When you first become sober, “drinking dreams” can be pretty common.
I had a few at the beginning…sometimes it’s “by accident” that you have a drink…sometimes you just say “screw it” and drink and other times it can be that you have forgotten that you quit. Regardless of the reason you “dream drink”, the result is always the same…waking up in a panic that you have messed up your streak and will now have to start all over again.
I haven’t had a drink in over two and a half years. I haven’t had one of those dreams in a long time. I had one the other night. When I woke up I had the same panicky feeling, but as I thought about the details, my feelings changed.
In the dream I was at one of the gyms where I work. I was with a client and I was drinking a bottle of beer. As the dream unfolded, I realized that I shouldn’t be drinking (because I quit) and I shouldn’t be doing it in front of a client (because she knew I had quit). I tried to hide it from her…putting the bottle behind a treadmill – – sneaky!!!
When I woke up, after the panic receded, I did a quick dream analysis :).
I thought:
- I was drinking at the gym, that never happened.
- Drinking around a client, that never happened.
- BEER, that was never my DOC (drink of choice).
None of this dream FIT.
I tried to figure out what it meant.
I don’t really have any idea how to analyze a dream and quite obviously (to me, anyway) you can make a dream MEAN whatever you WANT it to mean.
To me, this one was a perfect analogy for alcohol in my life. It just doesn’t FIT anymore.
It doesn’t have to be alcohol. In fact, it doesn’t have to be a “thing” at all. It could be a thought or a feeling or something that you do that just doesn’t belong in your life.
I’ve said it before, just because I am over 50 doesn’t mean that I am done growing, changing and trying to be better. Whether that’s a result of taking something OUT of my life, or putting something IN.
My clients, both in-person and online,
make small changes to their fitness and nutrition to adjust their habits for the long-term.
Changes need to be sustainable or you will find yourself back where you were OVER and OVER and OVER. When you see what FITS and what DOESN’T fit in your life, those habit changes become clearer.
Schedule a call if you have questions or see where thinking this way could help YOU get where you want to be.
