I have been absent from alcohol for a year and a half now

One of my last big explosions was my 40th birthday. I didn’t want to mess up, but couldn’t refuse the offer for a festive drink, and before I knew it, I skipped dinner, had 5 tequila shots, dancing like a zombie at the table. It was

It was meditation that helped unravel the spell – but that didn’t happen overnight.

I entered meditation during what was called the early middle-aged crisis. I lived in the music industry in London in my twenties and when I was 35 I realized I didn’t want to wake up as a 50-year-old party animal.

At first I was physically healthy. I quit smoking, started exercising and had a marathon. Then I entered psychology and the mentor I had at the time suggested to meditate.

I tried several different approaches until I found Vedic meditation that uses a mantra to think quietly in my head. It felt instantly and was much easier than I expected.

When I started meditation, I felt I needed less. It was like I was more naturally filled and not generally poor. I no longer want the old alcohol crutches.

But even with braking turned on, the heavy drinkers continued to move for another three years. The reason for this was the New Year’s meditation retreat in late 2017. After spending Christmas with my family in the United States, I did what a 40-year-old single looking for a soul would do and jump into an exotic wellness retreat in Mexico.

I found that I shared a room with three very similar men – all 40, all single. The memorandum of understanding of the middle-aged crisis was clearly obtained. We practiced a series of yoga poses, breathing techniques, and meditation for up to 12 hours each day.

Meditation acts as a powerful antidote to stress. It is known that stress causes the body to produce large amounts of the stress hormone cortisol, affecting the immune system, disturbing sleep, and in my case being forced to drink.

Imagine that after four months of lockdown the stress looks like uncontrollable hair, daily meditation is like trimming it daily with scissors to make things easier to manage. Intense meditation retreats are like taking hair clippers and shaving off the stressed fluff.

Two and a half years later, I’m unlikely to drink again, but I’m not saying I’ll stop forever.

When I returned from Mexico, I could easily get back to the old way. But the newly found, fuzz-free clarity helped to make one small but important decision.

That day, I said goodbye to two friends who were traveling between states. A simple revelation hit me like a sledgehammer: I could go and drink. And enjoy it.

This may seem strange and obvious, but doing that really didn’t happen to me. So I went to the pub and treated myself with some flashy sparkling water. Hours later, I was able to fill up and decline the invitation to the afterparty..

Not only did I escape a big session, but I also arranged for a successful sober date that evening with my girlfriend tonight. These two events were enough to inspire me to promise to take alcohol for a month.

One of the things that helped me was not thinking too far and setting it as an insurmountable challenge. Each consecutive chunk, first one month, then 100 days, then six months, and finally one year, seemed manageable. Two and a half years later, it’s unlikely I’ll ever drink again, but I’m not saying I’ll forever stop.

The biggest advantage of not drinking is arguably no hangover. Having no hangover, I was able to spend 50-100 days a year undebilitated.

One of the reasons why people often don’t last long is that either they or their friends convince them that without alcohol their life would be a slow slip to middle-aged mediocre ..

It’s undeniable that calm people don’t offer that much noisy entertainment or drama, but as we got older, we had to ask this. Drive to achieve what I wanted in life?

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After not drinking for a month or so I got a very clear answer. This has not yet disappeared after two and a half years.

Rory Kinsella teaches Vedic meditation at Bondi Junction, Meditate to stop alcohol Technology.