10-Minute Mondays: Handling Holiday Drinking Triggers
Welcome to Journey to the Sunnyside, the podcast where we have thoughtful conversations to explore the science of habits, uncover the secrets to mindful living, and of course, your own mindful drinking journey. This podcast is brought to you by Sunnyside, the number one alcohol moderation platform. And if you could benefit from drinking a bit less, head on over to sunnyside.co to get a free fifteen day trial. I'm your host, Mike Hardinbrook, published author, neuroscience enthusiast and habit change expert.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to Journey to the Sunnyside. I'm Mike Hardinbrook, on this ten minute Monday, we're going to talk about handling holiday drinking triggers. So if you're working on being more mindful around your drinking, this time of year can bring a lot of challenges actually. So triggers pop up everywhere. We got stress, social situations, and even those holiday traditions where drinking just feels part of the routine.
Speaker 2:It's what we do. So today we're going to talk about those triggers and I'm going to share some examples of what they are, why they feel so powerful and some simple ways that we can handle them so that you can enjoy the holidays without feeling like those triggers are actually running the show. So first let's break down what these triggers can be. And it seems self explanatory, but this is going to help us set it up. And it triggers basically anything that makes us feel like quote, I need a drink right now.
Speaker 2:And that could be during the holidays. They could show up at a party when that's the first thing you usually do when you walk in, or maybe you're traveling and you're in an airport bar. And that sure looks appetizing to walk over there and have a drink, even though it's not something that you're planning. And because it's the holidays, these opportunities, they show up more often and they're usually tied to stress, emotions, but also celebration, also habits that have been going on for years or even decades. And some of the big ones we're talking about is stress.
Speaker 2:Holidays are fun, but they're also busy. They can add to these triggers. We also have social pressures and of course the parties, you know, everybody is drinking at most of these parties. You're surrounded by drinking. It's part of even the marketing and everything that we say.
Speaker 2:We bring a bottle of wine or champagne, or we make cocktails at every single one of these, or of course, eggnog. And that's just tradition having it there, especially at New Year's, we all know that, you know, popping off at New Year's is part of tradition. So recognizing these triggers that are going to be coming up ahead of us lets us know that we can start planning for them. We know that they're going to happen no matter what, so we don't have to be caught off guard. But why do triggers feel so powerful?
Speaker 2:And it comes down to how our brains work. When you're stressed, your brain looks for a quick fix to feel better. And alcohol is one of those likelihood to outcome things that I talked about in other episodes. And when I say likelihood to outcome, the likelihood that I'm going to feel less stress when I have a drink, the outcome is almost a %. In the short term, we already know that alcohol actually will cause more anxiety and stress the day after, but in the short term, brain is only thinking about right now, and that is going to cause a trigger.
Speaker 2:The release of that dopamine is going to make us feel, ah, that feels good. But we already know that it's temporary. So you need to have that notion, that idea that, you know, that this is temporary, that it's sort of a mirage of what we're seeking. And just that knowledge will set you up to be able to identify and get around it without giving into it. So a big part of that is anticipating it, having a plan on how we're going to deal with it because we already know it's coming and we already know what our mind, brain, and our previous maybe behaviors have led us astray.
Speaker 2:So now we're going to have a plan on how to handle these triggers and because they are going to show up. And the goal isn't to avoid them, although that can be something that we can set up in our planning is to avoid potential places, situations that we know are going to trigger us, but also just know that they're probably going to be there in certain situations that we just either don't want to avoid or can't avoid because of whatever obligation that we have ahead of us. But we just need to be intentional and keep in control of our own actions. So here's a few strategies. One would be to name the trigger.
Speaker 2:When you feel an urge to drink, take a second and ask yourself, what am I really feeling here? What's going on? Am I stressed? Do I feel social pressure? Maybe you're just bored.
Speaker 2:So just by naming the trigger can give you a little bit of power and take a little bit of power away from that trigger because you're acknowledging, you're taking a pause and looking at it and not just letting it do impulsive actions on your part. The next would be to have a replacement plan. So in certain situations that trigger you plan for them, replace something automatic, like grab a drink and instead have a response with something else. So if it's stress and we named it, maybe you know that your response in your body's looking for stress, What are some things that you can do that would relax you? Maybe it's 10 deep breaths.
Speaker 2:Maybe it's box breathing that I talked in one of our other episodes that then helps your nervous system. Maybe instead of impulsively grabbing for the drink when you're stressed, what else do you enjoy? Maybe it's a mocktail. Maybe it's grabbing some chocolate, which we already know can give you a dopamine hit or something similar to that, your favorite dessert. And maybe that's going to give you a little bit of ground underneath your feet to stand on.
Speaker 2:Next one would be to set some boundaries. So family and social pressure, those things can be tough. And it's okay at times to say no to those events and not feel too overwhelmed by them where you know you're going to set yourself up to fail. Or maybe it's not that you can say no to going to them, but maybe you're going to leave early instead or show up late where the time is limited and it's not depleted by all these decision fatigue over time where you're resisting way too long. And so you can set yourself up for this without having to explain yourself.
Speaker 2:And remember, want to take care of you. I've done it full episode did this, but this works. It's the most simple thing that a lot of people overlook and that is urge surfing. You can surf the urge. Cravings don't last forever.
Speaker 2:We know that research shows that they peak and last only about twenty minutes and then they fade. So instead of giving into those, you can try urge surfing. Another simple one is just simply go for a walk and check out that episode. That's a full episode in the ten minute Mondays on urge surfing. Very simple to do pretty much anywhere.
Speaker 2:So you got real recap on these, some tactics is urge surfing, breathing, and we also have going for a walk. Those are things that people can do anywhere, anytime. You don't need resources or a quiet place necessarily to do all of those. And even if you do, you can just excuse yourself to the bathroom for a minute and get a little bit of center on yourself. And then the last thing is you've got tools like Sunnyside, where you can log your drinks.
Speaker 2:You can have a plan set in place. You're tracking everything. You can reflect on how things went. You can use those data points to plan ahead of time, and that's going to set you up for success as well. And here's the best part of all that I'm talking about right now is that if you can learn to handle these triggers during the holidays, you're building skills that you can use year round.
Speaker 2:You're setting yourself up for 2025. And even if it's not perfect, you're still getting those wins. You're still learning from yourself and you're still having fun. And so every time that you pause, reflect, or make a different choice, you're reinforcing those healthy patterns. And so here's the main takeaway.
Speaker 2:Triggers are normal, especially during the holidays. They don't have to control our choices by doing things like naming them, planning ahead, using tools like pausing, urge surfing, sunny side to stay in control. You can still enjoy the season without having regret or feeling like you're driven by impulse. So I'm going to leave it there. I hope this has been helpful.
Speaker 2:In the meantime, if you haven't gotten started, head on over to sunnyside.co.
Speaker 1:You can get a free fifteen day trial.
Speaker 2:No risk, no obligations or strings attached. Go check it out. See if it works for you. And until the next episode, cheers to your mindful drinking journey.
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