Today Marks the Beginning of Sober October
A few years ago, Joe Rogan and his group of booze drinking, weed smoking, comedian friends started a challenge where they would stop drinking, stop smoking weed, and do exercise everyday for the entire month of October.
For many years, I really didn’t see the need do a Sober October as I would randomly do “Tolerance Breaks” every now and then. Granted, my Tolerance breaks were always a week or two, and didn’t involve actively burning at least 500 calories per day.
This is why this year, I have decided to join Rogan and his band of merry stoners on a purge that will last a month. I was going to go on an EXTREME Sober October and cut out everything I “depend” on such as caffeine too, but I figured that what I can do is significantly cut down on coffee. The reason I don’t go full “Cold Turkey” on coffee is because I’m HIGHLY ADDICTED to the substance.
It’s the drug I’ve been using longest.
This is why I’m cutting down to 1 cup per day and instead of being so heavily focused on exercise, I’m going to be doing a commitment to leveling up my awareness, mindfulness, and of course improve my health.
The rest of the article will talk about motivations for doing Sober October, what exactly my daily routines will be like and tips for not “falling off the wagon” as they say.
Why do Sober October this Year?
While I don’t necessarily feel like I have a “problem” with smoking weed, I do believe there is a benefit of “not” doing the things you enjoy doing. To deny oneself of their substances of choice is to see how dependent you truly are on them.
This is why I’m still not 100% ready to go Caffeine free.
I actually don’t think that NOT smoking weed will actually be a problem for me. I have taken T-breaks plenty of times and while the first day might be a little annoying, the truth of the matter is that if you keep yourself busy then it’s not too much of a big deal.
I’m also not drinking booze – which wouldn’t be a problem whatsoever. I pretty much stopped drinking regularly almost 20-years ago, even though over the past month or so I have been drinking a bit more.
However, apart from all of the substances I won’t do – there’s another reason why I’m doing Sober October this year.
In the middle of November, I have to move to a new place. Not a big deal, however, I want to be focusing all of my attention and efforts on finding the right place that can accommodate my work, and my growing family.
Therefore, I’m using sober October and the related anxieties that might come up as a means of motivation and focus, to achieve an intention I am setting on day one!
But let’s take a closer look at what things I’ll be doing daily.
Abstinence is one thing…
It’s pretty clear that this entire month I won’t be smoking weed at all. This is probably a good thing since I just cropped out a plant of balcony bud and the curing would take about a month. I’m not too hopeful about this last bud since it had some serious issues during the growing and suffered some “bud Rot” on the biggest part.
This forced me to crop out a few weeks earlier so the trichome development is weak.
Nonetheless, this will be a pleasant way to end Sober October by taking a hit from my own weed. Furthermore, Coffee will be significantly reduced, as well as sugars (even though I hardly consume sugars), I will abstain from my chocolate treats and what not. Of course, alcohol will also be avoided.
But what will I be doing every day?
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Breathwork
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Yoga
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Exercise (some cardio/strength)
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Magick
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Semen Retention (aka No Fap)
These 4 pillars will be what sustains me throughout Sober October and hopefully I can integrate this new regimen of exercise and wellness post-October. I’ll talk a bit more about each of the items below.
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Breathwork
If you haven’t picked up by now, I absolutely love breathwork! When you understand that the breath directly influences your nervous system, you understand that by mastering it and learning how to breathe correctly – you become a “more effective human!”
Fortunately, I have more than 30 pre-designed breathwork routines to choose from which makes this part pretty easy. All I have to do is block out between 30-mins to 1-hour a day and I can definitely achieve this goal.
As for the type of breathwork routines I’m planning on doing – I’m thinking that for the vast majority of the week I’ll focus on active “Tummo” style breathing. This is more like your “Wim Hof Method” of breathing.
Over the weekends, when I have a bit more time, I’ll engage in “Transpersonal Breathwork” – which is a rhythmic almost shamanic style of breathing. When you engage into this style of breathing, crazy things happen! It’s almost like a psychedelic experience.
Using the breath as a means of managing my anxiety will make “not smoking weed” significantly easier. It’s something that requires at least 5-minutes a day, and can have amazing benefits in your life!
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Yoga
This is another practice that I love to do, except, I’m not as consistent with it as with breathwork. I aim to turn this around this October and do some form of Yoga, even if it’s 10 minutes, per day. Yoga is also a great “pre-breathwork activity” that helps you amplify your breathwork experience. This is because in essence yoga is a “mindfulness activity”.
It also helps get rid of stress and tension in the body, which translates into a clearer mind. Once more, this will help with any type of cravings I may have and will allow me to endure the whole month.
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Exercise
While I do walk daily (I have a large dog that needs to stretch his legs) – I have been lazy when it comes to actual physical exercise. As a result, I now have a slight belly. This is not a “BELLY” but I’m a skinny dude and therefore even the slightest belly is noticeable.
I am to shred the belly back to the six-pack I used to have when I was 20. I was fortunate since I had a 6-pack without needing to do any exercise. My body is also very responsive to exercise and in a matter of weeks I begin to pack on muscle and burn fat. Therefore, I’m going to be doing some strength training as well as some cardio.
For cardio, I’m probably going to be doing 5-10 minutes of jump rope daily. I’m not a big fan of “running” unless it’s running from the cops or deadly ferocious animals and while I do enjoy bike rides, I don’t have a bike at the moment.
Therefore, a jump rope seems like the best bet for this. 10 minutes of Jump rope will burn fat, increase blood circulation and remove the need for jogging. As for strength, I’m not that into weights so I’ll be using my own body weight to train doing pushups, pullups, sit-ups, etc.
If push comes to shove, I’ll get some kettlebells later on because I do want to tone my body a bit more.
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Magick
Finally, I’m going to be engaging in Magick every day. I’ve been practicing magick for a few years now and there are times when I am ‘more committed’ to the work than other times. For the following month, my intention is to do magick every day in one way or another.
But how do you do magick?
One of the easiest ways is to simply make a list of the things you want and to write it down in terms of priority. Then, every day, look at it, visualize it, tune into the emotional field of it - and go about your way.
However, in my case, I’ll be working on invoking my Astral Temple daily, casting one spell, and doing daily gratitude rituals.
Your gratitude ritual can be as simple as waking up, sitting down, and focusing in on a few things that make you feel grateful to be alive. Now, to be clear, this doesn’t mean that you will only think of the person or activity that makes you feel grateful – but rather, you need to invoke the “feeling of gratitude” and embody it.
For example, if a cup of coffee makes you feel grateful – don’t think about the cup of coffee in the context of memory, but tap into how it makes you feel and sit in that feeling for a few minutes. This is ACTUALLY practicing gratitude.
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Semen Retention (No Fap)
This is probably one of the more difficult ones to pull off for me. For a long time I didn’t see any value in the “no fap” movement mainly because the name “no fap” is retarded. Therefore, I use the term “semen retention” which actually is grounded in some serious esoteric practices.
Nonetheless, this means I will not watch any Porn or masturbate for the entire month of October. I have done this in the past and every day you hold back the need to “let go”, you compound energy and when you learn how to move that energy and channel it into something productive – you can achieve significant things.
There are many historical figures that practices semen retention to achieve their goals!
What are my expectations?
Well, to start off – I’m sure that I’ll get healthier in general. Not because of my “not” using certain substances but more because I’ll be taking an active approach to boosting my physical, emotional and spiritual health.
Furthermore, I expect some resistance to appear along the way. There’s going to be a few moments where I will want to smoke a joint or something to “take off the edge”, but I know that this is only a challenge of will and by focusing on my daily rituals – I should be able to walk it off.
Probably, the most difficult thing for me will be the semen retention. While I do this more often than not, there is a sense of difficulty (especially for a man). You see, men generate millions of sperms per day and their physiological purpose is to spread the seed as much as possible.
Modern technology gave us porn at our fingertips and thus, masturbation became incredibly easy and common practice.
However, how many guys reading this can’t go one day without jacking off? The thing about masturbation when combined with porn is that it hardwires your brain differently and you become “addicted” to the action. This loop then re-focuses your mind on finding more “booty” which then triggers more “boners” which then gets beaten back down into submission.
However, when you interrupt this process –you’ll quickly learn what a monstrous force resides inside of you. You realize that jacking off is siphoning off your power and keeping you back.
Does this mean I won’t be having sex with my partner? Of course not! It means that I’ll be practicing tantric sex and if I “bust a nut” due to sex – that’s okay. I simply will abstain from “pleasuring myself”.
Final Words
At the end of the day, all of these activities is to put a mirror to my subtle energies and see where I am dependent on substances or actions and how I can focus my mind and body to achieve greater things in my life.
It’s a challenge I aim on doing every year now and I recommend that others try it as well. Perhaps you don’t need to be as robust as my challenge, but doing something difficult and denying yourself the things you love and depend on is a great way to expand your personal development and reach your maximum potential!
TOLERANCE BREAKS, READ ON...
