For many people, Friday nights and weekends may follow the same script. After an uneventful week, alcohol takes center stage. While for some it may remain casual, it becomes a dependency for others.
Dependency on the bottle wrecks a lot of areas of your life. However, once you take up sobriety, you begin to notice a steady stream of positive changes.
These 9 areas improve when you start living a sober life.
1. Your Health Gets Better
Living a sober life improves your health. Food and substance abuse and unstable sleep patterns damage your body exposing you to possible serious ailments. From high blood pressure to cancers, addiction leaves trails of possible health landmines that could explode at any time.
Living a sober life puts less strain on core areas such as your liver enabling you to keep those health numbers good and tidy.
2. Stronger Finances
On a typical night out, you end up spending insane amounts of money. Even if you didn’t indulge much, cumulatively, the money you spend adds up to a tidy sum.
Once you get sober, you have extra cash since you are not spending on alcohol or unhealthy food. You can channel the money to meaningful projects. You can decorate, invest in a skill, or save up.
You can improve your credit score since you’re making larger payments on your credit cards. Instead of repeating one experience, you can explore new horizons through traveling.
3. You Repair Your Personal Relationships
Living a sober life makes your focus on more fulfilling relationships. You notice how void some relationships were. You begin a process of forming relationships that foster growth. If you have a spouse, your relationship becomes more intimate.
You can evaluate your friends based on the kind of input they add to your life. You create relationships with other people based on meaningful mutual interests.
Through these relationships, you become a more positive, energized and helpful friend to those who need you. You may find that more people now want you back in their lives.
4. You Look Good
Alcohol and drugs age you – and not like fine wine either. Without the alcohol, your skin stays moisturized, and your hair looks fuller. You may even begin to notice a bit more muscle tone especially if you start hitting the gym.
It is quite common to hear those who witness the change say you look younger. Since you’re also sleeping better, you wake up feeling refreshed. You are not bogged down by dark circles under your eyes.
When you look great, you feel even better. You are confident. You can look at yourself and feel proud of the person you see on the other side.
5. You Weigh Less
Life feels great when you are in control of your weight. Alcohol, drugs and greasy food accelerate unhealthy weight gain. However, after you start living sober and eating better food, you may gain good weight or shed off the extra unwanted weight.
You can also achieve better weight by taking up outdoor activities such as hiking. Being in a position to manage your weight means you minimize the risk of future weight-related health complications.
6. Better Decisions
Some binge drinking episodes result in some unflattering after-effects. When you start living sober, you can analyze situations and make informed choices with a clear mind.
Your actions are calm and calculated. When you resolve to carry out a task, it is the result of a clear goal and a sharp focus on long-term outcomes.
You live fully in the moment, making sure to tip the scales for the best possible future outcome. Your past is no longer a hazy sketchy recollection of wild nights. You worry less about what happened during a night of heavy indulgence.
7. More Time For Personal Development
If you were constantly ignoring some areas in your life to make time for your habit, living a sober life gives you time to re-invent yourself. You get to restart a personal journey with yourself, as a better version of yourself.
You take up hobbies that provide a sense of genuine fulfillment and purpose. You start taking care of deeper needs as opposed to pandering to your immediate and destructive needs.
During this time, your perspective on life takes on a more settled direction. Every effort you invest in yourself is set on creating an elevated version of yourself. Through your personal journey, you become an inspiration to more people around you.
8. Mental Clarity
There is a level of mental awareness that you only achieve when you start living a sober life. Addiction clouds your judgment.
When you’re constantly chasing a thrill, you base your decisions on the attainment of that rush. When you get sober, you realize how unimportant that thrill was. Instead, you begin appreciating mental peace.
Waking up with a clear recollection of all your recent events satisfies you. Your mind remains clear, helping you chart clear paths towards a more wholesome life.
9. Better Productivity
When you stop drinking alcohol, you are more focused towards a meaningful definition of success. You can put in more hours at work. You can work smarter.
Since you put your body, mind, and soul in a clean environment, you keep posting positive results in all areas of your life. You constantly give 100% without over-extending yourself. You turn in more results, and your work carries a sense of true character.
Final Thoughts
Living a sober life may not be a smooth ride in its formative stages. Yet, as you progress, you find out that you didn’t need the addiction. It opens you up to living on your terms. It becomes easier by the day. Once you settle into that comfortable sober space, you will experience more color. More opportunities will come to you.
The moments you create when you begin living a sober life will be your pride stamps. Because of the quality of your close relations, you gain a high level of respect anywhere you go. Living a sober life makes you responsible and answerable to yourself.
If you’re struggling with drinking, a drinking expert is here to help. Just reach out to us, and we’ll work with you to develop the ideal approach.
