Why you might be dreaming about alcohol during your break and how your dreams can shed light on the habit.
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Ep #209: Why You Struggle to Moderate
You can start to figure out why you drink more than you want to by asking this question.
Ep #208: Talking to People About Your Break
When you’re focused on what other people will think about your decision to take a break from drinking, you inadvertently divert your attention from crucial information that will help you change the habit.
Ep #207: Resolutions that Stick
A simple tool you can use if you’re struggling to say no to a drink, despite promising yourself you would reign it in.
Ep #206: Loving Your Company
When you’re alone and bored, it’s easy to reach for a drink. Learn how to use this information to change the habit and your relationship with alcohol.
Ep #205: Writing Out the Habit
Drinking habits reside in your unconscious mind. If you want to change, you need to grab a pen and paper and start bringing full awareness to how the habit is unfolding.
Ep #204: Habit Mindset
You can’t change your drinking habits just by saying no. You have to understand the real reason you keep saying yes to a drink.
Ep #203: Allowing Urges
Learn why trying to wrestle the urge to drink into submission leads to inadvertently handing over your power to it.
Ep #202: Commitment Misunderstanding
The reason you’re struggling with your commitment to say no to a drink is that you’re focused on the wrong solution to changing the habit.
Ep #201: Holiday Ritual
Learn about the role that rituals play in our lives, why it’s so uncomfortable when our holiday plans are upended, and how to survive without turning to food and drink to cope.
Ep #200: Celebrating You 2.0
Discover the reason why shifting your relationship with alcohol goes hand-in-hand with changing your relationship with yourself.
Ep #199: I Feel Fine Saying No
The reason why feeling “fine” when you say no isn’t enough to shift your relationship with alcohol, and the missing ingredients to create lasting change.
Ep #198: I Can’t Handle Not Knowing
Discover why so many people reach for a drink, something to eat, or other forms of distractions when they wait for news and why this is a problem.
Ep #197: Desire Confusion
When you find yourself constantly chasing after the desire to drink and feeling unsatisfied and wanting more, it’s a good sign you may be caught up in desire confusion.
Ep #196: Why We Need Cocktail Hour
To understand why you crave a drink between the end of the work day and dinner, you need to examine the changes to work, community, and nature that ushered in this ritual.
Ep #195: Can I Trust Myself to Drink?
Why not trusting yourself around alcohol is a problem, no matter the decision you make about drinking.
Ep #194: I Have Nothing to Complain About
Telling yourself you shouldn’t feel stressed, worried, or dissatisfied with life will only block your efforts to change the habit of drinking.
Ep #193: Why Do I Have a Habit?
The three reasons why some people develop a habit around drinking while others don’t.
Ep #192: Drinking to Enjoy Who You’re With
What to do when you take a break and discover that pouring a drink was actually helping you enjoy the people you were with.
Ep #191: Why Do I Keep Sabotaging My Success?
Discover why it’s easy to start sliding backwards once you’ve made headway changing your drinking habits.
Ep #190: What It Takes to Say No
If you think saying no to a drink requires trying harder, you’ve got it backwards. Instead of relying on effort, you need to understand the inner workings of the habit.
Ep #189: Everyone Drinks
Stop tallying up the room and start asking yourself two questions that will help you examine the habit of drinking from a new perspective.
Ep #188: Milestones
Why sobriety milestones are a problem and the reason that crossing days off a calendar will never help you change your relationship with alcohol.
Ep #187: Change vs Control
Why trying to balance just the right buzz will always leave you walking a very precarious tightrope.
Ep #186: Editing Your Drinking Mindset
If you believe that you can’t change your thoughts about drinking, then you’ll never be able to change the habit. Uncover the three biggest obstacles to creating a mindset shift around alcohol.
Ep #185: Why Do I Keep Flip Flopping?
Do you find yourself going back and forth between drinking and not drinking, only to pick up right where you left off? If so, it’s because you haven’t done the mental work to change your drinking mindset.
Ep #184: Why You Need to Depersonalize Suffering
Drinking too much can feel like a very lonely habit. In order to change your relationship with alcohol, you must first let go of the belief that the struggle is a part of your identity.
Ep #183: Upside Denial
The solution isn’t convincing yourself that drinking is “bad” for you, it’s understanding how the habit works in your brain.
Ep #182: Abstinence vs. Moderation
Why we believe abstinence or moderation is the only option, and how you actually have the power to change your desire without falling into these traps.
Ep #181: Purposeful Discomfort
How to embrace discomfort and why seeking out purposeful discomfort will help you focus on results you want beyond the immediate moment.
Ep #180: The Halfway Point
How removing blame and shame are so important if you want to be curious about why you haven’t been able to create change.
Ep #179: I Can Stop Whenever I Want To
How you might be engaging in a power struggle when you hold onto three thoughts, and why the real struggle isn’t between you and the alcohol.
Ep #178: Unexpected Discoveries
The four most important and unexpected discoveries that you’ll experience when you apply the tools I teach here to your life and taking a break.
Ep #177: How My Approach Is Different
How my approach is radically different from other common approaches like AA.
Ep #176: Will This Work for Me?
Some of the most common excuses and reasons people give me for why their situation is different or unique, and why your brain will always try to prove that to you.
Ep #175: Why Not Drinking Is Easy
Why believing that changing habits is hard stands in your way and slows down your progress.
Ep #174: Urge Work
Why the ability to feel restless when you have the desire to drink is key in extinguishing the mental drama that comes up in those moments.
Ep #173: Thought Curiosity
What getting curious about your thoughts means and why most people aren’t in the habit of doing this.
Ep #172: The Reason You Drink Too Much
The four most common reasons you think you drink too much and the real reasons why.
Ep #171: Why Alcohol Is an Acquired Taste
What it means to acquire a taste for alcohol, how it works, and why, if you want to change your relationship with drinking, it’s necessary to see how you’ve learned to like it.
Ep #170: Are You Drinking to Cope?
Key questions you can ask yourself to see if your coping mechanisms are producing results you like, so you can choose different thoughts that may serve you better if they aren’t.
Ep #169: Why Positive Thinking Backfires
Why positive thinking backfires, how to redirect your brain in a way that will help you move forward, and the true power of learning to manage your mind.
Ep #168: When Will This Be Over?
How letting go of willpower will help you find moments of peace and joy and come out stronger on the other side of this pandemic.
Ep #167: Emotional Fluency
How to start creating emotional fluency for yourself, and how this is going to help you figure out a new way to respond and relate to your emotions.
Ep #166: When You’re Not “Getting” It
How practicing the self-coaching model 10 times, 20 times, or even more and still not getting it, not understanding how to use it to change your results is inevitable.
Ep #165: Why You aren’t Doing the Work to Change the Habit
How we often find excuses to not actually do the work required to change the habit.
Ep #164: Worry
How you can actually worry less, and in turn, reduce your desire to numb out using alcohol.
Ep #163: When People Feel Sorry You’re Not Drinking
What is actually going on with the person who is pitying your situation and how to look at the way you’re showing up when you’re saying no.
Ep #162: Self-Forgiveness
Why the forgiveness you think you need to feel better is never from anyone else.
Ep #161: Shame
The feeling of shame, how you can have less of it in your life, and how it doesn’t work in your favor when trying to change your relationship with alcohol.
Ep #160: When Others Think You Don’t Have a Problem
The power that lies in valuing your opinion of you first, and knowing that your inner voice is your built-in expert who knows what’s right for you.
Ep #159: Drinking + Awkwardness
What awkwardness really means and how it’s connected to the habit of drinking.
Ep #158: Different this Time
How the thought, “I hope this time will be different,” can seem like a good thought but it isn’t actually serving you.
Ep #157: Using Curiosity to Change the Habit
Discover how cultivating curiosity can help you see your think-feel-act cycle more clearly when it comes to the habit.
Ep #156: How to Have Your Own Back
Why your friendship with yourself is the most important one to cultivate, and how disempowering it can be to rely on alcohol to get you through negative emotions.
Ep #155: New Year New You
How focusing on the stories you’re telling yourself is the fastest way to create change.
Ep #154: Tapping Your Potential
How you might be blocking your growth by telling yourself stories that are not helpful, and how being stuck in the habit of drinking is wasting your most precious resource.
Ep #153: How to Get Your Needs Met
What it means to meet your own needs and how to start practicing it.
Ep #152: Hostess Anxiety
How to get over common obstacles you might face that diminish your own enjoyment of a party.
Ep #151: Urge Fuel
How not consuming the object of your desire will teach your brain to expect it less, but won’t extinguish all of your urges.
Ep #150: Letting Go of the Forbidden Fruit
How to use the concept of the forbidden fruit to break free from desire and deprivation.
Ep #149: The Binge & Restrict Cycle
The fundamental misunderstanding of this cycle of indulgence and deprivation.
Ep #148: Harnessing the Impossible
Why your potential for growth is huge when your brain tells you that you can’t succeed in a certain situation.
Ep #147: Your Purpose
Why taking a break from drinking and other types of over-consuming can help us get in touch with why we’re here.
Ep #146: Alcohol & Emotions
Why understanding the connection between the habit of drinking and your emotions is crucial to your success.
Ep #145: Three Reasons You Drink Too Much
Why none of the reasons you believe are driving your drinking are actually true.
Ep #144: Subtle Willpower
Why learning to manage your mind is such a better approach than relying on gritting your teeth and just getting through things.
Ep #143: Health Shame
The two outcomes shame usually creates and why neither of them are ultimately good for our health.
Ep #142: Insuring Your Brain
Why we should start thinking about how we can insure our brains and protect ourselves as best we can from cognitive decline.
Ep #141: Health Avoidance
Health avoidance: why we tend to do it, and the impact it has on our minds and bodies.
Ep #140: Optimal Health
The stress alcohol puts on our bodies and why a break can help us glimpse what’s possible for our health.
Ep #139: Goal Drama
Why our brains create drama, why it can be so exhausting, and how to reframe the “problem” of taking a break as a “project” instead.
Ep #138: Obstacle Mirages
How to identify obstacle mirages and start moving past them.
Ep #137: The Worst Advice I Ever Got About Drinking
Why we have to take active steps to change our relationship to alcohol, rather than rely on society’s ideas about drinking.
Ep #136: Setting Foolproof Resolutions
How to set a resolution that you can actually keep.
Ep #135: Why You’re Not Having Fun When You’re Not Drinking
How to rediscover and exercise your fun muscle without depending on what’s in your glass or on your plate.
Ep #134: I Don’t Want to Stop Drinking
What thoughts and feelings are tied up in the thought “I don’t want to stop drinking.”
Ep #133: Redefining Failures
Why you have to change your relationship with failure if you want to change your drinking.
Ep #132: Showing Up for Yourself
How to bring awareness to a situation that requires you to keep a promise to yourself.
Ep #131: Are You Willing to Be Wrong about Drinking?
What you might gain when you’re willing to be wrong about yourself and what you can achieve.
Ep #130: Listener Q&A: I Really Like to Drink
How the idea that we can only change when we hit rock bottom keeps many of us stuck with the status quo.
Ep #129: How to Reduce Drama in Your Life
What to do when you notice your thoughts trending toward the negative and dramatic.
Ep #128: Is Drama Behind Your Drinking?
What drama is, why we create it, and how to tell if you’re creating drama for yourself.
Ep #127: Compare & Despair
How to recognize when you’re in the compare and despair mindset, and how to get off this mental treadmill and start to make changes in your life.
Ep #126: The Rolodex of Excuses 2.0
How your brain can try to turn what I’ve taught you against you (and how to stop it).
Ep #125: Listener Q&A: How to Handle Drinking & Insomnia
The real reason that not sleeping is a problem (hint: probably not the reason you think it is).
Ep #124: How to “Take It or Leave It” with Drinking
How to create a take-it-or-leave-it attitude about drinking.
Ep #123: Why Things Get Worse Before They Get Better
Why the only way out of your discomfort is through it – and how managing your mind can help you get there.
Ep #122: What to Do After Drinking Too Much
What you can gain by examining your behavior with curiosity rather than judgment.
Ep #121: Picturing Yourself Without the Desire to Drink
How you can picture a future version of yourself who doesn’t have the desire to reach for a drink.
Ep #120: Listener Q&A: Handling Comments About Not Drinking
How to deal with comments from others while you’re on a break.
Ep #119: It Doesn’t Matter
What message you’re sending yourself when you negate all of your efforts by telling yourself that they don’t matter.
Ep #118: Commitment
Why so many of us are ready to commit to others but not ourselves, and how this affects your relationship with yourself.
EP #117: Your Emotional Immune System
How using alcohol to numb feelings perpetuates the cycle of avoidance and sickness of your emotional immune system.
Ep #116: Dares
Why we stop daring ourselves and pushing the limits of what we think is possible after childhood and how you can start adding dares back into your life.
Ep #115: Listener Q&A: Surrender
Why the words you use matter and how being curious about why our brains do what they do can be the catalyst for big changes in your drinking and your life.
Ep #114: Relationship Manuals
How we use relationship manuals as a way to avoid taking responsibility f*or our own thoughts, feelings, and actions.
Ep #113: Boredom
Boredom, what’s “wrong” with it, and what it has to offer us.
Ep #112: Catastrophizing
The difference between being prepared for difficult situations and mentally living in a negative future.
Ep #111: Rejection
How worrying what other people will think is hardwired into our brain as a survival tool.
Ep #110: Why “I Should Know Better” Is a Lie
Why beating yourself up for mistakes and missteps isn’t the way to change your habits.
Ep #109: The Learning Trap
Why you don’t need any more information before you start taking action.
Ep #108: Do You Really Love to Drink?
Four questions you should ask yourself to understand what you think drinking gives you.
Ep #107: Loving Your Lower Brain to Change Your Drinking
How you can start to talk to your inner toddler in a way that will help you move past all the negative emotions that can come up when you have to resist an urge.
Ep #106: What if Alcohol Wasn’t Always a Problem for You?
How understanding the facts around the shift in your drinking habit can help you understand how the think-feel-act cycle fits in your brain’s search for an outlet for the negative emotions you were invariably feeling at the time.
Ep #105: Mastering the Urge to Drink
A four-step response to desire that creates space between feeling an urge and acting upon it.
Ep #104: Authenticity
Why so many of us are terrified of who we are without alcohol.
Ep #103: Drinking and Emotional Tunnel Vision
How drinking cuts off our emotional experience before the emotions can naturally dissipate.
Ep #102: How Drinking Prevents You from Creating a Future
Why it’s so hard to dream, why it can be so difficult to create a vision, and why the habit of drinking will make it even harder.
Ep #101: Why Fixing Your Drinking Won’t Make You Happy
Why so many of us are still dissatisfied even when we get what we think we want.
Ep #100: Lessons from the Take a Break Podcast
I’m combing through the archives of the past 99 episodes and pulling out some of the most important concepts and lessons from each episode.
Ep #99: You Are Not Powerless
How to uncover the thoughts and feelings that are driving your habit, even if you swear you’re not deciding to overdrink.
Ep #98: Wanting vs. Committing
Why changing requires you to show up every single day and commit to taking action.
Ep #97: Disproving Your Thoughts About Drinking
The Turnaround technique and how it can be used to challenge six common thoughts about drinking.
Ep #96: What You Really Think About Drinking
Why the key to change is focusing on the process of handling obstacles over and over again.
Ep #95: Planning for Obstacles
Why the key to change is focusing on the process of handling obstacles over and over again.
Ep #94: Proof Ahead of Time: How Long it Takes to Change Your Drinking
Why your brain wants proof that you can succeed before you take any action and how to create evidence for your brain that you are capable of shifting your desire.
Ep #93: Finishing What You Start
Why countering your brain’s confirmation bias that you’re a quitter is incredibly important for changing your habits.
Ep #92: Uncovering You
Why uncovering the real you can be so uncomfortable and confrontational and how shifting your thoughts away from just your actions can have a tremendous impact on your journey of taking a break.
Ep #91: Anxiety
Why anxiety is not a problem and how shifting your relationship makes all the difference.
Ep #90: Numbing
Why we numb, how to tell when you’re using a numbing action to avoid facing your negative thoughts and emotions, and why awareness is key.
Ep #89: Motivation
How you can build the skill of motivation by taking action every day.
Ep #88: Personality or Mindset
How being attached to a story about who you are and a story about your personality actually prevents you from knowing yourself, from growing, and most importantly, from changing the habits that you want to change.
Ep #87: The Allure of Normal
Why you believe that you want to be normal but you really don’t.
Ep #86: Mirror Effect
Why we judge other people harshly – and what that means about your thoughts about yourself.
Ep #85: All or Nothing
Find out how making a small change to your thinking about being perfect all of the time can help you on your journey of changing your drinking.
Ep #84: Drink Pushers
How to handle the situations where someone is trying to persuade you to drink to help you feel empowered rather than pressured.
Ep #83: Improvement or Growth
How using certain kinds of language when we don’t do as we planned impacts meaningful growth and how a subtle shift can make all the difference when you’re trying to change your drinking.
Ep #82: Change Without Practice
The real reasons why you might be having an issue with socializing without alcohol and how regular practice can make this process easier and more enjoyable.
Ep #81: Impulse Control
How to stop your impulses from running your day and manage them as they arise to achieve your goals and build a better relationship with yourself in the process.
Ep #80: My Self Coaching
The tools that I taught myself when it came to changing my habit of drinking.
Ep #79: Your Emotional Health
What good emotional health is all about (and this may actually surprise you) and what gets in the way of achieving it.
Ep #78: The Rolodex of Excuses
How to identify those permission-giving thoughts, call them out for what they are, and teach your brain that you’re the one that has the ultimate authority over the decisions you make.
Ep #77: Transition Time
Why we as human beings need markers and transitions in our everyday life and how using alcohol as a marker can get in the way when you want to change your habit of drinking.
Ep #76: Drinking and Your To-Do List
Why your to-do lists may not be as helpful as you think and how they can actually work against you.
Ep #75: Bridge Thoughts
Go from the thoughts that you’ve possibly been thinking your entire life to thoughts that serve you on your journey of changing your drinking habits.
Ep #74: Losing the Desire to Drink
Why your desire for alcohol is so strong and how to completely lose that desire.
Ep #73: Why Your Enthusiasm Fades
Why your enthusiasm starts to fade once you take action and why it’s absolutely normal.
Ep #72: I’ll Start Monday
Discover how to break the cycle of not taking action, save yourself a lot of lost time, and create sustainable change in your life.
Ep #71: Story Editing
Shake free of the stories that you’re telling yourself that are creating negative results for you right now.
Ep #70: Triggers
The important distinction between cues and triggers and which word is more suitable in a particular situation.
Ep #69: Believing New Things
If you’re going to change your drinking, you’ll need to disprove thoughts holding you back.
Ep #68: Disappointing People
People-pleasing, the toll takes on you, and how it can get in the way of taking a break from drinking.
Ep #67: Sitting at the Kids’ Table
If taking a break from drinking leaves you feeling like you’re sitting at the kids’ table, it’s time to look at your beliefs around alcohol and what makes things fancy or sophisticated.
Ep #66: Becoming an Observer
Become an observer of your thoughts and emotions and begin changing them to help you take a break from drinking in a sustainable way.
Ep #65: Honesty
Many people know that their drinking habit is creating negative results in their life, but they can’t bring themselves to sit down and write out any of the exercises I teach because they’ve fallen into the trap of believing that putting something on paper makes it “real.”
Ep #64: Urges 2.0
Saying no to a drink is easy; the real challenge lies in dealing with the discomfort of an unanswered urge.
Ep #63: The In-Between Time
Explore the ins and outs of the “in-between” time: the place where you’re shedding one identity and beginning to create a new one. Why you need to learn how to navigate it, and how you can get started.
Ep #62: Self-Pity
Learn why feeling pity for others isn’t helpful, the reason no one likes being pitied, and why it’s easy to fall into the trap of feeling sorry for yourself when it comes to your drinking.
Ep #61: What Story Is Your Body Trying to Tell You?
Your body is telling you a story right now about your drinking. The question is: Are you listening?
Ep #60: Augmenting Positive Emotions
The reason we are constantly in search of a reward when something good happens and the potential downsides of always augmenting positive emotions with food and alcohol.
Ep #59: I Deserve It
This week on the Take a Break podcast, I’m discussing permission-giving thoughts, how they fuel the habit of drinking, and the most common one, “I deserve it.”
Ep #58: Using Your Past as Evidence You Can’t Succeed
Past results are never an indicator of future success. If you keep looking backwards for evidence that you can’t change your drinking, you will never be able to change the habit.
Ep #57: What Creates Enjoyment
This week, we look at why you’re really not enjoying yourself when you don’t have a drink in your hand.
Ep #56: Your Opinion of You
Your opinion of you should be your number one priority. When you focus on what others think, it will keep you stuck and unable to change the habits that aren’t serving you.
Ep #55: The Pitfalls of Isolating Yourself from Alcohol
Discover an alternative to the common belief that we should remove all alcohol from our environment to successfully take a break from drinking.
Ep #54: Why I Don’t Use Labels
Most people are conditioned to talk about overdrinking solely through the labels “alcoholic,” “sober,” or “recovered.” These labels don’t capture the varying degrees of struggle or the nature of how habits work. Listen to the benefits of describing the habit rather than labeling the person when it comes to changing your drinking.
Ep #53: Why You Aren’t Taking Action
Find out why you’re still not taking action when it comes to changing your drinking.
Ep #52: Compelling Reason 2.0
Why it helps to have a compelling reason if you want to take a break, how to find one, and how to avoid the most common pitfalls and misconceptions when using a compelling reason to motivate change.
Ep #51: Why Alcohol and Food Aren’t Your Friends
Why alcohol and food are NOT your friends and how that thinking is holding you back from creating meaningful change in your life.
Ep #50: Choosing Discomfort
Why you’re actually moving backward if you’re not growing and how changing your view of discomfort will not only set you up to have an entirely different year but how it can set you up to have an entirely different life.
Ep #49: Settling When It Comes to Your Health
Tune in to find out why you should consider not settling when it comes to your health and see how much better you may feel after taking a break.
Ep #48: How Questions Work in Your Brain
Learn how questions can keep you stuck and how asking yourself better questions can help change your habits.
Ep #47: Why We Use a Drink to Rebel
Where your rebellion around drinking comes from and why it’s crucial to understand its origins when trying to take a break.
Ep #46: Using the Think Feel Act Cycle
A deep dive into the Think Feel Act Cycle and a look at how to use this tool to transform your life.
Ep #45: Harnessing Metaphor
When you want to change a habit you must pay attention to the language you use to describe your feelings, especially your desire.
Ep #44: Planning for the Holidays
Learn how to have a different holiday season this year without a drink in your hand.
Ep #43: Be Where You Are
Discover how paying attention to the subtle emotions that you’re experiencing throughout your day can help you reduce your urge to drink.
Ep #42: Celebrating You
No one ever teaches us how to celebrate ourselves but it’s an incredibly powerful skill. Tune in to learn how.
Ep #41: Time Alone
Discover why you really dislike spending time alone, and how developing this skill can help you change your drinking.
Ep #40: The Dark Side of Blessed
Learn about the unexpected downside of being “blessed” and how this idea can actually backfire when it comes to changing your drinking.
Ep #39: The Veneer of Alcohol
What you might discover if you take a break from drinking.
Ep #38: Your Relationships Aren’t Obstacles
It’s easy to assume that certain relationships will make it difficult for you to change your drinking, but there’s a simple reason why that’s never the case.
Ep #37: Why You Want Things to Be Easy
The simple reason behind why your brain thinks changing habits is too much work, and how to overcome it.
Ep #36: How Not to Take a Break
Six things you shouldn’t do if you want to take a break from drinking, unless you want to end up exactly where you started.
Ep #35: Why You Should View Alcohol as Neutral
Learn how labeling alcohol as positive or negative can affect how you see yourself when you’re trying to change the habit.
Ep #34: Connection
Humans are built for connection but if you’re not careful you might unknowingly teach your brain to outsource this skill to a drink.
Ep #33: What Is Enough
Learn how your opposition to waste and certain visual cues can disconnect you from your internal understanding of when your body is truly satisfied.
Ep #32: Habit Cycle
An in-depth look at how the habit cycle works and how to harness it in order to change your desire.
Ep #31: The Willingness to Look
Why you’re so afraid to look at what isn’t working and why it’s impossible to change course if you’re hiding.
Ep #30: I Don’t Do Emotions
Why you absolutely must stop avoiding negative emotions if you want to use the Think, Feel, Act Cycle as a tool for changing your drinking.
Ep #29: How to Stop Beating Yourself Up
There’s an easy way to stop beating yourself up (and no, it’s not practicing more kindness and love).
Ep #28: Needing Relief
Why you continuously need “something” to lessen the stress and anxiety you feel at the end of the day, and the reason pouring a drink to take the edge off isn’t sustainable.
Ep #27: Competing Desires
If you’ve ever wondered why you sometimes feel at odds with yourself when it comes to having a drink, you’ll want to check out this episode.
Ep #26: Turning Discomfort into Chaos
Learn what happens when you escalate discomfort into chaos, and how it can get in the way of changing of your drinking.
Ep #25: Creating vs. Consuming Fun
Discover the difference between creating and consuming fun, how shifting from consuming to creating is necessary if you want to take a break from drinking and become a more interesting person in the process.
Ep #24: I’m No Fun Without a Drink
How two thoughts, “I’m no fun when I don’t drink” and “This event will be unbearable without booze,” are keeping you stuck, and how to stop outsourcing the perception of fun to alcohol.
Ep #23: What if I fail?
What happens to your brain when you think, “What if I fail?” and why you need to learn to deal with this thought.
Ep #22: Why You Need a Compelling Reason
Discover a simple, yet powerful process of uncovering your compelling reason to change your drinking.
Ep #21: Stop Telling Yourself You Can’t Drink
How a single thought can hold you back and keep you stuck in the never-ending cycle of feeling miserable, powerless, and probably pouring yourself a drink to escape.
Ep #20: What Creates Your Life
Learn what creates your results in life, and how easy it can be to get into a pattern of turning to a drink (or other distractions) to feel better when you don’t like what you see.
Ep #19: Understanding Your Actions
How to understand your actions and why you do the things that you do in your life.
Ep #18: Understanding Your Emotions
Learn how your emotions differ from your thoughts and why this distinction is crucial to figuring out the reason why you drink more than you want.
Ep #17: Understanding Your Thoughts
The think, feel, act cycle affects everything we do. In order to understand how to use it to change your drinking and reduce your desire, you must first understand the role of your thoughts.
Ep #16: The Power of Doing Hard Things
Changing your drinking does take effort, but there’s a huge (unexpected) benefit waiting for you on the other side.
Ep #15: There Is No Wagon
What really happens when you “fall off the wagon” and why this phrase can undermine your commitment to change your drinking.
Ep #14: The Power of Questioning Your Thoughts
Why it’s important to question your thoughts, the ones that you hold on to as the “truth,” to determine whether or not they are holding you back from achieving your goals.
Ep #13: Change Your Perspective, Change Your Results
Discover how you can get the complete picture surrounding your drinking and gain a new perspective beneficial to positive change.
Ep #12: Perfectionism and People Pleasing
Listen in as I explain why so many of us use pouring a drink to hide from perfectionism and people pleasing and why it’s so difficult to cut back.
Ep #11: Deprivation
What deprivation is all about, what creates it, and why you don’t have to constantly tell yourself, “I’m just going to have to live with this for the rest of my life”
Ep #10: How to Change Your Past and Free Yourself from Shame
The sticking points of cutting back when we focus on the past and what we can do to “change our past.”
Ep #9: Using Alcohol as a Crutch
Why it’s so important to examine how alcohol is helping us in our daily lives and how we use it to “solve” our problems quickly and easily.
Ep #8: Managing Urges
In this episode, we’re delving deeper into the desire to drink and talking about urges – what they are and how to best handle them.
Ep #7: The Unexpected Benefits of Taking a Break
When most people decide to take a break from drinking they look forward to waking up clear headed but worry that they’re signing up for new form of suffering: always missing out.
Ep #6: Indecision
Are you endlessly agonizing about what to do about your drinking? Here are the four main reasons you’re stuck in indecision.
Ep #5: How to Handle Questions About Not Drinking
If you take a break from drinking, you might be worried about how to handle people’s questions. Here’s why you don’t need the perfect answer.
Ep #4: Liquid Confidence
Find out what confidence really is and why it’s so easy to fall into the trap of thinking that we need a drink to feel more self-assured and at ease in social situations.
Ep #3: Using a Drink to Unwind
Join me today as I explore why we use alcohol to unwind and what we’re teaching our brain when we do.
Ep #2: Desire: Why Willpower Is Not the Answer
Learn why using willpower to try to drink less is not the answer and why it’s easy to get caught in the desire-resist cycle.
Ep #1: Why You Should Be Here
Welcome to the very first episode of Take a Break from Drinking. This podcast is for you if you are looking to slow down, or even quit, drinking but don’t know how.