Quitting Drinking Is Easy
Yep. I said it.
Quitting drinking is easy.
It is.
What? It’s not easy for you?
I get it.
I still remember how much I struggled.
But that’s because I was doing it wrong.
And I did it the wrong way for a long, long time.
(Photo by Tasha Lyn on Unsplash)
Two things changed everything for me.
And those two things will change everything for you too.
When you do it this way, you’ll look back and say…
That was easy.
The first thing I learned to do that made a huge difference is to stop using willpower to break my habit.
It doesn’t work.
“How do you do that?” you ask.
Simple. Remove the feeling of deprivation.
You know that FOMO feeling that is filled with anxiety and regret.
That awful idea that there’s something you need and want but can’t have.
That gnawing urge to have something you know you shouldn’t want, but you want it anyway.
I hate that feeling.
So I got rid of it.
“Okay. So how do you get rid of the feeling of being deprived?”
Before I explain how I did it, let’s discuss why it works so well.
This will only take a second.
It works so well because quitting something you don’t want is never hard.
It’s easy.
When you don’t desire it, there’s no need to use willpower to break your habit and no reason to feel deprived.
Why would you?
You don’t want it.
How could you possibly feel any sense of regret or loss when you quit?
You can’t, and you don’t.
(Photo by Christian Lue on Unsplash)
I’m not here to tell you drinking is bad for you, and you should stop.
I’m here to help you quit or cut back if you decide that’s what you want.
And when you do, one of the first things we’ll do is take a long look at the beliefs you have about alcohol.
Your desire for alcohol sits on a mountain of beliefs you have about drinking.
Most of these beliefs come from thoughts and ideas about alcohol that you didn’t deliberately choose and have never examined before.
Collectively these beliefs create your desire to drink.
The vast majority of these beliefs reside in your subconscious, and you aren’t even aware of what they are or where they came from.
You just have them.
And I hate to say it, but you’ve been following them blindly.
I did the same thing.
We all do.
When you take the time to question these beliefs, you’ll discover most of them aren’t true for you now that you want to quit or cut back.
Over time our subconscious is programmed with these beliefs, and we never examine them to determine whether they are true for us.
They become a part of us and influence our behavior.
Photo by Florian Olivo on Unsplash 
(Photo by Florian Olivo on Unsplash)
We are conditioned to believe that alcohol helps us relieve stress and relax, have fun, sleep better, and enjoy our lives more.
We are conditioned to believe alcohol is a reward, and we need to drink to be a part of the group.
We believe alcohol relieves sadness, and it will help us handle difficult situations.
We believe alcohol in moderation is healthy.
Again, my job as a Life Coach isn’t to tell you what to believe.
And I would never use the words “right” or “wrong” when it comes to describing a thought or a belief you or anyone else chooses.
My job is to show you how what you choose to think and believe determines your results.
If you want to quit drinking and you’re struggling, my job is to show you why.
Your beliefs about alcohol are a major reason why you struggle.
The interesting thing is when we take the time to examine these beliefs together, you’ll find that they aren’t true for you anymore.
Is alcohol helping you relieve stress and relax if you feel hungover and irritable the next day?
What is true relaxation anyway?
Is relaxation the absence of stress and anxiety?
If it is, does ignoring the source of the stress or numbing yourself from it produce real relaxation?
So explain to me how alcohol is a reward if you regret drinking and wake up with a hangover?
Does alcohol help you sleep better, or do you find yourself waking up in the middle of the night unable to fall back asleep?
As we work together to examine and dismantle your existing belief system about alcohol, you’ll develop new beliefs that change your entire perspective of alcohol and drinking.
The struggle to quit and your desire to drink will melt away with each new thought you choose.
It doesn’t take an ounce of willpower to quit something you don’t want.
And when you look back, you’ll say…
That was easy.