I work with my clients to shift their mindset to desire alcohol less. How do you accomplish that? You have to take charge of your thinking. You have to tell your mind what it will think. Most of us live on default mode. We listen to the thoughts that come into our heads. We don’t even question them or investigate them. We just believe them. Most of the thoughts have been there for years. They are playing on repeat. Over time, these thoughts become deeply rooted, like a tree in our brain. And we keep watering the tree by continuing to think the same thoughts. If you want to stop thinking a certain thought, then stop focusing on it and change it. Shift to a new thought when the old one arises. Start feeding your brain a new thought on purpose. One that will serve you. What thought would you be rather be thinking?
Then choose to think it. On purpose.
new thoughts need to be watered continually by practicing them over and over.
I used to think “I love drinking.” It was on repeat. And it generated other similar thoughts like it such as “I look forward to drinking tonight” and “If one drink feels good, then 2 or 3 will feel better.” I had to interrupt that brain-thought pattern. I had to feed my brain new thoughts. “Alcohol is just fermented grape juice.” “I am learning to be a woman who doesn’t need alcohol to get through the night.”
At first, you are planting these new thoughts in the soil of your brain. But these new thoughts need to be watered continually by practicing them over and over. Then the new thoughts begin to grow (and grow new neural networks in the brain). They become more powerful. And eventually, the old thoughts fall away. It’s estimated that we have an estimated 50,000-80,000 thoughts per day. Which one are you going to spend time watering?
I choose to water only those thoughts that serve me.
