It’s nothing new that January is a month when we step back, assess our lifestyle choices and try to make better decision. This goes for everything from eating, to drinking to fitness. And with all the holiday festivities behind us, some people want to go sober, not only in January, but for good. Is being sober a passing trend though?

Woman’s Hour is a BBC Radio program that covers all sorts of relevant topics for women, by women. In a recent episode, Clare Pooley, author of The Sober Diaries, and Catherine Gray, author of The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober, discussed the topic of going sober. For them, it wasn’t a way to be trendy. In fact, sobriety was how they reclaimed their lives.

Just as it was for Pooley and Gray, it’s pretty standard for many women to use wine as a way to unwind. But one glass can easily become two, or three, or an entire bottle.

Another way that drinking negatively impacts your life is when it’s at the very center of your career and social life, and becomes a crutch to deal with social anxiety.

The problem is when you stop drinking as a form of “social lubrication and start using it as self medication” says Clare Pooley.

Frequent drinking can have a big impact on your physical health, like weight gain and sleep disturbances. But it can also have an impact on your mental health, too. Even though people drink to ease anxiety, it is a depressant and can actually have the opposite effect. Resulting in fluctuating moods.

So, even though there is a fetishization of sobriety around this time of year, it might be the support you need to stick to your sober resolution.

Do you have dry or oily skin this winter? Your face is dealing with lots of cold and chill this winter. These harsh elements can really dry out your skin. So, you might think the best thing to do is just keep lathering on creams and moisturizers to hydrate and nourish your skin. But you need to exfoliate, too. In fact, it’s the best thing you can do for your skin this winter. Here’s why.

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Do you find yourself judging others and even yourself? Do you feel like other people judge you? You’re not alone, and #1 New York Times best-selling author, Gabrielle Bernstein, knows exactly how you feel. So much so that she wrote a book about it, and it can help you stop judging and start connecting. 

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