Switching off and breaking free from alcohol, food, scrolling to create healthy habits that best support you.
I remember, not that long ago when I used to hang out for Friday afternoon, the working week was done and I could have a glass of wine or two and just switch off.
If I am honest, I found it hard to escape work, my busy thoughts and mind without it.
Needless to say my thoughts were pretty punishing, judging me and, at the time I thought they were helping me to do more and to do it better.
I felt I had to have a drink to not only relax my body, but to just be able to escape the barrage of thoughts too.
As I got curious about my relationship with alcohol it led to a lot of guilt, blame and shame, a vicious circle and also quite a few hangovers too, which got worse and worse in my 40s – even after only a few glasses of white wine.
In 2018 I decided to experiment with not drinking at all, to see how that made me feel – physically and emotionally. I felt that alcohol was adding to my anxiety with more intrusive thoughts, made me feel pretty crap and stuck in my head even more often too.
I also started to think about what I was trying to escape from. What in my life was so bad that I felt that I needed to totally switch off from and numb?
I started to go on a deeper, more courageous journey of going within, with much needed help and support. I started to create a life and most importantly, a healthier mind, that I no longer felt I had to run away from into the arms of alcohol or other habits that weren’t supporting my health and wellbeing.
Initially I ran instead to chocolate and food, a pattern I have also had for much of my life to comfort and soothe me. I have been breaking free from those habits too and slowly but surely strengthening my calm, peaceful, sage or wise/true self so that the negative thoughts and stress are far less present than they ever used to be.
Our western culture makes relaxing with food and alcohol very much socially acceptable. I have no issue with eating all the foods and drinking, but I do think we need to be honest with ourselves and ask whether our habits are best supporting us? That part of the equation seems to be left out of the conversation around relaxing and finding ways that best support us.
And forget about talking about how we can support our minds to best deal with the challenges with work, relationships and health so that we are emotionally stronger and more positive – so we don´t feel that we want to escape from it.
I think we are all aware to some degree of the negative or critical voices in our heads that criticise, push and judge us throughout our day. What we are less aware of is that we can actually start to quieten those voices and increase the volume of our calm, present, wise or true self to create more resourcefulness, resilience, ease and flow in our lives and be purposeful, effective and focused.
Sound too good to be true?
To feel more at peace, calm, less stress each day so we can make choices that support the lives, work, relationships and wellbeing that we wish for ourselves and those closest to us.
There is another way.
We can make our minds nicer places to be, without numbing, escaping, judging or blaming. My mind feels much more like that these days and I haven´t drunk alcohol for over 6 years now.
That isn´t to say we have to totally stop drinking alcohol, eating whatever foods we fancy and/or curtail all other habits that we have developed to deal with stress and negativity.
But wouldn´t it be nice to be in a place that you felt calmer, more relaxed and present? To be intentional and feel free to be able to choose rather than feel almost compelled to drink, eat, etc or that you have limited other options on how to switch off?
I don´t have a non-salesy way of sharing this (unfortunately!) but I am offering a very special one-off deal until next Thursday 24th October for anyone that is curious to find out more about quieting the saboteurs and increasing the volume of their sage. I wish I had known about this programme 20+ years ago to save me a lot of stress, time, energy to shortcut to get to where I am today. To be living a life with a lot less stress, fear, overwhelm plus creating healthy habits that best support the life, work, relationships that I want to lead and being super-effective too.
Are you curious to start to break free from unhealthy habits that are not supporting you and empower yourself to create a mind and life that you don´t want to escape from?
I have 5 places available at a very special rate to start strengthening your sage and weakening your saboteurs in just 7 weeks, starting at the end of October and finishing mid December – all online. The programme is amazing, but is increasing in price in 2025 so this is truly special.
Please send me an email today or book in for a free saboteur exploration session.
When our saboteurs are in charge we are largely in saboteur mode and are surviving, when we start to strengthen our sage we enter into a virtuous cycle until we begin to thrive. This programme sets up up for that exciting and intentional journey and in my experience is truly liberating.
Thanks for reading and being part of this courageous inner journey, I am so glad you are here.
As always, I would love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback about how you find it to switch off from work and a busy life. How easy have you found it to create a healthy mind and healthy habits that best support you. A life and mind that you don´t feel you need to numb or escape from?
Take good care,
Emma
Images: Yogesh Pedamkar on Unsplash
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