5 Ways A Sober Life Gives a Better Life

When I first imagined a life without ANY booze or drugs (let’s get real), I truly, truly thought all my fun days were over.  I mean, that was how I let my hair down, cut loose from life, and had “fun.”  The reality was that it was dulling not only my life but me.

Maybe you’ve heard things like:

• “Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.”

  ― Lao Tzu

• “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Matthew 12:34

There is some badass truth to these.  So, in case you’re on the fence of dropping this nonserving rut OR you’re having a hard time with justifying your sober life, here is a list of 5 ways a sober life can give you a better life:

SIDE NOTE: we have a FREE Brave Sober Mom support and community group you should join to help you in this journey.  You DO NOT have to do motherhood + sobriety alone on top of regular life.  Go here to connect!!

back to biz….

1) Save more money

I can hear it now, “well Leona, life is to be lived! it’s just money and I have fun drinking” or “I don’t spend that much money on booze/drugs.”  Alright, alright, I hear you.  I honestly felt the same way with both of these ideas; let me just touch on both to get some juices going on the topic:

A) If you think drinking is how you have fun, you’re not really living.  Living is not being dulled out, numbed out, and dumbed out; living is being present doing the activities you enjoy with people you cannot live without.

B) If you don’t think you spend that much money on booze/drugs, then you really, like REALLY need to look at your bank statement.  I felt this way too.  Come to find out, I alone (not including my hubby) was spending at least $100 a week for booze at home – this didn’t include bars or drinks with dinner at restaurants.  Having an extra $400 a month after I stopped drinking was really exciting!

2) You GET to experience things full-fledged 

When I first got sober my hubby and I went on a trip to Hawaii.  It was a typical trip: swam, sunbathed, explored, and ate Hawaiian food.  It was the most memorable vacation I had taken since my teens (when I started drinking and using)!  One thing in particular that we did was go on a helicopter ride tour; I hate flying, so I was a wreck but still really wanted to go.  It was exhilarating!  Normally I would have drank a lot to face that fear of flying, but I didn’t have to since I had already committed to being and staying sober.

There are always pros and cons/good and bad to balance things in life out.  You will also get the chance to experience everyday life full-fledged too.  I’ll tell you what though, if you commit to learning new coping skills, your problems won’t even compare to what they were like when you were in your active drinking.

You get to embrace all that life has: the little moments, the smiles, the cries, the heart to heart conversations with loved ones, the dreams and visions of your life, the fun, the boring, the blessing.

3) You have the opportunity to deal with your shit

This one never sounds amazing, but I promise that it totally is.  For me, to drink was to numb out.  It was a vicious cycle because I wanted to be a better person, read all kinds of personal development but I still felt like I was banging my head up against a wall.  Truthfully, I was.

As humans, we are beautiful and complicated things who learn good and bad habits, skills, ideas from others from the VERY beginning of our life.  It becomes ingrained in us without us even knowing it; thus, if it’s non-serving, we need to fix our inner selves (subconscious selves).

A brilliant author known as Jen Sincero shared in her book You Are A Badass, “It’s not your fault that you’re fucked up; it is your fault if you stay fucked up.”

I’ve found being sober has removed the wall, so I can more simply (not easily) deal with my shit to bear much bountiful fruit of life.

4)  You GET to design your life

If you are/were anything like me, my day revolved around getting booze and drinking.

For example: I had to be sure to make it to a liquor store so I could be home from dinner onward so that I could drink vs. enjoying dinner and then going out fishing, go to friends houses, go to the movies, or whatever (you get my drift).  This went on into the weekends with having full days of drinking – my days literally revolved around drinking.

I was a prisoner and unable to design my life, or on second thought, I was designing my life.

I was designing life around booze vs. LIVING.

5)  You GET to learn who you are

Since I was super young, I always hated myself and wanted to be anyone but me (we’ll get on that topic a different day).  I never felt like I fit in and just always wanted to be someone different.  That is a lot of running from myself.  It became easier to run from myself once I started drinking and dabbling with drugs.

It’s taking time, but finally I’m able to meet who Leona truly is through sobriety.  It’s kinda scary, the unknown thing, but it’s a lot more fun and badass than hating myself and trying to run from me.

I dig it.

BONUS 6) You GET to connect with powerful women who face hard truths and will be your support

For Reals.  I now get to have deeper, more meaningful connections with women on this sobriety path.  Our relationships are deeper and you know these women have your best interest in mine.  I don’t know about you, but I never experienced that while i was druggin’ and usin’.

and because of that, you should totally connect with us in our FREE Brave Sober Mom support and community group by going HERE.

because motherhood, no matter the season is hard, and sobriety is hard too – we need each other and don’t need to do this alone.

Keep on rocking on friend,

Leona. xx