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Do you want to drink less?
Do you want to drink less?
Here is where you have to be brutally honest with yourself. Only you know if you are drinking too much or if it causing a problem in your life. What other people think of your drinking habits, is their business, not yours. They are entitled to their opinion as much as you are to yours.
Do you feel that drinking rules your life? Or you plan your life around your drinking patterns? Perhaps you are not in control of your life. When drinking becomes a crutch or it literally invades your life, then maybe you need to have a good long look at your life.
Social drinker
Sometimes you may only be a social drinker, yet it does not make you feel good. Also a good time to question if it is something you want to continue doing. It is possible to get your mind to a place where you don’t even want to have a drink. Most people drink because they are trying to avoid their lives or avoid something in their lives that is very difficult for them.
Drinking is very much a thing we do socially. When we celebrate we drink, when we go out to dinner, we drink, watching sport, same thing. Why do we want to do this? We have created a desire to drink. Most of us did not even like alcohol when we started drinking, but the more we did it, the nicer it became. It became a choice, desire became a choice.
It is very scary when you think you do not have a choice. You have chosen that desire over and over and the good news is, you can unlearn to desire alcohol.
Creating a reward
Most people have created a reward, it’s nice to drink because it makes you happier, or you don’t have to think so much, or it numbs the pain. The reward you are creating by drinking becomes bigger than not drinking. We get a little dopamine hit. And this is how our brains were wired, we got dopamine hits from eating, drinking, sex, warmth to keep us alive and surviving.
Now it’s become a problem for us, as we over do most things. What happens when you drink more, you deregulate your dopamine, so now you have to drink more to get the same effect. You get to the point where you are very uncomfortable not drinking.
The thing is, alcohol is really not important at all to our survival, but our brains convince us that it is very important.
Unlearn the desire to drink
You can unlearn the desire to drink, you can feel the desire to drink and not drink, if you do this long enough eventually you will not feel the desire anymore. This whole process also need not take a long time. Most people have a trigger, they always stop at a bar on the way home from work, they have a bad day, a friend invites them for a drink, whatever it is for you. You can start to interrupt that trigger, by doing something different instead.
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There are 3 things you can do with the desire to drink.
Firstly, you can drink, which will satisfy the desire. Secondly, you can resist drinking, which causes you anxiety and then you give in anyway. Or thirdly, you can allow the desire to simply be there. Don’t fight it, don’t negotiate with it, just allow it. It is the only way you can make the desire go away, by not rewarding it.
This takes practice and lots of it. This is a skill you can learn and the more you do it, the better you will get at it.
It is so important to also become aware of your thinking. What thoughts are you thinking, that make you want to have that drink? Your brain will come up with all sorts of interesting reasons why you should drink. Remember though, you won’t die if you don’t have that drink, your brain will do its best to make you believe that, but you won’t. True, you will be and feel super uncomfortable for a while. But even that will go away after a while.
What are your reasons to stop drinking or to drink less? Like anything, keeping these reasons close and reminding yourself of them is also a good motivation.
I want to remind you that you have this one wonderful life, why not make it a good one!
If you would like to dive deeper into why you drink and how to not drink so much or stop, reach out to me on he***@ll*******.net
Till next week.
A
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PS. If you want to make the most of your life and want to live up to your potential, look no further than the Day One Program. Here I show you how to go after your dreams and make them a reality.
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