Mindful drinking is the new socializing

(And there we find something about)

One of my dearest friends stumbled over the threshold last night with a bottle of red and a bottle of white. That was after my subtle hint via the app that she was definitely welcome to come, but that my fridge was completely empty. She was quite shocked by that, with two hefty bottles as a result on the sidewalk. And when the cork of the bottle pops, Adeline's brakes go off. Apparently, it has something to do with my blue eyes, by the way, read here but just for a moment. By the way, if you're worried, you don't have to be. Intelligent people drink more, so I just pretend to be one. Problem solved.

But there is a trend going on, a worrying trend. It's called mindful drinking. In the UK, there was a festival, a festival where you drink mindfully. Meine lieben, that seems to me the most boring festival on earth. Not because the alcohol intake is being reduced, I think that's fine, but because you think about drinking all day and apparently don't do it or do it in moderation. And if you tell me that something is not allowed, I want it even more. I also become particularly contrary from pink elephants.

You have mindful living and now also mindful drinking. This gave my slightly hungover brain an error this morning. A tiny little whatdafuck moment. I'm the first to understand that you shouldn't be drinking from the bottle every night and also drinking under group pressure I find nonsense. But why does it all have to be so mindful again? Mindful eating, mindful saying no, mindful sleeping, mindful spending money.

Mindful a.k.a. mindfulness is, according to my beloved Wiki, a mental state characterized by the awareness of one's own physical experiences, feelings, and thoughts, without immediately resorting to automatic reactions. And if you then start drinking mindfully, you kick the pleasure out of that nice glass. Okay, taking a moment to appreciate the full flavor of that sip, fine. But why do we have to feel everything about it, think about things, and not give in to that automatic need: to take another sip?

No, mindfulness, this is as far as it goes. You can be in my head, in my life, in my yoga class, but keep your hands off my glass. Go away, I just want to enjoy thoughtlessly. Mindful drinking, come on, the world has gone mad.