When contemplating taking a break from drinking or cutting back, most people focus on how hard it will be. They anticipate struggle, discomfort, and missing out on fun.

Our brains are actually designed to avoid hard things. We’re wired to seek pleasure, avoid pain, and expend the least amount of energy possible. This motivational triad helped humans survive thousands of years ago when daily life required immense effort just to find food and shelter. But in today's world, where survival is relatively easy, this same wiring can keep you stuck in patterns that no longer serve you.

This week, you’ll hear how, whether it’s changing your relationship with alcohol or any other challenging goal, choosing to do hard things forces you to grow and stretch beyond what you think you're capable of.

Find a personalized approach that helps you change your habit in my new book, The Ultimate Guide to Drinking Less, here: https://rachelhart.com/guide/

Discover alternative approaches to drinking less inside our membership program, Take a Break: https://rachelhart.com/tab/

Get the full show notes, transcript, and more information here: https://rachelhart.com/428

Ever felt like you just need a drink to handle discomfort? In this episode, you’ll hear how a terrifying bus ride through Alaska’s Denali National Park helped me realize that discomfort isn’t the enemy – it’s the chaos we create around it that trips us up.

Through a narrow, winding road perched over sheer cliffs, fear consumed me. I reacted, resisted, and distracted myself, escalating the discomfort into a mental spiral. But when the journey turned back, I chose a different approach: staying present, feeling the discomfort, and observing it. That’s when everything changed.

Tune in to learn how you can apply the skill of staying present through discomfort to urges, whether it's alcohol or any challenging emotion. The key to breaking habits is focusing on the discomfort, not escalating it into chaos. Letting the discomfort be there without reacting is the first step to regaining control and shifting your relationship with alcohol – and life.

Find a personalized approach that helps you change your habit in my new book, The Ultimate Guide to Drinking Less, here: https://rachelhart.com/guide/

Discover alternative approaches to drinking less inside our membership program, Take a Break: https://rachelhart.com/tab/

Get the full show notes, transcript, and more information here: https://rachelhart.com/427

The hidden influence of "drinking the good stuff" is shaping your relationship with alcohol in surprising ways. As you upgrade your drink choices to fancy wines, craft beers, or top-shelf spirits, you might notice thought patterns around waste and value that are driving overconsumption.

Our beliefs about what constitutes "good" alcohol trace back to ancient times, when Greeks first established wine as an elite drink compared to the beer consumed by common people. These age-old status distinctions continue influencing modern drinking habits, as many of you feel compelled to finish expensive or rare drinks rather than "waste" them – even when you've had enough.

Listen in this week to learn how labeling certain drinks as special, rare, or healthy impacts your consumption patterns and makes changing your drinking habits more challenging. Understanding this is what allows you to question whether the "good stuff" narrative truly serves you, or if it's simply marketing and social conditioning getting in the way of mindful drinking.

Find a personalized approach that helps you change your habit in my new book, The Ultimate Guide to Drinking Less, here: https://rachelhart.com/guide/

Discover alternative approaches to drinking less inside our membership program, Take a Break: https://rachelhart.com/tab/

Get the full show notes, transcript, and more information here: https://rachelhart.com/426