Do you have daily habits? What is a daily habit?
Daily habits are those things that you do every day, without fail, without thought, and without brainpower.
And because you don’t have to use your brain in doing daily habits, you oftentimes do not realize you are automatically doing those things every day until you realize the fact.
This was an eye-opening moment for me when my friend asked me, “Why do you think you are drinking wine every night?”
No wine, no life
Of course, I have to drink wine every night.
Not an alcoholic, but I think I deserve a glass or two when you immediately have to run into the kitchen after working hard for a long day to cook dinner for your kids.
I need to drink wine to relax myself while cooking and having dinner with my family.
This is my way to switch from a busy working mode to a private, quiet mode.
Above all, I love wine because of the rich taste.
It is the best time of the day when you are opening a bottle of wine.
I cannot think of a life without wine…!
↑ That is what I told my friend when he asked the question to me.
Wait, my brain is telling me so?
My friend then asked me another interesting question calmly:
“If you are drinking to relax, do you think you can replace it with something else that relaxes you and gives you joy?”
Oh.
That made me pause for a while.
Drinking is an action.
And there is a reason/motivation for the action.
“I want to relax” is the reason I drink.
Yes, it suddenly made sense to me that if that is the reason, the action of drinking CAN be replaced with something else to solve the need!
At the same time, I realized that my brain was set to believe that drinking is the only way to relax.
No, I will take it back and be more accurate.
I set my brain to think that way, like an autopilot, giving an excuse to myself for the action of drinking.
You are the master, not your brain!
The way your brain works (or not works) affects your daily behavior!
This is the power of daily habit!
This realization was an eye-opener.
Remember, daily habits are those things that you do every day, without fail, without thought, and without brainpower.
This means, YOU have the power to set your brain think in a certain way to change your action, not the other way around.
From that day, I decided to put myself on an experiment.
An experiment of stopping the daily habit of drinking.
Unthinkable for a person who believed that it would be nothing but a torture without a glass of wine at the end of a day.
Now that I understand how my brain is working and the reason of my daily drinking habit, I want to see how my behavior will change by changing the way you think.
So far, it has been a week since I stopped drinking.
Surprisingly, I feel NO crave for drinking AT ALL even when I see my husband enjoying his wine or sake at the same table.
Brains are something.
We have to remember, we are the masters of ourselves, not our brains…!
Oh, wait, I forgot I had another daily habit: drinking coffee.
I think I have to have another talk with my brain sometime (no plans for that yet…!).
