EPISODE 2: How to Reduce Your Drinking by Stopping Thinking About Drinking - Sober October, No Drama
Sober October, No Drama: Daily Tips for a Take It or Leave It Relationship With Alcohol
Episode 2: How to Reduce Your Drinking by Stopping Thinking About Drinking - Sober October, No Drama
The best way to set yourself up for success with a 30-day break from alcohol is to start noticing YOUR behaviours, thoughts, beliefs and physical experience of alcohol.
You need to become a need hunter.
Don't spend too much time on the after-alcohol experience - that's what people get wrong. The after experience sends us into judgement and self-flagellation, which distracts us from gathering the data we actually need to cut back on drinking for good.
Instead, start noticing what was happening immediately before you got a craving:
- What need is being met by alcohol?
- What is alcohol giving you? What is it taking away?
- Is it like slipping into a warm bath? Do your shoulders relax? Do you sigh?
- What thoughts change when you drink?
Note for our ND friends: noticing physical sensations can be hard - share anything that comes to mind, however small.
This is the kind of super-sleuth behaviour that moves us to a take it or leave it relationship with alcohol - and makes for a really enjoyable sober curious 30-day break.
This episode is part of Sober October, No Drama - a daily MidlifeAF podcast mini series with tips for cutting back on alcohol without willpower, labels or forever.
My Awareness Worksheets are perfect for this episode - working through the answers to these questions will change your relationship with alcohol for the better. See links below:
Episode links & Resources
• Learn more about Emma Gilmour at: www.hoperisingcoaching.com
• Follow Emma Gilmour on insta @hoperisingcoaching
FREE TOOLS - four beautiful resources to help you drink less and feel fabulous:
1. 7 Steps to Take Back Control of Alcohol - the exact steps I took when I started out on this journey nearly five years ago.
https://www.hoperisingcoaching.com/7-steps
2. Awareness Worksheets - if you do nothing else, working through the answers to these questions will change your relationship with alcohol for the better.
https://www.hoperisingcoaching.com/awareness-worksheets-opt-in
3. Your North Star Visualisation - stops your brain freaking out about doing something unfamiliar.
https://www.hoperisingcoaching.com/northstarvisualisation
4. Grounding Meditation - you know that feeling when you have a drink and the body goes "aaaaaaaahhhhhhh" and everything seems to relax? What the body really needs is to ground - to come back home to self, and for self to feel lovely. That is what we work on in my live programs. We start every session with a grounding and connect with ourselves to find out what our body really needs when it thinks it wants to drink.
https://www.hoperisingcoaching.com/grounding
READY TO GO DEEPER?
Are you tired of the mental back-and-forth about drinking?
I am running a FREE 3-Day Alcohol Reset on 22, 23 and 24 Sept, 7:30pm Melb/Syd (replays available). No willpower talk. No abstinence pressure. You can even drink while you do it. A judgement-free space to learn the tools to step into a take it or leave it relationship with alcohol.
REGISTER FREE: https://www.hoperisingcoaching.com/3-day-reset
Want a take it or leave it relationship with alcohol? Want to stop all the "will I, won't I" internal conflict around wine?
I am running the Great Aussie Alcohol Experiment LIVE from Thursday 1 October 30 days. Small group coaching. Only 25 spots. Small, intimate and private. Rewire your brain and nervous system so you no longer have to reach for a glass to quieten your busy brain, calm your overwhelmed soul or socialise when your social battery is spent.
Early bird pricing open now (ends 15th Spetember) - $500 off the full price, plus two 1:1 counselling sessions with me and 3 webinars included (worth +$1,000). We won't run this live again until January.
YOUR NEXT RIGHT MOVE STARTS HERE: https://www.hoperisingcoaching.com/the_great_aussie_alcohol_experiment
Change happens in a moment, my friends - the preparation for change takes a little bit of time. Take the time. You will be amazed at the difference it makes.