Are You One of the 15%?

According to a poll published in i newspaper this week, 15 per cent of those polled intended to set a new year’s resolution to cut down their alcohol consumption. The article also said that of those who said back in June that they would cut down their drinking when covid-19 restrictions were lifted, only 46% had done so by December 2021.

As we all know, setting new year’s resolutions can fill us with enthusiasm. Sometimes we stick to them, but very often we don’t. Many theories have been advanced for why this is so.

The truth is, that we are indeed creatures of habit. Through repetition, we set certain behaviours in place and will tend to revert back to them unless we find a way of not doing so.

To make matters worse, sometimes the behaviour we want to change is enshrined in beliefs and identity issues that almost guarantee we won’t stick to our resolution, the glue that holds the behaviour in place because they are part of the fabric of how we think of ourselves. “I am a smoker” is one that I often hear. “I need a drink after work to wind down”, “it makes me the life and soul of the party” and one I heard from a course participant who had been trying for years to get her eating under control “I am fat”.

Sometimes we can be blissfully unaware that we hold certain beliefs that trip us up when we try to change a behaviour. When we have an aspect of identity that is contrary to changing a particular behaviour, then our efforts can be even more of a struggle often ending in failure.

In order to make the change you want, to reduce alcohol intake or something else, it is therefore a good idea to tackle these beliefs and identity statements. Hypnotherapy and Integral Eye Movement Therapy can help us do just that so that you could become the kind of person who can take or leave alcohol and feel perfectly OK about doing so.