Year One is Done
Hello, everyone. I am a few weeks into year two. The "high" over that accomplishment seems to have passed for now. I am the same person as before: I still get anxious, have trouble sleeping, and recoil from conflict. I simply no longer self-medicate with alcohol. Why? Because every time I think about a drink I also think about the consequences. I think this is all a version of cognitive behavior therapy: training your brain to remember to think along a different, more enlightened pathway. This is intentional living. I choose, I keep choosing, to live this way. Come with me...it has gotten easier. Yes, sometimes I am so tired, so excited, so "this" or "that," that I think about a nice big glass of wine. But I remind myself, that is just the "old" way of thinking. Now I have a new way to think. I still use a trick from my earlier days: I treat myself to a nice glass of fruit juice. Not often, because that sugar is no good. But occasionally. Be...