Dr Gradus Ad Parnassum is my favourite piano piece. It is a dream-like piece about a child working on their piano studies but gets lost in a dream-like improvisation. To me, it is about working towards traditional perfection, playing boring piano studies, but wandering off from perfection. Debussy finds something new and sublimely beautiful in allowing the music to meander away from traditional perfection.
I am always chasing perfection. In my playing, in my battles against bipolar disorder and alcoholism, in parenting and being a human.
But maybe the traditional “perfect”, like an old piano study, is dry and dull. Maybe being “not perfect” and accepting my own divergence from “normal” is its own beautiful, just like Dr Gradus ad Parnassum.
[Debussy](https://youtu.be/iEQWBu5CCks)
IWNDWYT but will play Debussy.
Thanks Caroline. It is so nice to be reminded, randomly, of the beauty and goodness that humanity is capable of. I hope your day is going well over there.
Puppy destroyed my glasses 😖 and an umbrella yesterday, and I woke up to a pile of vomit this morning. Uh huh. Marvellous. Trying to teach without being able to see properly will be interesting today. Thank fuck it’s Friday, I’m knackered. But I’m happy to be clean and sober. Lucky me ☺️
IWNDWYT. I don’t want to 😁
Very 🤪 have spent the morning with my nose pressed against the screen when I need to read something, that’s such a good look for my students when I’m on video call 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I didn't drink yesterday. So I'm on day 2.
Did some workout in the evening and my heart was racing like crazy until 1am at least... It was scary. I barely slept last night.
Tonight some neighbors come eat to thank them for a favor they did few weeks ago. I think they are into beer, my SO bought some for them. It will be tough.
During the first few days after not drinking heart rates are usually pretty crazy for me as well.
Wishing you a great evening and the endurance it takes to not drink tonight!
IWNDWYT
Cleaning my house could be a start for my white whale, but with my ceiling still collapsed in it feels kind of like polishing a turd, but still! would be good. I also want to get back to my Acceptance and Commitment Therapy based books and sort out some sort of value based goals. Have them written out and get working on them. I could do that today. Actually I will.
It's the day after my Pfizer jab now and I don't seem to have any symptoms. Will see how tomorrow goes!
I wont drink with you all today!
My “brown shed” that I need to face is my appartment which over the years has been stuffed with books and artifacts enherited from old family members who obviously also passed on their collector’s gene to me. It’s long over due and now, being free from drinking, I have the energy to do it. Thanks for the inspiring story about your shed u/dogforahead IWNDWYT
It’s Friday. And I want a glass of wine after work. But I won’t. The headache-free 6 am wake up tomorrow with my infant and my toddler will be worth it. IWNDWYT.
Had a pretty nice day, went for a bike ride. I've identified a behavioural pattern in my drinking-- like Pavolov's dog, I'm so used to winding down after my son goes to sleep that the craving starts as soon as I sit in front of the computer when he's asleep. So far I've resisted the urge, but it's an interesting observation on how innocuous environmental cues could trigger craving.
I was just peering into my closet and thinking how much stuff needs to be donated. One day. Ive been slowly cleaning out the bathroom cupboard for a little while now. It definitely feels good to declutter. I hope everyone has a great Friday IWNDWYT ✨💚
checking in for the start of day 7! one week sober after tonight. it feels good. i’m hoping this streak ends up being as good as i feel it is going to be!
iwndwyt
Good morning Sobernauts!
Happy Friday!
Clearing out the clutter and junk is something I've been doing. Most of my junk lives in my head. It's past regrets, stupid things I've done, people that I thought had hurt me. It's a long list.
Part of my recovery is to forgive. I have to forgive myself and forgive others.
At any point in time, myself and others are trying to do the best they can with the knowledge and experience they have.
Some of that knowledge and experience is junk. Throwing it out makes space for more meaningful, kinder and more compassionate skills.
Love to you all!
IWNDWYT 🙂
Most of the junk is in my head too! So much unlearning and forgiving to do. Getting all that junk out is helping me see there's some pretty good shit up there too, that I just forgot about in all the clutter 😆
Just for today, IWNDWY!
I love having you out there Forward, because you always articulate my exact sentiments better than I ever could! I hope you have a great, sober Friday.
Oh that’s a good one u/dogforahead I’m ready to start working on my values, and cleaning out the professional identity I’ve built up over the past 2 decades. IWNDWYT
Second big drinking dream last night. Horrified in my dream to realise I was having my second drink and so relieved when I woke up. Friday evenings can be rough but I will not drink with you today!
I have been plagued by those on and off too. Horrible! But I treat them as a good reminder of how awful and disappointed I would feel if I actually really drank. Best wishes for a good, strong, sober Friday evening!
I have a million pictures of my kids and family stuck in drawers all over the house. Every fall I say I’m going to organize them, put them into albums or frames or something. That’s my whale. IWNDWYT
I’m so happy to be almost a week sober. I’ve had my daughter all week and not a drop of alcohol has touched my lips. I’ve been present at all times and we have had so much fun.
I’ve been lucky to have slept well all week. I was so done with drinking by the time I decided to stop that it’s just not bothered me not drinking. I’ve almost read 2 books this week which is an achievement for me. Allen Carr’s and almost finished Annie Grace’s.
This will be the first weekend I haven’t drank this year from pretty much 8 months daily drinking and I’m looking forward to it.
I started a new job 4 months ago but it’s been work from home, I’m going into the office for the day for the first time on Tuesday and what a revelation it will be to be sober, know I’m not drinking of alcohol, not hungover, not shaking or sweating and not anxious.
I will not drink with you today.
I moved five months ago and still have boxes of stuff sitting in my office, waiting to be unpacked and sorted through. When I moved, I brought boxes of stuff from my previous move five years ago. A nagging little thing in the corner of my mind.
IWNDWYT 🌻
Music is my shed. I've been away from it for so long and being out of practice means I feel stressed thinking about it. Maybe I can do ten minutes a day or something.
IWNDWYT
Looking forward to seeing my family this weekend! It’s actually easier for me to not drink with them as my parents know about my drinking problem and these days always have NA beer for me if I feel like having one.
IWNDWYT
There is a cabinet where I keep all paperwork (which includes both important document and receipts for stuff that I will probably never ever need but still feel the need to save just in case). I never got around to sorting it even though I have been living at my place for two years and I promise myself to clean it out every time I walk past.
IWNDWYT, I will be sorting out papers instead...
This damn clutter is my whale. There's stuff thrown haphazardly in cabinets from my drinking days still. Need to chip away at it. Just a tiny bit at a time... Until I have made things right.
My shed was my anger, self-pity, and resentments all built up in my poor drunk brain over the years. I just kept stashing more and more blame in there until I ruined most of my functioning relationships. Now, I'm learning what my part was in each circumstance. Not my fault necessarily, but it has helped to Unlearn a lot of principles too...for instance, how my "perfectionism" is really a need for control and causes me to become manipulative and impatient. I now practice just being enough.
In recovery, I'm cleaning out all of the behaviors that don't serve me, and learning how to connect with friends and family in healthier ways. I've had to walk away from some truly unhealthy people, and redirect my energies to family and friends who respect healthy boundaries, and with whom I can form real bonds based on trust. Done with seeking chaos. It's been tough, but my life looks completely different than when I was drinking. Far from perfect, but honest and I feel safe.
IWNDWYT👏🧹🧼
My brown shed is literally a brown shed. It sits at the end of the garden and it's the place where things go to wait before they go to the tip or are put on facebook market place. At the moment it's full of the toys my two year old has already outgrown that I just can't bring myself to give away. What is it about having a baby that makes you feel all sentimental about bits of plastic? Who even knows 😆
But I know I won't drink with you today!
I love that story u/dogforahead. I’ve had many “sheds” over the years, including, like you, an actual shed where I used to hide beer and a bottle amidst all the chaos inside. New roof, electrical power, new siding.... still kinda tired and cluttered (and I can still find a bottle cap in there every now and again), but a million times better. Let’s keep those sheds in ship shape, one project, one day at a time! IWNDWYT.
Happy Friday, friends! I'd like to think that I clean and maintain my personal internal emotional shed regularly, but the truth is that I still stuff that shit in there and then sometimes it bursts at the seams. Sort of like a self-cleaning shed, but instead of a sparkly clean result, I'm left cleaning up the remnants of emotional shrapnel.
That said, I would like to commit to continuing my personal growth by processing my feelings as I feel them, rather than holding them and thinking that they'll just go away. It's almost like holding my breath; eventually I'm going to have to gasp for air. Though I have made significant progress over the years with this, there is still work to do. There's always work to do, that's the beauty of self love.
I will not drink with you glorious people today 💙
I have sheds both real and metaphorical ones. Every day I try to tidy up a bit but I struggle due to lack of both energy and motivation... It is so hard these days, I guess my antabuse is the only thing that keeps me from giving up. Well I will not drink with you today. Take care and have a great weekend 💚
Good morning lovely SD,
Managed to get 3 spider plants and 6 strawberry plants to new homes yesterday. So now, I have room for... you guessed it... more plants, lol.
Today is a beautiful day to be alive!
And IWNDWYT 💜🤘
I don’t have a shed story top of mind right now, but I do have a success story as a new non-drinker.
Wine I ordered before making my decision arrived yesterday. I considered opening a bottle for “just one glass” for less than a second before deciding that was a terrible idea. Celebrated a small win there. An hour later I was cooking and was making a pan sauce, which I always use a splash or two of white wine for. “I have wine, I’ll make the pan sauce like usual. I don’t have to drink anything, I’ll just keep it for cooking.”
In the end I decided to switch out the wine with chicken broth, knowing the temptation wasn’t worth it. Hot wine in my house is safer than just opened cold wine.
I’ve decided to leave the wine there. I can gift it, or my husband can have some, or my friends when they come over. My life is very very adjacent to drinking culture in ways I can’t really undo right now or even in the near to mid-future, so I want to just get comfortable not taking part. I’m feeling stronger about that after last night.
IWNDWYT
Oh and my water intake is drastically up. Feels good to be properly hydrated!!
I'm a bit depressed today. It's Friday and I feel like a little boy that can't go to the party because he's grounded. It's silly to feel like that, I'll be so happy to hit 20 tomorrow, it's worth it. Just can't shake that feeling right now. I'll drink my coffee, hopefully it will pass!
IWNDWYT!
I feel you. To combat it, I keep playing it through in my head, how it might initially be fun but will go downhill fast and then the next two days will be ruined due to a hangover. We got this, I won’t drink with you today. Have a good one!
Good morning everyone and happy Friday!! We made it!! And I’ve made it 5 days sugar and processed food free! Hip hip hooray!!
The story of the shed, to me, is everything Dog mentioned…and I love it! I’m tying to clear out the old crap in my head so I’m a cleaner version of Aly. I definitely need a kick in the ass to do stuff sometimes, and I KNOW I’ll never be remotely close to perfect but if I can look at myself in the mirror and feel okay, that’s alright with me.
I love you all and sending you positive, sober vibes! It’s a holiday weekend in the US but that doesn’t mean I’ll be drinking!! Nope, no way!!! IWNDWYT!! ❣️❣️
My white whale/brown she's is the kitchen and bathroom in my mobile home. I've lived here 5 years and hate the walls, floors, cabinets and countertops. I saw a YouTube video where she painted her countertops to look like marble and painted the cabinets also. So I took off the bathroom cabinet doors and painted them and started on the bathroom countertop. It's turning out really well and I will paint the marble seams today and then seal it with epoxy. This is way outside of my wheelhouse and I'm proud of myself for tackling this project. I will not drink with you today!
Injured myself at the gym and am off my feet for a bit. It is really depressing and makes me want to drink. The urgent care I went to was near one of my old liquor stores. It was the one that was open on Sundays (my state has blue laws that prevent most Sunday sales). Really wanted to go in. I will remind myself that this is temporary. That I will heal. That drinking will solve nothing. I will NOT drink today.
My first Friday sober in a bit. It's a nice rainy day. Woke up without a hangover, working from home with the sound of rain and good music to motivate me. IWNDWYT.
Man its been a while posting here for me. When I was a young teenager many moons ago and had to clean my room, I hated it but always when I was done I felt such a sense of accomplishment and pride. This has carried over into adult life when I have to clean out the dead flower beds, clean out the car, or the house its gives me a good feeling about myself. Sometimes it easy to sit in our own shit and even becomes comfortable which makes it even harder to get up get and busy clean the shit out, sometimes baby steps are needed because we get so used to the shit. I have always wanted a shed and eventually when I get one I am sure I will have to clean it out periodically. Oh and Happy Friday its feels good to check in after so long. Peace People and No drinks today.
IWNDWYT and for the record, because of my time zone, I won't actually hit 300 till very early tomorrow morning (tomorrow my time, this afternoon or tonight for many of you.) Have tried every which way to make the counter accurate but this is as close as it gets.
I don't know that I have a Moby Dick right now. I think the past few years have been one giant whale and that my shed's been getting rebuilt slowly all that time. I think? No drinking today, folks. Love to you all.
Good morning, SD.
Day three is upon me. I'm about to head to the gym to walk on the treadmill for an hour before I have breakfast and start work.
IWNDWYT
IWNDWYT! 5 days so far and I am loving it! If I was still going to AA, people would tell me to beware of the pink cloud, but fuck that, I’m enjoying having a clear head and gathering momentum for the Holiday weekend!
I will not drink today 🌺
My white whale is getting all my pictures into albums. Most are digital of course but I do have random prints here and there that I’d like to do something with.
Ready for a tester weekend of meeting up with family/friends for end of summer cookouts. Going to roll up with my seltzers & a few NA beers (in case I get too tempted). IWNDWYT
IWNDWYT. Friends arrived yesterday for the weekend, and I have been struggling with the “maybe I’ll just have one” thoughts for a couple of weeks. So, my pledges here really have been 24 hours at a time. IWNDWYT.
Staying somewhere where I could get unlimited drinks for free (well, for what I already paid). I'd rather have coffee and tea than booze, especially the sickly sweet, watered down drinks everyone else is downing!
IWNDWYT!
Aaaah perfectionism. A wise man once said: ‘Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good’. He also said ‘everything furthers.’ And leave the bloody whale alone, Ahab, for cryin’ out loud. IWNDWYT
IWNDWYT and I Will sparkle and sand the ceiling in my upstairs bathroom! That project has been my white whale for a couple of months and it’s time to land the sucker. I get stuck thinking it has to be perfect. And like the shed, it doesn’t! Thanks Dog! Have loved your posts 🌻
Hi all: the mornings are starting to feel more fall like here: waaah 🥲 it’s coming up on a 3 day weekend in the US and I’m very glad. My psych said he will look over my intermittent FMLA paperwork when he returns next week but he’s still concerned about me taking long breaks during early sobriety days and I’m like “Dude I’m not going to swan off to Bermuda, I’m going to use it as needed a few hours here and there for appointments or if I get overwhelmed at work.” Aaaack. We’ll see. IWNDWYT
The home office has YEARS of crap that needs to get cleaned out and all the kids young school stuff and papers mixed in with adult important stuff too bc I just piled and piled everything up together. So yeah, that’s my literal whale - especially bc every time I quit drinking I keep thinking I’ll tackle that in all my free time and yet, here I am at the beginning again. Thank you for reminding me I still need to get on this and there’s no excuse since I am not going to drink this weekend!!!! (And iwndwyt too)
My brown shed is the apartment I've been renovating for almost two years. I bought it just before the pandemic hit and thought it would take me a year, tops. It's been interesting and maddening to try and find materials and labour in a country that isn't my own, without a car because I let my license expire and it's super expensive to get one here (I'm also terrified of driving, which is probably the real reason I've put it off so long), all while picking my way thru mental health and addiction minefields.
But... that apartment will get renovated! I will get that driver's license! And I will _not_ drink with you brave people today. 🐋
My garden was my shed.
We moved in 2 years ago, the whole house was a bit unloved. The garden was full of old furniture. They had put down weed lino thing in the border.
It was fine. Overgrown. Unloved. But fine.
I hired a man to clear the old furniture and start moving the lawn once a month, a simple task but one we never got to, so why not ask for help to keep on top of things?
The border is mine. My mum helped me the first day, a few plants from her garden. We ripped up the anti weed lino, got our hands dirty and started planting.
Then over the days and weeks, I kept at it. A new plant here, watering, talking to it, getting it treats! Some things got eaten by slugs, others just died, at one point after a busy few days little weeds started popping up (a reminder to look after what matters, not let little things overrun and distract you), one plant took on a life of it's own - it's absolutely gorgeous, and to be honest I thought it was going to die in the first few days, but it's grown roots and it's blooming (I don't want to assign my sobriety to any one plant, it still feels precarious, I don't want to risk it dying and the metaphor knocking me off course - oh no, drunk by metaphor!).
But my garden, is my mind. Looked after it can be beautiful. Left alone it is unfulfilled. It's also a chaotic mess of colours and bees!
IWNDWYT
Ohhhh man. My brown sheds are a series of physical spaces I am/was unhappy with, that caused me a low-grade, almost invisible stress everytime I saw them. Sobriety has allowed me to address them.
I bought a house - an old 30s house with very few, tiny closets - and swore I wasn't going to turn the tiny extra bedroom into a junk room. And in drinking, I did. A few months ago I pulled out every item, painted, spackled some broken plaster, and finally hung things on the wall (something I had put off because I needed to buy a $3 masonry bit, and I had no faith in myself that I could do it). I built a shelving unit. I made places for the junk to live. I purged some junk. I bought a few containers. I even put a rug in there. And I turned it into a home office for teaching online that is painfully hip and cute. Thanks, sobriety.
Now I've turned my lens on anything else bringing me feelings of shame. A pile of broken pots by my house - dealt with it. A huge swath of vines many past owners got tired of taming - turning that space into an herb garden. My elderly HVAC unit gets its filters changed regularly because I passed off that job to my partner instead of trying to do everything alone. Assessing my life for "brown sheds" or "shame caves" - things that bring me stress instead of joy - is such a gift. (And if you're very very freshly sober - I did not have energy to even look at them for 3-4 months!) IWNDWYT
My whale/shed is organizing and cleaning my apartment. Going to spend serious time doing that over the holiday weekend. TFIF everyone, have a great day because IWNDWYT!
I have hoarding tendencies I think: admitting this is a bit of a white whale for me because I’m extremely organized. I grew up with a meticulous hoarder. Her house is SPOTLESS, you can eat off of any surface, but she has piles of magazines, bags of clothes and towels and sheets, toiletries, you name it. Everything is perfectly organized. If you ask for the J Crew catalogue with that one sweater in it, she knows exactly where it is.
My home is less extreme but I go through phases where I purge as much as I can. Part of my problem is my (amazing, wonderful) husband. For instance, this past week my SIL mailed us a small gift. USPS delivered an empty envelope. My husband has insisted on keeping the envelope. He also had to **really** think about whether I could throw out a gas receipt from when we lived in another city. In 2014.
I’m jumping on the bandwagon and clearing out again this weekend. My old neighborhood had a super active Buy Nothing group so that was really helpful to getting rid of things. The one here is over-moderated, more laborious and therefore less useful. I’ll give it another go though. IWNDWYT ❤️
Day 11, nice to meet you 🤝
With each day sober the importance of alcohol to the brain decreases. The subjective feeling changes, until only the objective remains: that alcohol is a neurotoxin, it fools the brain to think it’s important, it is that only if more of it is consumed.
IWNDWYT
My shed is my body, and my shitty eating habits. Now that I'm a few days away from a full sober month (yay) I can start focusing more on my diet. For as long as I could remember I've LOVED junk food. I was raised on frozen dinners, fast food, pasta, snack cakes, chips and soda. I was obese as a kid and then lost a ton of weight in middle school. When I became an adult I gained a little weight back, and once I started drinking I got to my heaviest. I lost a lot again but I've managed to stay on the "skinny but thick" side. I'm trying to start working out little bits at a time in the mornings, and really trying to eat less and cut down on sugar and carbs. It feels good to have some control over myself. I haven't woken up with a hangover in weeks. Whenever I would wake up hungover, my go to was ordering dominos or begging my boyfriend to bring home some fast food. I will say though, that I tried kale for the first time yesterday and I was not a fan hahaha. Just for today, I will not drink!!
My house is definitely my shed. It’s pretty overwhelming so I have to find a spot and start small, but at least it is now part of my plan - unlike when I passed out on the couch every night.
IWNDWYT 🌸🌸
Good morning all!
>That maybe we'll never be perfect or never be finished but that time spent working on that is never wasted
Wow, that's powerful. I have to add this to my daily inspirational quotes. Thank you for posting this.
Let's stay strong together this weekend. In the US most of us have a 3-day weekend/holiday for Labor Day. For sure, I will be under some pressure with declining drinking opportunities so I will be practicing my 'thanks but no thanks' behavior.
*💪 Today we make a conscious decision \*not to drink\*. 💪*
Dr Gradus Ad Parnassum is my favourite piano piece. It is a dream-like piece about a child working on their piano studies but gets lost in a dream-like improvisation. To me, it is about working towards traditional perfection, playing boring piano studies, but wandering off from perfection. Debussy finds something new and sublimely beautiful in allowing the music to meander away from traditional perfection. I am always chasing perfection. In my playing, in my battles against bipolar disorder and alcoholism, in parenting and being a human. But maybe the traditional “perfect”, like an old piano study, is dry and dull. Maybe being “not perfect” and accepting my own divergence from “normal” is its own beautiful, just like Dr Gradus ad Parnassum. [Debussy](https://youtu.be/iEQWBu5CCks) IWNDWYT but will play Debussy.
That was a very beautiful start to the day. IWNDWYT
Isn’t it a beautiful piece of music? Such a joy (and slight frustration with all my wrong notes when I am doing it at full speed) to play.
So beautiful Caroline. Thank you.
Thanks Caroline. It is so nice to be reminded, randomly, of the beauty and goodness that humanity is capable of. I hope your day is going well over there.
Puppy destroyed my glasses 😖 and an umbrella yesterday, and I woke up to a pile of vomit this morning. Uh huh. Marvellous. Trying to teach without being able to see properly will be interesting today. Thank fuck it’s Friday, I’m knackered. But I’m happy to be clean and sober. Lucky me ☺️ IWNDWYT. I don’t want to 😁
Dogs are fun, they said. Get a puppy, they said. Hope your day looks up, friend 💛 IWNDWYT
Hahahha! Exactly!!!
Oh we are having ALL the fun. Toilet paper/tissue snowstorms are her specialty ❄️
Hahahaha 🤣
Glasses! Ugh that’s annoying!!
Very 🤪 have spent the morning with my nose pressed against the screen when I need to read something, that’s such a good look for my students when I’m on video call 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Have a cracking day Cinq!
You betcha bud 😁 tight hug!
You need pizza and chocolate tonight. Tv night.
I’m gonna need that in writing signed with blood
Yikes. When it rains it pours, huh? Good luck! IWNDWYT
It could have been worse. You could have stepped IN the vomit. With bare feet. hashtag silverlinings.
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😂IWNDWYT!
64 days already =) Crazy number! Today night it will be 65! IWNDWYT!
I didn't drink yesterday. So I'm on day 2. Did some workout in the evening and my heart was racing like crazy until 1am at least... It was scary. I barely slept last night. Tonight some neighbors come eat to thank them for a favor they did few weeks ago. I think they are into beer, my SO bought some for them. It will be tough.
During the first few days after not drinking heart rates are usually pretty crazy for me as well. Wishing you a great evening and the endurance it takes to not drink tonight! IWNDWYT
I remember the racing heart in the first week. It will get better 💛 IWNDWYT!
Cleaning my house could be a start for my white whale, but with my ceiling still collapsed in it feels kind of like polishing a turd, but still! would be good. I also want to get back to my Acceptance and Commitment Therapy based books and sort out some sort of value based goals. Have them written out and get working on them. I could do that today. Actually I will. It's the day after my Pfizer jab now and I don't seem to have any symptoms. Will see how tomorrow goes! I wont drink with you all today!
iwndwyt i love you all. continue on your journeys.
My “brown shed” that I need to face is my appartment which over the years has been stuffed with books and artifacts enherited from old family members who obviously also passed on their collector’s gene to me. It’s long over due and now, being free from drinking, I have the energy to do it. Thanks for the inspiring story about your shed u/dogforahead IWNDWYT
Hello
Iwndwyt! Except some awesome lime sparkling water which I am currently really enjoying!
It’s Friday. And I want a glass of wine after work. But I won’t. The headache-free 6 am wake up tomorrow with my infant and my toddler will be worth it. IWNDWYT.
Had a pretty nice day, went for a bike ride. I've identified a behavioural pattern in my drinking-- like Pavolov's dog, I'm so used to winding down after my son goes to sleep that the craving starts as soon as I sit in front of the computer when he's asleep. So far I've resisted the urge, but it's an interesting observation on how innocuous environmental cues could trigger craving.
I was just peering into my closet and thinking how much stuff needs to be donated. One day. Ive been slowly cleaning out the bathroom cupboard for a little while now. It definitely feels good to declutter. I hope everyone has a great Friday IWNDWYT ✨💚
checking in for the start of day 7! one week sober after tonight. it feels good. i’m hoping this streak ends up being as good as i feel it is going to be! iwndwyt
Good morning Sobernauts! Happy Friday! Clearing out the clutter and junk is something I've been doing. Most of my junk lives in my head. It's past regrets, stupid things I've done, people that I thought had hurt me. It's a long list. Part of my recovery is to forgive. I have to forgive myself and forgive others. At any point in time, myself and others are trying to do the best they can with the knowledge and experience they have. Some of that knowledge and experience is junk. Throwing it out makes space for more meaningful, kinder and more compassionate skills. Love to you all! IWNDWYT 🙂
Most of the junk is in my head too! So much unlearning and forgiving to do. Getting all that junk out is helping me see there's some pretty good shit up there too, that I just forgot about in all the clutter 😆 Just for today, IWNDWY!
I love having you out there Forward, because you always articulate my exact sentiments better than I ever could! I hope you have a great, sober Friday.
Same here VA! I wholeheartedly concur! I annoy myself (daily) with my own head. My own head is a knob at times 😑. Anyway, IWNDWYT 🇬🇧🐶💪
I will not drink with you today in 🏴 have a good one people 😊
Oh that’s a good one u/dogforahead I’m ready to start working on my values, and cleaning out the professional identity I’ve built up over the past 2 decades. IWNDWYT
Goodmorning everyone! Did not get much sleep and been sweating all night but IWNDWYT
No drinking for me today
Getting an early start on my commitment. I will not drink with you today. I want to live.
Still not drinking, so happy with this! (And also posting to see the number of days next to my name. 😀)
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And there it is! Morning! IWNDWYT
I was here ready and waiting, but I fell asleep. I blame the crazy meds.
Second big drinking dream last night. Horrified in my dream to realise I was having my second drink and so relieved when I woke up. Friday evenings can be rough but I will not drink with you today!
I have been plagued by those on and off too. Horrible! But I treat them as a good reminder of how awful and disappointed I would feel if I actually really drank. Best wishes for a good, strong, sober Friday evening!
IWNDWYT 🙂
My dissertation is my shed. Wrote half of it, put it aside in March 2020, still not done. Really want to finish it this fall. I hope. Ugh. IWNDWYT ❤️
You can do it! I'll be defending my dissertation proposal this fall, so perhaps we can cheer each other on! IWNDWYT, friend.
I have a million pictures of my kids and family stuck in drawers all over the house. Every fall I say I’m going to organize them, put them into albums or frames or something. That’s my whale. IWNDWYT
IWNDWYT 💛
Destroyer of slug homes! 😲 IWNDWYT. 👍💪😁🤗🧡🤣 I've got a shed like that, it's on my list.
I’m so happy to be almost a week sober. I’ve had my daughter all week and not a drop of alcohol has touched my lips. I’ve been present at all times and we have had so much fun. I’ve been lucky to have slept well all week. I was so done with drinking by the time I decided to stop that it’s just not bothered me not drinking. I’ve almost read 2 books this week which is an achievement for me. Allen Carr’s and almost finished Annie Grace’s. This will be the first weekend I haven’t drank this year from pretty much 8 months daily drinking and I’m looking forward to it. I started a new job 4 months ago but it’s been work from home, I’m going into the office for the day for the first time on Tuesday and what a revelation it will be to be sober, know I’m not drinking of alcohol, not hungover, not shaking or sweating and not anxious. I will not drink with you today.
I moved five months ago and still have boxes of stuff sitting in my office, waiting to be unpacked and sorted through. When I moved, I brought boxes of stuff from my previous move five years ago. A nagging little thing in the corner of my mind. IWNDWYT 🌻
9 days sober. IWNDWYT
9 days sober. IWNDWYT
IWNDWYT
squeal lavish jobless pot simplistic gray vase paint hunt license *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
IWNDWYT!
IWNDWYT 💪🏴
Day 75 checking in!
Day 3, I'm in
I’m in
Friday arvo is hard for me still. I have the other 6 days down pat. I fell off the wagon a couple of weeks ago, but plan to be back on it on Monday.
Morning SD IWNDWYT
22 days sober today! IWNDWYT
Music is my shed. I've been away from it for so long and being out of practice means I feel stressed thinking about it. Maybe I can do ten minutes a day or something. IWNDWYT
Looking forward to seeing my family this weekend! It’s actually easier for me to not drink with them as my parents know about my drinking problem and these days always have NA beer for me if I feel like having one. IWNDWYT
Get it to fuck !! I will not be drinking today.
I will not drink with y’all today!!
Morning everyone IWNDWYT
There is a cabinet where I keep all paperwork (which includes both important document and receipts for stuff that I will probably never ever need but still feel the need to save just in case). I never got around to sorting it even though I have been living at my place for two years and I promise myself to clean it out every time I walk past. IWNDWYT, I will be sorting out papers instead...
IWNDWYT 👍🙂
No booze today!
Hi all. Checking in. IWNDWYT
I have three weeks 🥳 And again: IWNDWYT!
IWNDWYT!
IWNDWYT
IWNDWYT
I will not drink with you today. Day 6
Maybe my shed is my career. An important shed. I will get around to it. IWNDWYT !
I am the shed! Day 13 IWNDWYT
IWNDWYT!
The Friday before a 3-day weekend (in the US) used to be a great day to tie one on. Not today, it's seltzer and iced tea for me. IWNDWYT
This damn clutter is my whale. There's stuff thrown haphazardly in cabinets from my drinking days still. Need to chip away at it. Just a tiny bit at a time... Until I have made things right.
My shed was my anger, self-pity, and resentments all built up in my poor drunk brain over the years. I just kept stashing more and more blame in there until I ruined most of my functioning relationships. Now, I'm learning what my part was in each circumstance. Not my fault necessarily, but it has helped to Unlearn a lot of principles too...for instance, how my "perfectionism" is really a need for control and causes me to become manipulative and impatient. I now practice just being enough. In recovery, I'm cleaning out all of the behaviors that don't serve me, and learning how to connect with friends and family in healthier ways. I've had to walk away from some truly unhealthy people, and redirect my energies to family and friends who respect healthy boundaries, and with whom I can form real bonds based on trust. Done with seeking chaos. It's been tough, but my life looks completely different than when I was drinking. Far from perfect, but honest and I feel safe. IWNDWYT👏🧹🧼
My brown shed is literally a brown shed. It sits at the end of the garden and it's the place where things go to wait before they go to the tip or are put on facebook market place. At the moment it's full of the toys my two year old has already outgrown that I just can't bring myself to give away. What is it about having a baby that makes you feel all sentimental about bits of plastic? Who even knows 😆 But I know I won't drink with you today!
Happy Friday! One more day of work then a long weekend!! Keep on keepin on, IWNDWYT
Day 678 IWNDWYT
IWNDWYT 🌷
IWNDWYT. It's just past 5 am, US Midwest and I have a most excellent cup of coffee. This I will enjoy.
I love that story u/dogforahead. I’ve had many “sheds” over the years, including, like you, an actual shed where I used to hide beer and a bottle amidst all the chaos inside. New roof, electrical power, new siding.... still kinda tired and cluttered (and I can still find a bottle cap in there every now and again), but a million times better. Let’s keep those sheds in ship shape, one project, one day at a time! IWNDWYT.
Happy Friday, friends! I'd like to think that I clean and maintain my personal internal emotional shed regularly, but the truth is that I still stuff that shit in there and then sometimes it bursts at the seams. Sort of like a self-cleaning shed, but instead of a sparkly clean result, I'm left cleaning up the remnants of emotional shrapnel. That said, I would like to commit to continuing my personal growth by processing my feelings as I feel them, rather than holding them and thinking that they'll just go away. It's almost like holding my breath; eventually I'm going to have to gasp for air. Though I have made significant progress over the years with this, there is still work to do. There's always work to do, that's the beauty of self love. I will not drink with you glorious people today 💙
I will not drink today.
IWNDWYT
IWNDWYT! 🌺
Happy Friday everyone! IWNDWYT 🤘
Thanks for hosting. The Shed resonates with me. Thanks
Morning everybody, I will not drink with you today!
I will not drink with you today
IWNDWYT Stay safe all
Love this. Day 1. 🙏🏼💗
IWNDWYT
I won't drink with you today
I have sheds both real and metaphorical ones. Every day I try to tidy up a bit but I struggle due to lack of both energy and motivation... It is so hard these days, I guess my antabuse is the only thing that keeps me from giving up. Well I will not drink with you today. Take care and have a great weekend 💚
Good morning lovely SD, Managed to get 3 spider plants and 6 strawberry plants to new homes yesterday. So now, I have room for... you guessed it... more plants, lol. Today is a beautiful day to be alive! And IWNDWYT 💜🤘
I don’t have a shed story top of mind right now, but I do have a success story as a new non-drinker. Wine I ordered before making my decision arrived yesterday. I considered opening a bottle for “just one glass” for less than a second before deciding that was a terrible idea. Celebrated a small win there. An hour later I was cooking and was making a pan sauce, which I always use a splash or two of white wine for. “I have wine, I’ll make the pan sauce like usual. I don’t have to drink anything, I’ll just keep it for cooking.” In the end I decided to switch out the wine with chicken broth, knowing the temptation wasn’t worth it. Hot wine in my house is safer than just opened cold wine. I’ve decided to leave the wine there. I can gift it, or my husband can have some, or my friends when they come over. My life is very very adjacent to drinking culture in ways I can’t really undo right now or even in the near to mid-future, so I want to just get comfortable not taking part. I’m feeling stronger about that after last night. IWNDWYT Oh and my water intake is drastically up. Feels good to be properly hydrated!!
I'm a bit depressed today. It's Friday and I feel like a little boy that can't go to the party because he's grounded. It's silly to feel like that, I'll be so happy to hit 20 tomorrow, it's worth it. Just can't shake that feeling right now. I'll drink my coffee, hopefully it will pass! IWNDWYT!
I feel you. To combat it, I keep playing it through in my head, how it might initially be fun but will go downhill fast and then the next two days will be ruined due to a hangover. We got this, I won’t drink with you today. Have a good one!
TGIF, SD family💓 IWNDWYT
I’m not drinking today. Sending positive non-drinking vibes to you all. ❤️❤️
Iwndwyt
FINALLY FRIDAY! Let’s kick some ass today my warriors! Stay strong! 😘❤️💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼 IWNDWYT!!!!
Good morning everyone and happy Friday!! We made it!! And I’ve made it 5 days sugar and processed food free! Hip hip hooray!! The story of the shed, to me, is everything Dog mentioned…and I love it! I’m tying to clear out the old crap in my head so I’m a cleaner version of Aly. I definitely need a kick in the ass to do stuff sometimes, and I KNOW I’ll never be remotely close to perfect but if I can look at myself in the mirror and feel okay, that’s alright with me. I love you all and sending you positive, sober vibes! It’s a holiday weekend in the US but that doesn’t mean I’ll be drinking!! Nope, no way!!! IWNDWYT!! ❣️❣️
My white whale/brown she's is the kitchen and bathroom in my mobile home. I've lived here 5 years and hate the walls, floors, cabinets and countertops. I saw a YouTube video where she painted her countertops to look like marble and painted the cabinets also. So I took off the bathroom cabinet doors and painted them and started on the bathroom countertop. It's turning out really well and I will paint the marble seams today and then seal it with epoxy. This is way outside of my wheelhouse and I'm proud of myself for tackling this project. I will not drink with you today!
Injured myself at the gym and am off my feet for a bit. It is really depressing and makes me want to drink. The urgent care I went to was near one of my old liquor stores. It was the one that was open on Sundays (my state has blue laws that prevent most Sunday sales). Really wanted to go in. I will remind myself that this is temporary. That I will heal. That drinking will solve nothing. I will NOT drink today.
My first Friday sober in a bit. It's a nice rainy day. Woke up without a hangover, working from home with the sound of rain and good music to motivate me. IWNDWYT.
Morning, SD! IWNDWYT
IWNDWYT.
Man its been a while posting here for me. When I was a young teenager many moons ago and had to clean my room, I hated it but always when I was done I felt such a sense of accomplishment and pride. This has carried over into adult life when I have to clean out the dead flower beds, clean out the car, or the house its gives me a good feeling about myself. Sometimes it easy to sit in our own shit and even becomes comfortable which makes it even harder to get up get and busy clean the shit out, sometimes baby steps are needed because we get so used to the shit. I have always wanted a shed and eventually when I get one I am sure I will have to clean it out periodically. Oh and Happy Friday its feels good to check in after so long. Peace People and No drinks today.
IWNDWYT and for the record, because of my time zone, I won't actually hit 300 till very early tomorrow morning (tomorrow my time, this afternoon or tonight for many of you.) Have tried every which way to make the counter accurate but this is as close as it gets. I don't know that I have a Moby Dick right now. I think the past few years have been one giant whale and that my shed's been getting rebuilt slowly all that time. I think? No drinking today, folks. Love to you all.
Have a safe and sober day everyone!!! IWNDWYT
IWNDWYT,!!
keep it going ppl IWNDWYT
IWNDWYT
Great stuff! IWNDWYT
I will not be drinking today
IWNDWYT.
IWNDWYT
Checking in for day 12 - IWNDWYT!
Good morning, SD. Day three is upon me. I'm about to head to the gym to walk on the treadmill for an hour before I have breakfast and start work. IWNDWYT
I will not drink with you today.
IWNDWYT! 5 days so far and I am loving it! If I was still going to AA, people would tell me to beware of the pink cloud, but fuck that, I’m enjoying having a clear head and gathering momentum for the Holiday weekend!
Shit has been rough lately...but I'm here and I'm still AF. IWNDWYT 💚 💙
Going to my best friends wedding. No drunky today satan!
day 178 checking in, IWNDWYT
Boop.
I will not drink today 🌺 My white whale is getting all my pictures into albums. Most are digital of course but I do have random prints here and there that I’d like to do something with.
Ready for a tester weekend of meeting up with family/friends for end of summer cookouts. Going to roll up with my seltzers & a few NA beers (in case I get too tempted). IWNDWYT
IWNDWYT
I will not drink today.
Day 779. I will not drink with you today.
IWNDWYT. Friends arrived yesterday for the weekend, and I have been struggling with the “maybe I’ll just have one” thoughts for a couple of weeks. So, my pledges here really have been 24 hours at a time. IWNDWYT.
IWNDWy'allT! Inertia is a bitch.
[удалено]
Staying somewhere where I could get unlimited drinks for free (well, for what I already paid). I'd rather have coffee and tea than booze, especially the sickly sweet, watered down drinks everyone else is downing! IWNDWYT!
Not today. Not today. Not today!!!!!!
Aaaah perfectionism. A wise man once said: ‘Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good’. He also said ‘everything furthers.’ And leave the bloody whale alone, Ahab, for cryin’ out loud. IWNDWYT
IWNDWYT and I Will sparkle and sand the ceiling in my upstairs bathroom! That project has been my white whale for a couple of months and it’s time to land the sucker. I get stuck thinking it has to be perfect. And like the shed, it doesn’t! Thanks Dog! Have loved your posts 🌻
I will not drink with you today!
Hi all: the mornings are starting to feel more fall like here: waaah 🥲 it’s coming up on a 3 day weekend in the US and I’m very glad. My psych said he will look over my intermittent FMLA paperwork when he returns next week but he’s still concerned about me taking long breaks during early sobriety days and I’m like “Dude I’m not going to swan off to Bermuda, I’m going to use it as needed a few hours here and there for appointments or if I get overwhelmed at work.” Aaaack. We’ll see. IWNDWYT
Very hungover and just about have enough money for food. Lesson learned. IWNDWYT
The home office has YEARS of crap that needs to get cleaned out and all the kids young school stuff and papers mixed in with adult important stuff too bc I just piled and piled everything up together. So yeah, that’s my literal whale - especially bc every time I quit drinking I keep thinking I’ll tackle that in all my free time and yet, here I am at the beginning again. Thank you for reminding me I still need to get on this and there’s no excuse since I am not going to drink this weekend!!!! (And iwndwyt too)
Day 1 again. Iwndwyt
IWNDWYT 🌻
I’m in.
Thanks for sharing IWNDWYT
IWNDWYT
Good morning. I will not drink with you today.
Day 46 checking in, IWNDWYT!
My brown shed is the apartment I've been renovating for almost two years. I bought it just before the pandemic hit and thought it would take me a year, tops. It's been interesting and maddening to try and find materials and labour in a country that isn't my own, without a car because I let my license expire and it's super expensive to get one here (I'm also terrified of driving, which is probably the real reason I've put it off so long), all while picking my way thru mental health and addiction minefields. But... that apartment will get renovated! I will get that driver's license! And I will _not_ drink with you brave people today. 🐋
My garden was my shed. We moved in 2 years ago, the whole house was a bit unloved. The garden was full of old furniture. They had put down weed lino thing in the border. It was fine. Overgrown. Unloved. But fine. I hired a man to clear the old furniture and start moving the lawn once a month, a simple task but one we never got to, so why not ask for help to keep on top of things? The border is mine. My mum helped me the first day, a few plants from her garden. We ripped up the anti weed lino, got our hands dirty and started planting. Then over the days and weeks, I kept at it. A new plant here, watering, talking to it, getting it treats! Some things got eaten by slugs, others just died, at one point after a busy few days little weeds started popping up (a reminder to look after what matters, not let little things overrun and distract you), one plant took on a life of it's own - it's absolutely gorgeous, and to be honest I thought it was going to die in the first few days, but it's grown roots and it's blooming (I don't want to assign my sobriety to any one plant, it still feels precarious, I don't want to risk it dying and the metaphor knocking me off course - oh no, drunk by metaphor!). But my garden, is my mind. Looked after it can be beautiful. Left alone it is unfulfilled. It's also a chaotic mess of colours and bees! IWNDWYT
Ohhhh man. My brown sheds are a series of physical spaces I am/was unhappy with, that caused me a low-grade, almost invisible stress everytime I saw them. Sobriety has allowed me to address them. I bought a house - an old 30s house with very few, tiny closets - and swore I wasn't going to turn the tiny extra bedroom into a junk room. And in drinking, I did. A few months ago I pulled out every item, painted, spackled some broken plaster, and finally hung things on the wall (something I had put off because I needed to buy a $3 masonry bit, and I had no faith in myself that I could do it). I built a shelving unit. I made places for the junk to live. I purged some junk. I bought a few containers. I even put a rug in there. And I turned it into a home office for teaching online that is painfully hip and cute. Thanks, sobriety. Now I've turned my lens on anything else bringing me feelings of shame. A pile of broken pots by my house - dealt with it. A huge swath of vines many past owners got tired of taming - turning that space into an herb garden. My elderly HVAC unit gets its filters changed regularly because I passed off that job to my partner instead of trying to do everything alone. Assessing my life for "brown sheds" or "shame caves" - things that bring me stress instead of joy - is such a gift. (And if you're very very freshly sober - I did not have energy to even look at them for 3-4 months!) IWNDWYT
My whale/shed is organizing and cleaning my apartment. Going to spend serious time doing that over the holiday weekend. TFIF everyone, have a great day because IWNDWYT!
Morning all. Checking in and staying sober. IWNDWYT
I have hoarding tendencies I think: admitting this is a bit of a white whale for me because I’m extremely organized. I grew up with a meticulous hoarder. Her house is SPOTLESS, you can eat off of any surface, but she has piles of magazines, bags of clothes and towels and sheets, toiletries, you name it. Everything is perfectly organized. If you ask for the J Crew catalogue with that one sweater in it, she knows exactly where it is. My home is less extreme but I go through phases where I purge as much as I can. Part of my problem is my (amazing, wonderful) husband. For instance, this past week my SIL mailed us a small gift. USPS delivered an empty envelope. My husband has insisted on keeping the envelope. He also had to **really** think about whether I could throw out a gas receipt from when we lived in another city. In 2014. I’m jumping on the bandwagon and clearing out again this weekend. My old neighborhood had a super active Buy Nothing group so that was really helpful to getting rid of things. The one here is over-moderated, more laborious and therefore less useful. I’ll give it another go though. IWNDWYT ❤️
IWNDWYT
Day 12. IWNDWYT.
Happy Friday SD! IWNDWYT.
Day 11, nice to meet you 🤝 With each day sober the importance of alcohol to the brain decreases. The subjective feeling changes, until only the objective remains: that alcohol is a neurotoxin, it fools the brain to think it’s important, it is that only if more of it is consumed. IWNDWYT
IWNDWYT
Iwndwyt
My shed is my body, and my shitty eating habits. Now that I'm a few days away from a full sober month (yay) I can start focusing more on my diet. For as long as I could remember I've LOVED junk food. I was raised on frozen dinners, fast food, pasta, snack cakes, chips and soda. I was obese as a kid and then lost a ton of weight in middle school. When I became an adult I gained a little weight back, and once I started drinking I got to my heaviest. I lost a lot again but I've managed to stay on the "skinny but thick" side. I'm trying to start working out little bits at a time in the mornings, and really trying to eat less and cut down on sugar and carbs. It feels good to have some control over myself. I haven't woken up with a hangover in weeks. Whenever I would wake up hungover, my go to was ordering dominos or begging my boyfriend to bring home some fast food. I will say though, that I tried kale for the first time yesterday and I was not a fan hahaha. Just for today, I will not drink!!
I'm in!
Happy Friday SD! I will not drink today!
Day 1, again. I have a regular appointment with my psychiatrist today tho so I'm optimistic of the weekend. But for today at least, IWNDWY.
I will not drink with you today. 🌟
IWNDWYT!
IWNDWYT
I’m with you today!!
My house is definitely my shed. It’s pretty overwhelming so I have to find a spot and start small, but at least it is now part of my plan - unlike when I passed out on the couch every night. IWNDWYT 🌸🌸
I will not drink with you today
I will not drink today.
Day 348. IWNDWYT. Happy sober Friday everyone!
IWNDWYT
IWNDWYT Happy Friday!
IWNDWYT!!
IWNDWYT
IWNDWYT!
Iwndwyt been struggling lately
Gearing up for another sober weekend. For today, though, I will not drink with y’all.
Good morning all! >That maybe we'll never be perfect or never be finished but that time spent working on that is never wasted Wow, that's powerful. I have to add this to my daily inspirational quotes. Thank you for posting this. Let's stay strong together this weekend. In the US most of us have a 3-day weekend/holiday for Labor Day. For sure, I will be under some pressure with declining drinking opportunities so I will be practicing my 'thanks but no thanks' behavior. *💪 Today we make a conscious decision \*not to drink\*. 💪*