Written by: Jessica Betancourt, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Dry Januarys have become more mainstream in the past several years as more and more people are awakening to the fact that excessive alcohol consumption is doing more harm than it is bringing joy to their lives. While many people know this, not everyone is ready to give up drinking completely, but they feel strongly that taking at least some conscientious time off from drinking would serve them very well. If you are in a place where you consider that your physical health, finances, relationships, emotional health, and mental clarity would all be greatly served by reducing or eliminating alcohol for a prescribed amount of time, such as participating in Dry January – here are 3 techniques to implement.
1 Visualize yourself enjoying not drinking
How you SEE yourself has everything to do with what actions you will take. This is a tool that performers and athletes use regularly to achieve a desired outcome. Reality is first created in the mind and then in your external environment. If you are accustomed to drinking regularly, you are already doing this technique but on autopilot, which is provoking your drinking habits, like when you ‘look forward to’ drinking for example.
Take a moment, preferably in the morning, to sit with your eyes closed and bring your awareness to your inner state. Notice how you are feeling, and become aware of your energy level. Visualize yourself going through your day in a manner that will set you up for success later in the day when you would typically pour a drink. See yourself going to the store for example and bypassing the alcohol aisle, feel how this already makes you feel successful. Feel in your body how these thoughts give you a sense of empowerment.
See yourself continuing through your day, afternoon, and evening NOT drinking as a matter of course. Feel the pride and excitement that comes with not drinking. See yourself having an alternative beverage in the evening time, ending your day with healthy routines and actions like 15 minutes of stretching or reading or a hot bath, whatever feels good to you.
The important thing is to FEEL how SEEING yourself in this way creates excitement and a sense of capability and desire for NOT drinking. Focus on the rewards that come with abstinence like deeper sleep, brighter eyes and skin, weight loss, and waking up refreshed. See yourself as this kind of person.
2 Invest your time in something greater
When you’re taking an extended break from drinking as someone who is used to drinking fairly regularly, you will notice that you have an abundance of time and energy! This is, of course, a wonderful thing to become aware of but the pitfall is that if you do not redirect this focus to something exciting and constructive, the ruminations and self-talk that will lead you to sabotage your intentions will creep in.
Use your Dry January to advance yourself in another area of your life that presently feels unfulfilling.
If you have creative ambitions but haven’t acted on them in some time, get out those paints, tune up your guitar, or buy a new lens for your fancy camera. If you feel like your physical health could be better, sign up for some dance or yoga classes, find new hiking trails in your area, perhaps get yourself some quality running shoes. Are your finances a mess? Join a financial planning FB group and get active, read financial wellness/investment literature, and create a new income stream. There is so much to do in this life that will bring you more joy and pleasure than drinking ever could!
The key here is to not get overwhelmed however with complexity or scale. Name your bigger vision, SEE yourself as someone who DOES these sorts of activities as a way of self-identifying, and break the overall goal into 15 minutes of action each day.
For example: you’ve always wanted to learn French, so you create a designated time in your day to do 15 minutes on a language learning app. It’s the consistency of what you do on a daily basis that gives you your overall experience of life.
3 Get involved and visible in a like-minded community
Invisibility is the typical element that will derail your success. Whether that is feeling like you’re going it alone or having no support or accountability. Not drinking when you’re used to regularly drinking can feel isolating and exhausting.
Fortunately, there are lots of people getting excited about drinking less and reevaluating their relationship with alcohol in 2024 and they’re also looking for some company!!
We’re definitely ‘stronger together’ and we heal in community. You would be so comforted to know that other people are absolutely experiencing the same insecurities and challenges with alcohol. Some people are well on their way and some people are just beginning this journey and regardless of where you are on your path, there is someone who can help and support you, and someone whom you can inspire by your choosing to devalue alcohol’s role in your life as well. The ways in which you heal yourself always have an effect greater than you may realize.
If you’re considering or already planning on having a Dry January, and you’d like to learn proven techniques from the fields of Hypnotherapy, Shamanic Journeying Meditation, and Neuro-Linguistic Programming, to help you shift your identity into someone who enjoys not drinking. Also if you’d like accountability and support from an empowered Dry January Mindful Drinking community, something greater is for you. This is a 21-day habit change program that can be done in only 15 minutes a day. It is designed to partner with Dry January so that you can use your mind to up-level your life in a state of clarity and realization as to what you are truly capable of.
Jessica Betancourt, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Jessica Betancourt is an RTT trained hypnotherapist and Certified Transformational Life Coach specializing in addiction transformation with an emphasis for Alcohol Use Disorder. After having gotten clear that her own drinking habits had become problematic, she successfully re-trained her brain using meditation, hypnosis, spiritual practices and subconscious reprogramming to heal her relationship with alcohol. She now works helping others to do the same with their addictive tendencies, which may have also included but are certainly not limited to: smoking, food, cocaine, marijuana, and sugar. She is a mom of 4 and lives in her adopted country of Spain with her Spanish husband and she dies an ego death every day
