492: When Drinking Less Feels Impossible
Take a Break from Drinking: Practical Tools to Drink Less & Change Your Relationship with AlcoholShow Notes
When drinking less feels impossible, it's easy to convince yourself that now just isn't the right time to try. With holiday parties, family gatherings, endless temptations, and all the stress that comes with the end of the year, waiting until January can seem like the smartest decision. After all, why set yourself up for failure when you could start fresh once things settle down?
This week, we're exploring why postponing your goal of drinking less can feel so reasonable, even when you're genuinely committed to making a change. What if the circumstances that make you want to put your goal on hold aren't actually the obstacle you think they are? And what might you be missing when you decide to wait for an easier time?
Find a personalized approach that helps you change your habit in my new book, The Ultimate Guide to Drinking Less, here: https://rachelhart.com/guide/
Discover alternative approaches to drinking less inside our membership program, Take a Break: https://rachelhart.com/tab/
Get the full show notes, transcript, and more information here: https://rachelhart.com/492
What if you've been given the wrong explanation for why it's so hard to drink less? Take a Break with Master Certified Coach Rachel Hart offers a radically different approach to changing your relationship with alcohol. Where alcohol isn't demonized and you're not constantly reminded of all the reasons drinking is bad for you. Instead, you'll learn how alcohol, your brain, and behavior change actually work together and get practical tools to change your drinking in a way that works for you.
More from Take a Break from Drinking: Practical Tools to Drink Less & Change Your Relationship with Alcohol
When your drinking isn't causing problems in your life, it can be hard to know whether there's any reason to change. Maybe your relationships are good, you're doing well at work, and alcohol genuinely helps you relax, have fun, or feel less bored. If nothing seems to be going wrong, are you just creating a problem where there isn't one?
Have you ever felt pressured to drink even when no one was actually pressuring you? Maybe you order a glass of wine because everyone else is drinking, or you say yes to another round because you don't want to deal with questions about why you're stopping. No one is telling you what to do, and yet saying no still feels surprisingly difficult.
Setting a goal to have just one drink can feel simple enough when you make the decision ahead of time. But then you finish that drink, you want another, everyone around you is still drinking, and suddenly all the reasons you had for stopping at one don't feel nearly as convincing.
It can be incredibly confusing to keep reaching for a drink when you're not even enjoying it that much. Maybe it doesn't taste as good as you expected, the buzz isn't delivering what you imagined, or you find yourself pouring another while wondering why you're doing it at all.
Being surrounded by alcohol can make drinking less feel almost impossible. When your partner drinks, your friends want another round, or so much of your social life revolves around alcohol, it's easy to believe you'd have more success if you could just get rid of the temptation.