Sobermentum Today: Recent Episodes
Morgan Smith
If you're questioning your drinking, you can find out where you stand on the Alcohol Drinker Spectrum here: ►►►https://www.sobermentum.com/the-drinker-spectrum
If your drinking habit has morphed into something you are no longer comfortable with, and you’ve considered taking action to cut back (or perhaps you’ve already tried some breaks or other approaches), I’d like to offer you one powerful insight which was a game-changer for me back when I was struggling with my own drinking habit.
The idea is this: once you cross a certain threshold with your drinking habit, you can never go back. Meaning, the days in your past where you could enjoy the proverbial “glass of wine with dinner” and then easily stop, or when you could knock back a pint or two with your friends at the pub and then call it a night…more than likely those days are gone and they’re never coming back.
Many of us hold on to a futile hope that we can squeeze the toothpaste back into the tube, and somehow turn back the clock on our drinking habit to where it used to be (or maybe through brute force, make it look like someone else’s “moderate” consumption level). But clinging to that hope is a path toward frustration, disappointment and it ultimately just delays your ability to truly solve this problem in your life.
While it may be disappointing to come to terms with this concept…in truth it is incredibly liberating. Because it forces you to either accept your drinking habit “as is” understanding full well that it will probably worsen over time (since that is the path you’ve already been traveling). OR you can commit to giving a sincere attempt at an alcohol-free lifestyle to see how you like it, knowing that there really is no third alternative path.
In today’s episode we unpack this idea and explore why ignoring it can become a huge risk to everything that matters to you most…
If you need help in carving out a new path forward with your drinking habit, check out these resources:
►►► Website: https://www.sobermentum.com/
►►► Blog: https://www.sobermentum.com/blog
If you're questioning your drinking, you can find out where you stand on the Alcohol Drinker Spectrum here: ►►► https://www.sobermentum.com/the-drinker-spectrum
Some downsides of a robust drinking habit are too huge to miss. And by the time you arrive at the end of the Alcohol Drinker Spectrum, denial becomes nearly impossible. Your friends and family have seen the consequences of your drinking firsthand. But what if you’re not there yet? What if you’ve managed to keep this habit in check “most” of the time, yet still you wonder where it might be headed?
In today’s episode, we explore 3 Red Flags that can be easy to miss as your drinking habit evolves over time. Paying attention to these can help you determine whether you are okay with the trend, or if you’d rather take corrective action before things progress further.
If you need help in carving out a new path forward with your drinking habit, check out these resources:
►►► Website: https://www.sobermentum.com/
►►► Blog: https://www.sobermentum.com/blog
If you're questioning your drinking, you can find out where you stand on the Alcohol Drinker Spectrum here: ►►► https://www.sobermentum.com/the-drink.. Because somewhere around 90% of your relationship with alcohol is psychological…when you contemplate the idea of stepping away from your habit for a while, even the mere idea of doing so can cause your brain to shoot out unsolicited signals of fear and anxiety about the issue. In today’s episode, we explore 3 specific fears that are common among those of us who have been in this situation. Fortunately with these 3 particular fears, as daunting as they may feel…in reality your concerns have probably been inflated well beyond reality. And that is very positive news! If you need help in carving out a new path forward with your drinking habit, check out these resources: ►►► Website: https://www.sobermentum.com/ ►►► Blog: https://www.sobermentum.com/blog
SHOW NOTE This is Episode 4 in a Series of 4. Each Episode builds on information covered in the prior editions, so watching them in sequential order is best!
**** If you're questioning your drinking, you can find out where you stand on the Alcohol Drinker Spectrum here: ►►► https://www.sobermentum.com/the-drink...
Over the past 3 episodes, we've explored the first 3 out of the 4 most challenging headwinds you're likely to face as you take a break from your drinking habit. Today we delve into the 4th and final of these challenges, which is unique in that unlike the first 3, it is outside of your control.
We are speaking here of social pressure. Chances are, if your drinking habit has grown to a point where taking some time off is warranted...it probably means you live in a society (and possibly travel amongst a circle of family and friends) where drinking is a big priority. It can therefore feel like you are choosing to go against the grain when you opt out.
Thankfully, there are several helpful strategies and insights you can lean on when you begin feeling pressure to fit in, or when your brain tries to use the old FOMO trick (Fear Of Missing Out) to make you buckle and go back to drinking.
If you need help in carving out a new path forward with your drinking habit, check out these resources:
►►► Website: https://www.sobermentum.com/
►►► Blog: https://www.sobermentum.com/blog
SHOW NOTE This is Episode 3 in a Series of 4. Each Episode builds on information covered in the prior editions, so watching them in sequential order is best! * If you're questioning your drinking, you can find out where you stand on the Alcohol Drinker Spectrum here: ►►► https://www.sobermentum.com/the-drink... Your subconscious mind is a deep well of stored information, beliefs, assumptions and emotions accumulated throughout your lifetime. It performs a critical function as your brain’s auto-pilot, taking over tasks that you have learned through consistent repetition over time. Your conscious mind is the initial entry point of new information, but it has very limited resources and consequently, if you repeat an experience or drill a new skill often enough, your subconscious mind will eventually take ownership of that task or belief rendering it “second-nature.” Bearing this in mind, if your drinking habit has been around for a while, let’s say many years now…you have undoubtedly conditioned your subconscious mind with a myriad of beliefs, queues and triggers associated with alcohol. When you decided to take a break from drinking, that decision emerged in your conscious mind. The seeds of new beliefs about your drinking habit began to germinate (perhaps concerns about your health, or other negative ways your drinking harms you). But rest assured…your subconscious mind was still operating on the old alcohol programming. Therefore, despite your earnest attempts to honor the initial goals of your break from drinking, your subconscious mind can very often sabotage your efforts by serving up suggestions and even strong cravings (assisted by your brain’s reward center discussed in the previous episode, which has also been chronically conditioned to your drinking norms). Your subconscious mind is not trying to harm you. It is simply on auto-pilot mode based on what you taught it about drinking on hundreds (and possibly thousands) of occasions. It formed deep associations and sensory linkage with so many times, people, places, events, sounds and even smells, that when you encounter those triggers…it thinks you’re supposed to drink, and will prompt you to do so. In order to win over your subconscious mind in your break from drinking, the keys are patience and persistence. You trained your brain to speak “alcohol is wonderful” as a language in your life over a long period of time. Now you are teaching your brain a new language of “sobriety is wonderful.” And just as with learning any new language, it will require time, and repeated exposure to the new information along with A LOT of practice speaking (or in this case LIVING) the new language. Give yourself some grace, knowing that you cannot flip a switch and change your subconscious mind overnight. But what you CAN DO, is tap into it by steering in a new direction and slowly conditioning new healthier behaviors and belief patterns about alcohol that can eventually become your new “auto-pilot” mode with respect to drinking. Links to the Infographics: https://subconscious-and-mind.blogspo... https://thesagonline.com/wp-content/u... https://blog.myneurogym.com/neuroplas... * I hope this video adds value to your day. I’d love to hear from you in the comments section if anything in particular resonates with you. If you need help in carving out a new path forward with your drinking habit, check out these resources: ►►► Website: https://www.sobermentum.com/ ►►► Blog: https://www.sobermentum.com/blog
SHOW NOTE This is Episode 2 in a Series of 4. Each Episode builds on information covered in the prior editions, so watching them in sequential order is best!
**** If you're questioning your drinking, you can find out where you stand on the Alcohol Drinker Spectrum here: ►►► https://www.sobermentum.com/the-drink...
Your brain’s reward center is a complex system designed to give you a small boost of good feelings when you do something positive and healthy. It keeps you moving forward in life and chasing those rewarding feelings usually associated with constructive forms of behavior conducive to your surviving (and thriving). Gratification from the results of hard work you performed in some arena of life, or the feelings of pleasure you derive from other fulfilling experiences such as the taste of nourishing meal, or satisfying physical and emotional connections with other people…all are manifestations of this important function of your brain.
The problem is, outside substances or extreme behaviors can hijack you brain’s perfectly natural and healthy reward system, generating feelings far more potent than what a healthy natural reward would feel like. In this situation, psychological and eventually in some cases physical dependence on these artificially induced pleasures can occur. This is one of the primary reasons people often struggle to make a break from their drinking habit stick, especially in the very beginning when cravings can be the most powerful.
While the biggest hurdles in making an extended break from drinking stick tend to be the psychological aspects…in the very first days and weeks, your brain’s reward center will also be working against you, as you have conditioned it to expect its “treat” called alcohol on some consistent schedule. When it does not arrive on time, it will “punish” you with feelings that aren’t so pleasant…anywhere from mild unease and a sense that something is “off” all the way to full scale alcohol withdrawal symptoms, depending on your pre-existing level of dependence.
In this Episode (Part 2 of 4) we discuss the brain’s reward system, and some measures you can take to proactively understand it and then take corrective action to maximize your chances of success in taking an extended break from drinking…
**** Links to the Infographics:
https://subconscious-and-mind.blogspo...
https://thesagonline.com/wp-content/u...
https://blog.myneurogym.com/neuroplas...
If you need help in carving out a new path forward with your drinking habit, check out these resources:
►►► Website: https://www.sobermentum.com/
►►► Blog: https://www.sobermentum.com/blog
SHOW NOTE This is the first in a Series of 4. Each Episode builds on information covered in the prior editions, so watching them in sequential order is best!
If your drinking habit has evolved to the point where you’ve decided to take a break, then first of all CONGRATULATIONS on your decision to at least give it a try. It shows a great deal of maturity and a willingness to listen to that inner voice of self-preservation that we all have.
HOWEVER, if you have tried taking breaks but find yourself short-circuiting them sooner than you intended to, only to revert right back to your old drinking patterns…you are most certainly not alone. For most of us, by the time we realize we’ve become a little more dependent on our favorite adult beverage (than we’d like to admit) just to make it through the evening, weekend and nearly every social occasion, it is a very healthy and logical idea to seek out some sort of “time off” to recover and reassess things.
But equally common is that it can be fairly difficult to go the distance and meet whatever goal we set for ourselves, whether a week, a month or longer. It can be very frustrating that we can’t “make it stick” so to speak, and truly give our mind and body a vacation from the downsides of a vigorous drinking habit.
In this Four-Part Series, the focus will be on The 4 Big Reasons often responsible for why you ended your previous attempts at breaks from drinking sooner than you intended to, and how you can achieve success with each of these critical 4 areas and gain complete control over this matter in your life.
In Part 1, we evaluate the role of your Conscious Mind in this equation, and how it can work for you (or against you) depending on how you approach your time-off strategy psychologically.
Links to the Infographics:
https://subconscious-and-mind.blogspot.com/2020/03/what-is-conscious-of-mind-conscious
html https://thesagonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Addiction-Infogrpahic.png https://blog.myneurogym.com/neuroplasticity-train-your-brain-for-success
If you need help in carving out a new path forward with your drinking habit, check out these resources:
►►► Website: https://www.sobermentum.com/
►►► Blog: https://www.sobermentum.com/blog
If you're questioning your drinking, you can find out where you stand on the Alcohol Drinker Spectrum here: ►►► https://www.sobermentum.com/the-drink...
**** For those of us who evolve into avid drinkers over time, one element of our habit we can often overlook is the price tag. While we may be more intimately familiar with some of the more obvious downsides (lousy sleep, reduced energy levels, diminished job performance, or the occasional embarrassing comment or behavior)…the financial burden is one that often escapes us.
We’ve probably been loading up the grocery cart with several bottles of our favorite beverage for so many years, or gotten so used to that fat bar tab or restaurant bill that we can easily overlook just how much this habit can cost over time (a month, a year, a decade or across your lifetime). In this episode, we explore how to reconsider what you’re spending on your alcohol habit and probe whether it is truly serving you, your health, your goals and your legacy.
I hope this episode adds value to your day. I’d love to hear from you if anything in particular resonates with you.
If you need help in carving out a new path forward with your drinking habit, check out these resources:
►►► Website: https://www.sobermentum.com/
►►► Blog: https://www.sobermentum.com/blog
If you're questioning your drinking, you can find out where you stand on the Alcohol Drinker Spectrum here: ►►► https://www.sobermentum.com/the-drinker-spectrum ****
If your drinking habit has morphed into something a little bigger and more important to you than you’d like, and you’ve contemplated taking a break, whether short term, long term or possibly for good…you may have wrestled with the fear that life without alcohol would become boring. After all, there’s a good chance you’ve partaken of your favorite drink during many (if not most) of your life’s most exciting events for many years now. But was your enjoyment of those situations and experiences truly because of the alcohol? Or was alcohol simply one small slice of an otherwise enjoyable occasion? Is it possible that your drink of choice has become somewhat of a security blanket in that, you believe you need it to have fun, or to relax, or to decompress, or to socialize, or to: fill in the blank? If this is the case, it is certainly understandable. Beginning with the psychological conditioning you have provided your brain on hundreds of occasions, we are also bombarded by pro-alcohol imagery, entertainment, advertising and very likely some form of social pressure (spouse/family/friends/coworkers) promoting the idea that alcohol is an essential, glorious elixir of life.
In this episode, we explore whether life without alcohol would be truly boring, and give you food for thought if this objection has held you back from taking a Sober Vacation.
I offer 3 challenges to the idea that a life without drinking will be boring:
1) Was your life boring before you became a drinker? Were the highlights of your life back then somehow diminished because you didn't have a drink in your hand on those momentous occasions?
2) Nearly half of the world's population either doesn't drink at all, or drinks very rarely (in other words, they experience the majority of their nights, weekends and social gatherings entirely sober). Do you think all of those people live boring lives? Do they not enjoy themselves when they do the same things drinkers do (parties, holidays, vacations, weddings, sporting events, concerts etc).
3) 90% of alcohol dependence is psychological. In other words, what you believe about alcohol becomes your reality about alcohol. Therefore, in this example, if you BELIEVE your life will be boring if you don't drink, you will be RIGHT. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Conversely, if you believe you can have a perfectly exciting and exhilarating life without consuming even a single drop of booze...you will also be right. The choice is 100% UP TO YOU...
I hope this episode adds value to your day. I’d love to hear from you if anything in particular resonates with you.
If you need help in carving out a new path forward with your drinking habit, check out these resources:
►►► Website: https://www.sobermentum.com/
►►► Blog: https://www.sobermentum.com/blog
If you're questioning your drinking, you can find out where you stand on the Alcohol Drinker Spectrum here: ►►► https://www.sobermentum.com/the-drink... In this episode, we explore the topic of how a drinking problem compares to a weight problem. Somehow we instinctively seem to recognize that one of these two can exist on a continuum of severity, while for the other one, society seems to ascribe only one unflattering designation (aka “Alcoholism”) even if that shoe doesn’t exactly fit. Like so much of what we are conditioned to believe about alcohol and drinking, this short-sighted perspective can keep us stuck and intimidated about taking action for fear of the stigma that may be attached to any admission that there might be a problem. I hope this video adds value to your day. I’d love to hear from you in the comments section if anything in particular resonates with you. If you need help in carving out a new path forward with your drinking habit, check out these resources: ►►► Website: https://www.sobermentum.com/ ►►► Blog: https://www.sobermentum.com/blog
If you're questioning your drinking, you can find out where you stand on the Alcohol Drinker Spectrum here: ►►► https://www.sobermentum.com/the-drinker-spectrum In this episode, we discuss what many consider the “Holy Grail” of drinking habits…aka: “Moderation.” But why does something so seemingly simple become so elusive for some of us as we reach a certain point in our drinking careers? After all, if you were able to easily moderate your drinking at some point in the past…it only stands to reason that with some effort, you ought to be able to do so again right? Well, the issue is more complicated than that. It really revolves around where you as an individual drinker land on the Alcohol Drinker Spectrum (see link above to download the FREE Infoguide and watch the in-depth tutorial). Essentially, there are 3 components to your unique score on the Alcohol Drinker Spectrum. And it is this score that can help you determine whether moderation could be a realistic goal for you. You may not like the answer I suggest in this Episode, but I am sharing what I honestly believe the real-world data supports. Wishing we can do something that we simply can’t anymore is a fool’s errand. Sometimes it’s best to leave the past in the past, and move on to new and healthier chapters of life when all indications are pointing in that direction. If you need help in carving out a new path forward with your drinking habit, check out these resources: ►►► Website: https://www.sobermentum.com/ ►►► Blog: https://www.sobermentum.com/blog
If you're questioning your drinking, you can find out where you stand on the Alcohol Drinker Spectrum here: ►►► https://www.sobermentum.com/the-drinker-spectrum
Society tends to categorize any and every "Drinking Problem" with a One-Size-Fits-All label called "Alcoholism." In this episode, we dive into why this mode of thinking can cause a variety of downstream negative consequences for folks who are not yet a 10 out of 10 on The Drinker Spectrum, yet are experiencing repeated issues with their drinking. Due to the fear of being labeled and judged, many good people delay taking positive action to reign in their habit. I certainly fell into this trap myself at one point.
In the podcast we discuss the degrees of Alcohol Use Disorder, and how surprisingly, the majority of people who's alcohol intake exceeds Recommended Moderate Guidelines actually DO NOT rise to the level of AUD. But that doesn't mean you should ignore the helpful voice of self-preservation if it's been whispering to you about your drinking.
Like most problems in life, the longer we wait to address the situation with meaningful corrective action, the harder it will be to do so down the road. The earlier you take steps to stop drinking, whether temporarily to sort things out, or for the long term...the better your odds of being able to stop drinking on your own.
The notion that you should wait for a "Rock Bottom" experience to occur before you intervene is crazy! Why live with that level of risk hanging over your head? It’s a risk that could potentially jeopardize your health, your closest relationships, your reputation and much more.
If you feel like alcohol might be taking more from you than it’s giving, and you’ve tried cutting back on your own but always seem to end up back to your same old routine, just know that you are in good company. The purpose of this Podcast, my Website and my Coaching Programs are all designed to help you move your relationship with drinking in a healthier direction.
►►► Website: https://www.sobermentum.com/
►►► Blog: https://www.sobermentum.com/blog
If you're questioning your drinking, you can find out where you stand on the Alcohol Drinker Spectrum here: ►►► https://www.sobermentum.com/the-drinker-spectrum
Welcome to the Podcast! Today in our first Episode, I'm sharing 17 tangible ways my life got better after one-year with no alcohol. After being a "Middle of the Road" drinker for many years, I took an extended "Sober Vacation" from drinking, and it's been a great decision. Years ago as I questioned my drinking routine and sought solutions that fit my situation, I listened to various podcasts that gave me inspiration about what life COULD be like if I could just unwind this habit of mine that had migrated into unhealthy territory. They inspired me to move TOWARD something positive and hopeful, rather than just moving AWAY from something negative.
So my hope is that this video will serve as a similar ray of light and optimism for those of you out there wrestling with your own drinking habit whether small, medium or large. If you are drinking a little more than you want to, but don't identify with extreme labels or the solutions they typically entail, you are not alone! Society tends to lump all "drinking problems" into ONE category called Alcoholism. In reality, surveys show that the vast majority of adults who drink above the Recommended Moderate Guidelines do NOT meet the criteria of true Alcohol Use Disorder. But that doesn't mean lower level drinking problems should be ignored. Quite the contrary! It is much easier to resolve them then, before they get worse.
The notion that we should wait for a "Rock Bottom" experience to occur before we take corrective action is ridiculous. Why live with that level of risk hanging over your head? It’s a risk that could potentially jeopardize your health, your closest relationships, your reputation and much more. If you feel like alcohol might be taking more from you than it’s giving, and you’ve tried cutting back on your own but always seem to end up back to your same old routine, just know that you are in good company. The purpose of this Podcast, my Website and my Coaching Programs are all designed to help you move your relationship with drinking in a healthier direction.
►►► Website: https://www.sobermentum.com/
►►► Blog: https://www.sobermentum.com/blog