keeping it simple
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Meditation
Posts: 1,300
keeping it simple
Well I just looked up my sober days and found that I have 200 days of continuous sobriety today! 
Life is pretty busy these days. Living sober and being responsible and trying to be healthy is time consuming. I remember posting here in newcomers, reading here all the time when I could not just get and stay sober. Years went by.
Now it sometimes feels like that life never even happened. I'm thankful for those here and elsewhere that remind me that yes that really was my life before.
I have recently been thinking about the very basic ideas that have kept me going thus far. Sure there's lots of complicated ideas to analyze out there. I just got to a place where simply staying sober was my only goal. The how did not matter.
In real early sobriety I was prone to over thinking things. Especially when times got rough. For me most of those rough times took place right upstairs in my head. I could talk myself out of sobriety pretty quick in my day.
The simple ideas have proven difficult for me to forget. The ones that keep coming to my mind are,
The first drink gets me drunk. I cannot drink one beer and 'get away with it'. If I imagine myself having one sip I know that I will be hung over, blacked out, hating myself, in the hospital, the jail, and puking.. while getting divorced.
Any thought of future use of alcohol is not me. It is AV. Period. It does not matter how small the thought is. The format does not matter. Reminiscing about the good ole days is instantly dismissed. The thought of drinking is insanity for me. The end of the world is AV if it involves drink.
Stay in the moment. Today I say I will never drink again without a care or hesitation. Still if things start to feel uncertain for me nothing beats living in this exact second. The past cannot be changed, the future will never be here.
Most of my life has amazingly not happened in the present.
So toss em out there what are your simple ideas to get clean and/or stay that way?
Life is pretty busy these days. Living sober and being responsible and trying to be healthy is time consuming. I remember posting here in newcomers, reading here all the time when I could not just get and stay sober. Years went by.
Now it sometimes feels like that life never even happened. I'm thankful for those here and elsewhere that remind me that yes that really was my life before.
I have recently been thinking about the very basic ideas that have kept me going thus far. Sure there's lots of complicated ideas to analyze out there. I just got to a place where simply staying sober was my only goal. The how did not matter.
In real early sobriety I was prone to over thinking things. Especially when times got rough. For me most of those rough times took place right upstairs in my head. I could talk myself out of sobriety pretty quick in my day.
The simple ideas have proven difficult for me to forget. The ones that keep coming to my mind are,
The first drink gets me drunk. I cannot drink one beer and 'get away with it'. If I imagine myself having one sip I know that I will be hung over, blacked out, hating myself, in the hospital, the jail, and puking.. while getting divorced.
Any thought of future use of alcohol is not me. It is AV. Period. It does not matter how small the thought is. The format does not matter. Reminiscing about the good ole days is instantly dismissed. The thought of drinking is insanity for me. The end of the world is AV if it involves drink.
Stay in the moment. Today I say I will never drink again without a care or hesitation. Still if things start to feel uncertain for me nothing beats living in this exact second. The past cannot be changed, the future will never be here.
Most of my life has amazingly not happened in the present.
So toss em out there what are your simple ideas to get clean and/or stay that way?
Member
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 438
Thanks for your post fallow how great 200 days! I've seen a little over 100 two different times and the old life does seem so far away the further into sobriety we walk. I'm on day 5 today...years in the bucket now of trying so I love your post, it gives me hope. I have been clinging to SR lately and it truly is saving me this week as my head...my AV...is trying to talk me into that first drink. Reading posts like yours help me a lot. Thanks
how great 200 days! I've seen a little over 100 two different times and the old life does seem so far away the further into sobriety we walk. I'm on day 5 today...years in the bucket now of trying so I love your post, it gives me hope. I have been clinging to SR lately and it truly is saving me this week as my head...my AV...is trying to talk me into that first drink. Reading posts like yours help me a lot. Thanks 
That bell or bike person
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: london
Posts: 4,978
Originally Posted by Fallow 
I just got to a place where simply staying sober was my only goal. The how did not matter.
The first drink gets me drunk. I cannot drink one beer and 'get away with it'.
Any thought of future use of alcohol is not me. It is AV.
The thought of drinking is insanity for me.
Stay in the moment.
Fallow thanks for the great post and 200 days is cool
, Bestwishes, M
Bit late in posting, congratulations on 201 days! 
Member
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Central America/Florida USA
Posts: 4,064
Great post. Congrats. I don't typically measure days, but sometimes those numbers really stick out - it's great to be able to recognize a huge accomplishment like this and share it with others. Awesome.
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Meditation
Posts: 1,300
I don't measure days much now. Occasionally I pop my date in a sobriety calculator and see how long it has been. It was hard for me to not notice days at first but now I rarely think about it.
I was thinking after posting this how day 201 may as well be day 1. Not much difference. Except I don't have a hangover and can hardly remember exactly what that was like. And I now have much more confidence built up in knowing I can live life clean and sober.
Ah well, back to lunch I go.
I was thinking after posting this how day 201 may as well be day 1. Not much difference. Except I don't have a hangover and can hardly remember exactly what that was like. And I now have much more confidence built up in knowing I can live life clean and sober.
Ah well, back to lunch I go.
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