Day 1 – Welcome to Dryuary!
Kary May Hickey
Day 2: How to Have a Successful Dryuary
“All things are difficult before they are easy.” – Thomas Fuller There are endless benefits of a dry January. A month without drinking is amazing for your body. It strengthens your immune system, improves digestion, cuts out empty calories and snacking, and can do wonders for your sleep. With so many benefits, why can it…
Day 3: Live Before You Die
“Circumstances are beyond the control of man; but his conduct is in his own power.” – Benjamin Disraeli A few weeks ago, I suddenly realized that Thanksgiving was upon us. This meant to me that that the year 2019 was dangerously close to drawing to a close. As I gave thanks to all of the important…
Day 4: You Must ACT To Change
“The way to become strong is by doing small things you’ve made up your mind to do, however much you don’t want to do them at the time.” – Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson We all start the new year off full of good intentions. 2020 will finally be different! This is the year that you finally get…
Day 5: A Warm Blanket
“The real voyage of discovery consists, not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” – ‘Remembrance of Things Past’, Marcel Proust A Warm Blanket was previously published at jasongarner.com The days have been cold here in the mountains lately, the sort that begin with frost on the ground and end with a warm fire…
Day 6: What I Hate Most About Dryuary!
“You are the biggest enemy of your own sleep.” – Pawan Mishra You all know how Google search is so rude about finishing your sentences for you, right? Well, when I started searching for articles about why drinking and sleep patterns and typed in, “W-h-y-c-a-n…it popped up with “Why can I sleep when I stop drinking?” Now,…
Day 7: Destination Dryuary
“You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.” – Jim Rohn The first week of Dryuary can seem like a really bumpy flight to a place we’re not sure we even want to go, especially after the excesses of the holiday season. Hopefully, by now we’ve settled in and are able…
Day 8: What To Do? What To Do?
“HUMAN BEINGS MAKE LIFE SO INTERESTING. DO YOU KNOW, THAT IN A UNIVERSE SO FULL OF WONDERS, THEY HAVE MANAGED TO INVENT BOREDOM.” – Terry Pratchett; Hogfather The following post is a post from Dryuary 2016. Boredom is still a landmine for those of us soldiering our way through Dryuary. One thing that has…
Day 9: Apply What You Have Learned
“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.” – Leonardo da Vinci As I started thinking about Dryuary, a relevant quote from a major motion picture in the 1980s kept coming up: “A good pilot is compelled to always evaluate…
Day 10: Staying Social During Dryuary
“Always do sober what you said you’d do when you were drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut!” – Ernest Hemingway For many of us, socializing often revolves around drinking – from half-price drinks at happy hours, to bottomless mimosa brunches, to wine-filled dinners, alcohol seems to permeate all of our social outings.…
Day 11: Fifteen Minutes
“I can’t even carpe 15 minutes in a row. So a whole diem is out of the question.” – Glennon Doyle Melton Okay, here’s the deal. You don’t have to abstain for 31 days for Dryuary. What?!? No way! No one told you? Ha! I’m here to tell you the Big Secret. You DO NOT have…
Day 12: Why Moderation Management Hosts Dryuary
“If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” – African Proverb Did you know that the host of Dryuary.org is an organization, Moderation Management (MM), that provides support for those who are seeking support to reduce their drinking rather than abstain? That’s right. Now, that may lead to…
Day 13: Excuses! Excuses!-What To Tell Our Friends
“How many more of us are faking the facade? How many more of us are pretending to be something we’re not? Even better, how many of us will have the courage to be ourselves regardless of what others think?” – Katie McGarry, Dare You To It may seem inconsequential, but one of the big things people…
Day 14: Train Jumping-Why You Should Jump Back On The Dryuary Train
“If we want to have a fighting chance at changing everything for the better, it’s important we always remember to take care of one another. It’s important that we keep showing up, offering solutions, and simply keep trying.” – Corey Wheeland, Blessed, Beautiful Now: How I Embraced The Present By Celebrating My Past And Learned to…
Day 15: Turning The Corner
“The day I became free of alcohol was the day that I fully understood and embraced the truth that I would not be giving anything up by not drinking.” – Liz Hemingway Week 3 of Dryuary is starting (1/15/20) and if you’ve been “dry” or “mostly dry” since the New Year, you’ve probably dealt with issues…
Day 16: No Regrets!
Enjoy this flashback post from Dryuary 2016! “It happened this way: I fell in love and then, because the love was ruining everything I cared about, I had to fall out.” – Caroline Knapp, Drinking: A Love Story If you are reading this now, you are still in the game, abstaining from alcohol for a brief…
Day 18: Falling Off
“My attitude has always been, if you fall flat on your face, at least you’re moving forward. All you have to do is get back up and try again.” – Sir Richard Branson Okay, let’s talk about it, the elephant in the room. Let’s talk about falling off of the Dryuary path. It happens, and we all…
Day 19: Just Rewards
“It’s important to reward yourself, and your team, as soon as you complete a key task or objective. Why? By rewarding yourself in the moment, your brain elicits positive emotions, leading to the realization that your efforts result in a positive reward. By doing this continuously, your brain will start to link pleasure to accomplishing…
Day 20: In Anxious Times
“It takes a worried man to sing a worried song. I’m worried now, but I won’t be worried long.” – The Carter Family, “Worried Man Blues” One of the great opportunities of an extended period of abstinence is learning to get through a whole variety of occasions without drinking, whatever happens to be on the calendar.…
Day 21: The Old See-Saw
“Analyze and correct your past mistakes before they paralyze your future! An undiscovered error will always crave for repetition. Kick out errors; enjoy a bright future!” – Israelmore Ayivor, Daily Drive 365 We’re listening in on the Dryuary forum and the FB Dryuary Event and we’re hearing niggling worries cropping up about what’s going to happen in…
Day 22: Open Your Eyes
“Closing your eyes isn’t going to change anything. Nothing’s going to disappear just because you can’t see what’s going on. In fact, things will even be worse the next time you open your eyes. That’s the kind of world we live in. Keep your eyes wide open. Only a coward closes his eyes. Closing your…
Day 23: Congratulations! You’re Divorced!
“If you do not pour water on your plant, what will happen? It will slowly wither and die. Our habits will also slowly wither and die away if we do not give them an opportunity to manifest. You need not fight to stop a habit. Just don’t give it an opportunity to repeat itself.” – Sri…
Day 24: Second Wind
“The fatigue of the climb was great but it is interesting to learn once more how much further one can go on one’s second wind. I think that is an important lesson for everyone to learn for it should also be applied to one’s mental efforts. Most people go through life without ever discovering the…
Day 25: Of Goals, Self-Love and Monarch Butterflies
“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” – Zig Ziglar Of Goals, Self-Love and Monarch Butterflies was previously published at jasongarner.com There’s a place near my home where the monarch butterflies visit each winter. The tree-filled park by the ocean is a safe…
Day 26: My Remodeling Project
“We need to create a life we don’t need to escape.” – Holly Whitaker I am unfinished. A work in progress, a project girl. Like a house under remodel, I am living within myself while making improvements. Many times I have read happy stories of others who have successfully moderated or stopped drinking and I am…
Day 27: Power Tools
“She was the third beer. Not the first one, which the throat receives with almost tearful gratitude; nor the second, that confirms and extends the pleasure of the first. But the third, the one you drink because it’s there, because it can’t hurt, and because what difference does it make?” ― Toni Morrison, Song of…
Day 28: Persevering In Discovery
“Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’” – Mary Anne Radmacher I was asked to write a Dryuary post, and I have been wrestling with it… what to write? What do I have to say that anyone would want…
Day 29: Procrastination – The Thief Of Time
“Procrastination gives you time to consider divergent ideas, to think in nonlinear ways, to make unexpected leaps.” – Adam Grant Recently I saw this meme on Facebook: PROCRASTINATION – THE THIEF OF TIME! It had an illustration of a thief tiptoeing with a flashlight. It’s true. Procrastination usually implies something unfavorable, being lazy or wasting…
Day 30: I Love Alcohol. I Drink Alcohol. What Does That Mean?
“Oh no! What have I done? I smashed open my little boy’s piggy bank, and for what? A few measly cents, not even enough to buy one beer. Wait a minute, lemme count and make sure… not even close.” – Homer Simpson Many of my friends drink when we go out. Or, if they are…
Day 31: Running
“I’ll be happy if running and I can grow old together.” – Haruki Murakami A few years ago I took up running. Again. This time it took. I use the word ‘run’ loosely because it’s more of an old lady mincing little steps run. Anyway, at some point my then 20 year old very fit…