You are listening to the Take a Break podcast with Rachel Hart, episode 261.

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.

Hello my friends, welcome back.

Today we're talking about what on earth to do when a drink feels like a really reliable,

way to relax or a really reliable way to have fun or to live in up and boring situation or to unwind or whatever it feels like it is a reliable way or solution for you.

How on earth then do you go about changing the habit?

This is where I work with so many people who feel so stuck and I felt so stuck for a really long time because you really do need to understand this concept of what it means to be reliable and understand what's actually really happening behind the scenes in your brain.

If you want to start creating change and creating transformation when it comes to your drinking and your relationship with alcohol.

Now I know how daunting this can feel at first. I know how daunting it can feel to take even a very small break from drinking.

And the fact of the matter is it's not just with alcohol.

We face this all the time, people struggle all the time, especially in January, especially when it's the new year and people want to change their habits and then it's like, oh I want to eat differently or I want to exercise and sometimes it means like, oh so like now I'm not going to have ice cream every night watching TV.

Now I have to wake up in the morning and lace up my tennis shoes when you find something in your life to be a reliable way to find comfort or pleasure or feel better.

It can feel daunting but it doesn't have to be.

Now for the longest time, I really, I truly believed that the only option for me was, okay well, if I'm drinking too much.

And I'm having trouble raining it in. Then it seems like the only option that society says is out there is will you have to stop drinking forever you have to swear it off for the rest of your life.

Now that's one approach. I don't think it's the only approach. But that was part of what felt so daunting for me because the idea of saying no for the rest of my life.

Well frankly, I didn't want to do that. But it was the only option that I was being told was out there.

And honestly, when I thought about that, when I thought about never drinking again for the rest of my life, I would feel almost like something bubble up inside of me.

It was kind of a combination between like anger and sadness and a little bit like screw you. You know, you're not going to take this away from me.

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