Dry January: How a break from alcohol can change your life

I still remember the first time I decided to take a month off drinking. It felt daunting.

I honestly believe the longest I'd gone without alcohol was the 2 weeks I was on recruit training for the Territorial Army (aged 36). And the moment I got home, I went straight to the pub.

I’d always be one of the last ones standing at events, and I always had a bottle of wine on the go at home.

So the thought of saying no to alcohol for 31 days seemed almost impossible.

But a few weeks into a Dry January, this thought passed through my mind, "I think I'd like to never drink again". So February became Dry February. But come March, and there I was back to drinking again.

Back in the cycle that I was fed up with, and the whole reason I did Dry January in the first place.

To extend into February, something good must have happened when I wasn't drinking, mustn't it? Whatever it was, I never wrote it down, I never made a mental note to remember how good I must have felt. So I just forgot, and any positives faded into the distance.

But that thought, "I think I'd like to never drink again" never left me. That Dry January had sown a seed.

If you treat Dry January like something to “get through”, you’ll spend 31 days counting down. But if you treat it like an experiment, you’ll start noticing things. Noticing is where change happens. Because alcohol has a way of making you forget. You forget how rubbish you felt after. And you forget how much better you can feel without it.

So this time, instead of just doing Dry January, be aware of the difference it makes.

When I did finally stop drinking, years later, I didn’t wake up on day one as a completely new person, but over time, I discovered that:

• My sleep improved 

• My anxiety melted away

• My mornings got easier and earlier 

• I felt more confident in many areas of my life

• My skin and eyes looked healthier 

• I had more energy

• I had better focus

• I was more productive

• I saved money 

• I could be present for my family at any time

• I stopped worrying about nights out
  

Some of these improvements weren't noticeable until some time in, but many were in the first few weeks. I guess they were the things that I had felt previously.

If you want this month to actually change things, don’t rely on memory. Write things down.

Because future you, in a stressful week, you will forget how good this felt.

Keep a note in your phone or in a notebook called “Dry January Proof” and add quick bullet points like:

• fell asleep faster

• woke up calmer

• handled a stressful day better

• skin looks clearer

• didn’t spend £££

• felt proud saying no

It sounds simple because it is. But it works.

There's no pressure to decide your whole future in January, though.

If you feel better at the end of the month, you can just carry on for one more day.

Then another.

That’s how it happens. With small choices, you make when you notice you’re happier without alcohol.

If that seed has been planted for you, too, pay attention to it.

One day at a time.