This is a monthly challenge that Ari came up with. The idea is to abstain from all psychoactive substances for 1 full month, and to meditate every day during this same month.
Substances banned include:
- Alcohol
- Caffeine
- Marijuana
- Nicotine
- any other stimulants, benzodiazepines, tryptamines, phenethylamines, opiates, dissociatives, or any other deplorable chemicals you might get your hands (and brain) on
I started this challenge on October 1, 2016, and will continue it through the end of October 31, 2016.
On September 30, I purposefully overindulged in some of the above (not the illegal ones, obviously). Not surprisingly, I stayed up all night and felt like a deployed airbag the rest of the weekend.
If a time traveler had approached the high school version of me and warned him that a decade later, I would be unable to abstain from drugs and alcohol for a month, he would have denied it vehemently. Yet it seems like most of the people I know are in the habit of consuming at least one of the first 4 items on the above list, and might find it challenging to give that habit up. I hope to prove that hypothetical time-traveler wrong this month.
…
October was a great success. I’m repeating the process starting March 19, 2017.