When I quit drinking there were times — weeks, months after my decision to quit for good that I’d think, “I’d love to find something that gives me that same feeling I used to get 20 minutes into the first glass of wine.” I loved what wine did to my ruminating, worried mind.

GABA boosting herbs helped. Time helped. The longer I went without putting alcohol in my body and brain helped. It took months, but the desire for the wine effect diminished.

But you know what replicates that feeling of wine for me? The ocean! Seriously, and dare I say it’s a better effect than wine ever delivered. My body, mind, and spirit sink into a deep calm when I sit by the ocean, a calm that never happened with wine. I know this and I feel this, but I also love the neuroscience behind this. Wallace J. Nichols talks all about it in his book, “Blue Mind.” The ocean is a better and more medicinal than any drug!

Tonight I sat by the ocean. It was my second visit to the ocean today. After I took this picture my phone battery died. Which was a good thing because it forced me to sit and not look at my phone, and then I turned around.

I literally said out loud, “Oh.My.God!” The moon was shining bright and full behind me. It was stunning.

As I walked back to my friend’s house, I walked past Venice Beach restaurants and bars. Most tables were filled with glasses of wine and cocktails. I wondered if people would look up from their drinks and notice the magnificent moonlight and sense the calming energy that the ocean provides?

Look up tonight! Wherever you are, notice the moon.

For more on this topic: Listen to my interview on The Unruffled Podcast about the physiological reasons behind why we drink and healthy ways we can generate those same biochemicals when we quit drinking.