If your current drinking habits do not align with how you want to feel or with your health or wellness goals, it’s possible to rewire them to achieve alcohol moderation. You do not have to white-knuckle your way through the process or exert intense amounts of willpower. Rewiring your brain is gentle and utilizes the unconscious mind.
How the Unconscious Mind Shapes Habits
Your unconscious mind helps wire your brain to want and believe it needs alcohol in certain situations. When you keep having similar thoughts and experiences, a deep-seated beliefs form in your unconscious mind. For example, if you consistently turn to alcohol in times of stress or distress, your mind starts to believe alcohol is what is needed during these times. If your social experiences always involve alcohol, your mind begins to hold the belief that no social experience is enjoyable or complete without alcohol. Each time you drink during stress or in social situations, you confirm this belief to yourself, and the belief becomes more entrenched in your unconscious mind. The desire for a drink becomes automatic.
If you grew up in a home where your parents reached for a drink during times of negative emotions or where alcohol was a significant part of every social event, this may also impact how your unconscious mind views alcohol.
Building Inner Awareness
A first step in the process of rewiring your drinking habits is to start to gain an inner awareness of your unconscious thoughts surrounding alcohol. Work on developing an understanding of circumstances that tend to lead you to drink in a way you are not comfortable with. Mindfully observe what kinds of emotions, situations, people, or places tend to prompt excess drinking for you. Notice when your brain tells you it’s time for a drink. The app Unconscious Moderation includes some helpful journaling prompts to use in this exploration process.
Set a clear goal for yourself about the relationship you’d like to have with alcohol. Imagine yourself at a social event or coming home after a hard day. What kind of behavior aligns with the kind of life you’d like to lead?
The next time you want to reach for a drink, take time to observe how you are feeling and why you feel a drink is needed. If, for example, you are feeling stressed, what might help relieve that stress instead of alcohol? Try different stress-relieving activities until you find something you like and find effective. The hypnotherapy and movement practices on the Unconscious Moderation app are great options.
Reinforce New Patterns in the Mind
The more you have a thought of doing something other than drinking in times of stress or at social occasions, the more these new thinking patterns and behaviors become entrenched in your unconscious mind. Eventually, your unconscious mind will signal you to use healthy behaviors in place of alcohol. You are rewiring your brain to alter your drinking habits.
Soon, you will be celebrating the freedom that comes with not being wired to behave in a way you are uncomfortable with.
