Alcohol is so normal in our culture. Whether we’re meeting friends for dinner, at a BBQ, celebrating a birthday, etc. I can pretty much guarantee you’ll be offered a drink.
But did you ever stop to think WHY you accepted the drink?
If you want to have an alcoholic drink at the end of the day or when meeting with friends and family, by all means enjoy! You’re an adult after all.
But I find most people are afraid of the social impacts of declining the offer. They don’t want to be rude to the host. They don’t want to seem like the fuddy duddy or the kill joy if everyone else is drinking. They don’t want to have to explain their choice to that one guy that insists “oh come on, just one drink won’t kill you”...and that’s just it. There’s so much peer pressure around whether we drink alcohol or not. Everyone assumes if you’re not drinking there MUST be a reason, right? Are you on a diet? Are you pregnant? Did you start taking a new medicine? Do you have a bad relationship with alcohol?
But here’s the thing, none of these things are anyone else’s business. You don’t have to defend yourself if you don’t want to. And I can tell you from experience, eventually people will stop offering and they’ll stop with all the questions as it becomes your new normal.
I’m not suggesting you have to live a sober lifestyle. What I am saying is that if you really stop to think about it, you might notice that you’re drinking more often than you really want to just because someone offered it and not because you really want to.
So practice saying “no thank you” or even better “not right now, thanks”.
Do this experiment the next couple events you attend. What do you notice? Did anything surprise you?
Coach Megan
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