You are listening to the Take a Break podcast with Rachel Hart episode 186.

Whether you want to drink less or stop drinking, this podcast will help you change the habit from the inside out.

We're challenging conventional wisdom about why people drink and why it can be hard to resist temptation.

No labels, no judgment, just practical tools to take control of your desire and stop worrying about your drinking.

Now here's your host, Rachel Hart.

Well, hello everyone.

We are going to be talking about your thoughts today, which of course we always talk about on this podcast, but today I really want to help you guys understand why it is.

You might be struggling to change your thinking or shift your mindset around alcohol because that's what's so important if you're going to be able to change the habit I was talking about this in last week's episode.

I was talking about how important it is to uncover the story, the beliefs, the thoughts that you have about drinking because if you can't see them, you can't change them.

And what I'm talking about, the thoughts you have about drinking, I'm talking about thoughts like it's fun, it's fancy, it's sophisticated, I'm better with a buzz, it helps me relax, it helps them reel me shine, I'm funnier, whatever it is for you.

You have to really start to see what this story is that you have around alcohol because you can't see the story, you can't change the story.

You can think of it kind of like your drinking mindset, it's your outlook, the way that you have learned to think about alcohol, now that piece is really important, learned.

It's not something that was innate inside of you, it's something that you learn to think, albeit unconsciously.

Now, what I teach all of you and what I want you to understand when it comes to habit change is not just how do I say no, but why am I saying yes, why am I finding it hard to say no?

And a lot of times people will chalk that up to, well, that's just who I am, it's just how I was born, I just don't have a lot of willpower or I don't have a lot of discipline.

It is nothing to do with that. What I want you to understand is something called the think feel act cycle.

This is the most important thing for you to really wrap your mind around if you're going to change the habit.

And the think feel act cycle is so simple, it's just that your thoughts create your feelings. So what you are thinking about impacts, how you feel, and then how you feel your emotional state is the driver for what you do or don't do in life.

So you have to really understand how those three things work together. If you want to change the habit of drinking, then what you really are trying to do is changing what you're doing, right?

You're trying to change that you're picking up the glass in the first place or that you keep picking it up.

So how much you're drinking, how often you're drinking, that's what you're trying to change, you're trying to change the action, but you can't do it in a vacuum.

You can't just focus on the action, you have to focus on the entire cycle, which means you have to pay attention to your thoughts and your feelings.

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