You are listening to the Take a Break podcast with Rachel Hart episode 267.

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.

All right everyone, so today what I want to do is revisit a concept that I introduced way back at the beginning of this podcast.

Way back in 2017. It's all about how questions work in the brain.

And the reason why I wanted to revisit this was because I see this come up again and again and again

for people who I'm working with who are really committed to changing their drinking and changing their

relationship with alcohol and they get stuck on this piece. They get stuck in this place of asking

themselves questions. It actually keep them stuck, keep the habit in place and it's so important

to really figure out how to start to move forward differently. So you hear me say all the time

that willpower and discipline, it's not a solution to permanent habit change.

And you know what? You know this already. You know that willpower and discipline can last for a little bit

but then what happens? You give in, you backslide, you go back to how things were before

because habits aren't changed through grit and force and exertion. Habits are changed by

repeatedly practicing and teaching your brain a new way of thinking, a new way of responding.

That does not happen through grit and force. And when I talk about new ways of thinking and

new ways of responding, it's not just in that moment when you feel the desire to drink and you

made the commitment when you woke up today that you weren't going to have anything or the moment

...