How to Quit Drinking and Achieve Sobriety

It is one thing to quit drinking alcohol. It is another thing to stay stopped for a long period of time. And it is quite another thing entirely to actively recover from alcoholism.

What is recovery really? It is living a passionate and purposeful life without alcohol. This is more than an act of elimination. In fact, when done properly, recovery is an act of creation. You are creating a new life for yourself.

How do we go about creating this new life? Through a couple of key principles:

1) Creation - we are goal oriented, positive, and energetic in recovery. We have to get involved and take real action in order to pursue our goals in recovery. The focus is on creation, not necessarily creativity (although they can go together at times).

2) Networking - we reach out to others who are on the same path as we are and gain strength from them. We also help others on this path as well. Thus we create healthy interdependence and grow with others in recovery.

3) Push for personal growth - we push ourselves to keep growing in new directions in our recovery. We might seek spiritual truths, focus on education, or start pushing ourselves to be physically healthier. All of these growth avenues will benefit us in recovery.

4) Focus on holistic health - we also take an holistic approach to our growth in recovery. Alcoholism affected our entire person so it makes sense to try to recover our entire self as well. This means taking a look at our spiritual, emotional, social, mental, and physical categories of potential growth in our lives.

When we quit drinking alcohol there is a lot more to it than just stopping the booze. We have to create a new life and that takes action and purpose.