Welcome to the Catholic Sobriety Podcast Minisode. These shorter episodes provide quick tips and information that you can refer back to when you need it most so you can achieve and maintain your desired level of sobriety. I am your sobriety coach and host of this podcast, christi Walker. Let's get started podcast Christy Walker, let's get started. So, on today's mini-sode, I am going to share the one thing that I miss about drinking, and it's probably not what you think.
Speaker 1:From time to time I get asked if there's anything about drinking alcohol that I miss. Sometimes people assume that I miss being able to drink like a normie, which, if you've listened to my podcast, you know wasn't really something that I could do. But if, given the opportunity, would I wish that I could drink like a normal person? The answer is no. That may not have been my answer 10 or 15 years ago, but it's definitely my answer now. I just know too much about alcohol, how it affects our bodies, how it affects our brains, and it just makes me glad that I haven't consumed alcohol in the past many, many years. So for that reason, no, I don't wish that I could consume alcohol. If I'm at an event or something, I know how to get myself a non-alcoholic drink. That I think is fun. That's in a nice glass that I can still feel festive and have a good time with. Are there sometimes people very rarely, but once in a while that'll make little comments about not drinking, like joke around about it, Sure, but that hardly ever happens. It's very rare and, honestly, I have pretty thick skin about my choices and my reasons why I don't drink.
Speaker 1:So, that being said, what is the one thing that Christy misses about not consuming alcohol? Well, it's not that I miss having something to make me numb out so that I can't think about or feel things. Sometimes it's hard to face things, to feel things. It's very tempting, just as a human, to want to buffer and numb out so that you don't have to feel those feelings. But I've also learned over these years that facing it head on and getting through it is so much faster and, in the long run, easier than putting it off with numbing. And then all the after effects from having consumed alcohol. There's hangovers, shame, feeling like, oh my gosh, why did I do this? Maybe I said something really dumb to somebody, I don't know. So we all have our things. I don't really miss that.
Speaker 1:I don't miss alcohol as a crutch or a coping mechanism, but I will say that something I used to do when I was drinking that I thought was so fun and it was probably why I drank a lot, maybe I don't know. I mean I did like to drink, to have those feelings and be part of a group and a community and all of that. But the thing I loved to do most was dance. So I joke with people sometimes. If I write a memoir someday, maybe it'll be like from the mosh pit to the praise pit, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I love dancing so I danced from the time I was a really little girl, like three years old. All the way through high school I was on my dance team and all of that. And so I love music, love it Like. I love music so much and it just brings me so much joy, it puts me into a really good space. I can't sing really at all. I love to sing, but God did not bless me with a beautiful voice for singing. But I do love to do it and I don't play an instrument.
Speaker 1:But dance was something that I could do and it was something that I enjoyed a lot. So when I was at the height of my drinking. Actually, I was living in Portland at the time and driving to the next city where they had or it was a little more country and they had a country bar and I learned all the different country line dances and thought it was the most fun ever when I stopped drinking. That was probably one of the hardest things because I just didn't have that outlet. I didn't know what to do with that energy. I didn't know what to do with that creativity that I had. That was probably one of the things that was really difficult for me not being able to go out and dance with my friends and not be with my friends anymore because a lot of them were drinkers and I had to distance myself from them so that I could get healthy and get well.
Speaker 1:I like to go to Christian concerts every once in a while. We do it a couple times a year and I just love it. I love the praise and worship, singing and holding our arms up in the context of a concert. What made me think about this was that I was at the Encounter Ministries National Conference in Toledo in June and they had a praise pit like a mosh pit of praise, and it was so fun. I got in there and I was like, just like I would back in the day when I would go to a concert. I was working my way up as far to the front as I could. I was right in the middle of the group, jumping around, dancing arms up, singing my lungs out, and it was so fun. So it's not that I can't do that anymore, it's just that I'm much more inhibited than I was back in the day. So this was such a great, this was such a great, great fun for me because I felt like, okay, here I am, I'm with my people, this is so fun.
Speaker 1:And instead of just singing about lost loves, I listened to a lot of Dave Matthews band and grunge music and like Metallica, so I don't know, I was singing all kinds of stuff that was actually. I listen to it now and I'm like that's really depressing. Some of those songs are very depressing, but anyway, I just felt so good because we were singing and praising God. We were singing about Jesus calm down, holy Spirit on us. So it was even more beautiful.
Speaker 1:And I look back and, even though I do miss that aspect of drinking and going out, I found other ways to still have that excitement, have that creativity, have, you know, just singing and enjoying myself. Actually, there's a song I love. It's called I Will Be Undignified, by Rend Collective. So go look it up. It's like King David just dancing before the Lord. Like I will be undignified. I will praise the Lord, my God, with all my might, and actually I'll leave a link to it in the show notes. But it's one of my favorite songs, just to like, I blast it in my car and I just sing it out loud, as loud as I can, and I just love it. So I don't have to drink anymore. I don't have to get that excitement and fun from drinking and dancing and then have to pay the price afterwards. I can blast some music in my house. My teenagers don't always love that, but I get blast music in my house and sing at the top of my lungs, dance around the kitchen and go to different events like concerts or conventions where they have these praise pits, and I can still have that joy and excitement, but this time it's for God.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we have to detach from things so that we can fill ourselves up with better things, and I feel like that's what I've been able to do. So this episode is just encouragement for you. Think about the thing that you miss most about not drinking, or the thing that you're afraid that you're going to miss most when you stop drinking or reduce alcohol. When you stop drinking or reduce alcohol significantly, what is that thing or what are those things and what can you do instead? What can you replace that with? If it's being around friends, if it's having you know wine book club or something, could you do something else? Do a book club but say, hey, ladies, we're going to have it at my house, we're going to do a mocktail bar, or you know. Just I don't know, just think outside the box.
Speaker 1:But how about this? If you have something that you're thinking of that you are like I'm going to miss that so much, or I do miss that so much, will you do me a favor and either DM me on Instagram at the Catholic Sobriety Coach, or I do have a send text button in my show notes and you can send me a text and let me know what that is. I will touch on that in another episode maybe give you some tips and ideas of ways that you can still do the thing that you're missing without alcohol. I hope that helps. Have a blessed day. Well, that wraps up today's episode of the Catholic Sobriety Minisode. Thank you so much for joining me and please be sure to subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss a thing. And remember I am here for you, I am praying for you. You are not alone.