Day 1 – Welcome to Dryuary!
Kary May Hickey
Day 2: Getting Started-Your Motivation
“Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed down stairs a step at a time.” Mark Twain Congratulations on deciding to take a break from drinking this month. Are you new to this? Read on. If you’ve done this before or are a member of…
Day 3: Glass Jar-A Tangible Tool
“If you’re never able to tolerate a little bit of pain and discomfort, you’ll never get better” – Angela Duckworth, Psychologist So, you’ve made the decision to stop drinking for a month. You will experience numerous benefits including clearer thinking, weight loss, increased energy and productivity, reduced cardiovascular risks, better skin, saved money, improved sleep,…
Day 4: What Is Your WHY?
“When you feel like quitting, think about why you started.” — Unknown A few weeks ago, in preparation for writing this post, I asked members of the Moderation Management Private Facebook what their motivation was for taking a month off from drinking. Here’s what they had to say: “Dryuary: Reset, Rejuvenate, Reflect.” (this…
Day 5: Why You Should Use Dryuary to Uncover Your Alcohol Mindset
“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed no hope at all“ – Dale Carnegie (Previously Published as: https://rachelhart.com/the-forbidden-fruit/) Dry January is so much more than a month of saying no. No matter your goal, time away from drinking is the perfect…
Day 6: The Treasures of Simplifying
Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful. – John Maeda Simplifying has been my goal for several years now. Our kids are long gone with families of their own. We’re retired, thinking of traveling more, and wanting to maintain less. I know in my heart that it’s the right time…
Day 7: So Tell Me What’s Holding You Back?
“Do something today that your future self will thank you for.” – Anonymous 2020. The more time I spent at home alone with myself, the more I realized how much energy and time I spent on fighting against things and began to call into question some of my personal practices. When planting my garden, I…
Day 8: Will It Always Be Like This?
“Tough times never last, but tough people do.” – Robert H. Schuller Will it always be like this? You know the answer already: “this too shall pass.” I knew that already, too, but I didn’t really know it when I first started trying to put together a few days in a row without drinking. It…
Day 9: The Scavenger Hunt
“You can either be a victim of the world or an adventurer in search of treasure. It all depends on how you view your life.”― Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes Chances are, you’re already beginning to wonder why you signed up for this whole Dryuary thing. What were you thinking? What’s the point of spending a whole month…
Day 10: What’s Behind Our Cravings?
“Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.” – John F. Kennedy What’s Behind Our Cravings? Cravings – they hit us out of nowhere and can leave us feeling as if the choice to drink or not to drink is life or death. What gives and why the heck does that even happen? I,…
Day 11: My Dryuary Motivation- ME!
“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” – Theodore Roosevelt I practice moderate drinking most of the year, but I choose to not drink at all during January. Friends and family find this confusing – why drink 11 months out of the year, and not January?…
Day 12: Good Times Are Coming…Just Not Yet
“One of the greatest moments in life, realizing that two weeks ago your body couldn’t do what it just did.” — Mick Kremling, Fitness Guru You know how when you’ve been a bit of a couch potato, and then you decide one day, this is it! Gonna get fit! First day is always exciting.…
Day 13: Harnessing That Elusive Unicorn-Sleep!
“Sleep is like the unicorn – it is rumored to exist, but I doubt I will see any.” – Dr. Seuss Dear friends, No matter your culture, race, religion, gender identity or politics, the one thing most creatures great and small have in common is the need for sleep. It’s not news to anyone here that sleep…
Day 14: What do you have energy for?
“If you want to be happy, be.” – Leo Tolstoy The Changes I Have Energy For Have you heard the saying, “You never regret a workout”? Well, I am terrible at working out so here is my small edit… You never regret a night of abstinence. Think about it. When you wake up after a…
Day 15: #GetOutOfGroundHogDay Challenge
“The Only Limit To Our Realization Of Tomorrow Will Be Our Doubts Of Today.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt #GetOutOfGroundHogDay Challenge If you’ve ever awakened with regrets ;), you’ll understand how frustrated Phil Connors is when he wakes up on Ground Hog day, just as he did the day before. The same music wakes him on…
Day 16: Doing Dryuary as a Couple
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” – C.S. Lewis Today’s post comes to us from a previous Dryuary participant, who shares with us what it was like to embark on a one-month break from alcohol with her spouse: “In January 2020 my…
Day 18: Saying Yes
“If you must say yes, say it with an open heart. If you must say no, say it without fear” – Paulo Coelho What if, for the sake of this Dry January, instead of saying no to a drink, you were committed to saying yes? No is a powerful word. It presents us with a…
Day 19: Are We There Yet?
“Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.” – Will Rogers Are we there yet, is 2020 over? Wait, I just realized: by the time you’re reading this, it is! Another year is in the books – a crazy and stressful year – and Dryuary is back again. I’m thankful to take this…
Day 20: Beating the Dryuary Card Shark
“Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism; the way you play it is free will.” – Jawaharlal Nehru By now you’ve most likely met your Inner Negotiator (aka I.N.). That voice in your head that bargains with you to have a drink, even though you’re…
Day 21: Confidence
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ ” – Eleanor Roosevelt As we make our way through Dryuary, we will…
Day 22: The Inner Negotiator
(The author, Beej Christie Karpan, is on oboe in this piece!) “Live the story you want to tell” — Topaz As you near the end of Dryuary, if you’re considering moderate drinking you’re probably thinking a lot about the tools you’ve built up, and the support you’ll need in order to stay on track.…
Day 23: Finding Your Sober Tribe
“We May Encounter Many Defeats But We Must Not Be Defeated.” – Maya Angelou Finding Your Sober Tribe Booze had been such a major part of my life for so long, all of my adult memories had liquor woven through them: Getting sick in college on daiquiris and cheap frat beer, Halloween with the kids,…
Day 24: Changing Habits
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain Changing Habits Changing habits like drinking can be challenging yet are doable. Here is an outline of the steps clinical research (and the experiences of my clients over the years) suggests are helpful when making a change. Build Your Motivation and Commitment See my…
Day 25: My Real Toolbox
“To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail.” ― Abraham Maslow I was thinking about my toolbox the other day, my real toolbox that is, and comparing it to my moderation toolbox. I hauled the real toolbox up from the basement; it’s a hard plastic case…
Day 26: Time-A Blessing and A Curse
Time: A blessing and a curse I’ve often said that the main thing that led me to Moderation Management was that I came to resent the time I was spending drinking or recovering from drinking. I’ve always seen time as the most precious of commodities and frequently chided myself for how casually I allowed myself…
Day 27: Support Options
“Though this universe I own, I possess not a thing, for I cannot know the unknown if to the known I cling.” – Robert Fisher, The Knight in Rusty Armor In our journey to self-regulation, and especially after 2020, we can sometimes feel like we are living inside of crazy. While swinging from the…
Day 28: Is Moderation Possible?
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ― C. S. Lewis As you approach the end of your month of abstinence, hopefully you’re reflecting back on all the lessons you’ve learned. Perhaps you’ve realized that it’s possible to participate in social events…
Day 29: It’s Not Pass or Fail
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” — Henry Ford When I was in High School, my GPA was brought down by lousy grades in my Physical Education class. Yes, I had a teacher who graded on effort. I had the idea then that PE should be optional…
Day 30: Responsible Choices
“Alcohol is the anesthesia by which we endure the operation of life.” – George Bernard Shaw I love to drink. And I like the buzz, the feeling of power that it gives me. I am a big guy; I can drink a lot before it shows. And in the past, I drank whenever I could……
Day 31: Finish Line Ahead
Congratulations! We did it! The finish line is right up ahead. How was the ride? If you’ve done the Dryuary ride before, did you visit some of your old favorite places? Did you ride further than you rode in past Dryuary’s? If this was your first Dryuary, did you lose your fear of falling?…