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Why I’m Not Drinking in Quarantine Even Though I Usually Drink
Here’s the 1 reason why right now is different & the 4 things I’m doing instead — personally and as an entrepreneur.
While I’m the founder and face of an alcohol-free bar, I don’t talk much about my drinking. I don’t really put rules around it. I don’t identify as sober, nor do I see the choice not to drink as a one-size-fits-all movement.
In interviews, when asked about what’s driving this rising trend, I don’t point to wellness, or how we millennials are changing everything. Instead, I point to individuality — to the fact that everyone is redefining their relationship to alcohol on their own terms, and that the spectrum is wide and nuanced. For many of us, where we fall on that spectrum shifts with time.
Sometimes alcohol-free is a lifestyle choice, other times it is a choice that changes with every round.
I’m here for all of it.
In terms of my own choices, I drink whenever I feel like it. I just don’t usually feel like it.
Since starting Listen Bar, that’s become the case more and more. I now have favorite alcohol-free cocktails, I’m supremely comfortable at parties without drinking, and I‘ve created all these little hacks that work really well for me. Like:
Always make the first drink alcohol-free.
Whenever I walk into a new bar, restaurant, party or club, I order my first drink from their alcohol-free menu. Or, at the very least, I start with water. This lets me figure out if I actually want alcohol or if I’m just reacting to the jitters of walking into a new environment. Typically, in 10 minutes and a sip of anything, those jitters are gone and my interest in alcohol is gone with them. If it’s still there - cool. I’ll know it’s coming from a non-anxious place, and I’m comfortable with myself to handle that.
