Druken Blur

With the holiday season upon us and as we rapidly approach another year’s end, what New Year’s resolutions are you contemplating? Since many people are experiencing high levels of anxiety, frustration, and stress, maybe now is a good time to review different ways to improve your emotional, mental, and physical health. Some of the top ways to make a major impact and improvement in your life include significantly reducing: adulterated seed oils (canola, corn, cotton, peanut, safflower, soy, and sunflower), fast foods, tobacco products, and alcohol. Our quality and quantity of life depend on our consistent beliefs, behaviors, and habits that determine our lifestyle. Many people would honestly admit that their level of sadness, sickness, and stress is linked to their choices and decisions, which determine their lifestyle. Instinctively and intuitively, people feel that making better lifestyle choices will help them feel happy, healthy, and in harmony.

After two years of crazy coronavirus conditions, many people are consuming and using more unhealthy products than before they started. One example, in particular, is the significant increase in the consumption of alcohol. In the past, I have avoided discussing in detail the topics of alcohol – the good, the bad, and the ugly associated with excess alcohol consumption. It is important and time to dive deeper into this topic for several reasons. These days it is more important than ever to consciously choose and decide what products to allow into our bodies. We must make better decisions to adopt helpful behaviors and eliminate harmful behaviors that positively impact our emotional, financial, mental, physical, and spiritual health.

This blog will share some simple observations and suggestions to improve your lifestyle and hence the quality of your life. Many people are ready to create a better life in the new year, and now is a terrific time to start thinking about the best ways to do that. When we invest the time to review our life and the results we manifest, we realize that our decisions determine our life. The deception to avoid owning responsibility for your actions and making excuses for your life puts bars, razor wires, and walls around you like a prison, whereas telling the truth will set you free. When you are willing to investigate and implement simple steps, strategies, and suggestions, you may unlock the chains that keep you a slave to unhealthy habits, which prevent you from enjoying the life you deserve and desire. This blog contains some ideas and information to help you realize that alcohol may be a big factor impacting the quality and quantity of your life.

The passion and purpose of Morningstar NEWS are to help people become better informed with simple steps and suggestions to support a happier and healthier lifestyle. Reviewing the previous blog may share some simple suggestions to help you eliminate, moderate, or update your belief systems to update and upgrade your life.

Booze Bottles

Alcohol The Good?

Alcohol is heavily advertised and promoted as good for you and a good thing to celebrate and enjoy life. Cough medicine, mouthwash, and tonics often contain alcohol with claims of multiple benefits. The ads and public relations firms say that a little beer or red wine is good for digestion and health. Red wine has resveratrol, so some suggest it can have antioxidant health benefits. Many home remedy recipes for a cold, cough, or sore throat call for a splash of Bacardi, bourbon, or brandy with other ingredients to make a hot toddy for medicinal reasons. Many believe that a little alcohol can help you relax and sleep better. Many celebrations like anniversaries, birthdays, New Year, and promotions often include an alcoholic beverage or champagne.

We have many associations and belief systems linked to alcohol that directly and indirectly control our life. Many people believe they are more fun, relaxed, outgoing, and socially tuned in when they consume alcohol. Many people believe they are a connoisseur of various alcoholic beverages as they develop their experience, knowledge, and taste buds. For some people, a glass of beer, margarita, or wine with a meal or on vacation may be associated with having a good time and celebrating life. Many people think alcohol helps contribute to a better family meal, favorite food, festive occasion, or friendship. Celebrations, dinners, parties, and New Year’s are linked to alcoholic beverages. Some religions have made alcohol consumption a part of their history and practice. Alcohol has been linked to a reward and right of passage for those turning 18 or 21 and being legally allowed to consume alcohol. If you were old enough to serve in the military and possibly go to war, you were considered old enough to drink alcohol.

The bottom line is that over time we have created a long list of rationalizations, reasons, and related stories about alcohol and how it fits into our enjoyment of life, liberty, and love. The million-dollar question to consider as you transition into the New Year is: how is alcohol harming, hindering, or hurting your quality of life?

Drunk in Despair

Alcohol The Bad

  • Accidents are more likely to occur when your judgment is impaired by alcohol.
  • Alcohol addiction is a significant problem and getting worse.
  • Alcohol is a depressant; if you are already feeling down, you may feel even worse when drinking alcohol.
  • Alcohol has been shown to deplete and reduce vitamin D levels in people, and this can lead to many health issues.
  • Anger is an emotion that Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) says is located in your liver. Alcohol is detoxed in your liver and may trigger anger and other issues.
  • Accelerated beauty loss, aging, and the appearance of wrinkles can be linked to alcohol consumption.
  • Alcohol brainwashing and gateway factors and influences on human behavior include advertising, drugs, marketing, nicotine, peers, social media, and TV. Combined, they are some of the most powerful forces in the universe. Remember to make conscious choices and choose wisely.
  • Bottles of alcohol, beer, and wine contribute to more landfill material, recycling, and trash. Broken bottles are a serious danger and health hazard to many animals and people.
  • Happiness is a state of being most people want to enjoy more. Alcohol is a known depressant, so the chance of it helping you feel happier and healthier is slim to none.
  • Health is heavily dependent on our choices and lifestyle.
  • Hormones are vital to many aspects of our health, life, and reproduction. Alcohol is known to harm our health and hormones.
  • Lifestyle is a key driver to happiness, health, and well-being. Alcohol can and will impact your lifestyle, so making conscious choices are key to your quality of life.
  • Marketing techniques influence your decisions and are a powerful force that shapes your life. Ads, marketing, and public relations propaganda bombard your brain with thousands of messages a day so remember to guard the access to your brain carefully.
  • Money best used for clothes, food, and necessities often gets spent and wasted on alcohol. Investing in long-term amenities and assets is better than alcohol that is peed into the toilet.
  • Nutrition is vital to being happy and healthy. Alcohol provides empty fermented calories that deprive your body of quality calories for natural whole foods.
  • Snoring is often made worse after consuming alcoholic beverages.

AA Big Book

Alcohol The Ugly!

Here are some serious considerations to think about regarding alcohol consumption. Each year’s end may be a great time to review your accomplishments and progress. Starting a new year may be a great time to do some soul-searching and thinking to review your choices and decisions. What areas of your life are being impacted by alcohol consumption, and how do you feel about them?

Here are some specific situations and things to consider to help you create a happier and healthier life:

  • Addictions to alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, shopping, and tobacco have been linked to emotional and mental health issues. One addiction can influence your habits and lead to other addictions. Alcohol, drugs, and tobacco go together like bad dreams and nightmares. Both can influence and lead to increased abuse and use over time.
  • Alcohol addiction, over-consumption, and overuse are major problems and unhealthy habits that can have many unhealthy consequences. Alcohol can contribute to depression, High Blood Pressure (HBP), High Blood Sugar (HBS), and weight gain.
  • Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) was created to help people stay sober, but the numbers in need are increasing rapidly, and the results are limited at best.
  • Binge drinking has dramatically increased and is a serious concern.
  • Brains are especially sensitive and vulnerable to damage from alcohol. Alcohol is a known neurotoxin that can damage and destroy brain cells and neurons.
  • Children grow up seeing commercials for alcohol and seeing their parents consume alcohol which can brainwash them to use alcohol also. Children will role-model their parents and peers and find it hard to resist the temptation of drinking alcohol.
  • Driving Under the Influence (DUI) and Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) are major problems around the world where alcohol is consumed. One mistake could lead to a crash, death, or disability and ruin your life. Many people are convicted every year.
  • Exercise and fitness are important to maintain our health and well-being. Alcohol can quickly reverse and undo the beneficial progress you made. Would it change your thinking if one alcoholic beverage were found to negate 1 hour of exercise?
  • Ingredients used to make alcohol can be a significant health hazard. Genetically Engineered (GE) seeds (corn, wheat), grains containing glyphosate, and High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) are just some of the ingredients to be concerned about.
  • Interactions with antibiotics, medicines, and medical treatments can be a significant concern when consuming alcohol.
  • Judgment is impaired as your alcohol consumption, and blood alcohol levels increase. Many people make bad decisions and stupid mistakes when impaired by alcohol.
  • Kidney and liver cells are affected by alcohol and can be significantly damaged by alcohol consumption.
  • Pregnant women should not consume alcohol during pregnancy to protect the developing child. Unfortunately, many do, and this can harm the child.
  • Profit before people is common in the alcohol industry. The more money you spend and the more you drink, the more money they make and take from you. Drinking responsibly is just a PR tagline to send subliminal messages to drink more, so they make more.
  • Relationships are often sabotaged by alcohol. Many marriages become a trainwreck due to alcohol issues. Many people are sad, sick, and stressed due to alcohol abuse. Many families are harmed due to alcohol abuse.
  • Sleep deprivation and sleep stress are major epidemics. While many people feel alcohol helps them sleep better, it actually harms and hinders their sleep quality. Alcohol starts a chain reaction that can harm the body and brain in many ways.
  • Weight gain is a significant problem for many people that consume alcohol. It is very difficult to lose excess weight while consuming alcohol. Excess weight can lead to diabetes and obesity. Does the term beer belly come to mind?

Contemplating One Day at a Time

Awareness Avoids Alcohol Abuse

  • Avoiding alcohol abuse requires education, determination, inspiration, and motivation. These success strategies can help you avoid alcohol abuse and aggressively limit alcohol consumption.
  • Belief systems determine our relationship to alcohol. What meanings, rules, stories, and thoughts drive your behaviors and habits in relation to alcohol?
  • Human behavior and psychology are complex subjects, and many techniques are available to alter unhealthy behaviors. Using reward and punishment, such as the perfect pain or right reward at the precise moment, is necessary to achieve rapid results. Excess alcohol consumption and smoking are behaviors that can be modified using the appropriate pain and pleasure therapy.
  • Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) are helpful for emotional mastery and directing your beliefs, emotions, and thoughts.
  • Environment plays a key role in influencing your life. Hanging out at bars, beer breweries, honkey tonks, and wineries will influence your alcohol consumption and the type of people you associate with. Your environment plays a major role in alcohol consumption, so create an empowering environment.
  • Hypnosis & Self Hypnosis can be helpful techniques to program our body and brain to avoid or at least reduce alcohol consumption. Many people are being brainwashed and hypnotized to consume alcohol without realizing it. Remember everything you eat, drink, feel, hear, say, see, smell, taste, and touch influences every cell in your body…choose wisely.
  • Identity is the belief system and image you hold regarding all areas of your emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual being. Choose to update and upgrade your identity.
  • Stories are the meaning and message we give to an experience and memory from our past. Stories can help us or hinder us. Changing a disempowering story into an empowering story can change your life. Choose your stories carefully.
  • Vision Boards and Life MAPs (Mastery Action Plans) are like a blueprint for your future. Creating a written blueprint is a great way to create a happy and healthy life. Creating Life MAPs, Mind Maps, and Vision Boards have the potential to help you redesign your life without unhealthy products and substances.

Passion for People & Planet

The passion and purpose of Morningstar NEWS are to condense hundreds of hours of reading and research down to two minutes of education, information, and inspiration. This blog offers simple suggestions to rethink and review your relationship with alcohol to be happier and healthier.

“Our belief systems, decisions, and habits determine our emotional, financial, mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. They determine the level of happiness, health, and harmony we are able to manifest. Remember …you are the king or queen of your castle…choose wisely”. —Michael Morningstar

Joy!

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A Happy New You and A Happy New Year

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