Sometimes we wake up in the morning excited to begin the day and then all of a sudden plans change, something happened to put a dent in your day and you begin to go down the path of whining and complaining, pouting and maybe falling into a little bit of depression, you just become stuck. There is this level of build up that begins to happen inside of you. You feel your blood pressure rising and your chest getting heavy, you may even find yourself holding you breathe a little too long because you have become unfocused and a bit broken. You may even begin to cry. But what happens next is you look over to your spouse, significant other or you call up a friend or family member and tell them you need a glass of wine.
What is it about wine or alcohol that makes us gravitate towards it. We know that it offers us some form of release or relaxation when we feel stressed or just in a bad head space. You know I have found myself saying "I need a glass of wine," on more than one occasion and I am telling you from experience the wine... seems to calm me down and make me feel good.
Life takes us on this path that ebbs and flows and most of us do not have the proper tools in our back pocket to use when life gives us those lemons or even the lemonade. Its interesting to think about having a reward system where we drink in celebration yet the same vice we use to celebrate, we also use when we are sad, stressed or depressed. What a major mind fuck and we are not even consciously aware of what we are doing to ourselves.
According to verywellmind.com “Alcohol shifts the hormonal balance and changes the way the body perceives stress and changes how it responds to stress. Studies have found that cortisol interacts with the brain's reward or pleasure systems, which can contribute to alcohol's reinforcing effects —forcing people to consume greater amounts to achieve the same effect over time.”
So there fore when we are sad and depressed and we drink the cortisol reinforces the alcohol to give us this, make me feel good, make me feel good sensation (in my Halle Berry voice). Therefore, we begin to consistently chase after this feeling that we get every time we drink. It’s the reason why when we have a night of binge drinking and we wake up feeling like trash we all say “I will never do that again,” and what happens… We do it again. It’s a feeling that just doesn’t go away unless you check it or get the help that is needed.
I write this out of curiosity knowing that I love wine and people around me do as well, but, when we do whine, we turn to the very thing we use for enjoyment and pleasure. We need to find different tools to use that is separate from that which we love, so we do not correlate the two.
I love wine and I will continue to drink wine, but I had to decide to arm myself with the proper tools when I whine, so the very thing I enjoy doesn’t soon become the very thing I despise. As always, Grab a Glass and Enjoy, but lets do it responsibly.
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