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Old 03-10-2005, 08:54 PM
  # 13 (permalink)  
GranMal
Seize the day
 
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Anytown, NJ
Posts: 9
Fun in sobriety, hmmm.

Some good suggestions here already. I also love the outdoors. In recovery I "discovered" hiking, which often would be simply going for a walk in the woods. I got back into running, not seriously, but consistently - a couple miles, maybe 2-3 times per week. I started swimming & riding my bicycle whenever I could. Exercise has been so incredibly helpful to me in many ways. It helps my MOOD, above all, which tends to be somewhat depressive. It also feels great to be healthy, a feeling I rarely had during the drinking years. Running also helped me to quit smoking, which I did after six months sober. The wish to run better helped reinforce the desire to not smoke, and vice versa. And the healthier I got, the more of an ass I felt like for continuing to hurt my body with addictive chemicals.

I had a guitar, and I tried for a while to learn that. Never got very good at it, but the effort was very satisfying.

I tried going bowling a few times, but it reminded me of drinking -- I had once been in a bowling league. First the ball would go in the gutter, and me and my drinking buddies followed soon after. I also found bowling while sober to be quite boring. That's just me.

When I was newly sober I had a job driving a truck. It was local stuff, not long distance, so I was home every night in time for meetings. There was usually an early meeting, say 7:15 pm, and then another one at 9:00. I would usually go to both. I made coffee and helped clean up. After the meetings I would often go to the diner with sober people. We'd talk and talk for hours. The diner was instrumental in getting me out of my shell, helping me learn how to communicate with people.

I was 27 years old when I stopped drinking, so I didn't feel the urgency to go "sober dancing" as did many of the younger people in the rooms. Still, I was hoping to have sex again sometime before I died, so I made a few appearances. This mostly served to confirm what I had long suspected: I'm kind of a dork with two left, possibly broken, feet. And I don't like dark, smoky places with loud music and little hope of holding a conversation.

Unsatisfying experiences, like the dancing and the bowling, did lead me eventually to the Big Realization, namely that I don't have to follow some script in my head regarding what "fun" is. I thought fun was what they portrayed in the beer commercials -- you know, a bunch of good-looking, youngish folks windsurfing, barbequeing, sharing an easy camraderie round the ski lodge fireplace.

These things are all fine if they give people pleasure. But I didn't really start to have "fun" -- or let's put it another way, to enjoy my sober life -- until I accepted that my greatest joys sound deadly-dull on paper. I love to read. Books, magazines, newspapers. I love movies, listening to music. I love to write. I love to get outside and go for a run, a walk, a hike, a romp down the city streets. I love going to museums when I can. During the drinking years, I went to a museum maybe once or twice. When I got sober and lived in a city, I went all the time. True joy there.

Keep searching, you will find happiness & joy in your sober life!!!
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