Dry January 2025: Here is what's going down
Registration opens Monday, December 2nd
- This is our most intensive AF course for someone looking for extra accountability for Dry January. Learn how to say goodbye to booze for January or for good - It's up to you!
- Course sessions are on Mondays and Thursdays at 8:00 PM EST and Sundays at 1:00 PM EST. The course length on Mondays and Thursdays is 70 minutes with a 15-minute Q&A at the end: a total of 85-90 minutes. Sunday sessions are 60 minutes. The first session on Wednesday, January 1st, is at 3:00 PM EST.
- We're meeting 14 times in January via Zoom to give you the tools and accountability needed for an alcohol-free January and hopefully longer! Meet with the full cohort and then break off into smaller groups for discussion.
- 71% of course attendees remain alcohol-free for the duration of Recovery Elevator courses. Hats off to that!
- Get access to the RESTORE private space for January with free access/membership to the Café RE community through the month of January.
- We'll be focusing on creating a life where alcohol is no longer needed. We've found that when we have healthy, altruistic relationships with fellow human beings, the need for alcohol or any external substance, drastically reduces.
- You'll connect with others across the globe who also want to ditch the booze. Embrace the camaraderie of an alcohol-free life.
- You'll learn battle-tested tools, techniques, and practices to help you push through cravings and life stressors... without taking a drink.
- Learn why willpower alone isn't enough to quit drinking. Find out how to leverage your struggles with alcohol to build a powerful community and support network in your life.
- We're going to have fun. This is a non-negotiable line item. Laughter, joy, and silly jokes are necessary when quitting drinking.
- Learn the science behind addiction and how we can leverage concepts of quantum science when departing from alcohol.
- All sessions are pet-friendly ???????. We love our pets at Recovery Elevator. Why? Pets live life from the heart, and they are wonderful teachers.
- Learn how the basics of meditation, mindfulness, and spirituality can help you achieve sobriety. Learn practical ways to implement these powerful concepts on your journey.
- We'll cover how to navigate challenging social situations without alcohol and how to tell people you no longer drink.
- A whole new "you" awaits in January 2025. Learn how to set a clear intention into the quantum field which will then draw that happy, joyful life towards you like a magnet, instead of you making everything happen in your life. Learn about manifestation and other exciting universal laws.
January 2025 Course Outline and Schedule
Session 1: Wednesday, January 1st, 3:00 PM EST (60 Minutes): Paul
– Course Orientation
– Are you in the right room? Do you have a drinking problem?
– Get clear on the “why” you want to quit drinking
– What are cravings and how are you going to beat them?
– How to decline a drink
– Game plan for the rest of the course ?
Session 2: Thursday, January 2nd, 8:00 PM EST: Paul
– The myths of alcoholism… Is this a disease? Is it genetic?
– Does moderate drinking work?
– Which recovery path is right for me? A.A, Smart Recovery, Plant Medicine (ayahuasca), talk therapy, in-patient treatment, pharmaceutical therapies (Naltrexone, Antabuse), and more
– Assignment 1: Leverage Technology
Session 3: Sunday, January 5th, 1:00 PM EST: Paul & Guest Speaker
– Guest speaker shares their story for 15 – 30 minutes, followed by a Q&A
– Check in with your cohort with Q&A and share what’s working for you
Session 4: Monday, January 6th, 8:00 PM EST: Patrick
– Discovering peace with every step: Teachings from Thich Nhat Hanh
– What is mindfulness ?♂️ and how you can apply it to your alcohol-free journey
– Calming the Mind: Strategies for slowing the thinking mind
– What do spirituality and recovery mean?
Session 5: Thursday, January 9th, 8:00 PM EST: Odette
– Learn the power of the breath. Just one conscious breath is a meditation
– Nervous System: Learn techniques to activate the parasympathetic nervous system
– Develop an at-home breathing routine to start your day
– Assignment 2: Breathing and relaxation in nature ?
Session 6: Sunday, January 12th, 1:00 PM EST: Kris & Guest Speaker
– Guest speaker shares their story for 15 – 30 minutes, followed by a Q&A
– Check in with your cohort with Q&A and share what’s working for you
Session 7: Monday, January 13th, 8:00 PM EST: Danielle
– Explore the healing benefits of writing ✍️ and recovery
– Learn how to write a new narrative and how journaling ? can help you “let it go”
– Using writing to slow down the thinking mind
Session 8: Thursday, January 16th, 8:00 PM EST: Patrick
– A look at the stigma surrounding alcohol and addiction. Who we REALLY are.
– Is alcohol good for you?
– Shame vs Guilt, and how to overcome it
– The connection to a molecule and learning healthier ways to connect
– Assignment 3: Saying goodbye to alcohol
Session 9: Sunday, January 19th, 1:00 PM EST: Kris & Guest Speaker
– Guest speaker shares their story for 15-30 minutes, followed by a Q&A
– Check in with your cohort with Q&A and share what’s working for you
Session 10: Monday, January 20th, 8:00 PM EST: Kris
– Liberate energy and power within by owning your story
– Learn how sharing your story can empower you, others, and help soften the stigma surrounding addiction
– Depart from the victim mentality and be the active creator in your life
– Burning the ships ?
Session 11: Thursday, January 23rd, 8:00 PM EST: Adam
– Discover how our brains are naturally wired and how addiction can arise
– Investigate how we are predictably irrational and how this applies to early recovery
– Apply these insights to address cravings, overcome hangups and fears, and find freedom
– Your brain and alcohol – the neuropsychology of alcoholism and recovery
– Assignment 4: An act of kindness
Session 12: Sunday, January 26th, 1:00 PM EST: Paul + Guest Speaker
– Guest speaker shares their story for 15 – 30 minutes, followed by a Q&A
– Check in with your cohort with Q&A and share what’s working for you
Session 13: Monday, January 27th 8:00 PM EST: Paul
– The power of awareness
– Spirituality and an alcohol-free life
– Tipping points: keep building momentum
– Alcohol is no longer working… the best and worst place to be
– The Golden Rule 22: Fun ??
Session 14: Thursday, January 30th 8:00 PM EST: Paul
– Course recap, closeout and final thoughts
– What does the recovery pathway look like in the long-term?
– Assignment 5: What’s next: Get clear on the game plan for the remainder of 2024 and beyond
Recovery Elevator
RESTORE Course Dry January 2025 - 14 sessions– 14-course sessions in January 2025
– Small group breakout discussions with others who want to ditch the booze
– Course posted after sessions in the REstore community platform
– Zoom link for course recording if you missed the session
– PDF and Audio version of Alcohol is SH!T included
– Practical tools and tips to help you quit drinking
– Get accountability for the rest of 2025
– As many laughs and smiles as you can handle
– Access the RESTORE community platform and the Café RE community through the month of January
Registration opens Monday, December 2nd
Meet your course instructors
Paul Churchill is one of the Recovery Elevator podcast hosts and author of the best-selling book on Amazon Alcohol is SH!T. He’s learned that connection and accountability are vital to an alcohol-free life in his seven years away from alcohol. He feels that fun with a capital F is required to depart from any learned behavior that may be negatively impacting our lives. In Paul’s free time he likes to get outside with his standard poodle Ben, and has recently picked up an old hobby skateboarding again! He recognizes it was his “drinking problem” that gifted him the most incredible life. Go figure.
Dr. Patrick Foley (Episode 248 of the RE Podcast) is a badass. Let’s take a look…
B.A., Philosophy, Certified Alcohol and Drug Abuse Councilor, Masters of Ministry, Masters of Teaching, Doctorate of Divinity all come along with Patrick.
For over 25 years, Patrick has taught classes in world religions, education, death and dying, and spiritual traditions. As his professional practice evolved, he continued to examine his relationship with alcohol and how it would separate him from a path and practice to live a joyful life, in the here and now.
I’m Danielle, and I no longer drink alcohol. Writing is a practice I have turned to since childhood, and it has been a guiding force in my sobriety journey. I also turned my passion for writing into my profession in my early 20s. I write and design websites for small business owners and entrepreneurs, and help them unpack and push out their messaging via social media, 1-on-1 consultations and writing workshops. Whether I share it with the world or burn it in ceremony after the fact – writing has always been, and continues to be one of the most important tools in my sobriety toolbelt.
Kris Oyen has been a leader in the Recovery Elevator private communities Café RE since 2017. His light and guidance have helped thousands quit drinking. He reached a definitive moment in his life where he realized alcohol had to go. The writing was on the wall. His wife left him, and he was living in a camper… a true country western song. We feel he has one of the most remarkable stories we’ve heard, which represents the signifcant level of change we are capable of as human beings. You can hear Kris’ full story on episode 278 of the podcast.
My name is Odette. I was born and raised in Guadalajara Mexico where I lived until I finished college. I moved to San Diego after I graduated and I have been living here ever since. I share a home with my husband, my two kids, two dogs and one cat. We are a fun crew that likes to stay active and spend as much time as possible outdoors. I like saying “recovery runs in my family”. My dad is 15 years sober and I have been in eating disorder recovery for bulimia for over a decade. I started developing a complicated relationship with alcohol in 2017 and that is when I found Recovery Elevator. I am one of those people that had to change the question from: “am I an alcoholic?” to “is alcohol affecting my life negatively?”. I genuinely believe that if we do not get to the root of our emotional disease, we will continue to seek comfort in alcohol or any other behaviour or substance that can help us numb out the pain or avoid reality. Recently, I got certified to become a breathwork therapy facilitator as this practice has allowed me to sync my mind with my body and my soul. Integrating embodiment practices into my recovery has allowed me to really integrate everything that I have learned in therapy and in all of the literature I have read for yours. I am excited to be teaching during this course!
I am Adam Lake (MD, FAAFP, FASAM, AAHIVS) and I am triple board certified in family medicine, addiction medicine and HIV medicine. I am also a member of Cafe RE and took my last drink April 29, 2023. Before I realized it was me with an addiction, I was obsessed – personally and professionally – with the concept of addiction. Part of my attempts to curb my drinking involved spending thousands of hours professionally working with others suffering from addiction, studying for and passing my addiction medicine boards. After I took my exams it was still another 18 months until I could stop drinking. While the knowledge and the understanding of addiction was a piece of my recovery, it alone was not enough for me to stop. Since entering recovery I have been able to apply much of my understanding of neuropsychology to my own recovery and I am here to share this with you too.
Soberlink is a proud sponsor of the RESTORE course.
You’ve decided to stay sober, but your spouse or partner does not trust you. You need a way to prove it to them. Soberlink is a powerful tool trusted in family court to prove sobriety for child custody, so you know its results are reliable. Use it to continue to prove sobriety and stay accountable after Restore.
“I am grateful to have stumbled across the Recovery Elevator podcast in my feed. I started listening to Paul Churchill and his team just days after I decided to try and get sober…at age 63. I listened with interest to Paul pitch “ditching the booze” dry January and decided to join the challenge I’d long heard about. It had been years since I’d tried doing anything alcohol free, much less stay sober for 31 days. The class featured a number of excellent speakers and sober-minded individuals who shared their stories of inspiration and recovery with us. Intimacy was achieved because we frequently broke out in small break-out rooms with 4 or 5 others where we shared our experiences and dreams of sobriety. Now that I’ve hit 90 days of sobriety, I can see how important a roll the course played in keeping me motivated and in touch with a like-minded community. Onward to more experiences with Recovery Elevator!
“After 30 years of heavy drinking as the “norm”, I realized in 2017 that I wanted to try something else and became more curious about a life not being under the influence of anything and I quit for a period of almost 3 years, until the pandemic rolled into town, and I retreated to old coping mechanisms, unfortunately. I found out about Recovery Elevator during that time and decided I wanted my old sober life back, so I signed up for REstore in January 2023 and it was so wonderful I did it this year in 2024 as well! The community is so great, so accepting and non-judgmental, that I joined Café RE, their ongoing online community as well. Learning to live a life without the dulling, numbing of booze has been one of the greatest endeavors of my life, and I’m so grateful I found this group of people.”
“I had “successfully” white-knuckled my way to 7 months sober from alcohol when I signed up for the REstore Dry January course, and I’m so glad I did. Even though I felt good about the time under my belt, REstore showed me how significant connection and community are on my Sober Path. It was incredibly empowering to go to the first session and see 150 other people there to accomplish the same goal I was there for. It changed my whole perspective on staying sober, giving me new tools to employ and connections with other people on their journey. ”
“January Restore is so worth the time and energy to get a jumpstart on moving towards an alcohol free life. The support of the cohort was so helpful, and the team leaders rocked it. I loved the commitment to be there three days per week. The showing up gave me the motivation to be successful. So much appreciation for the class and highly encourage anyone on an alcohol-free journey to sign up.”
“I’m 36 now and since high school I was always a problematic drinker. I white knuckled it from Nov 2021 until Dec 2021. I knew that was not sustainable and I needed help from people who have been through this. I am not a proponent of the AA model, so I needed something else. I went to your website and saw your January class starting in 2022. I signed up and I was so scared. I didn’t tell my husband what I was doing. I just did it. It was literally the best thing that happened to me in regards to my sobriety. So I’ve been completely alcohol free since Nov 2021 and since your class. I’ve learned so much and without the class I don’t think I would be here today.”
“RESTORE taught me how to begin to live a happy, honest and loving alcohol-free life and I will always be grateful for that. The classes gave me the tools I needed in the beginning of my alcohol-free journey alongside a community that I was doing everything with and that helped more than I could have imagined.”
“I joined REstore in January when I determined that alcohol wasn’t serving me well. I had previously gone through periods of alcohol reduction but I had never made a decision to live an alcohol-free life. I don’t do labels or judgment very well, and REstore was a safe place to learn and explore this new way of life with a group of like-minded and supportive people from across the globe, friends who I continue this journey with in Recovery Elevator’s online community, Cafe RE. It’s a lifestyle I intend to maintain and Recovery Elevator will continue to be my primary community, which is essential in maintaining an alcohol free life.”
“I would highly recommend the Restore class for anyone wanting to pursue an AF life. Whether just sober curious or feel alcohol is an extreme problem in your life , this course will offer insight to your own personal situation. I gained a lot of “life tools” from the instructors and was able to connect with fellow participants in small group zoom chats . It was nice connecting with people with similar desire for AF life. I found it especially nice that Paul and instructor’s joined in chats with us. A nice personal touch . Thank you!”
“The RESTORE course was an excellent and thoughtful way to explore the impacts of alcohol on your life, relationships, body, mind and soul. Truly, a thoughtful and caring leadership team, and an enlightening experience. Thank-you to Paul, Chris, Odette, Patrick and KMac for a very well organized, immersive chorus with some Rule22 (make it fun) thrown in along the way”
If you’re on the fence, just do it. This course was exactly what I needed when I was newly sober. I was looking for added accountability and connections, both of which I received. I loved the small group breakouts. This really created a safe space for me to open up and share my journey with other like-minded individuals. I still chat with a few of my group members. I’m grateful for these real connections because it’s vital for long term sobriety.
I highly enjoyed the RESTORE course with Recovery Elevator. There were nights where I wanted to drink, but it seemed like I had a course session every night and I didn’t want to let down the others. I am always interested in learning more ways to cope with living an alcohol-free life and we covered that and more in this course. I learned about burning the ships, connecting with other members in a small group, and getting into a routine along with so much more. The daily support and guidance from the small groups continue to this day well after the 4 weeks. I encourage anyone looking for support, guidance, and tools to live an alcohol-free lifestyle to join. Whether you are on day 1 or day 1000, this course is an amazing resource to help you on your sober journey.
I participated in the first RESTORE in January of 2021 and then the Dry July RESTORE later that year. For me, the most valuable part was having the support of my team in the WhatsApp group (we still chat frequently to this day) and having almost nightly webinars that I could plan to attend. The ideas and information shared in the course are very valuable for one to use to help add tools to their sobriety toolbox and build a better life. Not just for sobriety, but life in general.
I was hesitant about quitting drinking in an online zoom format. Still, after countless failed attempts on my own, I decided I had to do something different. I’m glad I did because this course gave me the foundation and confidence to ditch the booze. It’s been 44 days since my last drink, and I don’t think I’d be here without Restore or the people that I met during the course. I thought I’d be the only one from Australia, but there were a few others… and I even had an in-person meet-up with another Restore member, which was a lot of fun. I look forward to living life alcohol-free, and if I ever find myself in a bind with alcohol again, I know where to go!
I joined the last RESTORE course as a way to see if I could stay sober for 30 days. I didn’t think I had a “real” drinking problem, just curious to see how it would go. I found out at about seven days in that I was craving alcohol, and drinking had a much deeper grip on me than I had thought. This was so eye-opening to me, and I never want to go that far down the addiction to alcohol road again. I did drink a couple of times during the Restore course, but everyone was so supportive that I got right back on it, and I’ve been sober since. I’d still be drinking if it weren’t for this course, and that scares the hell out of me.
I think the biggest takeaway for me from the last RESTORE course was that I’m not alone. I used to think that I was the only one who struggled with alcohol, but so many like me find it hard or impossible to control their drinking. There was even another Erik from England in my course! I like how they make it a point to insert comedy and light-heartedness into the course. Lord, knows how demoralising alcohol addiction can be. I welcomed the smiles and cheesiness.
I also firmly believe there is nothing wrong with me. Learning the science behind addiction has shown me that anyone is susceptible to alcohol addiction. This is something I can alter in my life.
I want to take the course but I can't afford $144
Not a problem. Email info@recoveryelevator.com
What is your refund policy?
Refunds are issued for 14 days after the course start date. No questions asked.
Who is this course for?
This course is for the new comer. It’s geared towards anyone who is seriously questioning their relationship with alcohol or for someone who has previously tried to quit on their own and didn’t have the success they wanted. Consider this a “Sobriety 101.” On the other hand, we usually have 30% – 40% of course attendees who are not new to sobriety, and they are bolstering their recovery portfolio.
Do I have to join the RESTORE group?
It is not required, but we highly recommend to join the group. You’ll connect with others in the course, plus the group is where you’ll post your coursework assignments. The RESTORE group is a safe, cozy and moderated group. You’ll get WAY more out of the course if you participate in the group. ?
Is this course 12-Step based?
No, it isn’t. However, in one of the sessions, we’ll cover different healing modalities and A.A will be included. If you decide that A.A is right for you, then great! All course instructors have experience or currently attend A.A and we feel this course, in conjunction with your 12-Step program should add some major sobriety fuel to the tank.
What if I missed a session? Can I attend this course if I live on the other side of the world?
All sessions are recorded and a link is sent out within 3 hours of the course. We do recommend attending “live” as much as possible so you can participate in the small group breakout discussions. There may be some late nights for those of you in the U.K timezones, but should be worth it.
Oops, I drank during the course... now what?
You wouldn’t be the first or the last. Our advice is to keep showing up. Over and over. You betcha we value continuous alcohol-free time, but we feel there are other more important parameters of success, such as loving yourself regardless of where you find yourself at this very moment.
Can I sign up after the course start date?
Yes, you can sign up at any time during the month the course is offered.
Is this a religious or spiritual based course?
Religious no, but spiritual yes. Our guy Patrick will cover all that stuff including what a Higher Power means, do you need one, how to levitate and how to summon an eagle with your thoughts. Well, maybe not all of that.
