Kate Bee’s Tips For A Successful Month

1. Make a firm decision, not a flimsy one

Treat your break from drinking in the same way you’d approach cleaning your teeth. You don’t try and clean your teeth, you just make it happen. Even if you’ve had a busy day, you still find time to brush your teeth! It’s non-negotiable. However difficult, try and treat your Sober challenge the same way.

2. Mother yourself for the month

Think of it this way: if your child was grumpy, restless and irritated, you wouldn’t reach for the wine bottle to soothe them, right? Instead, you’d troubleshoot the problem and try to make things better. You’d mother them. Are they tired? Hungry? Thirsty? Bored? Do they need a cuddle? Connection? As adults, our needs are basically the same. So, when that alcohol craving starts to appear, think twice about what it is you actually need.

3. Challenge your beliefs about booze

Don’t just count down the days until you can drink again. Instead, keep a list of all the so-called ‘benefits’ you think you get from drinking. Next to the list of benefits, draw two columns: evidence for, and evidence against.

For example, if you’re convinced that you need wine in order to make date night more special, what about all those times when you’ve argued after drinking too much, or felt hungover, sleepy and distracted? Note it all down!

4. Look after your mindset

Use your Sober challenge as an opportunity to Google sober celebrities, seek out sober influencers on Instagram, listen to podcasts and read some books. Build a positive bubble to help you stay in the right mindset for the month.

5. Change one other small thing

You’ve already made one bold move by ditching alcohol, so why not do another, and change something else whilst you’re at it? Maybe it’s setting better boundaries at work, not checking your emails after a certain time or just going to bed a little bit earlier. Find your one small thing and commit to making it happen.

Kate Bee is a sobriety coach and the founder of The Sober School. You can read more of her blog posts here.