A Guilty Pleasure
The truth is that when we drink alcohol we not only numb out the feelings we don't want to feel we numb out of the feelings we desire most.
Numbing out can be in the form of watching endless hours of T.V., or Netflix, spending too much time on FB or Instagram, over shopping to make us feel better, over eating, gossiping, over exercising, etc.
We are missing out on feeling all of the feelings in this human experience when we numb out.
Why do we do this? These concentrated pleasures are at our finger tips. We as humans have created an explosion to so much access to concentrated pleasure that we don't have the skills yet to reign in our lower pleasure seeking brain to send a message that these concentrated pleasures are not healthy for us.
We feel entitled to be able to take the edge off, escape anything negative, and feel good all of the time.
The bottom line is that we are avoiding a negative feeling.
How do you make a change?
#1- Don't judge the thoughts and actions that you've been conditioned to do.
#2- Be curious about all of your thoughts.
We all have thoughts that bubble up to the surface. Guess what?? You have a choice to believe them or not. That's an awesome thing in my opinion!
There is good news in that we are able to rewire our brain. Nothing has gone wrong. You didn't make any mistakes. All of these beliefs about how numbing is a solution come from a THOUGHT. A THOUGHT that you generated unconsciously up until this point. Listening to a thought and not obeying and believing the thought is so liberating.
I thought for so long that having a drink was the solution to not feel bad and the solution to having fun. Then I started to challenge myself if that was a true solution. Yes, at first I judged them but that led to more drinking. It wasn't until I let curiosity settle in and then that is when change started to appear. I had to practice this over and over. It was hard at first. Just like doing a first push up, it's hard, but it gets easier every time I practiced.
Don't give up on the ability to be curious. When an urge starts to surface, pause and say to yourself as if the urge is outside of you, "I see you, I hear you. What are you trying to tell me? You are allowed to be there but you are just going to have to be quiet. You can throw a tantrum, but I know if I don't answer you will tire yourself out and go to sleep."
Practice, Practice, Practice.
✅ P.S. Need a simple to follow step-by-step process to drink less? Check out my signature programs HERE.