On self-imposed restrictions and their unexpected dissolution
These days, I am trying to figure out if I will go back to drinking alcohol when we enter 2027 again. I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few months going over this, and I’ve worried a lot about it, weighing the negatives against the positives. Honestly, the negatives far outweigh the positives, but if within reason, the few times it really could add something to a situation, I would love to have the freedom to choose it. At least that is how I have been thinking about it. And hoping it might end up.
But these last few weeks, not drinking has become more and more not an endeavour I set out on, an active lifestyle to reflect on and argue for. It has more been something I don’t do anymore, something not part of my life anymore, but not front and center either. Writing this blog and contemplating about my life week after week has of course forced me to think about alcohol, its place in my life and how my social circle has reacted to my abstinence. But I also find myself struggling more now than in the beginning with writing about it. Not because there is not a lot to write about on the topic in general, but because I don’t spend a great deal of time thinking about it anymore, or being challenged by it. The subject matter has simply lost its dramatic charge.
My life now is alcohol-free. I’ve adjusted just about anything in my life to it, be it rhythms, training, sleep schedule, dinners and much more. The exception would be meeting up with friends, as I can’t predict what the situations will look like, but most friends I meet up with, when learning that I don’t drink alcohol, choose to not drink either. I assure them that it is fine, and I have no problems with them drinking and me not. But they persist out of their own choice – it’s almost like me not drinking becomes a relief to them, a permission to not drink either.
This alcohol-free life is the standard now, and imbibing would be the odd one out. And I think, even given the chance, I would pass on many opportunities to drink, even when 2027 comes and I am no longer under my self-imposed inhibition.