Note to self- light switches don’t work in a power outage

We had a big storm last weekend and were out of power for three days. The absence of modern conveniences in the middle of a hot July was not lost on me. I knew that we didn’t have power. And yet, every time I walked into a room, I flipped on the light switch.

Every. Single. Time. For approximately 72 hours.

And every single time, I thought to myself “I know better.”

Sure my conscious mind knew it, but turning on a light switch when I enter a dark room is a subconscious response.

When I first started on my journey to stop overdrinking, I would “find” myself reflexively pouring a drink when I got home from work, or if I had a stressful conversation with someone.

These were cues to my brain that it was time to drink. Just like walking into a dark room was a cue to turn on the light.

In order to make a change, I had to interrupt the cue and the response.

This required recognizing that it was there to begin with and then consciously creating about a new one. I knew enough about the human brain, that since it created this pattern, it can therefore create a new one.

I used two tools to help me, a drink plan and urge meditation. Using the Drink Plan, I committed to planning my drinks 24 hours in advance. The 24 hours is important here because it requires the use of the pre-frontal cortex. The pre-frontal cortex is responsible for executive decision making so it is focused on longer term interests. Planning in this way helps to bypass the primitive brain which generates urges and acts more like a toddler who wants something.

When planning drinks, the number of drinks isn’t as important as committing to that number no matter what.

For anyone who has tried to create a new habit, the plan looks good on paper, but does take some practice.

So when my toddler brain started making suggestions that “one more won’t make a difference” or “I can make a fresh start tomorrow,” I turned to the urge meditation. Not drinking in response to an urge is similar to doing bicep curls at the gym. The more times I do it, the stronger I get. This is not about distracting or resisting the urge, but simply allowing it. Sitting with an urge isn’t the most comfortable thing in the world, but the urge meditation helped me develop a tolerance for them.

I knew that I didn’t identify as an alcoholic. There was no way that I was going to go to meetings in a church basement and admit that I was powerless over alcohol.

I knew that I could figure it out. I knew that that the human brain is more powerful than we even understand and that working with the brain was the way to create sustainable change.

This is the work that I do now with my clients. I help them get control back over alcohol and create a life that they love.

If you want to reign in your drinking and are not making enough headway on your own, click here to schedule a mini session.

At a minimum, try out my urge meditation for yourself. It will work with anything you are over-ing!

I am thankful that the power outage didn’t last long enough for me to recondition my response to the light switch. But I know that I would have been able to do that too!