Motivation
I was thinking about better ways to motivate myself. Yes, I have some prescriptions. Unfortunately, one makes me nauseous and tired. The other basically makes drinking difficult because you get dangerous side effects. For some reason, messing with my body in that way makes me nervous. It’s an odd feeling I have about that medication. In a way, it’s like making a commitment to not drink because it stays in your system so long. And even though I want to make a commitment, I don’t want to do it with a drug. I guess I either don’t really want to commit or that making the commitment makes me not want to commit. I think it goes back to that feeling of if I know something is forcefully taken away from me, I want it more. Crazy? May be…
Regardless, I found 4 new ways to keep myself dry.
1) Learning as much as I can about the damage I could be doing. Luckily I love anatomy. I mean my degree is Biology for heaven’s sake! So learning about how we process alcohol (or ethanol to be scientific) will keep me out of the Ignorance is Bliss drinking mindset. I watched a great video of a dude fondling lots of cadavers organs to show how alcohol is processed. If you all interested, check this out. https://youtu.be/6q1RH8A3O3c (don’t worry, it’s not that gross!)
2) New drinks… oh yes, the market is booming with non-alcoholic, supposedly euphoric drinks. So I hopped in the car yesterday to spend a typical liquor store spend on these zero proof beverages. So far, they help. A little. Putting in a wine glass added a tinge of familiarity but I can’t say any gave me the slightest buzz. More to come here. I’ve only tried a couple!
3) Distraction. The kids swindled me into buying an Oculus. Well.. I must say for once those teenagers made a good decision. It is pretty darn cool. I had heard about the use of VR (virtual reality) in the treatment of many conditions so heck, why not? It’s a double win too because you can exercise with it too. So I threw on a little Beat Saber, which had me swinging away distracted easily for a half an hour and yes, it felt literally like 5 minutes! Then I moved over to the Youtube videos… relaxing in a forest, oh so lovely trying a little yoga. Again, you think of nothing else in there besides the sounds and sights. This could really work.
4) Last but not least, and this goes along with number 1… Loving my liver. I don’t know why I never thought of my own organs in this way but if you love something, you don’t hurt it. The liver is trying to heal itself and guess what? It is one of the only organs that can do that… but only up until you kill it off too much. That’s pretty amazing function and shouldn’t be taken for granted. But the poor liver can’t heal if you keep bathing it in more toxins. It’s like picking a scab. The wound wants to heal, but it can’t if you keep messing with it. So, now when I think about grabbing a bottle of vino, I remember my poor little liver finally getting a breather. Finally getting time to just chill. It’s like being burnt out at work. Not to say that I give it a vacation and then burn it out again and again… but I imagine in my own head that is what the liver is begging for. A break. Because ethanol isn’t the only toxin the liver takes care of… it has many others, of which we can’t control.
So there it is… my 4 genius ways of sticking to this.
