Make The Most Of Your Weekends, Even When You Plan To Do Nothing
Written by: JoAnne Pearce
Now that we’ve established that too much booze turns your brain into a soggy gremliln after midnight, let’s talk about sober mornings. Listen, some people will just never be morning people, so this is not me promising that you will start hopping out of bed and kicking over couches like Debbie Reynolds in Singin’ In The Rain. Some folks will still wake up looking and feeling like the crypt keeper until sufficient quantities of caffeine have been siphoned into their guts, and that’s just the way it is. I do promise, however, that there will be less wasted days.
Starting your day in a sinkhole of depleted hormones and wonky blood sugar levels automatically makes everything feel harder than it needs to.
That trip to the dog park or farmer’s market that seemed like such a fabulous idea the night before can feel like a living nightmare the next day. That innocent brunch you agreed to on a chipper Wednesday afternoon can feel about as appealing as being waterboarded by Dick Cheney himself come Saturday morning.
This is where the chronic bailing starts. The endless thinking of excuses. The ensuing shame of feeling like everyone knows your dirty little secret, and the secret is that you are too hungover to function. You spent all your joy juice last night, and now your glands are thoroughly wrung out. Eye contact feels impossible and you’re pretty sure that your lingering blood alcohol level makes you a walking fire hazard. You are not ready for the public, but more importantly, you know that the public is not ready for you.
Now imagine a Saturday morning where the day stretches out ahead of you like a forked yellow brick road. A shimmering path summoning you to choose your own adventure, and you don’t have to choose just one.
Hell, you can do the dog park, farmer’s market and brunch all before noon if you’re feeling ambitious. You can also stay home all day in your pyjamas and curl up in a patch of sun with a book, or do a marathon run of Fantasy Island. Not because you are physically incapable of putting on jeans without dry heaving, but because YOU FEEL LIKE IT. The day will never wasted if it is spent in pursuit of high quality rest and you-time.
There’s nothing better than a well-executed ‘bed day’, which can be even more enjoyable when your body isn’t also doing heavy damage control.
Sober mornings, especially on weekends, are a gift. You can use that gift to do all the things, or to do none of the things. Time will open up to you, and you might find that you suddenly have more space for both productivity and rest in a single day. You won’t bail on as many plans, and so you won’t waste time feeling guilty either. Add to all these gains that you will wake up from your sober slumber feeling fresher than a pillow with a mint on it, and enjoy!
