Your New Year’s Resolution was to buy a house and cut back on alcohol. As you watch Black Tie Moving unload the last of your furniture, you realize you haven’t attempted to change your relationship with alcohol. Well, now is the time!
Here are 4 ways to cut back on alcohol.
Consider Your Motive
Before you start your journey of cutting back or completely abstaining from alcohol, it’s important that you consider your reason for doing so. Maybe you feel that you’ve been drinking too much, your relationships have been negatively impacted, or you find yourself less productive than you used to be. It’s common that there are multiple reasons for why you want to change your relationship with alcohol.
Write down the reasons how alcohol is negatively impacting your life. Get as detailed as you can about it. In turn, this will help keep you motivated to stick with your time off from the bottle. Whenever you feel the urge to drink, pull out your list and contemplate if it’s worth it.
Create a Game Plan
After you’ve considered your motive to want to cut back on alcohol, it’s time to come up with a plan to execute this goal. You want to make sure you have a game plan in place to keep you on track and focused on trying to drink less or not at all. You can write it out on a piece of paper or keep it in your phone. Just be sure to have it somewhere where it’s easily accessible.
You want to include how much alcohol you want to drink, what you’ll do if someone offers you alcohol, and the steps you will take to cut back entirely. Spend a considerable amount of time thinking about how drinking less will impact you. If you find that you like to drink a glass of wine when you’re writing – come up with an alternative, non-alcoholic beverage while doing so. It’s key that you analyze your triggers for wanting to drink.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is incredibly powerful when it comes to combating something that is challenging. It helps return you to the present moment. You’re sure to experience some stress and discomfort when you start drinking less alcohol, and mindfulness is a great way to intervene.
So often, people drink as a way to escape what they are feeling and thinking. Mindfulness will help to uncover what you’ve been running away from. While this is hard at first, it’s necessary to get to the root of what alcohol has been masking. There are plenty of mindfulness guides available online if you’re not sure where to start.
Incorporate New, Healthy Habits
Out with the old, in with the new. You’d be surprised with just how much time and money alcohol consumed during your days of drinking. It’s normal to feel restless and bored once you get rid of or cut back on this piece of your life. This makes it a great time to establish some new habits to take the place of drinking.
Yoga, game nights, reading, and getting creative are all wonderful new habits to put in place while you begin your journey to cut back on alcohol. If you feel the urge to drink, it’s important to have another, healthier activity to get your mind off it.
