When I turned away from drinking alcohol, I thought I was ridding myself of its toxic and threatening effects on my physical health and its disabling nature on my relationships.
O – M – G!
That turned out to be only the tip of the iceberg.
There is a blindness surrounding alcohol which is born from ignorance, and the blindness returns the favour by maintaining the ignorance.
Big alcohol companies keep us misled with their clever campaigns to ensure a steady demand for their poison.
I was so blind.
But now I see.
We need to be more informed.
Addiction (and other obsessive and uncontrolled behaviour patterns) creates a progressive narrowing of the things which bring us pleasure.
Happiness is a progressive expansion of those same things.
The former emerges passively for us, whereas we need to work for the latter.
Alcohol continuously erased bits of me: the odd memory progressing to entire nights when on a bender and much more.
I have discovered that alcohol was not the stress reliever I understood it to be; instead, it erased my senses and ability to think.
Alcohol ultimately erases the self.
I cannot fully express the gratitude and relief I feel for getting myself the hell out of Dodge when I did.
Alcohol is not alone in seeking our destruction; it has many allies queuing for entry into the turnstiles of our lives.
Bad relationships,
Horrible jobs,
Behaviour patterns (or the lack thereof),
Attitudes,
Beliefs,
Other addictions.
The good news is that they all require our complicit ness to attain entry.
We need to grant them visas.
They also require our continued support to remain.
The bad news is that we so often allow them in.
We need to pay more attention to the effects of our decisions.
“It’s only a little.”
“It’ll be ok.”
“I’ll look at this tomorrow.”
“Just one more.”
“I’m sure it won’t happen again.”
“Lalalalala…”
Our underestimation licences lethargy.
Hidden in plain sight are ageless truths:
- The devil is in the detail.
- Don’t put off until tomorrow what can be done today.
- A stitch in time saves nine.
When I quit alcohol, I changed the trajectory of my life.
I didn’t see that coming.
I have changed what and where my future life experiences reside.
- What I will see/hear/smell/touch/taste.
- What I will feel/experience.
- What I’m going to do, and with whom.
- Who I am going to meet.
- Where I will go.
- Etcetera..
The things that make my life happier and more fulfilling are progressively expanding.
However, it takes effort and is worth every exertion.
We only know what we were missing once it ceases to be missing.
Wonderful blog today, thank you