Yes, I totally agree. I don't enjoy alcohol anymore and my body doesn't seem to do well with it. Even small sips have a huge impact. The same goes for sugar. More and more my body rejects sugar and I also don't need it as much. Coffee, however, is still very much liked by me. Yet, not needed. In German we have a word for things like chocolate, alcohol and coffee, "Genussmittel" which translates as "enjoyment" and "items". I think if e shift from the need to consume these things in order to enjoy something towards enjoying these items on an occasional basis, knowing that we don't need them, we live much healthier. Thanks for the article. 🙏 Merry Christmas to you
Thanks for teaching me a new word Sadhbh! I relate to the sugar sensitivity as well. Enjoyment items is a great way to couch this stuff and gives people freedom from rigidity. I appreciate you reading and sharing!
I also experienced natural shift away from alcohol during the past few years of consciousness shifts. It was natural and not at all my own will. I also get sick after just one drink. Maybe I did before but I was so disassciated that I didn't sense it. Or maybe the rejection is new. Who really knows? It is an interesting evolution. I take it as growth and a sign of just more attunement with my body awareness. It is also just another thing that takes me out of the plane of harmful societal norms.
I definitely think the more interoceptive and body aware we become, the more sensitive we are too substances. This stuff all seems interrelated to me. It does seem like more and more people are experiencing this type of thing so hoping the societal norms evolve accordingly
Thanks for sharing this, Scott. I'm so tired of hearing the old line about how one has to "get sober" before anything else can happen, and I'm glad to see more people talk about this experience, which is what I might call the 'right-side-up' paradigm for changing one's relationship with alcohol—or, really, the experience of _observing_ one's relationship with alcohol changing _of its own accord_, in response to other changes that have resulted in a closer relationship with intuition, awareness, consciousness, and wellness.
This was also my own experience. Changing my relationship with alcohol came about in a largely spontaneous fashion after a long series of changes that I made in my own life. In my case, although I did also do some personal work with talk therapy, mens groups, and also in terms of selling my business, the core of what I did was simply to get healthier and more physically active, which contributed in a twofold manner to an eventual change in my drinking from 99% of the time to 1% of the time. For one, getting more active—mostly with trail running—simply made me feel better in a very direct, visceral, embodied way. I began to look forward to more of that feeling, and I began to feel how drinking interfered with that. Secondly, and perhaps even more importantly, getting more active and feeling better in turn activated an awareness of and connection to my intuition that I previously did not have—and once I began to receive intuitive messages more clearly and more often, I began to hear my unconscious suggesting that alcohol was no longer as interesting as it once had been, and also that there could be a way of living centered around well-being and fitness, as opposed to eating and drinking.
I encourage everyone who's had the experience of changing their relationship with alcohol (or any other addictive behavior) to share their own experience in their own words, to help others understand that change can happen in a lot of ways, and that's it's not by any means always about quitting, or abstinence, or getting 'sober' or 'recovery' first—or even at all.
Loved reading this man. I think it highlights how so many other things can create the momentum for change. I also think once we start to experience the greater clarity and intuition, behaviors that tamper with that connection become less compelling. Being "tuned in" and the creativity that comes with it, is actually way more exciting then taking the edge of things and the roller coaster of getting buzzed and then feeling like crap/foggy.
Always appreciate learning aout all your adventures man! Happy new year to you!
My friend @Dee Rambeau posted below "Bowen my friend. Why are you so tired of hearing about an experience that has worked for millions of people? Does there have go be a “right side up” vs. an “upside down” way? Let it be whatever works for people. There’s truly no right way to implement change in your life. Certainly I can accept any method that works for people to improve. Everyone’s experience is different."
Hi Dee. I'm not trying to negate anyone else experience. I totally agree that there's no one right way, and that everyone's experience is different. What I'm tired of is hearing that how one **has to** "get sober" _before anything else can happen_. Those are my words of course, but they are my consistent perception of how orthodox sobriety works, and it actually runs contrary to accepting that people _do_ have different experiences.
Orthodox sobriety evangelizes that one _has to_ stop drinking (or whatever else) _before_ change can happen, which not only doesn't allow for my own experience, or for Scott's, but also invalidates it. To me it's at best incomplete, and really, the way it's most often presented, it feels untrue, by way of trying to claim universality.
The reason that I refer to my own experience as "right side up" is not to say that it's "right," but because to me it feels like the right order of things. I'm much less interested in the substance and the behavior, and much more interested in the wholistic wellness of the full person. Trad sober focuses on the substance, and to me that feels upside down. Scott's piece shows how he naturally and automatically shifted away from consuming alcohol, not as a result of any effort or interest in not drinking, but by way of more wholistic changes he was making in his life.
I'm not interested in making alcohol, or screen-scrolling, or stock-market gambling, or whatever addictive behavior _more_ of a focus of my attention by centering it in my worldview. To me that feels like getting smaller, something like tossing and turning due to the pea under the mattress vs. just walking away and finding somewhere else to sleep.
Of course I'm not saying—and I didn't say—that there has to be a “right side up” vs. an “upside down” way. Your way, someone else's way, my way, all good. To me it's the trad-sober movement that attempts to say there's just one way, and that's what riles me up.
Fair enough my friend. For me, anything that riles me up makes me look inside at WTF it is about my reaction. Judgment is a reflection of self. What do those people and things that so annoy me have to teach me?
Fair enough. But, and—not saying you're doing this per se, but that self-reflection trick can be used to excess, to explain away any reaction judgement as projection. It can be a form of [spiritual] 'bypassing.' I have a friend that used to reply with the suggestion that I examine myself more deeply whenever I had much in the way of constructive criticism for him. Again, fair enough perhaps, but he was missing the point. I add this to say that part of my anger, and my opinion is, well, my opinion, and the fact is that while, of course, we all make our own choices and I'm glad there are as many different ways to do something as there are people to do it, at the same time, I simply do not agree with a lot of what trad-sober has to offer.
Hence I don’t use the words “you” or “should” when responding to a different point of view. Or in my essays. I can only offer up or refer to my own experience.
I have friends like your friend and they’re annoying as fuck. Deflection at its finest. 😉
Orthodoxy bugs me as much as it bugs you I think. I just don’t think of my winding road through addiction and sobriety in that way. I broke every fucking rule they threw at me and still made it out alive 🤷🏻♂️
Hi Scott-this happened to me also. I just stopped drinking alcohol and eating animal protein. The journey is fascinating. The more regular my Kriya yoga and studying the wisdom of the masters, the faster these habits drop.
Yes sounds like you've had a similar journey indeed. Sometimes i do wonder whether the concepts we have around going deeper spiritually (i.e. adopting certain diets) actually drive this. I'm not really sure. But its very interesting!
Love this post Scott! Thank you for so clearly embracing your dharma of helping others elevate their consciousness first and foremost.
Agreed that this is the higher “physics” of human evolution.
Glad you started this post with the Yogananda story. He told another story along that goes something like this:
One of his students came to him very distraught that he couldn’t give up whiskey. And Yogananda said “No problem. You can hold your whiskey bottle in one hand and your prayer mala bead in your other hand. And just keep doing Kriya yoga meditation technique, because as the ecstasy grows everything goes”.
Meaning that as the innate bliss that is our deepest default nature is accessed in meditation, everything else pales in comparison.
Blessings of maximum love and light to you and everyone! 💖☯️🥰
Thank you Derek! What an epic story. I think it captures the little secret of all this which is old habits just become less compelling the deeper you go down this path...it's not some mastery of willpower. Appreciate you and the positive vibes you bring to your posts : )
Love this! And I love how you use alcohol as an entry into the larger point that changing our consciousness is primary. Work on that and so much else in life just falls into place. No need to struggle. Happy New Year!
Thank you Scott. As I develop my consciousness, my desire for alcohol is diminishing just as you describe. Certainly the ubiquitousness of it in our cultures makes it difficult and sometimes I even just forget...... Nevertheless, one is quickly reminded of why it just doesn't make sense.
Thank you Scott for what you do.
Blessings to all for a wonderful, consciousness raising year in 2024.
Scott, I really enjoyed this post and found it personally relevant and inspiring. I’ve had a similar experience with caffeine over the last few years. It’s something I enjoy but have become increasingly intolerant of.
I find myself drinking caffeine and/or alcohol not because it’s necessarily what I want but because it’s what’s expected, what’s common in a group or what’s convenient. I like the idea of listening to what my heart and mind actually want and paying attention to that as I make a decision. Perhaps my actions will naturally change as a result.
Hope you have a wonderful new year ahead, thanks for your content.
Glad it was helpful Matt! One thing you can do is start to find substitutes you actually do enjoy. Instead of coffee, I love ceremonial cacao as a morning ritual. I really like this cacao https://ohmgnomes.com/. Instead of alcohol, I'll get a mocktail or athletic brewing company non-alch beer. Now I just like these things way better
Good one Scott. Congrats on a year. Whatever works. It doesn’t sound like booze was really changing your thinking...but rather just impacting your body in a negative way. Addictive behaviors are manifested when you make decisions that don’t line up with your consciousness or your values. My experience was that I was in so deep that my consciousness and values were buried by the booze and I had to quit the booze to let the other reappear. I agree we can change the relationship to things through willpower and alignment. Booze didn’t work that way for me. It had ahold of my brain unlike any other bad habit I’ve ever tried to get rid of. Change is easier now without it.
Hey Dee - nice to see you here. I just stumbled upon your writing today so love the synchronicity! I appreciate you sharing your own experience. I do think alcohol can masterfully dull and cover up things that want to emerge even when we are not drinking. It definitely feels like that for me too. For example, I dream and remember them now very vividly which was way less so when I had alcohol in my system. Loic Le Meur talks a lot about that. Anyways, happy to hear you are in a good place with it all now!
I can relate to living the double life. I've been living that double life for the last decade.
My consciousness journey, as you say, began when I was 17, after a spiritual awakening on LSD.
I felt a pervasive sadness throughout high-school while partying and doing drugs, and then one day, soon after graduating high-school, I took mushrooms and later LSD, had a spiritual awakening experience and my whole mindset changed.
However, my habits / patterns were still the same, and it has taken me just about a decade to catch up with the mindset shift the mushrooms and LSD occasioned. These last 10 years have been difficult, as I’ve felt many times like I was living a lie, or living a double life.
My soul wants to be a monk in the mountains, dedicated to God, or to live a simple and gentle and harmonious life of balance in right relationship to Nature, in service, but as an early to mid 20s dude I’d always end up in situations that were the opposite. Between teaching yoga classes, attending early morning Zen sits, university classes and drug fuelled nights at clubs or house parties, I’d feel so confused, lost, often not knowing who I was. In the haze of weed smoke, alcohol and other drugs during university years, I regularly felt so alone amongst friends, knowing these parties and clubs weren’t where my soul really wanted to be. Post university and during COVID, the back and forth would continue between drugs and clubs, and plant medicine ceremony with elders and guides, which reminded of where I was supposed to be while reminding me of where I wasn't yet.
It’s been a decade long ping pong match.
However, the universal patterns (astrology) in addition to my own intuition indicates that this match is coming to an end in 2024, and I'm super excited for what's to come.
Thanks for sharing your story so openly Louis. It’s very easy to just fall into cultural norms when we’re still finding myself. My experience tho is that the forces of life always realign us eventually. In fact it becomes harder and harder not to until we don’t have a choice. I’m sure even though you felt out of alignment there was lots of gifts in everything you described and reasons you were in this positions that will make sense to you in the future. All part of the unfolding and cheers to an aligned 2024!
Thanks for sharing Scott. Has this happened to you with other things in addition to the alcohol, meat and coffee? I'm on the way to giving up gluten entirely for pretty much the same reasons you shared above. For several years I was in denial that it did anything to my system because well — I ate homemade bread everyday growing up! But now, it feels like my body just rejects it outright. Even in small amounts I could previously tolerate I can't anymore. What has the experience been like after a whole year without alcohol?
Yes definitely. Substance wise I’d add sugar, especially added.
I’d say there’s lots of other more prominent things like people, media, and environments I just find it much more uncomfortable to be around. A lot of them has fallen away naturally but some I needed to step away from
Post alcohol has been great. Way more clarity, feeling good in my body, better sleep, and also more connected/tuned in. One interesting thing is how much more clear and remembered my dreams are. I remember them clearly daily for the most part. This was not the case before
Hey Scott, very interesting that you've also found this extending into people, media and environments. Glad to hear post alcohol has been great and you've been feeing more connected/ tuned in.
I am also a vivid dreamer and find dreams fascinating. I've had messages come through in my dreams and solve my problems semi-regularly too. If it's ok to ask, what kind of dreams do you have that you didn't remember before? It's so fascinating.
Yes, I totally agree. I don't enjoy alcohol anymore and my body doesn't seem to do well with it. Even small sips have a huge impact. The same goes for sugar. More and more my body rejects sugar and I also don't need it as much. Coffee, however, is still very much liked by me. Yet, not needed. In German we have a word for things like chocolate, alcohol and coffee, "Genussmittel" which translates as "enjoyment" and "items". I think if e shift from the need to consume these things in order to enjoy something towards enjoying these items on an occasional basis, knowing that we don't need them, we live much healthier. Thanks for the article. 🙏 Merry Christmas to you
Thanks for teaching me a new word Sadhbh! I relate to the sugar sensitivity as well. Enjoyment items is a great way to couch this stuff and gives people freedom from rigidity. I appreciate you reading and sharing!
Genussmittel! Great word, thanks Sadhbh!
I also experienced natural shift away from alcohol during the past few years of consciousness shifts. It was natural and not at all my own will. I also get sick after just one drink. Maybe I did before but I was so disassciated that I didn't sense it. Or maybe the rejection is new. Who really knows? It is an interesting evolution. I take it as growth and a sign of just more attunement with my body awareness. It is also just another thing that takes me out of the plane of harmful societal norms.
I definitely think the more interoceptive and body aware we become, the more sensitive we are too substances. This stuff all seems interrelated to me. It does seem like more and more people are experiencing this type of thing so hoping the societal norms evolve accordingly
Thanks for reminding me of the great word, interoceptive. One that was very conveniently left out of med school curriculums.
I know right! Such a valuable skill and it's really not taught anywhere in modern institutions
Thanks for sharing this, Scott. I'm so tired of hearing the old line about how one has to "get sober" before anything else can happen, and I'm glad to see more people talk about this experience, which is what I might call the 'right-side-up' paradigm for changing one's relationship with alcohol—or, really, the experience of _observing_ one's relationship with alcohol changing _of its own accord_, in response to other changes that have resulted in a closer relationship with intuition, awareness, consciousness, and wellness.
This was also my own experience. Changing my relationship with alcohol came about in a largely spontaneous fashion after a long series of changes that I made in my own life. In my case, although I did also do some personal work with talk therapy, mens groups, and also in terms of selling my business, the core of what I did was simply to get healthier and more physically active, which contributed in a twofold manner to an eventual change in my drinking from 99% of the time to 1% of the time. For one, getting more active—mostly with trail running—simply made me feel better in a very direct, visceral, embodied way. I began to look forward to more of that feeling, and I began to feel how drinking interfered with that. Secondly, and perhaps even more importantly, getting more active and feeling better in turn activated an awareness of and connection to my intuition that I previously did not have—and once I began to receive intuitive messages more clearly and more often, I began to hear my unconscious suggesting that alcohol was no longer as interesting as it once had been, and also that there could be a way of living centered around well-being and fitness, as opposed to eating and drinking.
I've written a lot about my own experience here
https://bowendwelle.substack.com/p/sex-is-better-sober
...and most recently as part of a series on "recovery" here
https://bowendwelle.substack.com/p/learning-to-ride
as well as in several other pieces over time
https://bowendwelle.substack.com/t/alcohol
I encourage everyone who's had the experience of changing their relationship with alcohol (or any other addictive behavior) to share their own experience in their own words, to help others understand that change can happen in a lot of ways, and that's it's not by any means always about quitting, or abstinence, or getting 'sober' or 'recovery' first—or even at all.
Cheers Scott, happy new year!
Loved reading this man. I think it highlights how so many other things can create the momentum for change. I also think once we start to experience the greater clarity and intuition, behaviors that tamper with that connection become less compelling. Being "tuned in" and the creativity that comes with it, is actually way more exciting then taking the edge of things and the roller coaster of getting buzzed and then feeling like crap/foggy.
Always appreciate learning aout all your adventures man! Happy new year to you!
My friend @Dee Rambeau posted below "Bowen my friend. Why are you so tired of hearing about an experience that has worked for millions of people? Does there have go be a “right side up” vs. an “upside down” way? Let it be whatever works for people. There’s truly no right way to implement change in your life. Certainly I can accept any method that works for people to improve. Everyone’s experience is different."
Replying here so it's in context ⬇️
Hi Dee. I'm not trying to negate anyone else experience. I totally agree that there's no one right way, and that everyone's experience is different. What I'm tired of is hearing that how one **has to** "get sober" _before anything else can happen_. Those are my words of course, but they are my consistent perception of how orthodox sobriety works, and it actually runs contrary to accepting that people _do_ have different experiences.
Orthodox sobriety evangelizes that one _has to_ stop drinking (or whatever else) _before_ change can happen, which not only doesn't allow for my own experience, or for Scott's, but also invalidates it. To me it's at best incomplete, and really, the way it's most often presented, it feels untrue, by way of trying to claim universality.
The reason that I refer to my own experience as "right side up" is not to say that it's "right," but because to me it feels like the right order of things. I'm much less interested in the substance and the behavior, and much more interested in the wholistic wellness of the full person. Trad sober focuses on the substance, and to me that feels upside down. Scott's piece shows how he naturally and automatically shifted away from consuming alcohol, not as a result of any effort or interest in not drinking, but by way of more wholistic changes he was making in his life.
I'm not interested in making alcohol, or screen-scrolling, or stock-market gambling, or whatever addictive behavior _more_ of a focus of my attention by centering it in my worldview. To me that feels like getting smaller, something like tossing and turning due to the pea under the mattress vs. just walking away and finding somewhere else to sleep.
Of course I'm not saying—and I didn't say—that there has to be a “right side up” vs. an “upside down” way. Your way, someone else's way, my way, all good. To me it's the trad-sober movement that attempts to say there's just one way, and that's what riles me up.
Fair enough my friend. For me, anything that riles me up makes me look inside at WTF it is about my reaction. Judgment is a reflection of self. What do those people and things that so annoy me have to teach me?
Fair enough. But, and—not saying you're doing this per se, but that self-reflection trick can be used to excess, to explain away any reaction judgement as projection. It can be a form of [spiritual] 'bypassing.' I have a friend that used to reply with the suggestion that I examine myself more deeply whenever I had much in the way of constructive criticism for him. Again, fair enough perhaps, but he was missing the point. I add this to say that part of my anger, and my opinion is, well, my opinion, and the fact is that while, of course, we all make our own choices and I'm glad there are as many different ways to do something as there are people to do it, at the same time, I simply do not agree with a lot of what trad-sober has to offer.
Hence I don’t use the words “you” or “should” when responding to a different point of view. Or in my essays. I can only offer up or refer to my own experience.
I have friends like your friend and they’re annoying as fuck. Deflection at its finest. 😉
Orthodoxy bugs me as much as it bugs you I think. I just don’t think of my winding road through addiction and sobriety in that way. I broke every fucking rule they threw at me and still made it out alive 🤷🏻♂️
Hi Scott-this happened to me also. I just stopped drinking alcohol and eating animal protein. The journey is fascinating. The more regular my Kriya yoga and studying the wisdom of the masters, the faster these habits drop.
Yes sounds like you've had a similar journey indeed. Sometimes i do wonder whether the concepts we have around going deeper spiritually (i.e. adopting certain diets) actually drive this. I'm not really sure. But its very interesting!
Love this post Scott! Thank you for so clearly embracing your dharma of helping others elevate their consciousness first and foremost.
Agreed that this is the higher “physics” of human evolution.
Glad you started this post with the Yogananda story. He told another story along that goes something like this:
One of his students came to him very distraught that he couldn’t give up whiskey. And Yogananda said “No problem. You can hold your whiskey bottle in one hand and your prayer mala bead in your other hand. And just keep doing Kriya yoga meditation technique, because as the ecstasy grows everything goes”.
Meaning that as the innate bliss that is our deepest default nature is accessed in meditation, everything else pales in comparison.
Blessings of maximum love and light to you and everyone! 💖☯️🥰
Thank you Derek! What an epic story. I think it captures the little secret of all this which is old habits just become less compelling the deeper you go down this path...it's not some mastery of willpower. Appreciate you and the positive vibes you bring to your posts : )
Love this! And I love how you use alcohol as an entry into the larger point that changing our consciousness is primary. Work on that and so much else in life just falls into place. No need to struggle. Happy New Year!
Agreed Stephanie! It is indeed the domino that makes so many others fall down easily. Have you read this book? https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Jesus-Transforming-Mind-Perspective/dp/1590305809
It was very impactful for me
You know, I own it, bought it years ago, but never got beyond a few pages. It may be time to revisit it. Thank you for the recommendation!
Love this, Scott. Thanks so much for sharing your journey.
Thanks Mona! Was thinking of you recently and your journey. I hope you are doing amazing!!!
Thank you Scott. As I develop my consciousness, my desire for alcohol is diminishing just as you describe. Certainly the ubiquitousness of it in our cultures makes it difficult and sometimes I even just forget...... Nevertheless, one is quickly reminded of why it just doesn't make sense.
Thank you Scott for what you do.
Blessings to all for a wonderful, consciousness raising year in 2024.
That's great Bill! I'm happy it seems like you're feeling a pull towards healthy choices.
Wishing you a blessed 2024 and beyond!!
Scott, I really enjoyed this post and found it personally relevant and inspiring. I’ve had a similar experience with caffeine over the last few years. It’s something I enjoy but have become increasingly intolerant of.
I find myself drinking caffeine and/or alcohol not because it’s necessarily what I want but because it’s what’s expected, what’s common in a group or what’s convenient. I like the idea of listening to what my heart and mind actually want and paying attention to that as I make a decision. Perhaps my actions will naturally change as a result.
Hope you have a wonderful new year ahead, thanks for your content.
Glad it was helpful Matt! One thing you can do is start to find substitutes you actually do enjoy. Instead of coffee, I love ceremonial cacao as a morning ritual. I really like this cacao https://ohmgnomes.com/. Instead of alcohol, I'll get a mocktail or athletic brewing company non-alch beer. Now I just like these things way better
Thank you for the recommendation!
Isn’t it wonderful when we make a choice for life? Congratulations!
It is indeed. Thank you Denise! Happy Holidays
I didn’t realize we had this in common, Scott.
Today is my sober date- four years, and I find to be true so much of what you wrote.
(And ... Also understand deeply the NYC drinking culture.)
Amazing- a year of sobriety. Good for you. ✨ That’s awesome
You find, as you get closer to you, everything else just seems less desirable. Lovely piece.
Sending well wishes for 2024
That's awesome Andee and congrats to you on 4 years! That sounds wonderful.
Appreciate you support and wishing you a lovely holiday season
Congratulations on one year!
Thank you : )
Good one Scott. Congrats on a year. Whatever works. It doesn’t sound like booze was really changing your thinking...but rather just impacting your body in a negative way. Addictive behaviors are manifested when you make decisions that don’t line up with your consciousness or your values. My experience was that I was in so deep that my consciousness and values were buried by the booze and I had to quit the booze to let the other reappear. I agree we can change the relationship to things through willpower and alignment. Booze didn’t work that way for me. It had ahold of my brain unlike any other bad habit I’ve ever tried to get rid of. Change is easier now without it.
Hey Dee - nice to see you here. I just stumbled upon your writing today so love the synchronicity! I appreciate you sharing your own experience. I do think alcohol can masterfully dull and cover up things that want to emerge even when we are not drinking. It definitely feels like that for me too. For example, I dream and remember them now very vividly which was way less so when I had alcohol in my system. Loic Le Meur talks a lot about that. Anyways, happy to hear you are in a good place with it all now!
I love the way we stumble into each other here on Substack 😩
Whatever works for you.
Interesting to read your story.
I can relate to living the double life. I've been living that double life for the last decade.
My consciousness journey, as you say, began when I was 17, after a spiritual awakening on LSD.
I felt a pervasive sadness throughout high-school while partying and doing drugs, and then one day, soon after graduating high-school, I took mushrooms and later LSD, had a spiritual awakening experience and my whole mindset changed.
However, my habits / patterns were still the same, and it has taken me just about a decade to catch up with the mindset shift the mushrooms and LSD occasioned. These last 10 years have been difficult, as I’ve felt many times like I was living a lie, or living a double life.
My soul wants to be a monk in the mountains, dedicated to God, or to live a simple and gentle and harmonious life of balance in right relationship to Nature, in service, but as an early to mid 20s dude I’d always end up in situations that were the opposite. Between teaching yoga classes, attending early morning Zen sits, university classes and drug fuelled nights at clubs or house parties, I’d feel so confused, lost, often not knowing who I was. In the haze of weed smoke, alcohol and other drugs during university years, I regularly felt so alone amongst friends, knowing these parties and clubs weren’t where my soul really wanted to be. Post university and during COVID, the back and forth would continue between drugs and clubs, and plant medicine ceremony with elders and guides, which reminded of where I was supposed to be while reminding me of where I wasn't yet.
It’s been a decade long ping pong match.
However, the universal patterns (astrology) in addition to my own intuition indicates that this match is coming to an end in 2024, and I'm super excited for what's to come.
Thanks for writing.
Namaste 🙏
Thanks for sharing your story so openly Louis. It’s very easy to just fall into cultural norms when we’re still finding myself. My experience tho is that the forces of life always realign us eventually. In fact it becomes harder and harder not to until we don’t have a choice. I’m sure even though you felt out of alignment there was lots of gifts in everything you described and reasons you were in this positions that will make sense to you in the future. All part of the unfolding and cheers to an aligned 2024!
Thanks for sharing Scott. Has this happened to you with other things in addition to the alcohol, meat and coffee? I'm on the way to giving up gluten entirely for pretty much the same reasons you shared above. For several years I was in denial that it did anything to my system because well — I ate homemade bread everyday growing up! But now, it feels like my body just rejects it outright. Even in small amounts I could previously tolerate I can't anymore. What has the experience been like after a whole year without alcohol?
Yes definitely. Substance wise I’d add sugar, especially added.
I’d say there’s lots of other more prominent things like people, media, and environments I just find it much more uncomfortable to be around. A lot of them has fallen away naturally but some I needed to step away from
Post alcohol has been great. Way more clarity, feeling good in my body, better sleep, and also more connected/tuned in. One interesting thing is how much more clear and remembered my dreams are. I remember them clearly daily for the most part. This was not the case before
Hey Scott, very interesting that you've also found this extending into people, media and environments. Glad to hear post alcohol has been great and you've been feeing more connected/ tuned in.
I am also a vivid dreamer and find dreams fascinating. I've had messages come through in my dreams and solve my problems semi-regularly too. If it's ok to ask, what kind of dreams do you have that you didn't remember before? It's so fascinating.