When I drink I sink into the depths of despair with sick and vodka everywhere. Alcohol for many is part of the social landscape and is linked psychologically to having a good time, celebrating, relaxing and letting your hair down. Excessive alcohol consumption is also associated with peer pressure and being on the wagon, well no one wants to be the designated driver, but is it really that bad to be the sensible one?
Whenever you are drinking to excess and regularly, beware, alcohol is not the route to your happiness. Sure it will give you a buzz after the first couple of shots but once you cross that fine line of feeling happy, loose and can take on the world the wind will change and sweep you out to sea. If you are sitting at home alone, night after night, drinking and smoking, having a Bridget Jones moment, snivelling along to “All by Myself,”
Venus Cow says “ You are suffering from sad cows disease and need shooting.”
If you are a self confessed drunk, learn and repeat this mantra,
"I don’t need to drink to forget, I need to forget to drink.”
The truth is you can only drink when you are able, with confidence, to turn down the next one and never be tempted to think drinking stops you being lonely. When you like yourself better you won't mind your own company so much. Learning to enjoy being alone without booze is the key which in the short term means never drinking alone again and may in the longer term mean you need to seek out some new sober friends. If you have a big family where everyone ties one on the moment you all get together, this is tricky. Telling everyone you are cutting down or stopping altogether will unlikely garner you the support you need to tackle such a massive lifestyle behaviour shift. My advice, don't tell anyone your intention to begin with, avoid the get togethers if you have to until you can confidently turn up and calmly announce your off the booze and order a lemonade.
The good news for all you fantastic people who have decided to seriously cut down or want to give up drinking altogether, our liver is very resilient and can recover quickly without alcohol. And if that is not a good enough incentive for the rest of you, think of all those calories you will save getting you closer to the LA body you always dream about.
Venus Cow says “Tomorrow never comes so make your choice today.”
If you flop down in front of the TV after a stressful busy day with a bottle of wine to help you relax remember; alcohol will give you a sleepless night and leave you feeling exhausted at the start of the new day. Instead push yourself and go out for a walk/run instead and get a natural high, helping you relax and sleep like baby.
Venus Cow says “3 Martinis is too many and drunks always finish last.”
Your unconscious behavior, your patterns, habits are nothing more than mental garbage, subconscious programming over time you end up carrying around with you that will dictate your daily life.
Venus Cow says, "You are in charge of your choices, remember."
What we learn as we develop through childhood becomes our intimate personal dramas and addictions that we believe are what makes us who we are. In many ways we cling to and nurture these patterns because we feel lost without them and have nothing to replace them with and why the thought of giving up drinking or any comfort addiction for that matter leaves us feeling empty and lost.
Go to your meditation and have it out with yourself everyday but in a kind way. Repeat your truth. See it not from a judgmental place but as an invisible observer, putting space between your reality and your truth. Forgive yourself. The truth is you are no different from anyone else relying on psychological comfort, not having to think, to get you through. Every body does it until they consciously choose something different.
You have to get to know the real you, the thinking behind the drinking and begin to heal your past to be able to be released from your addictions. Drink is a plaster. Something you can use to temporarily mask your internal pain with. It can give you unbelievable amounts of fake confidence and trick you into thinking you are invincible, popular, and powerful but the truth is without it, it's still scared, unconfident you underneath and you will never be happy unless you change from the inside.
The best advice I can give, "Wipe the slate clean and begin to heal, don’t be afraid of change and learning how to feel for real."
Photo by: Alexander Kovacs