6 Ways to Have the Best Alcohol-Free Summer

Summer is here. The days are long. The sun is shining. The weather is beautiful. I love the energy of summertime. Except that summertime is so often associated with alcohol. You might think of rosé on the patio or beers at the pool. I want to squash that romanticism right now and help you have the best alcohol-free summer. How?

Pop the illusion that for what it is: A marketing illusion. Ads show people drinking Coronas at the beach having a great time. And yet, what does day drinking at the beach ever get you? A headache by the evening?

Summertime is all about getting outside and being a kid again.

Here are 6 ways to have the best summer ever while alcohol-free:

1. Relish getting into nature

It's such a beautiful time to get outside and enjoy the sun. When we drink alcohol, it actually diminishes our ability to feel wonder. Alcohol diminishes our ability to feel the effects of dopamine. Alcohol gives us an artificial high that then crashes and actually retracts our ability to release dopamine over time. Alcohol also lowers natural levels of serotonin and GABA. We can't really feel the depth of our experiences when alcohol is in our system. Alcohol doesn't just numb the bad, it also numbs the good. It actually desensitizes us from experiencing true joy.

I believe there's nothing better than reconnecting with that joy by going outside and being in nature. Whether you live in the city or or the countryside, summer is a great time to get outside. Take a road trip. Go somewhere beautiful. Go to a lake, a mountain, or a river. Go to the beach—just go somewhere and be in nature. Even if it's just a day trip. Even if you just set aside a few hours. Obviously, you can do this with family and friends, but being in nature alone gives you a ton of benefits as well. I think we get so frustrated and frantic and busy that we forget to connect with the beauty of the world.

Look at how different planet Earth is compared to the other planets. We have snow-capped mountains. We have beautiful white beaches. We have turquoise waters in certain oceans and seas around the world. We have beautiful lush jungles. We have beautiful trees and smells and birds. And we forget about it all the time. We forget, so to have an amazing summer, get out into nature and remember what it feels like to be alive.

2. TRAVEL

Book a trip! You might be thinking, Wait a minute. I drink more when I travel. But I promise you, you will have the best vacations alcohol-free, especially if you get in the right mindset.

If you don't have any trips planned this summer, get something on the calendar now. You could book a grand trip, like Europe or Hawaii. Or you could plan a camping trip. It could even be a weekend getaway to a cute town nearby your house.

When you travel, not only do you feel that pink cloud energy—but now you see all these new sights and you have this entirely new perspective. This new sense of wonder. If you can't imagine going on a trip and not being able to drink, take time to consider what you might gain from being alcohol-free. For example, I love to watch the sunrise when I'm on a beautiful beach vacation or somewhere in the mountains. I never did that when I was drinking. I would never get up at 5 or 6 a.m. to watch the sunrise.

I went to Hawaii when I was about two months alcohol-free. I met a woman on the beach, and she asked me to go for a drink with her. I told her I don't drink, but I would happily keep her company and get a mocktail. At the bar, she drank a lot. I ordered one alcohol-free beer, and she had a strong drink and two shots. She started getting really sentimental about an ex. She started complaining. She's started to get repetitive. It was only 1 p.m. at this point, and I just looked at her and thought, Oh my god. There's nothing left for her to do today but drink more or pass out. I felt so sad for her because my day was going to be filled with so much adventure. I could go on a hike. I could go on a run. I could go snorkeling. I could ride a bike along the coast. I could go check out these different restaurants. She couldn’t do any of that now. I've been in that situation, and it literally sucks.

Why do we save all this money and set aside all this time to fly somewhere else and just sit around and drink when we could have done that at home? When you’re alcohol-free, it's such a different experience when you travel. It's a really cool way to remember how beautiful the world is and reconnect with yourself.

3. Picture the alternative

My third suggestion is to picture the alternative. I also teach this concept in my book, Euphoric: Ditch Alcohol and Gain a Happier, More Confident You, and in all of my programs. It is this concept of imagining what would happen in the current situation if you were drinking, and I encourage you not to romanticize it. Imagine the reality.

Let’s say you're at a Fourth of July barbecue, right? You're having a good time. You’re drinking your mocktails, you see the fireworks, and then you go to bed at reasonable hour. You wake up feeling fresh, and everything's great. Now let's contrast that to drinking at the barbecue. You would have started with one beer and then you would have had another. Then you would be like, Oh, I'm trying to pace myself so I should stop. But you don’t want to, so you start drinking again and face the mental gymnastics all night instead of enjoying yourself. You drink more than you’d like to sleep well. You don't even care about the fireworks anymore, you go to bed really late, and you wake up feeling kind of regretful. You don't have any positive memories of the Fourth of July now because you feel shame instead. That's called picturing the alternative—an alternative you didn’t choose! When you do that, you feel so much gratitude and happiness that you don't have to drink—that you actually get to experience more of life because you're not drinking.

4. Take Up A Hobby

I was just talking to a woman in Warsaw, and she asked me what I do for a living. I told her I help people stop drinking and find their deeper purpose. She told me she doesn’t have a so-called problem with alcohol, but she has noticed that she spends all of her time and energy hanging out in bars with her friends. She also noticed that, when she hangs out with people who have hobbies instead, she would go surfing or she would go rope walking. She would do so much more when she wasn’t drinking, and that life was so much happier and so much better.

There is so much to do and so much to try out. Have you ever been paddleboarding? Have you ever done yoga with a baby goat? Have you ever taken a pottery class or signed up for tango dancing lessons? What about Zumba? Have you ever gone to the botanical gardens in your city or the museum? Have you ever visited an olive oil factory? Have you ever enrolled in a painting class? There are so many things that you’ve never done before.

It’s crazy that we think the only fun thing to do is to drink a chemical that literally numbs our brains. It’s asinine. My first year alcohol-free I did so many different things. I went to Zumba classes. I went to writing workshops. I went to paddleboarding. I went to yoga classes. It felt so good to explore the world again—to feel that sense of adventure. Make sure to fill your summer with really fun hobbies and not just hanging out and doing nothing and drinking.

5. Try New Alcohol-Free Drinks

Have fun trying new alcohol-free drinks. The alcohol-free industry has exploded all over the world. There are so many cool drinks out there. Whether you order alcohol-free drinks online, find them in special shops, or even just go to your local health food store, see what cool things they have. Maybe they have a new matcha elixir or some reishi mushroom drink or coconut water or some health tonic. It doesn't matter what the drink is. It doesn't have to mimic alcohol. Have fun exploring. Go to the store one day. Go to Whole Foods or go to a health food store and find 10 new drinks you want to try, bring them all home, and do a little taste test to see which drinks you like best.

Once you find something you like, that's what you bring to the summer barbecue or Fourth of July party or camping trip. Something you really enjoy and look forward to.

6. SWIM

When we were kids, summer literally meant it was time to put on our bathing suits. We went to the local watering hole, the pool, or the ocean. We swam, and we loved it. We lose that as adults. Most adults don't swim. They go on a beach vacation to Mexico—and they just sit on the beach and drink all day and they totally miss out on the experience of swimming. So wherever you go this summer, find somewhere to swim. I bet you will love the experience. I bet you'll feel like a kid again.

Have a beautiful alcohol-free summer. Go on a gorgeous walk. Look at the moon. Look at the stars. Go swim. Go eat some ice cream. Being alcohol-free during the summer is like being a kid again.

If you want to change your relationship with alcohol and have the best summer ever, sign up for one of my programs to help you make alcohol insignificant. Ready to heal your views about alcohol and discover a deeper purpose? Book a discovery call to find out if we’re a good fit for one-on-one coaching.