15 Healthy Stress-Relievers to Replace Picking Up a Drink

Are you sick and tired of feeling sick and tired after another night out drinking? You keep saying you want to take a break, but there is always this family event, that work outing, and reason after reason to keep partaking in getting lit.

This time you are determined to take a solid break and get back to baseline. You’re ready to feel happier, healthier, and at your fullest potential! But you’re noticing one problem…

It’s been a few days (or maybe even weeks) and you’re still having cravings. You’re still having feelings of anxiety, sadness, anger, or a bad case of the “f*ck-its.”

Here’s our exhaustive list of healthy stress-relievers you can count on to get you through the dog days of cleansing instead of reaching for that drink:

1. Move Your Body

You already knew this one was coming, but movement is insanely instrumental to our mental health. Let me reassure you, overworking yourself in the gym is not the only way to exercise!

Exercising can look like walking, hiking, dancing, biking, swimming, sex, joining a rec sports league, at-home yoga, lifting weights, chasing your toddler around… need I go on? The number of ways you can incorporate movement into your life is endless.

It’s important for our physical health to move our bodies, but the anxiety-relief and “happy chemicals” you get in return are equally as crucial. Think of exercising in this way as a stress-reliever, rather than what it’s doing for your physical appearance.

2. Go Be in Nature

Mother nature heals all. Reduce your mental load by going back to your roots and getting a breath of fresh air, taking in the beauty around you.

A lot of the time, the answer is not to add more supplements to our regime, but to take away the things which clutter our mind. It is not to do more, but to do less and just be without doing. Find someplace beautiful to sit or walk and savor the present moment.

3. Dance

I know I am a broken record here, but dancing specifically will have you feeling golden again.

According to wellness coach, Monique Hessler, the astounding benefits of dancing include: stimulating the vagus nerve (aka regulating organ function and digestion), improving brain health, increasing serotonin, strengthening ability to manage stress, and regaining impaired motor skills, cognition, and sensory functions that may have been previously negatively affected.

Okay, so no more excuses. Go put on Lizzo and get moving!

4. Get in the flow

Do something that puts you in a state of “flow.” We tend to believe anxiety and stress build up because we are so “busy,” but often it is when we spend time sitting around dwelling on how “busy” we feel that we start to feel the anxiety build.

If we can get out of our own heads, we tend to not focus on the stressors so much, and stress starts to evaporate (funny how that works, right?).

So shut down the pity party and get intrigued. Clean with your headphones on, bake a cake, paint a picture, write a poem, play a sport, read a book, pick up that instrument you haven’t in two years, whatever you do that takes up full residence of your mind while doing it.

5. Eat your favorite meal

We don’t want to necessarily condone eating to cope with feelings, but it is a better temporary solution than coping with alcohol, especially during a craving!

Especially if you are giving up the booze for good, you can give yourself some grace when you decide on an icecream dinner for 3 nights (or weeks) in a row. As long as you are doing the work to process those emotions and learn new coping skills, this will all balance out in time.

6. Call a friend

As Johann Hari famously said, “The opposite of addiction is not sobriety. It’s connection.” Call your friend. Call your mom. Be real with the group chat. Lean on your community.

In all difficult moments of life, we need other people, that is just a matter of fact. It’s how humans were designed to live, and it’s what makes us such a special species. It’s what enriches our lives. Let your guard down and lean on your people!

7. Jot something down in your journal

Writing can be very therapeutic, and don’t worry, you don’t have to be any good at it for it to help you feel better! Just free write exactly what you are feeling at the moment.

You can keep a “mood journal” and you will start to notice your own patterns, note what you’ve tried, what has worked and what hasn’t. Writing is just another form of self-expression that can get our chaotic thoughts out of our headspace.

8. "Play the tape forward"

This lovely skill comes from the world of recovery, but it can work in a wide variety of situations. “Playing the Tape Forward” means to think ahead and follow the string of events that are about to happen next.

If you pick up that first drink, what happens next? Maybe you’ll take another, and a 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Text your ex. Drive home drunk. Eat the entire frozen pizza. Wake up tomorrow with a headache. Show up late (and miserable) to your niece’s dance recital…

Think realistically and how you will feel about this decision tomorrow. Will it have been worth it? Is this decision aligned with your current and future goals?

9. Make a delicious mocktail

Rule #1 of not picking up a drink in a moment of weakness is to always have a (non-alcoholic) drink in hand. And make it delicious!

If you’re out at the bar, order a classic Diet Coke or a playful Shirley Temple with cherries (everyone will probably be envious of your order anyway). If you’re at a party, bring your own non-alcoholic bevs and turn your FOMO into JOMO by concocting a can’t-resist mocktail and avoiding that hangover.

10. Meditate the stress away

According to Dr. Madhav Goyal of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the positive effects [of meditation] on anxiety, depression and pain can be modest, but are seen across multiple studies.

A sit-down meditation is a wonderful practice to implement into your life, but practicing mindfulness in everyday situations is what can give you that moment of pause, where you notice what you are feeling and make a purposeful, rational decision about what you do next.

Avoid the autopilot of reaching for a beer or asking your friends to happy hour. You are not bound to these actions, you have the free will to choose what to do with your stress!

11. ASK FOR HELP!

For all my people-pleasers and do-it-yourselfers out there, this one's for you! This trick is all about nipping the stress and anxiety in the bud, rather than treating the feelings after the fact.

If your stress is stemming from being too busy, not having enough time in the day, or having too many things on your to-do list, the best thing you can do is ask for help!!! Delegate to your partner, your family members, take a mental health day off work and be honest about it.If you think you’re the only one who can do it right, I promise it is more important that it gets done than it gets done right, if it means saving your sanity. If you don’t like the way your boyfriend loads the dishwasher, oh well, the dishes are clean(ish). We can’t control it all, so let it go!

12. Set clear boundaries

Don’t be fooled, setting boundaries is not rude. It’s actually the most loving thing you can do for relationships that you truly care about.

Stay home from girls' night for a couple of months. Leave the party when you feel uncomfortable. Be honest with that friend who is always pressuring you to drink.

Speaking your truth will relieve so much anxiety and keep you on the path of doing what’s best for you, despite what everyone else is doing.

13. Take a nap

That’s right, nothing fixes a sour mood like taking a well-deserved, “Do Not Disturb” type of nap. Sometimes we feel stress and anxiety due to a lack of good, quality sleep.

Whether you’re a new mom (IYKYK) or you stayed up too late binging Love Island, catching a quick rest on your lunch break can be ideal.

If a napping environment isn’t available during your day, try a 20-minute, guided Yoga Nidra Nap, which can still dramatically decrease stress, improve brain function, and be a great opportunity to feel rejuvenated for the second half of your day.

14. Try something new

Do something completely new! When we are learning a new activity or creating a new habit, we are literally paving new pathways in our brain instead of relying on ole autopilot.

A new activity usually requires our focus and undivided attention, as well, so at the very least, it is a great distraction from overwhelming emotions.

15. Download an app (with a purpose)

Once you’ve got those initial cravings wrangled in and you’re starting to see that this whole “cutting back on drinking” thinking is a lot bigger than just “cutting back on drinking,” you might want some extra help.

You can attend a recovery meeting or join an online sober community. There are also amazing apps that help with mindful drinking education, accountability, and emotional processing, like Reframe App.