420: Are Rules the Problem?

Take a Break from Drinking

Rachel Hart

Alcohol, Lifecoach, Alcoholicsanonymous, Self-improvement, Hungover, Society & Culture, Smartrecovery, Drinking, Cognitivebehavioraltherapy, Education, Cbt, 12steps, Sobriety, Drunk, Recovery, Personal Journals

4.8 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Do you set strict rules about when and how much you can drink, only to break them and feel worse than before?

When most people try to change their drinking habits, they immediately look for external parameters—only drinking on weekends, limiting to two drinks, or never drinking before 6PM. But these arbitrary rules completely bypass the most important question: why do you want to drink in the first place?

So, what would change if you dropped the rules and actually put yourself in charge? Sobriety coach Adriana Cloud is back on the show this week to discuss why real transformation happens when you shift from rule-following to self-awareness.

Find a personalized approach that helps you change your habit in my new book, The Ultimate Guide to Drinking Less, here: https://rachelhart.com/guide/

Discover alternative approaches to drinking less inside our membership program, Take a Break: https://rachelhart.com/tab/

Get the full show notes, transcript, and more information here: https://rachelhart.com/420

Transcript

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0:00.0	Fair warning. This conversation might break your brain a little bit. I'm talking with fellow coach
0:05.0	Adriana Cloud about the downside of setting rules for yourself when it comes to drinking,
0:09.6	how they can work against you, and what it really means to trust yourself around alcohol.
0:14.4	This is episode 420 and you're going to learn why we take such a counterintuitive approach to drinking less.
0:22.1	Whether you want to drink less or stop drinking, this podcast will help you change the habit
0:27.4	from the inside out. We're challenging conventional wisdom about why people drink and why
0:33.4	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.
0:43.7	Now, here's your host, Rachel Hart.
0:50.6	All right, everybody, welcome back.
0:52.8	So I have Adriana Cloud here with us today, and we were talking about
0:57.7	parameters around drinking. And this is something that comes up a lot inside the membership,
1:05.4	a lot when we are working with people, because the approach that I think is so important is that no one is here to tell
1:16.2	you or to tell another person, this is the relationship that you should have with alcohol.
1:22.4	Or this is what your drinking is supposed to look like.
1:25.4	Or this is the accepted, appropriate amount of drinks
1:28.7	that you can have in a day or during a week. Now, there's lots of information out there
1:34.0	when it comes to what doctors or health agencies think is the correct amount. But what we're
1:42.9	really trying to get you to think about and everyone that we work
1:47.0	with to think about is if you were to put yourself in charge, because truly you are the one in
1:55.3	charge, what would it look like for you? What would it feel good?
2:02.0	What kind of relationship with alcohol would feel good for you?
2:06.1	And that, I think, is often a very uncomfortable place to be in, to be the person who is
	...

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