Food is medicine.
What we put in our body affects how we feel.
And how we feel is our state of being, or level of consciousness, or our vibration.
Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant. It lowers our state of being, our level of consciousness, our vibration.
We feel bad when we overdrink.
We become more disconnected from what we want and who we are.
We think consuming alcohol makes us feel relaxed, but it is slowing down our mental capacities and we become impaired.
We become mentally slower, depressed, and numb.
Alcohol causes alterations in various neurotransmitters. Alcohol:
- binds to the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors in the brain causing a delay in neural transmission and sedation.
- inhibits glutamate (an excitatory neurotransmitter), leading to further sedation, memory loss and other impaired brain functions.
- increases dopamine (and serotonin) initially which leads to feelings of pleasure and signals the brain to repeat the behavior.
We may not recognize the depressive effects while drinking since there are many chemical reactions in the brain at play.
But we sure feel the effects when the buzz has worn off.
Feelings of anxiety, guilt, shame, fear, frustration, and sadness become our state of being.
As discussed in Power vs. Force by David Hawkins, these feelings are lower states of consciousness and, in those states, we are often reluctant to make change or take action. We find it easier to stay in the vicious cycle of overdrinking since drinking again provides an initial quick relief.
Alcohol is feeding the depressive feedback loop.
Alcohol is causing more depressive feelings to occur.
The cycle is we feel bad – we drink to feel better – feel temporary relief – only to feel worse long term and repeat the cycle.
When you begin to see this play out and understand this, alcohol will start to have less appeal to you as you don’t enjoy the cycle, don’t feel in control, and you want it to stop.
But being in these lower energy states keep us stuck from taking action. I call this mental and emotional quicksand.
If you want to feel better, you have to stop consuming things that put you in a depressive or low vibrational state (substances like alcohol, refined carbohydrates, too much social media, etc).
When you change what you think and consume, you will change how you feel (your state of being).
And when you feel good, you will take better actions.
