I offer this content with the invitation to take your time and let it settle in you after you have engaged it. I also recommend a journal in hand or whatever you like for self reflection & note taking

You can contact me through the comments in Vimeo or anywhere on this site to inform me of your discoveries

or with any questions at all 💫

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

When we are struggling with any behavior that is compulsive or addictive, we have some degree of CD occurring in us. It can often feel like someone else is driving and reaching for the drink/drug/person/etc…

In this video I will explain how CD works in the realm of alcohol & this series of videos /prompts are the steps we take out of CD and into a place of more peace/integration within ourselves.

journal prompts/questions:

-Can you pinpoint a time when the actions you are taking in your daily conscious life aren’t aligning with your values and true self?

-What does this dissonance feel like in your body?

-Write down some beliefs you have about yourself and the substance you are trying to change your relationship with….get quiet and just see what comes out of you onto the page.

Unconscious Beliefs

It’s hard to believe that we don’t know or aren’t yet aware of beliefs that we have or hold to be true. We don’t know what we aren’t aware of. Making unconscious beliefs conscious and choosing for ourselves what is actually true is essential in healing our cognitive dissonance.

Gabor Mate states ‘don’t ask why the addiction’ we should be asking ‘why the pain’…many of our unconscious beliefs are painful to bring out into the light of awareness and sometimes the belief itself was created originally to protect us from more pain.

Understanding our unconscious beliefs about alcohol will free us and provide a deeper access to our authentic selves.

journal prompts/questions:

-Close your eyes and take out something to write with / give yourself NO rules & just free write for 20 minutes/ set a timer if that is helpful / when the timer goes off read what you wrote out-loud to yourself. Listen to yourself and get in touch with the voice on the page/ keep writing if you are called to/

-Watch the next video when you’re ready!

The ACT Technique!

The ACT technique is an awesome and effective way to pull out our unconscious beliefs about a potentially conflictual situation and find relief and power in our authentic way of seeing the situation in reality.

The technique is used to get your mind in more alignment with what is possible and actually true about any given situation that you are seeing as ‘against you’ or ‘in conflict with you’.

AWARENESS - Belief / Thought

CLARITY - Once we become aware more clarity reveals itself around the thought/belief

TURNAROUND- A new thought is formed that feels just as true if not more true than the original thought that was distressing us. This new thought is in more alignment with reality and therefore more positive and true.

journal prompts/questions:

-Try out the ACT technique on your own and tell me about it in the Vimeo comments!!

Here is an example of one written out 👇

AWARENESS - The Belief ‘I can’t socialize without booze’

how does that thought make you feel & behave?

CLARITY- Is that actually true? (See video for more of the fleshing out of this belief in me)

TURNAROUND- what is a thought that feels more true than the original and is more accurate in your authentic self?

I’m actually more connected to people when I’m not drinking

SUBSTANCE/SOCIETY & SELF

In understanding our unconscious beliefs about alcohol(or whatever our addiction is) we have to look at the three categories of places these beliefs are generated/unconsciously learned and can begin to work against us.

In this video I explain the three levels of belief and encourage you to start to become aware of your own beliefs on each of these levels.

Substance being your beliefs about the fermented carcinogenic beverage in a glass we call alcohol

Society being your beliefs about alcohol related to other human beings, from famous people on television to the people in your family/partnerships & affinity groups

Self being your beliefs about yourself and how those get related to alcohol and why you are using it(this last category is often the deepest level of belief and the one that takes the most time to get to, these beliefs are usually what cause us to self medicate)

journal prompts/questions:

-what level do you feel you can relate to the most inside of any stickiness or dissonance you feel around drinking?

-which area are you the most hooked on keeping alcohol in your life?

-set a timer and write on both of these questions/ encourage you to make a list of beliefs-

FIXATION(depressing the organism)

In this video we talk about fixation and the state of being fixated when using alcohol and what this means on a physiological level.

I go into detail about my own experience of being in fixation & describe some scientific terms associated with fixation & the brain.

journal prompts/questions:

-what does a state of fixation feel like for you? where does it show up in the body?

-can you recall a time you were fixated on booze and write about it?

-do you recall any distinct feelings present? make a list of emotions you feel during fixation / is it even fully possible to access emotion when we are in this state?

-get curious about times you have been fixated & give yourself time to write on all of this-

LIBERATION :

In this video we discuss the path to becoming free from being fixated on substances, chemicals or people that are hurting us.

We discuss a little about what it means to exist in a marginalized community in this culture and how substances like alcohol aren't helping folks in those communities be able to stand in their power and rise up against what is unjust. The alcohol industry targets marginalized communities because they are already operating with a lot of trauma & less opportunity than other class systems. This renders a hopelessness in people that the alcohol industry is profiting from. A chemical like alcohol keeps folks submerged in their grief without the energy to mobilize.

Liberation is every direction away from alcohol!

journal prompts/questions:

-can you write about any times in your life when you have felt free, fully yourSelf and safe to express who you are in the environment you were inhabiting?

(take some time and write on this)

Safe spaces are brave spaces :

In this video we discuss the importance of safe spaces in regards to being able to effectively & compassionately heal our wounds.

I bring up the importance of learning how to define what makes a safe space for you and the responsibility required from the facilitators of that space. We also discuss how important it is to acknowledge the experience of BIPOC/LGBTQIA folks who are in the highest need of safe spaces based on their life experiences in this culture and our global world.

journal prompts/questions:

-do you have safe spaces in your life/communities? (identify them)

-if you could have an ideal safe space what would it look like/feel like/who would be there with you?

-write a little bit on what creating safe space within yourself might feel like - what actions might you want to take to cultivate a safe space within your parts?

(identify these actions)

Bringing Your Self with you:

In this video we discuss different tactics and sensory actions to stay in touch with your authentic self while you move through the hectic world.

Often times we lose our connection to our deeper parts and Self when in the chaos of the cities we live in or work environments we engage with daily. We often forget how to take simple actions in getting in touch with and caring for ourselves. Especially when we are changing our habits with substances like alcohol it’s important we have consciousness around momentary triggers in our environments that can cue us to actually take an action that we don’t want to take.

This is why learning how to bring yourself with you is SO important!

journal prompts/questions:

-can you identify a time recently (with no judgement on yourself) when you were completely out of touch with your Self and made a decision from a place that was automatic?

-can you identify a time recently where you were able to feel into your deeper desire and make decisions from that place?

-Make a really clear conscious effort to see the differences in the outcomes of both of these places you have identified that you were making decisions from/ feel the impact of choosing automatically vs. choosing from a deeper/conscious place within you and note the differences and share them with me or with anyone!

Once we share our discoveries it concretizes our learning and our brain changes!

It’s very cool stuff 💫💫

The Story vs. The Truth:

In this video we discuss how very often the stories that are embedded into our minds from past experiences and often past pain get confused as the truth when triggered in the present moments of our lives.

I give a great example of this in my own life and how it can happen with the smallest of things in our day to day realities.

If there is a belief under the surface of our consciousness that is negative or harmful about us/ our minds will unconsciously use the external environment as confirmation bias to prove that belief back to itself. Unless of course we step into the actual truth of the present reality and we do that with consciousness and guidance. This is the work of changing your mind and it’s completely possible, it is you stepping directly into your potential!

journal prompts/questions:

-can you identify a story from your past that you might still be living/believing in now?

-stories carry a lot of power and when we revisit them we often find a belief(s) about ourselves that follow the story / can you identify a belief about yourself that you hold to be true from a powerful story from your life?

-does this belief conjure up positive emotion or negative emotion?