Rebel with a Cause

"If you are going to rebel, do it with purpose"

Do you have a bit of a rebel streak?

Yeah, me too. That is probably why I have never been drawn to the Boot Camp style workouts.  Well, maybe one of the reasons.

The funny thing is that it is not just other people that I want to rebel against. Sometimes I rebel against myself, especially when I have set Drill Sargent Savage rules for myself; only drink 2 or only on the weekends. The rebellion definitely reared its head with that last minute invite to happy hour on a beautiful Thursday night, or when I finished that second glass and the party was still going, I was pushing against a rule that I made, but I wanted nothing to do with it in the moment.
 

This conflict was between my prefrontal cortex, which has my longer term interests in mind, and my primitive brain, that just wants the wine damn it!

So, in figuring out how to drink less, the first step was to recognize that nothing was wrong with me (sigh of relief). That helped me open up to curiosity and enabled me to move into learning about how the brain works.

Our brains are wired to seek out dopamine. Alcohol is a highly concentrated source of dopamine and it artificially stimulates the brain's reward circuit. As this pattern is repeated, it becomes stronger and eventually makes its way into the subconscious. Similar to how you need to mimic your phone lock screen code with your fingers because your conscious brain can't remember it. Sometimes it was as if there wasn't a conscious thought when I would pour the glass.
 

So this essentially means that that urge in the moment proves that my brain is working exactly the way that it should. What next?

The urge just needed a little repositioning.

The urge is a conditioned response that my brain learned and therefore it can unlearn.


The urge is not an emergency. 

Every time I invite an urge to come in and not respond to it, it unwinds the habit.

Therefore, every urge I get is an opportunity to move closer to my goal of remaining completely in control of my relationship with alcohol.

See?? What was once dreaded becomes an opportunity. It is not just rose colored glasses either - it  is working with the brain rather than against it.

Use that rebel streak for good.