In this article, I’d like to go over a couple ways that can help you change your relationship with alcohol. These are just some insights that came up for me as I took steps to cut down/eliminate it. You might want to change it for a variety of reasons- and changing it could mean cutting down, or being mindful of when you consume, or just letting it go completely.
First of all, these are just ideas. Working with a professional can be very beneficial.
The first idea I’d like to highlight is something I learned from Buddhism… or just overall, it’s spiritual related. And it revolves around self kindness, and self compassion. If we practice feeling self kindness, we might get a little nudge when we’re going to consume- and that nudge is saying- this is harmful, let’s do something else. Then there is space to interrupt the pattern.
I think it can be easy to fall into self criticism and kind of beating ourselves up for a variety of reasons. This can lead to wanting to drink or distract. Having a mantra or reading material centering around self kindness and compassion, can be like an anchor or reminder. The practice can also reach out to others and other areas as well.
The second idea is an ongoing practice too. It involves feeling the emotions, specifically around drinking. Is there a lot of anxiety or difficult emotions, that then trigger the urge to drink? That hooking is called “shenpa” in Buddhism. Working with a professional can help us feel things that might be difficult, that we move away from with different ways of consuming. Working on feeling them and relaxing into it- can be difficult but very helpful. You might find that when you give those emotions space to be there, you don’t try to distract as much. This can be a positive step.
So those are just a couple insights that came up as I continue to work on changing that relationship. I hope that helps, and I’m wishing you health and strength.
