Imagine a society where drinking and taking drugs wasn’t seen as cool and as a remedy to our daily modern stress life.

Where we could face head on and with a clear mind our problems and we wouldn’t create more by some levels of not being aware enough.

I’ve seen too much problems caused by drinking and consuming substances that alter consciousness that I now prefer to stay away from them all. And I’m sure that you can call some related events to mind too. Driving under influence, words and actions that hurt ourself and others, the low down that follows the superficial high, not mentioning money that could be better spent elsewhere.

Frankly, I don’t buy the hype anymore.

And a useful tip is to ban drinking and drugs altogether instead of settling on consuming only a little, because then it becomes a perillous slope, where you can fall back into their traps.

Not that we need a new label for every choice we make, but it helps to name it to find solutions. The term Straight Edge comes from the punk, harcore subculture, and was instigated in reaction to the excess of our Western culture. It includes refraining from alcohol, recreative drugs, tobacco, but some also include caffeine (I consume decaf), and prescription drugs (not a fan either, I do my best to go without). It can also encircle a bigger conscious lifestyle of not engaging in promiscuous sex and being vegetarian or vegan.

But refraining from substances that change our normal consciousness and being aware of the effects of our lifestyle is not new, and recommended by the Buddhist philosophy, for example.

Because you can have an everlasting fun at parties with your nonalcoholic drink too (and I see people who abstain having a, maybe quieter, but real and longerlasting fun at those times). Because a massage, a good talk, or a warm bath can be as satisfying or more (no side effects) to let go of our stress and relax.

Because it is a gift to ourselves and the world- we can then confront the pain and can resolve it for good by a permanent solution instead of numbing it. We can use our energy to better causes.

Because we can also savor the fun without being distracted, or forgetting it.

I’m loving this way of life!

Are you willing to try it too?