Journey to the Sunnyside

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,

Welcome back to another one of these ten minute Mondays. I'm coming to you from Florida. I have been bouncing around, went from South Of Spain to Madrid, to London, and now I'm back in The US First time in about five months and you're getting me a little bit jet lagged so I'm going to do my best here but it's been an amazing trip. Thanks for kind of hanging out with me, listening to me talk a little bit about it, and really just a great experience with my family. But you're not here to listen to my stories.

You're here to progress on your mindful drinking journey. So let's get into that today. And if you're listening to this, speaking of mindful drinking, you are already thinking about it. You're tracking, you're planning your drinks, you're taking more dry days, you're actually thinking about this, doing things like listening to this podcast. And yet, a new report from the Pew Research Center just came out last month that says fifty seven percent of drinkers still believe their alcohol use doesn't raise their risk of serious health problems.

Now, if you do math as good as I do, that's more than half. So today, I'm going to unpack why this matters, especially for people like you who already are ahead of the curve. And don't worry, it's not really a lecture or pointing fingers. It's just a check-in, a little reality check and maybe just a nudge to move you in the right direction. So a quick note on Pew.

The Pew Research Center, they are a very reputable source. They're nonpartisan, nonprofit, widely respected. They just gather data and let it speak for itself. Their research gets cited by everyone from the New York Times to doctors offices. So this report isn't just coming from a wellness blog.

It's actually one of the most trusted sources on public behavior. So according to Pew, here's what people said about their own drinking. Fifty three percent said alcohol increases their enjoyment of meals. 44% say it helps them stay more socially connected, but only 43% say it adds any health risk. And just fifteen percent say it causes problems in their personal lives.

And these stats are really interesting because despite all the headlines of everything that's come out, people still place more benefits on alcohol around their meals, around their social connections, than they do the importance on the health risks. And then the fifteen percent sounds a little bit off. Because, I mean, let's be real. How many social mishaps, arguments, maybe a foggy morning, that we've all had and just blamed it on having a couple too many? But this is kind of what we do with alcohol.

We justify it as something that's helpful for specific uses, even when the helpful part is kind of fuzzy. It gets better PR than kale does and fewer disclaimers than Advil. But let's dive into this data a little bit more. Here's an interesting part. The more often people drink, the more likely they are to admit that it's not great for their health.

So among people who drink every single day or a few times a week, fifty nine percent say it raises their risk. A few times a month, forty five percent. And a few times a year, just thirty one percent. So the people that are most in it are starting to actually feel it. They may not be quitting, but they're noticing that tension, gut sense that something is off.

That's where you might be right now, not rock bottom, not in denial, just realizing that your habits and your health might be slightly out of sync. And let's put this in perspective, that is a great place to be because it means that you're paying attention. So with all these headlines lately about alcohol and the link to cancer, Pew also asked, has this kind of news made you want to drink less? And overall, forty one percent of people said yes. But among the people who drink only a few times a month, forty six percent said that they cut back after hearing the risks.

So who is most likely to change based on the science? It's actually not the heaviest drinkers. It's not the once a year ones either. It's the people in the middle, which makes sense because they've got enough distance to reflect, but enough pattern to shift. And that's the mindful drinking sweet spot.

So let's talk a little bit about the psychology for a second because it isn't just about the facts, it's about how we process them. And here's a few patterns at play. So number one is optimism bias. We believe that bad things happen to other people and not us. Even when we know that alcohol is linked to health issues, we think that we re the exception.

Number two is cognitive dissonance. I ve mentioned this many times. So if we are enjoying drinking and believe that we're health conscious, those two ideas, well, they don't really match up. So instead of changing our behavior, we will instead tweak our beliefs, like telling ourselves it's just really not a big deal. And then we use social proof to justify our actions.

So if everyone around us is drinking like we do, it feels normal, the problem isn't visible, so we assume it's not real. And listen, these are normal, these are human and these are calming. But they also can keep us stuck. So here's a few things that we need to watch out for that maybe we tell ourselves, you know, maybe not everything here is applicable, but I think it's pretty common to say things like, it's just a glass of wine and I'm not getting drunk, or I could stop if I wanted to at any point, or this one I used to use all the time, at least I'm not like so and so, you know, we compare ourselves to others. So if you hear these things in your head or maybe from a friend, they can often be signals of this internal conflict of someone trying to reconcile behavior with values.

And that's not a sign of weakness. It's just awareness trying to break through. So be kind, be curious and ask, is this still working for me? And that's honestly a real question. You've heard me say that before.

Use that at any time. So if you're already changing, even if it's slowly, you're ahead of this curve because the majority of people are still saying, you know what? It's fine. I don't even need to worry about it. And even when it's not, you're building on this new model one based on clarity and not coping.

It doesn't have to be all dramatic. It just has to be honest with yourself about what the information says. So my challenge for the week, as I like to end it is ask yourself, what do I still believe alcohol gives me? And is it actually true anymore? And if you want some bonus points, what's one thing that you could do this week to meet that need in a better way, whether it's unwinding, connecting, or having fun.

What's a new input that doesn't leave you in this category of denying what's really out there as far as the information that keeps you on a healthier path. It doesn't need to be an all or nothing as we talk about here. However, what are ways that you can take this information, realize what to do with it and put it into place into your life for happier and healthier and longer life. So test it out, pay attention. You don't need to convince anyone else of it, just yourself.

And I hope you have a beautiful week. And until next time, cheers to your 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.