The Alcohol Experiment: A 30-Day, Alcohol-Free Challenge to Interrupt Your Habits and Help You Take Control

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Annie Grace holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and a Master of Science in Neuro-Linguistic Programming. She worked as a global marketing executive for Fortune 500 companies before leaving her corporate career to focus on helping people improve their relationships with alcohol.

I made it 25 days. I ended my streak because I was spending a night in a lovely apartment in a village in the European countryside with a balcony overlooking nature, with a view of the stars above, and my hosts had graciously offered me a bottle of local wine along with a fresh fruit plate. This is the context in which alcohol is made to be consumed. I enjoyed the wine, the constellations, nature, and a long chat with a loved one, and slept in peace. A lot of people can think that a social event or experience would be so much better if they could just drink. But I think that it's powerful to learn how to live awake in our society, with our eyes wide open to everything that's happening, and feeling all of our emotions and experiences. If I were to compare when I was drinking, to now, it's like night and day. But it's always a process, to just continue to realize that I'm doing the best I can. Starting The Alcohol Experiment This experiment was a success. Something the author wrote on Day 2 hit me hard and something shifted. It's Day 30 now and this was honestly not that difficult. I had a few weak moments (mostly at night with friends), but overall I've lost the desire. Yeah, exactly. And that’s the thing is that when we introduced so much fear into the conversation, and I can speak to this so well, because it was where I lived. For many years, I think I’ve estimated between 6 and 7 years of living in that cycle that you were just so eloquently talking about, of making those rules saying, you know, not this type of alcohol or not on these dates, or only this much, or taking this sort of break, and always coming up with either.

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But to experience that magic, you may have to deal with a few side effects. After all, alcohol is a toxin and your body needs to cleanse itself. You might experience some cravings and irritability at first. This is completely normal and will pass as the alcohol leaves your system.

Challenge your thinking, find clarity, and form new habits with a 30-day alcohol-free experiment from the author of This Naked Mind . Yes. The definition of alcoholism also focuses the effort of sobriety on a minority of excess drinkers while ignoring millions who also really struggle with drinking. And then the second one is curiosity. And I think those things go hand in hand, because when you are approaching whatever situation, it is with curiosity, you will awaken possibility. So as an example, if I’m going into a happy hour, and I haven’t, I mean, in my case, I hadn’t been at a happy hour without drinking, except when I was pregnant for like, more than a decade. And I’m walking into this happy hour. And I have this for sure narrative in my head that this is going to be miserable minus will not even be here, what is even the point? I promise it will be miserable. But if I just allow a little bit of curiosity to instead of okay, maybe it won’t, I don’t know that for sure. I haven’t actually done it in a decade, I actually have no idea what it’s like to walk into a happy hour and drink iced tea instead of you know, a martini, I’ve no idea what that experience is like, what might it be? Oh, my goodness, that opens up a whole new realm of possibility and experience. And inevitably, when people do those sorts of experiments on themselves, they walk out of it, and I’m like, Whoa, it wasn’t that bad. Or sometimes it was even fun. Yeah, and I know so many women are familiar with your work but there are also some women who are entirely new to looking at their drinking their questions. They’re drinking or being worried about it. Can you talk a little bit about that third way your approach? How to explore the role of alcohol in your life from a low-stakes place of curiosity with This Naked Mind and The Alcohol Experiment

I can’t do this alone

That was very true for my drinking. I was trying to have a more positive experience, and I was creating so much negativity. Now, I'm sad sometimes and I'm okay with that. It feels better, for all the counterintuitive reasons, because I'm not striving to feel better as much as I'm striving to just be in reality. Welcome to this week's episode of "This Naked Mind" with your host, Annie Grace. I'm excited to have Lee as our guest today, who will share his profound journey of finding freedom from self-medicating mental health conditions with alcohol. Lee's story sheds light on the hidden struggles in the North of England's drinking culture. We'll delve into how he started self-medicating with alcohol at a young age, the tumultuous path it led him on, and how long it took him to realize what he was truly doing to himself. And, of course, we also discuss the transformative impact of "This Naked Mind" in bringing clarity to Lee's life. Yeah. And I think one of the things when you talk about the emotion is also the emotion behind why you’re doing it. One of the things I think people love about your work is that it’s not punitive, and it’s not shame and blame, but rather, you’re taking steps towards a better life that you actually want.