Mental Rehearsals - Time to Picture Your Alcohol-Free Future
When I first quit alcohol, one of the biggest drivers for me was not wanting to ever go back to where I was before. The self hatred, the “hangxiety”, the embarrassment. All of those feelings that made me feel so ashamed.
Every time I felt like a drink, I would play it through to the end. Where will this drink end up? And I had to be brutally honest with myself. I realised that the old “just have one” is a load of shit and never going to happen for me. So the desire to not go back was the major catalyst for keeping me on track. The other was the vision I had for myself and the person I wanted to become.
I would see myself in my mind as a confident, happy and empowered person. I would imagine myself at parties not drinking, I would see myself at dinner parties chatting happily while drinking a soda water and how I would feel the next day waking up having of not made a fool out of myself.
It became part of my daily practice. To see myself as the person I wanted to become. Having a strong visual and mentally rehearsing the way you want to be will help you to be successful. If we want change in our lives, we need a clear vision of what we want - a model to emulate that is inline with this person we want to become.
In Joe Dispenza’s book Breaking The Habit Of Being Yourself, Dr Dispenza says that we can create change in our brains just by mentally rehearsing what we want to experience. “Our thoughts can become our experience. This notion is critical to your success or failure in your endeavour to replace old habits with new ones”. He says that people who mentally rehearse an event and picture what they want to take place before the event have a far greater success rate.
So when you are heading off to your cousin's wedding and you are worried about being triggered to drink, start imagining yourself there at the wedding. Imagine yourself saying “no thanks, I am not drinking tonight”, see yourself on the dance floor, or chatting happily to Aunty Marge over a soda water. See yourself leaving the wedding feeling oh so smug that your cousin Sharron is vomiting all over her party frock and you are leaving with your pride and clothes shiny well and truly in tact. Knowing that tomorrow you will be waking up fresh as a daisy minus those cringe-y feelings of “what the hell did I do last night”.
As Wayne Dyer states “As you think, so shall you be”. So, start thinking about exactly who you want to be. Don’t just think it, imagine how it would feel. You might even smile to yourself as you imagine yourself in control finally and living a life that is inline with your values.
Remember you are giving yourself an amazing gift. You are gaining your control, confidence, clarity, health, self esteem, authenticity, self love, and putting your higher needs first.
Start seeing it in your mind and create a new you!