As the new year commences, many people use the fresh start to create new habits or work toward new goals. At Mind Body Health Associates, we want to support you in those endeavors. One element we believe can help sustain long-term growth and creation of healthy lifestyles is to arrive at any point of change with a spirit of curiosity, rather than approaching yourself with shame, fear, dread, or relying on inner strength and willpower.

This year the Mind Body Health Associates team is asking, what would happen if you approached your habits and lifestyle less with a spirit of judgment and more of one filled with curiosity?

The “sober curious” movement is gaining attention in mainstream media (like NPR and The Guardian) for its generous approach to leaving behind alcohol – a common resolution is to “drink less”. For many in recovery, the decision to get sober was one of life and death; the consequences of alcohol or drug use would take them down a path of complete destruction. For this reason, groups such as AA have been valuable resources for maintaining a path to sobriety and Landon Dunn, LISW, LICDC makes a regular practice of referring individuals to these programs. But for some people, they may not feel like they have a life and death problem with substances but they might also be hearing their inner voice prompt them to pay attention to consumption.

The sober curious approach simply says, what if you were to get curious about your relationship to alcohol? What if you didn’t make a decision today to abstain for the rest of your life, but rather gave space and time to explore the issue at hand? And when you remove the element of judgment for your personal response, you can keep shame at bay when you notice something that doesn’t fit with your personal values.

The sober curious approach can apply to many facets of life, one we’ll just call curiosity. You can be sugar curious, movement curious, even relationally curious.

• What might it look like and feel like to take a break from sugar?
• How might my body respond to different movement modalities?
• What could our friendship look like if we became more intentional about how we spent our time together?
• What would happen to our marriage if we shared a 5-second kiss each day?
• What are my feelings about my daily work beyond measurements of “success”?

Here’s to a great year that asks questions of the bigger picture of what it means to live intentionally and getting curious about what a better life might look like.