to unwind from work stress, perhaps it’s distracting yourself from loneliness or boredom, or it could simply be that you’ve got into the habit of opening a bottle of wine as a demarcation of the end of another day in lockdown. Whatever the reason, identify it and name it, then you can think of other ways to address it.
MAKE A LIST OF DRINK-FREE DISTRACTIONS
Feeling stressed? Turn some music up loud and have a kitchen disco to burn it off. Anxious? Call your mum or best friend to talk it through. Feeling overwhelmed with uncertainty? You can’t control the pandemic, but you can control what you do this evening, so make a healthy choice: have a bath, go for a run, read a book, watch a film – whatever makes you feel good without giving you a hangover.
MAKE IT INCONVENIENT TO DRINK
This sounds too simple to make any real difference but, honestly, human beings are lazy. Don’t keep alcohol in the house so that you have to go to the shop if you want it. Hide your corkscrew. Even something as silly as keeping your wine glasses in an annoying-to-reach cupboard can make the difference between having a drink and not bothering.
DRINK BETTER
My Christmas rule was: ‘only if it’s Champagne’, which made it easier to drink less, not least because it would have been bloody expensive to be mainlining Champagne every day of the festive break. I did break this rule occasionally, with the odd glass of good red wine with dinner, but I didn’t feel bad about it because I enjoyed it, and I didn’t overdo it. But even if I did overdo it, I wouldn’t feel bad about it because…
BE KIND TO YOURSELF
This is arguably the hardest, but most important, step of the process. There will absolutely be times that you drink more than you intended to, and it’s tempting to feel like you’ve ‘failed’, that alcohol has ‘won’, and you are powerless to control it. It’s human nature to be hard on ourselves but, instead, try and see it as an opportunity to learn about yourself: what were the triggers that led you to overdrink? How will you deal with them next time?
So take the pressure off. Don’t aim for sobriety and punish yourself for failing. Drink less – not because you think you should – but because it will make you feel better right now.
Mindful Drinking: How Cutting Down Can Change Your Life by Rosamund Dean is out now. For January only, it's available on Kindle for 99p
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1 of 33Bittersweet - How Sorrow And Longing Make Us Whole
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3 of 33Every Family Has A Story - How We Inherit Love And Loss
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4 of 33Feel Great Lose Weight: Long term, simple habits for lasting and sustainable weight loss, by Dr Rangan Chatterjee
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5 of 33The Confidence Solution: Seven Steps to Confidence, by Chloe Brotheridge
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6 of 33Shy: How Being Quiet Can Lead To Success, by Annie Ridout
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8 of 33Power Hour: How to Focus on Your Goals and Create a Life You Love, by Adrienne Herbert
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9 of 33No Such Thing as Normal: What my mental illness has taught me about mental wellness, by Bryony Gordon
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10 of 33Speak Your Truth: Connecting with your inner truth and learning to find your voice, by Fearne Cotton
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11 of 33No One Can Change Your Life Except For You, by Laura Whitmore
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12 of 33Fears to Fierce: A Woman’s Guide to Owning Her Power, by Brita Fernandez Schmidt
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13 of 33Cate Sevilla - How to Work Without Losing Your Mind: A Realistic Guide to the Hell of Modern Work, by Cate Sevilla
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14 of 33Mindful Drinking: How Cutting Down Can Change Your Life, by Rosamund Dean
Be happier, healthier and more productive with Rosamund Dean's simple strategy to drink less and enjoy life more.
15 of 33Make it Happen: How to be an Activist, by Amika George
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16 of 33Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem, by Gloria Steinem
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17 of 33Super Attractor: Methods for Manifesting a Life beyond Your Wildest Dreams, by Gabrielle Bernstein
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19 of 33Live Well Every Day: Your Plan For A Happy Body and Mind by Dr Alex George
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20 of 33365 Questions, One Page Per Day : A One Year Self-Discovery Journal by 21 Exercises
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21 of 33No Worries by Bella Mente Press
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22 of 33Declutter Your Mind: How to Stop Worrying,Relieve Anxiety and Eliminate Negative Thinking by S.J.Scott and Barrie Davenport
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23 of 33How To Do The Work by Dr Nicole LePera
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24 of 33The Things You Can Only See When You Slow Down by Haemin Sunim
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25 of 33The Comfort Book by Matt Haig
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28 of 33Your Time to Thrive by Marina Khidekel
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31 of 33Working Hard, Hardly Working by Grace Beverley
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32 of 33The Anatomy Of Anxiety: Understanding And Overcoming The Body's Fear Response
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33 of 33The Way Of Nagomi: The Japanese Secret To A Harmonious Life
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