Sobriety: Foundations
Sobriety, at first it was a necessity, then it was a habit, and now it’s life. When I got sober I wanted to save the world, after the first month or so I had this huge idea I would get sober and save every other person out there who struggles like I do, and especially like I did. Amazingly, I figured out I can’t save anyone, let alone everyone if at that time I could barely take care of myself!
Looking back, I had a great idea, I’ve got a pretty interesting story, and I have the passion, hope, and resolve to contribute to helping others, I just needed the foundation to begin. It’s been more than seven years since I began my sobriety journey and to say I have changed would be an understatement, as in my opinion I’m an entirely different person. Today’s story isn’t about my beginnings, today’s story is about creating a foundation to have those beginnings.
First I want to start off by sharing, I chose for a long time to call myself an alcoholic, after that I started calling myself a sober person, a person in recovery, and now, today I’m just Brandy.
The toughest thing about recovery is, it is unique for each person. And your journey to building a foundation may look differently than mine did. What has worked and is currently working for me probably won’t be the right fit for every body and that’s okay. Remember to be flexible, forgiving, and to just get doing the next right thing, if it was easy everyone would be doing it, but if it’s more difficult it makes it mean more.
Below are some of the key things I’ve done to build a foundation.
- Look at yourself, look inside yourself, are you happy with the way things are? This could mean taking a look at your drinking, your eating, your daily habits, your use of drugs, etc.
- Right away your instinct may be to compare yourself to others — try not to do this, what is right for you may not be for them.
- Try to stay in your own lane- remember this is your path and your journey, while it’s okay to help out and volunteer you still need space to do you.
- Remember getting sober is hard, scary, and frustrating.
- It takes 30 days to build a pattern, start a habit, and have a solid foundation. Don’t give up.
- Be kind, loving, and patient to yourself to the best of your ability.
- Relapse happens, not for everyone, but if it does happen don’t let that stop you from trying again. It’s like taking a test, sometimes we study hard and do all of the right things but we still fail the test. So, brush yourself off and try again.
- Keep a journal: write down your feelings, thoughts, needs, goals; keep it safe.
- Tell anyone you want about your journey, or tell no-one — it’s your journey.
- We all start on day 1, whether you count, don’t count, have stumbles never give up as this is your choice, and I believe in you.
No matter what your journey looks like, it’s a process and the process is often unique with similarities to others. Every day you will learn something about yourself, your triggers, your triumphs, write them down, read them when you’re having a bad day or an overly confident day. These are the things that make us human and allow us to grow and evolve.
