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‘I tried to drown my sorrows, but the bastards learned how to swim.’ – FRIDA KAHLO
‘When people show you who they are, believe them.’
When we make a clear-cut decision, rather than engage in the debate, our brains quieten down, says neuroscientist Alex Korb. ‘Making decisions includes creating intentions and setting goals – all three are part of the same neural circuitry and engage the pre-frontal cortex in a positive way, reducing worry and anxiety.’
‘The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.’
One important thing I have learned is not to leave my gratitude locked in my computer. I realized around three months in that I was writing long, generous odes to people in my life, but not actually telling them what I’d said. So now, whenever I mention anyone in a gratitude, say my aunt for having a bunch of tasty non-boozy drink options in, I’ve made a pact to send it on to them. I want them to feel my gratitude: they can’t read my mind.
‘Don’t burn bridges’ is a popular phrase. However, sod that. Some bridges should absolutely be burned. They should be torched until all that remains of them is charred embers whirling around on the wind.
‘You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage – pleasantly, smilingly, nonapologetically, to say “no” to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger “yes” burning inside.’
My best friend once told me that life is like a table, and that the table’s legs are finance, romance, family and health. And that the table can survive one leg being swiped away, but when two or more are kicked, it falls to the ground.
Why is it hard to stay sober long-term? Society is a drink-pusher. Everywhere you look, there is encouragement to drink.
Alcohol is the only addictive drug that is still rampantly glamorized.
A colossal 84 per cent of British men and 43 per cent of British women want to drink less.
‘HMRC data shows that people are buying twice as much alcohol as they admit to drinking,’
Despite all of this ‘alcohol is a carcinogen’ proof, a poll showed that half of all British people still did not associate alcohol with cancer in 2016. Consider this. British people are five times more likely to die from an alcohol-related death than a car accident. We religiously wear seatbelts or buy cars with fancy air bags. And yet, we totally ignore the monster in the room that is five times more likely to kill us.
Does anyone remember the computer game, Lemmings, from the 1990s? (Gah, I loved that game. Somebody buy me an Amiga so I can play it again.) Anyhow, there was always one lemming that insisted on walking away from the cliff, who refused to follow the crowd. That’s the straight-edge, sober lemming. They’ve decided to sup tea, rather than shorten their life span by 10–12 years. They’ve dared to be rare.
‘You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way and the only way, it does not exist.’ – NIETZSCHE
I know that I can always, always go back home if things go wrong, and be very happy there too. Very few people have that.
‘You never fail until you stop trying.’
