Have you ever been on a rollercoaster ride?
I have, and it's a scary experience.
I purposefully decided to do something scary.
If you've been on one too, you know exactly what you are getting yourself into.
You know it will be scary. You know you will be scared and wishing you never got on the ride. But, your prefrontal cortex is smart and knows being scared will just pass. When you get off of the rollercoaster you will laugh, or cry and scream. You will be glad it's over. But the best thing is you'll realize that you can do scary things and still survive.
Think of moving through an urge as going on a roller coaster ride. You know it will be uncomfortable but you know you will survive. You can talk yourself through it and come out the other side feeling in better control of your life.
Changing "I can't" to "I can".
I can have a drink, but I choose not to.
I want to be in ultimate control of my life.
If it's not me, then who will it be? The same goes for all of you. You are in control of the results in your life.
When I say, "I can't" I don't feel in control.
When I say, "I can", I gain back all control.
When I say to myself I can't have a drink, that thought creates a sense that I'm resisting and I am deprived. Deprivation never propels us to be motivated. It just makes us think about something more.
Just like that bad boyfriend in high school... the more he ignored you the more you wanted his attention.
Feelings of being out of control creates a negative emotion.
Just the slightest change of semantics can change how you feel.
I can have a drink, but I choose not to.
Semantics are just your thoughts.
You can choose any thought you'd like.
When you say no to an urge you can do so by saying, "I can drink, but I choose not to, I can have it tomorrow. For today, I promised myself that'd I'll choose to think of my future self as the person who can easily say, "No".
When you are faced with an urge (a thought) and it is followed by so many other thoughts (urges), you can change how you feel by choosing I new thought. You should prepare yourself for the urges ahead of time. Just as you prepare yourself for something scary that you know you have to go through.
Changing your thoughts surrounding an urge takes time and practice.
You need to start somewhere.
You will give in to some urges along the way. That's OK. You are human.
You are a student of this new thought patterning. It's ok if you don't get it right every single time.
Your thoughts control your results.
It's a meditation of some sort. It's hard to quiet the brain when you first start to meditate, but eventually you get better at it.
You will feel uncomfortable, but you knew that ahead of time.
You are willing to do hard things.
You can do hard things.
✅ P.S. Need a simple to follow step-by-step process to drink less? Check out my signature programs HERE.
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