You are listening to the Take a Break podcast with Rachel Hart episode 331.

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 is your host, Rachel Hart.

Hello my friends. We're talking about something today that is something I've actually never discussed on the podcast before.

And I'm kind of amazed that I haven't. But it is the difference between rules and commitment.

And the reason why I wanted to talk to you all about this today is because it's something that we have been talking about inside the membership.

What is the difference? How do I make a commitment without making a bunch of rules?

And I realize that I just haven't done a great job helping you all understand something that's so important.

And it's something that was so transformative for me to shift away from this place of making all these rules to really embracing a commitment.

And I also think that understanding this distinction when it comes to changing your drinking but changing anything in your life, changing how you eat, changing, how you exercise,

whatever it is, understanding this distinction really is fundamental to the think feel act cycle.

So what the think feel act cycle is showing us and teaching us and demonstrating to us again and again is that whatever we are doing or not doing, when we say yes to a drink, when we say no to a drink, when we go to the gym, when we sit on the couch, when we go back for seconds, when we say I'm done.

Those actions don't just happen. It can feel like they do. It can feel like they are the result of just who we are.

Right? I'm just someone who I'm always like this. It can feel like it's the result of our personality or our character.

It can feel like it's kind of hardwired into our DNA, but the beauty of the think feel act cycle is showing, hey, this is happening because of a thought and a feeling.

This is happening because of something that's unfolding in your mind so fast, so quickly, you might not even notice. You might not even realize that it's there.

It may feel like your decisions just happen, but isn't it the best news ever? When you start to realize, oh, there's a thought.

There's a feeling something is unfolding inside of me because if it's just happening, how on earth am I ever going to change my drinking?

If all of this is just happening, how on earth am I ever going to figure out my relationship with food? How on earth am I ever going to get in shape if all of this just happens?

It really is the best news to understand the thing feel like cycle. It also can be at times, especially at first for people who are new to this work, it can be kind of painful because we become so tempted to kind of use it against ourselves.

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