Drinking Booze and a Connection to the Divine #Coronavirus Thoughts

Written by Kate • April 24, 2020 •
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Earlier this year, from Dec 29 (of last year) to Feb 22nd, I gave up alcohol for a month.

I wasn’t a heavy drinker but I was drinking a minimum of 5 days a week and often 7 days a week. Mostly wine because the hard stuff is too strong for me but drank fruity drinks like cosmos or capiroskas. I spent two months in late 2019 in France so I had a lot of new wine to sample and it was simply delish. Their chenin blancs- wow. And the price! But I digress.

I gave it up for a month because I knew I needed to. I know drinking that much isn’t good for anyone, no matter how much people spin the resveratrol and all the hype.

And it was amazing. I learned so much about my habits about booze – when I’m out eating, have a drink! When I’m socializing, have a drink! When I’m feeling frazzled, have a drink!

But once I gave it up, I faced my habits and I had to feel my feelings rather than have a drink to take the edge off. Mind blowingly awesome to have given myself this experience. I also wasn’t as dehydrated as I had been. I slept better. My hormones felt more settled and I was happier.

But the biggest boost from this time is the absolutely huge amount of creativity that stirred in me and started to flow through me. I had so many ideas and new thoughts and my connection to the Divine, to Source, to God just lit up. My morning visualizations were turbo charged and my connection fairly sizzled throughout my abstinence. Wow, what a launch to the year.

And then in late February after some 6 or so weeks, I decided to have a drink again while I was out waiting for the kids to finish their yoga class. And then just boom, I was drinking again and by mid March, with the coronavirus/COVID-19 lockdown, I was drinking most days again.

My connection to the Divine was strained. My morning visualizations just fizzled. I felt so blocked and I haven’t blogged in a few weeks because I no longer felt any creativity. The connection felt muffled and I could simply not get through.

It took me a while to make the connection but I realized that the only real difference between January and now was the booze. I asked a friend of mine, a really gifted intuitive energy healer- Scott Clover– and he confirmed the reality for him too that drinking alcohol definitely affects his connection for the worse.

And so I’ve given it up again. This time it’s not for a certain length of time although I’ve made the commitment to check in again with me to redecide on 1 July.

I feel so much better. First, I’ve lost some weight I gained in the last month. I’m again less dehydrated. I sleep better. I have the time and more energy to do other things. And my connection is getting super charged again and I’m getting so many creative ideas again. I’m feeling super grateful.

One thing I noticed about drinking is that at a certain point, your time and energy is about drinking, making sure that you have the space and the time to drink. But once you don’t put any energy into drinking, there is so much more to do and so much energy to do it with.

I highly recommend trying it. See what’s under the covers of your life, without the blanket that is your mind on booze.

Using the Lockdown for your advantage- How to Set and Keep A Goal –

Written by Kate • March 30, 2020 •
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I recently read a post on FB about how now is not the time to keep exercising or learning how to play an instrument, because of anxiety and stress about the coronavirus.

This is, of course, a perfectly valid way to live your life. Give your brain free rein and let it freak you out and hijack how you spend your days. Living in fear, passing on fear to others, and making decisions out of fear (or stress or anxiety).

Or you can clean up your mental hygiene and give yourself permission to not freak out or indulge in your anxiety, even if the REST OF THE WORLD IS.

You simply (simple but perhaps hard to do) change your thinking about the situation. Rather than stress about what you can’t control, allow your mind to tell you what it fears, acknowledge that, and then consciously search out the opposite of the fears of what your brain is telling you. For example, you can say that the economy is tanking and global recession and job loss – feeling the total fear and anxiety from this. You can then look at where there are bright spots; government stimulus, grocery stores and online businesses doing really well. People able to continue working at home, helping neighbors, and more.

You Have 30 (or 60?) Days. What Will You Do With It

You have 30+ more days of this lock down. Do you really want to stress out and over eat and over drink to manage your anxiety? Or do you want to maybe come out of the lockdown with the ability to play the piano? Or having lost 8 lbs? Or having read your full reading list? Or having all of your closets organized and your house finally deep cleaned?

After spending a week coming to terms with our new reality and allowing myself to freak out a bit and come up with a new normal, I’m excited about all that I can accomplish over the next month. I personally have set my goals and I’m looking forward to working on a bit of them each day, until the 30 days is up.

Anxiety Gets You Nowhere

Anxiety will keep your brain laser focused on all the threats outside. Update your thinking by updating your thoughts, whatever that looks like for you. All you have in your control are your thoughts about your circumstances. Get excited about how you can use this opportunity for changing habits and updating behavior.

Set Your Goal

To make it easier, come up with one goal for the next 30 days. Because it’s easy and measurable, I will use the example of weight loss. Many of us are over eating right now, unable to get to the gym or our yoga class, and the fridge is RIGHT THERE every day all day. So you’ve got 30 days, or 4.25 weeks. That’s say, an 8 lbs weight loss for the month. Or you can organize all your closets this month. You’ve got 8 (or 5 or 12) closets, that means two per week of it’s 8 closets.

How to Set and Keep Your Goal

Set out your measurable goal. Break it down into bite sized tasks (no pun intended).

If it’s weight loss, what is your plan of attack? Will you be reducing your carbs? Will you be using intermittent fasting to kick start your weight loss? Get specifics what what will change. Then plan for tomorrow. If you’re doing IF (which I do), plan for your window opening and closing tomorrow and stick with it. Plan your meals (and for your family’s if applicable).

If it’s your closets, look at your closets and really catalogue mentally what’s in there . Allow your brain to start working out what should go and what should stay. Allow your brain to work on how to solve what you’ll do with the stuff that needs to go. Will you trash it? Will you put it in the garage to give away? When do you have time to start organizing? Two per weekend? 1 hour per day? Let you brain loose.

Use visualization each morning and night to keep you motivated and focused. Really imagine the scale at the end of the month showing you the new weight. Feel your body and how much better you sleep and how much looser your clothes will be. Really get into it and allow yourself to feel the buzz. Your brain will get to work while you sleep, helping you come up with ways to solve this puzzle.

Think of the closets and how much lighter you’ll feel being able to use the closets quickly and easily and that you’re no longer burdened with items you don’t want. Picture them as complete neat and tidy. Again, your brain will get to work while you sleep, helping you come up with ways to solve this puzzle.

Keep Changing Your Thoughts to Those That Serve You

If your brain comes up with something about how you can’t get it done, notice your thoughts and upgrade the thought. Allow it to be and allow it yourself to acknowledge it as it really it. And then change the thought to one that will serve and empower you, allowing you to feel better.

Rinse. Repeat. Rinse. Repeat. You have 30 days to use. Use them to serve you.

And then do the work. Open and close your IF window. Use the weekend to clean your closets. No excuse. Just do it. It’s 30 days.

You got this!

Enjoy The Journey

Written by Kate • March 27, 2020 •
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In writing yesterday’s post, I was reminded yet again about enjoying the journey. So often, when I was living my life mostly in my head (as opposed to dropping down to feel my heart/body), I often thought that being exhorted to enjoy the journey was just silly Jack Handy nonsense.

But in reality, the journey is even more awesome than the destination. I wrote yesterday about enjoying the journey to increased prosperity but it applies to anything.

“As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.”

― Rumi

As example, weight loss: Sure you may want to weigh 130 lbs. But really even losing 10 lbs is amazing. Understand that each pound, each 5 or 10 lbs lost is an opportunity for savoring the journey, enjoying what you’ve accomplished, and learning about yourself on the path. What have you learned about yourself as you allow yourself to release overeating? [Or course, the presupposes you’re not using willpower to overcome your body- that way lies madness].

Self Isolating through the Coronavirus pandemic- Is there any upsides?

My family and I have been self isolating for two weeks now. The first week I allowed myself to have a lot more avoidant behavior, including overeating and have more drinks than normal. But the second week, I asked my mind to show me the benefits of the isolation. I gave it something to do.

Now, I’m cataloguing all of the ways life is actually sweeter if we have to quarantine. For me, I see how busy I was before. I don’t need to be that busy. We were also spending a lot more money than we needed to on going to dinner. I also realized that having a home yoga practice is something I can and should start. As I mentioned in this post, I’m practicing a set yoga routine and I’m able to follow all the sun salutations (a,b, and c) with increased flow and grace.

I’m also uploading my photos to Flickr and I’m doing my first jigsaw puzzle in 20 years. Slowing down and allowing my mind to slow down. Less distraction, less screen time, more family time and quality time.

I’m so grateful to be amazed about this journey. I take a step on what I think is the path and I am allowing the path to show itself to me. Let’s not resist what is happening.