Happy Sober Days (and Nights)!
The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous says that “we are not a glum lot….we absolutely insist on enjoying life”. Most alcoholics would agree with that statement but that is about as far as it goes. There is very little agreement about what is “fun” and just how we are to “enjoy life” without our substance of choice. The good news is that although we have the disease in common, we all have our own idea of fun activities for sober people. And that is a big part of the fun of it all. In recovery we notice and agree with the statement that “we are people who normally would not mingle” and that gives us the chance to not only learn how to have fun without a substance but to share with each other our favorite form of fun – a rare opportunity to enlarge our lives and our capacity for enjoying ourselves! Sober. That means we will even remember what we did – it is all good!
We do have to learn how not to drink/use one day at a time and we also have to learn how to have fun. That is, just like it takes effort to stay clean and sober, it takes a little effort to get out of our rut and start enjoying life. A familiar saying in recovery circles is that an alcoholic/addict moves into a rut and furnishes it. It doesn’t have to be that way. Recovery can be an exciting process of growth and discovery and learning to have fun is part of it.
Developing friends in the fellowship and seeing them at and after meetings is great fun for the recovering person that has been isolated in the disease.
Rather than list all the usual suggestions, i.e. going to movies, to dinner, to sporting events, which you will definitely enjoy, it might be fun to offer some of the off the beaten track ideas people in recovery have come up with. The good news is, you can quickly name 10 fun activities for sober people and once you start having fun, it is fairly easy to come up with 100. See the resources listed below for more ideas.
Here are a few off beat ideas of fun activities for sober people. I know you can add quite a few:
- Design your own T-Shirts at www.cafepress.com.
- If you have some vacation money saved, look into going on a sober cruises!
- Join the Hello My Name Is… project, where an artist portraits of people in recovery.
- Take music & art lessons artistworks.com.
- Check out the Bubble Hour and find a great recovery podcast!
- How about learning rock climbing! www.earthtreksclimbing.com is a great site for instructions and classes!
- How about creating some cool coffee mugs, all you need is some sharpies and white mugs. Check out these ideas HERE.
- Take an art class at the local community center.
- Research your ancestors on an ancestry site.
What do YOU like to do? Do things with your friends, do them alone but try some new things! It’s great fun. There are so many choices when it comes to drug free sober activities!
