by Julie G., United States
For many years I had what I felt was a strange and challenging relationship with alcohol. I first started drinking as a teenager, when I went to parties at friends’ houses. The first time I drank, the rush was so new to me and felt so ‘freeing’, that I overdid it and got sick. I have been thin all my life, and it never really took much to overdo it, no matter what I drank. One would think that would help me put a stop to drinking ever again, but it didn’t. The feeling I had of being ‘comfortable in my own skin’, to open up and not be shy, seemed to be worth enough that I came back to alcohol again and again all through college and beyond. I had a lot of fun, and I also overdid it a lot and got physically sick and hung over a lot.
As an adult, when I first got married, I kept drinking socially with my husband, mostly only on weekends, and mostly beer. I drank because I had convinced myself that I liked the taste of beer and it just seemed like the thing to do (i.e., if you go to a bar or a restaurant, you drink). I would watch others drink socially and seem to stay sober, but I would get buzzed so easily.
Eventually, I started to notice that when I drank, I didn’t feel like ME. It felt like some other energy was working through my body. I could feel the moment the alcohol was affecting me. It started as a tingling feeling in my legs and arms and everything around me seemed somehow brighter (i.e., lights, colors). Then there was a bit of numbing, sort of like things were softening, and I felt duller, less aware of what was going on. I started to feel like I was poisoning my body and imagined that I could feel the poison working through my veins. I didn’t stop drinking completely, but it became less and less and I would rarely finish a full glass at a meal. The more I would see the effects of alcohol on the people around me, the less I wanted any part of it.
Then, a few years ago I went to a friend’s birthday party in which we spent the night going to various clubs. Other people were buying me drinks and I ended up becoming very drunk… and very sick the next morning. I hadn’t been that sick since college and decided after that experience that I would never drink again. During this same time, my husband was reading one of Serge Benhayon’s purple books and would read excerpts to me. That was my first introduction to Universal Medicine. What he was reading to me felt so true – and surprisingly, so familiar.
About five months later and after reading the book myself, we attended Universal Medicine courses in the UK. I really felt like I had come home, like I was finding the truth, some of which I could feel I already knew, although at the time I didn’t know how I knew. One of the many things that we talked about in the courses was eating and alcohol. It was a confirmation for me to be presented with the possibility that drinking alcohol truly does prevent me from feeling the true ME, and that there was something I was seeking every time I drank – both self-acceptance and the approval of others. Although I had already stopped drinking by this time, I felt that it may not have taken much convincing to have a glass of wine at a celebration or work event on occasion. Learning the truth about what happens in the body when alcohol is ingested was all I needed to make the commitment to never drink again, and now there is no part of me that would choose to drink alcohol no matter what other people are doing around me.
The beautiful thing is that no-one told me not to drink. I was just presented with the impact alcohol has on the body and supported to reflect on why I needed it, and it was my choice to stop altogether. The only attention, reward or recognition I received from stopping was from me: from the relief and tenderness I felt for myself for making a choice out of a desire to care for me.
The Truth about Universal Medicine 
Great to get honest and real and open about what is truly going on and what we are actually choosing for ourselves. It can be raw but in that rawness we are empowered to make true change.
It makes sense to see and feel alcohol as a poison because it chemically changes the body. I never really drank, but on the odd occasion that I tried it, (as a teenager and student in my twenties) I felt the change after just ONE sip. As one sip made my body feel so significantly different I never really wanted to drink at all.
In being honest about how we treat our bodies and how this honestly makes us feel, we then will begin to realise how harmful it is when loveless behaviors impact our well-being and capacity to live with the vitality of our Soulfulness. In developing a loving and honest relationship with our body and being, with the truth that it reflects to us, we discovered that the love we are within is an exquisite quality to be in connection with and how anything that compromises feels uneasy and disruptive in the body. Fact is that alcohol is a poison, but only when we are willing to be honest with ourselves will we be open to consider how we really feel when we do consume alcohol, why we continue to do so do when we knowingly feel the ill effects, and why we are choosing to abuse ourselves.
It took a long time for me to get honest about alcohol and I knew from the beginning that it was not a supportive nor loving thing to do, but did it anyway as my body was rejecting the poison. Many many years further on and thanks to Universal Medicine I have been free from the imprisonment of alcohol for over 11 years. I truly can say they are the best 11 years of my life and waking up and feeling so alive is so worth it.
Overcoming shyness is one of the most common reasons that I hear people use for why they drink alcohol. However as the author discovered, developing self-acceptance and not needing to fit into the crowd is what we truly want and we don’t have to trash our body to get it!
Our body communicates to us constantly. It is about learning to listen and then to heed the communications which can sometimes be very challenging indeed!
Very true Henrietta – we do not always want to hear or more so feel the truth of what our body is communicating. Yet it is only through honesty that we can begin to really live with greater freedom, vitality and connection to the quality of our Soul, which in truth supersedes anything and everything we are doing or choosing to try to avoid feeling the truth.
I was with some people recently who seem to live extremely stressful lives and their de-stressor of choice is alcohol and plenty of it. It gives them a temporary respite from the stress they feel, to the point where it has become a prop for them. I understand this as alcohol was my prop too for many years and was social acceptable because everyone uses it as a de-stressor. I became more aware that actually alcohol is not the answer, as the next day I would wake up feeling out of sorts and it would take a long time to get myself together and I decided in the end it just wasn’t worth it because it doesn’t actually make a difference in fact sometimes alcohol makes life much more difficult.
But surely we already know that? One only has to feel a hang-over, or the sickness to know that we have poured something pretty toxic into our bodies. I mean, put it like this, if we woke up in the morning, with a crashing hangover and sick stomach and we knew that the way we were feeling was because of a food we had eaten the night before, then would we eat it again? No! Or if we did, and it happened again, then we would pretty quickly make sure we never ate that specific food again. My point being that we know that alcohol makes us feel this way, we know it is a poison. Thus we have to go deeper as to why we keep on drinking it. And for me that was when I started to be honest about why I really needed this substance and whether I actually wanted to be the person it turned me in to – it was that conversation with myself that supported me to give up drinking alcohol.
I love the way you describe how you just became more and more aware of the feelings…and had the courage and conviction to follow through with them – not at all easy when faced with the social and peer pressures. An empowering story about the potency of listening to our body.
I have not drunk alcohol for 7yrs. I did not ‘give it up’ as such as it ‘dropped away’. I was a bit like you Julie in that I was more a social drinker, I never really liked it and I was always affected before I had got to the end of my first glass. However, this did not stop me from reaching for the tequila shots, then the whole room would spin and I would vow never to go there again, only to go there again… and again and again. Once I had children I discovered that it is very difficult to parent with a hangover. Also I wanted to meet my children with the same level of love and vitality they met me with. I too found the presentations by Serge Benhayon incredibly supportive in feeling who the true me was and then making adjustments in my daily living to accommodate more of the expression of this. I found the more I built up my inner resources the less I needed the outer crutches to prop me up. I no longer drink alcohol but there are other vices (food, emotions, behaviour) that I still go for to dull me. It is a work in progress but very rewarding.
!! yes. Like you, children were the nail in the coffin of my drinking life! I had already significantly dropped the amount of drinking that I was doing and it was only very, very occasional by the time we had kids…but, put very simply, I just couldn’t face hanging out with my kids with that poison in me. I remember really clearly when I was much younger, sometimes I would come downstairs in the morning having drunk huge amounts the evening before. I would feel so wretched and poisonous and if there was a child in the house I would always stay away from them – unable to handle the reflection of their light and also not wanting to pollute them. So even then, I knew, absolutely knew what I was doing….but it took me a few more years before I finally claimed it in full and changed my ways.
Nothing truly freeing can be overdone and end up making us sick.
I had virtually stopped drinking alcohol by the time I came across Universal Medicine, I didn’t want to put up with feeling tired and ill after drinking, I was feeling anxious much of the time and alcohol didn’t help. When I attended a course and the truth of what happens when we drink alcohol was presented I felt I was given permission to stop when all of my peers drank.
I found it interesting that when I no longer drank alcohol and I was out with friends or relatives they tried to get me to join them. Especially at Christmas or a special event they would want me to have a glass of wine, at least join in a toast and it took a few years for me, and then them, to realise that a toast can be made without alcohol, that it is the appreciation expressed that is the main point and it matters not what is in the glass we drink from. There is also a misconception that everything is less fun without alcohol but with the heightened awareness we have that grows with time when we do not drink alcohol we become clearer and make more connections on all levels which actually allows us, potentially, lots more fun. We actually really begin to enjoy ourselves.
It is so true Julie how with alcohol and other substances like nicotine we override the bodies messages right from the start.
Society is not ready to hear that alcohol is the cause of our many illnesses and that it completely alters our state of being. Until we really understand the truth of what happens to the body and be willing to feel how much harm it does to us, the need for alcohol will continue to rise, as people use alcohol to numb themselves from the truth of what is really happening in their lives.
In exposing that drinking was to self-accept and seeking for the acceptance of others, it’s awesome to ask what other choices in life do we do this?
This is a great line! “The only attention, reward or recognition I received from stopping was from me: from the relief and tenderness I felt for myself for making a choice out of a desire to care for me.” Alcohol is violent by nature. I was always aggressive even though I seemed a ‘happy drunk’ having a good time. It was very abusive to my body and once alcohol was in my system there was no stopping me… I can feel the same behaviours today. It is the world of difference to tenderly take care of yourself squashing any need of alcohol to disrupt the harmony.
Being aware of what our body is communicating through our consumption of food is a great motivator in cutting out things that don’t support us. It seems much more sustaining this way rather than applying a blanket rule or using will power alone.
You have hit the proverbial nail on the head here in your last paragraph when you talk about the fact that information was presented to you, and then you felt for yourself what was true for you (or not) and then in this case you decided to act on the information. That is one of the amazing things about Universal Medicine, there is no trying to get you to do anything, convince you of anything, etc…. Natalie and Serge Benhayon present a way of living and series of universal truths, and then it is up to each person to feel what that means for them, and then if they so choose, to integrate it into their own lives, in their own way and to the best of their ability.
In my experience, once I experienced in detail exactly what alcohol was doing to me, the desire simply disappeared. It wasn’t worth the pain.
Thank you Julie, when we make a decision based on truly caring for ourselves, and with understanding of why we chose certain things like drinking alcohol, we don’t have to continually use willpower, it’s more like love-power 🙂 which brings a lasting change. If feels so great to preciously love and care for ourselves that nothing can offer us more than our own love.
I can remember when I didn’t want to look at why I was drinking alcohol and the thought of stopping wouldn’t even be something I thought was on the cards. But once I played around and tried not drinking for a bit I really got to feel what it was doing to the quality of how I felt and my body. I am now over 10 years not drinking and it is the best thing that I have ever done for myself.
It’s very interesting how so many of us have stories of our first drink that would tell us that our body did not like it, yet we find that sense of non inhibition so attractive that we train ourselves to drink ‘like everyone else’. Behaving in the way we would not dream of if we were sober is a classic. So, it’s quite obvious we are not being ourselves when drunk, and life often gets blamed for us wanting to not be our usual selves. It makes so much sense, alcohol would leave us when we start taking responsibility for our own life, rather than when we tell ourselves we should not be drinking.
Yes, especially when we can feel it in our body. That makes it simple.
I stopped drinking when I had a glass of wine in my hand and I could feel what would happen over the next 12 hours with me and I didn’t feel that it was worth it and I just let alcohol go.
Thank you for helping us understanding more about our behavior around alcohol and what it truly does and the effect it has on our body and physiological well-being. For those who drink alcohol, or have been, or never have, this science applies. For it takes only honesty with ourselves and our behaviors to understand and see what the real effect of alcohol on your whole body and being is.
Its not until we really start caring for ourselves that we can feel the harm that alcohol is doing to us. With increasing awareness it becomes obvious that drinking alcohol is actually a form of self abuse.
I had to get to the point where alcohol scared me. I would have huge blanks of what happened and it was terrifying. Not until I felt that in my body did I have a marker to say ‘hey this is not OK’ – it had to be felt by me, And now I don’t even consider it.
I had very similar experiences and feelings when I drank alcohol as well. As I was reading I was feeling how this was also similar for me when I drank coffee. I could feel the moment when the caffeine kicked in and basically took me out of my body, I quite literally experienced a high. What’s different now is that how I feel is worth way more that the temporary high of alcohol, coffee or whatever or medication of choice is. But in everything it comes back to how we are with ourselves and what we are willing to see and feel in each moment.
Yes, those highs aren’t even pleasant any more.
Your relationship with alcohol closely mirrors my own. I was always aware that alcohol changed me but up until my 30s I had felt this was a good thing as my level of self love was very low. When I began to value myself and recognise my sensitivity and sweetness it felt horrible to squash it with alcohol. This made it very easy to stop consuming it and to stop it from consuming me.
When we are presented with Truth, the answer is in our body and the choice is always ours.
What I felt while reading this and reflecting on when I used to drink alcohol, was that even before I started to drink I didn’t feel like me. I felt or rather knew I was not connecting to the real me and instead being a certain way to fit in. ‘Eventually, I started to notice that when I drank, I didn’t feel like ME.’ However, through knowing Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine I am feeling more of the true me moment by moment .. no alcohol needed.
Drinking alcohol is a form of self-abuse though many are not yet ready to accept this fact. The evidence is clear and fully available for those open to seeing it.
I read that alcohol is now linked by scientific evidence to 7 different cancers – for something considered so normal it’s a very dangerous substance to ingest.
Although I had already been reading Serge Benhayon’s books and felt the deep familiarity and knowingness of what he presented about ‘The Way it Is’. It was my partner Julie G. who truly inspired me to stop drinking alcohol through her own determination to not allow the poison that alcohol is to her body, and knowing how much it was also a devastating poison to our relationship. There is no amount of alcohol that can numb our hurts enough to make them go away. Only an honest openness and surrender to our true inner self and commitment to heal with self-love can do that. It is a wonderful thing to know that I will never go to alcohol or drugs again in this life, or any one thereafter thanks to my wife and Serge Benhayon. This comment was written with permission from my partner Julie Goodhart.
Thank you Michael, we often see an expression of love in a relationship being a gift, flowers or saying the words “I love you”, but what a gift you gave Julie by sharing Serge’s book and what a gift Julie gave to you by increasing her love for herself to let go of alcohol. Julie’s self love was able to inspire that same love in you. It’s beautiful how love works.
I can relate to this story as my relationship with alcohol was much the same, as was my decision to give it away. One of the many things I have been inspired to explore through the presentations of Universal Medicine is my relationship with my body. It is very beautiful to feel and be guided by the truth our bodies, and furthermore to trust the messages that it sends us, as ultimately this relationship is what supports us to live the vitality of who we really are.
Having the truth of something explained as an objective reality, such as alcohol is a poison, can greatly help one to choose and live that truth when so much of society appears to communicate and/or condone an un-Truth.
“The only attention, reward or recognition I received from stopping [alcohol] was from me: from the relief and tenderness I felt for myself for making a choice out of a desire to care for me.” The greatest recognition there is, is the appreciation of oneself.
I observe intently in how people change when they drink. Sometimes appearing sober I would pick up signs of also encasing oneself in smallness and limitation which feels unaccepting but self chosen.
Alcohol is devastating to our being, one of the greatest poisons we can allow into ourselves. It is not the physical drink of alcohol as such, but the energetic ramifications that occur from drinking it, that we are deliberately choosing to be ignorant about as a society, much to our collective demise.
When we feel our bodies and the truth of who we are, we begin to see old behaviours and habits melt away. It is in the movements and how we live each day that we can build more love and live in a way that not only supports us but holds us to deepen our relationship with self even more.
I agree that although I was never told what to do in regard to drinking, I was informed in great detail of the impact both physically and energetically, that alcohol has on the body and from that point onward, I knew that no matter the circumstance, I would never drink. Although I did push the envelope a couple of times and managed to feel the truth of what Serge was presenting. I don’t actually enjoy the feeling of being out of control, I want to be me, not trade myself over for any old lost spirit to jump inside and have a ride.
That’s interesting that you found your first sip of alcohol freeing, I remember my first taste and feeling myself go fuzzy and knowing something was very wrong. I also remember my last sip and knowing I’d never drink again, truthfully it scared me the feeling of immediately loosing control and it scared me how different my friends were and knowing that probably happened to me too.
I will never drink alcohol again, just like I did get very sick and had terrible hangovers but I repeated this ill pattern time after time, I did not love myself enough to say stop this is enough. Reading the books of Serge Benhayon, doing the Gentle Breath Meditation and eventually meeting Serge Benhayon and attending courses of Universal Medicine has changed my life and made me aware of ‘why would I not want to be here, why would I poison my body, why would I join?. Starting to love myself more and feeling who I truly am was the end of drinking alcohol and other unhealthy patterns and at the same time the beginning of loving myself, loving life, loving people.
Alcohol reflects that the way we live is not working…for if we felt amazing the last thing we would want would be to alter or numb that.
“The beautiful thing is that no-one told me not to drink” – me neither Maree, i can’t even remember the time when i took my last alcoholic drink… because it wasn’t a focused mantra as in “today i’m stopping drinking” [like i used to do during Lent and stop eating chocolate for example], .. it happened completely naturally one day as if i lost any taste for it; that to have any alcohol even in food would be something surreal or bizarre. To drink wouldn’t even feature in my mind or thoughts (and this is when i used to binge drink Friday nights to celebrate the end of the working week). What I do know is that this change happened after I attended a Universal Medicine level 2 course where we spoke about energetic integrity in healing and this responsibility in relation to what comes through our own body towards another’s body.. and maybe on a deep cellular level my body called me back into remembrance of this healing truth, and how come no longer drinking alcohol was never a big deal, or any effort. The body is amazing its knowing.
I stopped drinking for the same reasons and in the same way. I noticed I didn’t feel like me when I drank, even from the first mouthful. I would feel the intense tingling, buzzing and other-worldliness that felt like a warning to stop.
It is fascinating the way we can so easily enjoin others in their indulgences and ill behaviours in order to feel accepted and that we belong, this is such an illusion as it destroys and poisons our bodies and the only way that we will feel complete is when we embrace and care for our bodies with the love that we deserve.
Yes we have fallen for such a compromised version of oneness which today is to enjoin others in misery really…not the true oneness we are from at all which is joyful, magnificent and heavenly.
All of what you share Julie is similar to my own experience of drinking alcohol… and if back then I was to know what I know today having ceased drinking because of the effects, then I would never have started in the first place.. the trouble is, is that when I first started drinking I already knew it was awful, my body told me, but I was not strong in myself to withstand the social/peer pressure. The more you know yourself, who you truly are and are supported in this by those around you.. the less damage you end up doing to yourself.
I recognise so much of my own experience in what you share here Julie, I ‘taught’ myself to drink so I could fit in with my friends, but I really never handled it very well and I hated how I felt the next day, but I kept with it for a number of years because that’s what my friends and social circle did. To be clear, no one forced me to drink, but I decided the only way I could be with people was to drink with them … when I came to my early thirties, I naturally began to drink less and eventually one evening some friends bought me a drink and suddenly a light bulb went off and the thought was there, ‘but you don’t like this’, and I remembered how I’d trained myself to do it, to overcome the taste (lots of mixers) and in that moment I just stopped and I’ve never drunk since. And yes at times it’s been awkward socially, but the more I was clear about how I felt in me the easier it became. The understanding I got when I came across Universal Medicine brought another layer to it, for me to see how in fact you don’t feel yourself when you drink (something I’d always felt) and it was great to have this confirmed and to know how this works energetically, that you’re not you when you drink alcohol, that you’ve opened a door wide for other energies to enter you, so you are no longer yourself … this was the missing piece in my understanding.
Our bodies are vessels for the divine so it makes no sense that we choose to ingest anything that will poison the essence of what we are made of, and it is only until we realise this fact that we can stop the self-abuse and start to honour and care for our bodies the way that we truly deserve.
From the age of 17 through to when I stopped drinking which was around 9 years ago I can honestly say that I did not feel like I was connected to me. I many not have been a huge drinker but there were weekends of indulgence and excess and then most nights one or two glasses of wine. I never really gave myself the space to connect to myself on a deeper level as I was taking myself away with the alcohol.
“The beautiful thing is that no-one told me not to drink. I was just presented with the impact alcohol has on the body and supported to reflect on why I needed it, and it was my choice to stop altogether. The only attention, reward or recognition I received from stopping was from me: from the relief and tenderness I felt for myself for making a choice out of a desire to care for me.” – Julie this is beautiful and a very heartfelt way to give up alcohol – in other words, you feeling the impact on your body and knowing that you were no longer wanting to compromise your wellbeing!
“Eventually, I started to notice that when I drank, I didn’t feel like ME.” – a very revealing statement and a reason why many people drink alcohol – they feel inadequate in social situations or feel like they don’t have the confidence to socialise and so the use the alcohol as a means to bring that so called confidence and adequacy…but who are you then? And who is everyone else then? I certainly used to dislike how alcohol made me feel as I could not feel myself at all and it felt like someone else was running the show and this someone was not someone who respected or cared for my body and me! I was so sensitive to this effect that I only ever tried drinking alcohol a couple of times and even then could only handle 1/2 a beer or 1/2 glass of champagne before I wanted ‘out’ from this awful feeling. Now at least I have a better understanding of what was actually taking place and would not go near alcohol ever again!
No amount of people telling us to quit alcohol will ever work. We have to come to a space within ourselves to make that decision ourselves.
We often know what’s supportive and un-supportive for our body, yet when it comes to the decision we still eat/drink/do things that physically disturb us and our body’s chemistry. It is fact that alcohol is a poison and a huge contributor to liver cancer cases, yet we still choose to drink it? There has to be something else going on, and another reason why alcohol is consumed because even if it was plainly a ‘socialising opportunity’ we would still – being an ‘intelligent’ society – consider the effects… Perhaps..
It’s amazing to be open to everything and then from there discern for yourself what feels true. This is exactly how Universal Medicine operates, unlike the way it has been perceived or lied about in the media. There is a resistance from people to want to look beneath the surface of their choices….for those willing to go there…it’s worth it.
If we have convinced ourselves that any form of alcohol is acceptable and even enjoyable we have really left our body behind and have given allegiance to the mind, which happens often, because life does not support us to truly be caring of ourselves.
Quitting alcohol or any other self distructive behaviour becomes a lot easier once we re-connect with ourselves because in that re-connection we feel the beauty of who we are.
I had that feeling of coming home too, at my first Universal Medicine course. It was extraordinary beautiful at the same time very familiar. I knew that I had returned to what I always new but had strayed away from for eons.
“Learning the truth about what happens in the body when alcohol is ingested was all I needed to make the commitment to never drink again, and now there is no part of me that would choose to drink alcohol no matter what other people are doing around me.” – when we truly and deeply feel and understand something, and we know to never do this again, then the lesson is truly learned, and we get to realise that there are no mistakes, but only learnings.
Hello Julie, and thank you for an honest and open sharing of your experience with alcohol. I recall already as a child observing and watching how people changed when they had some alcohol. They were no longer the same, and most of them seemed to become actors and behaved completely differently, in a way that was sometimes silly or sometimes a little scary. I can’t say it ever made me feel safe to see this transformation in people. And then when I was old enough to drink, I recall trying it and finding it not only tasted awful, but it also made me feel really unwell, even just a few mouthfulls. It was bad enough for me to pretty much skirt around it and avoid drinking most of my teenage years, though I did have the occasional sip (1-2 mouthfuls) to feel like I could fit in with some friends. I used to find it sad that people could not have fun and entertain themselves without alcohol, and my weak spot was not the alcohol, but the need to fit in with friends. Giving up alcohol completely was not difficult for me, but what was hard was for me to accept that some people had trouble coming to terms with that and accepting me as non-drinker. But over time many have gotten used to it, and no one really bothers to pester me about a drink anymore…and if anything it has a very sobering effect on others!
Being 28 a lot of people my age drink, and working in a restaurant that does an unlimited alcohol offer, people my age can drink A LOT. I’ve been there before and it seems like fun at the time but feels horrible the next day. What I love about going out sober is that my connections and friendships have a chance to go deeper. Whereas with drinking we only separate from each other.
I would rather see life for all that it is, and feel its tension, and disorder rather than not see it by using alcohol to escape – at least if we are feeling honest and clear we have something to work with whereas drinking can bury our issues.
The impact of alcohol is so much greater than hangovers, domestic violence, car injuries and death, heart disease and obesity. As if all of this wasn’t enough, the impact is your connection with yourself is gone, and that is the greatest of all follies.
So great to get honest about what these currently ‘accepted as normal’ practices are doing to our bodies. And what our lives become because of that – not so harmless after all!
Spot on Jenny – in our society we can normalise so much, including drinking alcohol, yet when we feel what harm it does, not just to our own body, but also to our behaviours and how it can impact on all those around us, we get to see that it is not that harmless after all.
During my college years and growing up in my teenage years I never drank, but the pressure to do so from others was really intense. I would find all manner of ways to halt the onslaught. Their discomfort as seeing my choice to not drink made them feel guilty and they wanted to alleviate this feeling. The drinking culture is enormous and to not enjoin with it is seen as bizarre and not normal… yet, what is normal about making ourselves vomit and be ill through poisoning ourselves?
That’s a great story. I remember when I gave up drinking, it as funny because it felt like a no brainer. I could never really be bothered, and spent my whole drinking career trying to find a drink I actually enjoyed….but really enjoyed, not just one I could tolerate the taste of. And not only that, i simply didn’t see the point, so one day after a conversation with a friend around that she stopped drinking…I felt the absolute freedom in the choice to do the same.
Alcohol is deeply entrenched in our society as a social thing to do. Not many events are run these days without some kind of alcohol and it doesn’t feel likely to change any time soon. Although a way to look at this is, there is a different way and there are many who are living in a way now that is reflecting that life doesn’t have to revolve around alcohol.
Alcohol is an obvious substance which causes separation within oneself, and harms the Body as well as harming others – something not as obvious however is music. We are easily fooled by sweet melodies and hooking lines, riffs and tunes, but don’t realise the effects these emotional expressions are having on our bodies – which are not made to be emotional but observational and clear.
When we drink any amounts of alcohol we truely are not us. I too can recall being so drunk one night that all my senses were gone/lost and I felt like a puppet on a string being controlled by something else. And the following day struggling to put the pieces of puzzle together as to what I had got up to and thinking it was a cool night. I shudder at the thought I had once put my body through this.
Alcohol is only one substance, used to escape the intensity around us and more and more drinks are coming into the market that either leaves us senseless or stimulated (and as the saying goes), we ‘don’t know whether we are Arthur or Martha’.
More and more people are using toxins to avoid feeling the pressures they’ve placed themselves under, an avoidance of truely being in their own company.
It’s evident that to cope in society we have learned to cloud our innermost feelings and enjoin whatever is popular – you could say it is a way of survival. But when pondering and asking ourselves the deeper questions – and we are free of the clouding then this is where we make every loving choice back to reclaim our knowing of our Soul.
What I love about this sharing is the natural relationship you developed with your body that was deep enough to say no to what did not support you. That is just awesome. I have been told in the past not to drink and when that has happened, I never truly stopped because I was told. It has only been through having my own personal experiences with alcohol (and it took a fair few times) that I was able to come to my body saying ‘this isn’t supporting me anymore’. Universal Medicine has never told me what to do, it has only ever presented the possibility that our bodies tell us things all the time, and by listening my relationship continues to deepen.
I used to drink heavily as an escape, medication and to hide who I was. The illusive, less tense, more open/ hyper/excited feeling I would be in when I drank was an alteration of who I truly was. It was a pretense and control of being open but not by first accepting what I felt was a rejection of the world, and the judgment I have on myself convinced me I have to drink so as to disregard these feelings as I judged the world to the bad. So drinking is a cover up to truly address these issues, of what affects me in the world, and of how I affect the world by hiding, it is something very uncomfortable to feel, so alcohol is used to completely numb all of this self-chosen cycle of ignorance.
Having your own recognition and no one else’s to care and love yourself is the beginning of knowing that our love within is our only true confirmation in life.
It’s actually very lovely and enriching to honour your body and being and do what really feels true for you and when things are let go of from that place it’s not a deprivation but a gain.
Alcohol is a toxic poison and is extremely harmful to our health and wellbeing.
‘The only attention, reward or recognition I received from stopping was from me: from the relief and tenderness I felt for myself for making a choice out of a desire to care for me.’
Is a very profound statement – also showing that the power of stopping certain things that are damaging must come from within and can not come from someone else.
Also showing us what can come in the place of the alcohol that is: care and tenderness! Who does not want that?
Powerful blog and coming from the inside out of what you chosen for you to be true.
As you say – the more you see the effects of alcohol on those around you, the less you want to have to do with it. I was at an epic party last night, but it reached a point (fairly early on) where the whole energy of the place changed and suddenly it was not quite so welcoming or fun. Alcohol was the main culprit…
To think we used to think that it was the alcohol that made a great party and now we realize that alcohol is actually a party popper!!!
Many people I know are in denial of the fact that they are alcoholics, this is super common. Just because they do not go out and drink and party, they think that their bottle of wine every night over dinner is a socially acceptable way of drinking…this is pure illusion and coming from a place of not wanting to take responsibility for why they need to drink every evening.
Or being too afraid to ask the question of why they need to drink every evening
I remember when I thought connecting to people and having open conversations could happen through drinking alcohol – fact is, I could never remember the conversations or sometimes even the people after! Connection, openness and being ourselves is natural and if we have to drink a glass of poison and load up on sugar to think we are doing that then we really have to look at where we are at as a society at large and what we are accepting as normal.
It is crazy that drinking is so socially accepted by millions of people but if you choose to be loving and caring for yourself you are looked upon as being strange or different form the ‘norm’.
“from the relief and tenderness I felt for myself for making a choice out of a desire to care for me.”
Interesting that you used the word relief, I don’t hear it expressed like that very often but it is so true. It is a relief when you make choices to care for yourself because it is our natural way to do that, and when we dont, and we go against the grain, there is a tension created in the body. And then when you do, there is the relief. So imagine if we naturally took care of ourselves, there is less energy spent on the tension of not doing it and then the relief of doing it.
It’s interesting how we don’t like alcohol when we first drink it, yet because our friends are drinking it we override everything our body is telling us and end up convincing ourselves that we actually like it, however was our body not actually telling us something super important, that alcohol is a poison and the body has to work overtime to deal with it, and then cannot process the everyday things it needs to deal with too?
When we eat a food that makes us sick and feel terrible we choose not to eat it again. So why is it that we do not apply the same logic to drinking something that can make us sick and feel terrible? I feel so much freer having made the simple choice to no longer drink alcohol.
I also do not drink alcohol as I do not like what it did to my body. It is a poison that is why women who are pregnant are not allowed to drink alcohol as this would have an negative effect on the foetus. So in a way we chose to harm ourselves if we drink alcohol and we can feel it afterwards and because I do not like to harm myself consciously I stop drinking it.
Someone I knew a while back got in contact with me and two others by email to say they were an alcoholic and they were now in therapy and part of the therapy was to contact all the people they knew and apologise for their behaviour. There is no judgment from me, I used to drink loads at one point too it was part and parcel of the sales environment I was working in. What I did feel reading the email was that the therapy would not get to the nub of the reason why this person drank so heavily and I expressed this in an email back to them, that was it possible that they drank because they are extremely sensitive living in a world that does not cherish sensitive people so drinking alcohol is a way of numbing or masking how we truly feel?
It is very common to associate alcohol with freedom. Alcohol frees me from … X. So, I feel better after drinking it. This is typical. The truth though is that alcohol does not free anybody from anything. All it does is offer temporary relief from life and from ourselves. And, even that has some glamour. We get together and we all get relief from life, from ourselves and from each other together. Drinkers are heavily dependent on alcohol (hence they cannot easily free themselves from it) and by the illusion that alcohol frees them. To stop drinking is not just a physical action. It also requires saying NO to a series of false images we have bought into about life.
Isn’t it interesting, that there are choices in life that we make that are for the good of our bodies, and no one seems to pay much attention, but if we act recklessly drunk and make choices that harm us on a weekly basis, we get all the attention in the world…even praise at times for being so out of control. Baffling.
I stopped alcohol a few years ago and frankly I don’t miss it. I find it interesting how people respond when I share that I don’t drink alcohol anymore and I often hear them say, ‘oh I can’t live without my beer or my wine’- yet they don’t question why they need it in the first place.
I enjoy going to a party and wake up the following day with no consequences, I still have fun and remember everything about the evening. I can honestly say I can truly enjoy a party or social gathering without alcohol because you see the real me having real fun.
Whilst you began drinking for the approval of others… you stopped drinking for the love of yourself – this is significant.
If we connected to our bodies and truly honoured what they shared with us we would not drink or eat most of the things we do. I always felt the alcohol running through my veins like a poison, I never could say I loved it or even enjoyed it. I only used it to loosen up and be more sociable or so I thought.
For me, I am becoming more aware of anything that alters my natural state of being. When something sugary is running through my blood, I feel light headed and yuck, the same way alcohol use to affect me. It just feels so much better to be myself.
To make wise and self loving choices, e.g. to stop drinking alcohol, is very supportive and empowering. As you have clearly pointed out Julie we cannot be, or connect to ourselves, whilst drinking alcohol.
I remember very clearly making the decision at the age of thirteen to drink alcohol, to go through what seemed to be a rite of passage and get myself drunk in order to feel I belonged. I remember how disgusting the alcohol felt and how disgusting I felt – and yet, I had such a longing to be part of the cool group in school, to be liked and cherished, that I did the same thing again and again. I remember going home, heavy and feeling awful after a night drinking and feeling the emptiness inside I was so desperately trying to avoid and fill up with the grog and the semblance of the connection I was longing for from others.
Alcohol preys on our sadness, on the deep seated emptiness that is there when we are connected to the warmth of our inner heart. We desperately want to belong, to be liked, loved in fact, and we join in the bandwagon of something that certainly for me, never felt right in the first place.
I can relate to having the sense of feeling ‘free’ when I first began to drink alcohol. What I realise now is that this was because I was escaping from the reality, escaping the tension of avoiding being honest about how I was truly feeling, how I was living in the world and how the world was living. A false sense of ‘freedom’ that was never truly free, as alcohol was needed to facilitate this illusory sense. And this false sense of ‘freedom’ never lasted long as the next day it was often the case of the tension, the unsettlement I was trying to escape was even more present with the added effect of feeling ill from alcohol poisoning. I now have discovered that we can never be free from the tension, which is, in fact, our guide, our call from our Soul, the truth of who we are, reminding us to return to live in connection to who we are in essence. And when we embrace truth we are guided to live in a way, in connection to our essence, which is far more liberating with the side effects of joy, vitality and far greater love lived.
I never drank much alcohol but I certainly felt the affects of it and thought `I enjoyed it until I started to really focus my awareness on myself and how I felt when I drank and I became more aware of the energy around alcohol. It has been many years now that I have left it behind and I have to say it is one of the best things I have done for myself. I feel so much clearer and alive and connected to myself with a confidence that is pure and not the false one induced by spirits, wine or beer.
When we make a decision that comes entirely from us, we are empowered and are able to appreciate and enjoy everything that choice offers us and brings thereafter.
We have loads of evidence showing the damage of alcohol and yet it is still socially acceptable to drink. So how does it make Serge’s presentations on lifestyle choices different? He shares how he lives and shares the results. They are not rules or instructions to follow but leading by example and inspiration.
I can very much relate to that ‘freeing’ feeling and being comfortable in my own skin under the influence of alcohol. It was like I could let go of my guard and relax. Very interesting to read the description of how you perceived your body was being affected, and it makes me wonder what is the thing that gets ‘freed’ and relaxed when we drink alcohol. It definitely doesn’t look like that is what our body experiences.
I am 110% with you Julie. Giving up alcohol is one the greatest acts of love towards myself. It has lead to so much more positive progressive activity in my life.
And I am with you Rik. The degree of clarity, vitality and general sense of well-being I am now living with is off the charts since giving up alcohol, as is the loving relationship with myself, my body and life that continues to enrichen, as do the quality of relationships I share. So much so that I can honestly say that there is not one thing I miss about drinking alcohol, in fact my body shudders at the thought. And I have to go with my body these days, for now I know that this marker of truth has my best interests at heart.
I knew alcohol was not good for me. Just the smell and the taste was like getting a gallon of petrol and swigging it down. It did not belong inside of me. Yet that didn’t stop me from doing it, until I came to see I had a choice and that it truly didn’t have to be this way. Today I have the same sense about being angry or being harsh – it’s a foreign element, an alien package of emotion I can consume – but that’s not true for me to have. I have a choice here too – it’s something I no longer want to do. It does not belong to my body, my day or my life. Thank you Julie for reminding me I have all I need to change my life.
When I learnt about the effects of alcohol on the body in Science class, it confirmed all I knew – that alcohol was a poison and an absolute attack on the body.
Images are a killer. There is probably nothing more incarcerating than alcohol and yet, there is this image of freedom about it.
When we are presented with so many mirrors, so many reflections that say ‘this is the thing you do’, it takes a solid foundation of inner strength and knowing to actually discern if that thing, that activity is in fact, the thing that ‘we’ would choose to do ourselves.
How often do the inner alarm bells go off, and we ignore them? How often do our bodies buckle and strain with the consequence of such denial?
And so it goes… until we honour ourselves as you have here Julie, from: “…making a choice out of a desire to care for me.”
One cannot deny the power of the reflections around us, and then how it takes but one man or woman who has chosen another way, to make the enormity of difference…
The picture you paint of a relationship with alcohol is a common one – and a horrible one. When we can look at it objectively, it all seems crazy – yet it is something many people will vehemently defend. Quite crazy really.
Alcohol used to be a big part of my social events, however the more that I filled my life with things that brought a fullness and the more that I developed deeper connections with others and valued myself, how I was feeling and my wellbeing the alcohol just dropped away naturally and no longer fitted with this.
I remember really disliking the taste of alcohol when I first tried it and this seems to mirror the experience of so many teenagers. I was pulled into the drinking scene by the perceived glamour and desire to be included into something so grown up. I didn’t like the taste or the feeling of being drunk. It is a very powerful substance that makes so many persist until it can become part of the daily menu.
I completely agree with what you have shared in how alcohol affects the body, it is essentially a poison running through the veins. The very reason hangovers exist tells us that it is not harmonious or nurturing for our body, which is why I was completely dumbfounded when a friend of me shared on her Facebook page something called ‘beer yoga’. Yep it is exactly as it sounds women drinking bottles of beer whilst doing yoga. This totally bastardises the true impulse of yoga which is reconnecting to ourselves as during the same time beer is being drunk to .. disconnect. It astounds me the different concepts that are come up with just to keep us away from our truth, the fact that this has been ‘invented’ shows just how far away we are as humanity from living all that we truly are.
The tingling sensation in my body especially in my arms and shoulders was when I started to question the effects of alcohol on my body. I felt weak and drained after drinking a small amount and then it was a gradual process of cutting it out altogether. No-one told me to stop drinking and as I adjusted to accepting that alcohol was no longer for me others began to accept my choice too.
I just always go back to the analogy of animals when it comes to humans relationship with food and alcohol. So often we go into patterns with food and alcohol that we know truly don’t support us yet we see that we are an intelligent race, but sometimes we need to question the intelligence that convinces us that this is just normal. As animals, if they ate or drank something that had an impact on the body similar to junk food or alcohol, they wouldn’t go back to it, yet we do. What is the intelligence that normalises this?
It is all about becoming aware that when we drink alcohol we are actually numbing our bodies and opening them up for energies that do not belong to us to enter and have play with us. To me, I have to admit that I was always aware of this fact but because of me ignoring this and to choose to live irresponsible I had to continue mostly to numb the pain I was feeling in my body because of not living the beautiful man I now know and appreciate that I am. And to be this, I do not need any substance to alter my mind, as in fact it takes me away from that yumminess I now am feeling in my body wherever I go, the yumminess of living that delicacy and tenderness in this male body through which I give expression to this inner quality that is so much needed in our nowadays societies.
When our decision to quit alcohol comes from being honest about what this substance truly does to us, no willpower or resolve is needed – quitting is just the logical next step, a bit like cancelling a subscription to something we no longer want in our life.
Alcohol is such a deceptive substance. People think it gives them the necessary extra boost after a hard day’s work, to lift (albeit artificially) a celebration or even to drown your sorrows, and are all activities considered socially acceptable in today’s world. But, we also need to start to be honest about the damage alcohol does to our human bodies, our relationships and its collective impact within our homes and society as a whole.
“Learning the truth about what happens in the body when alcohol is ingested was all I needed to make the commitment to never drink again, and now there is no part of me that would choose to drink alcohol no matter what other people are doing around me.” If only we were all able to know and realise this and choose the same it would make the most enormous difference to the world. When coming to Universal Medicine it was beautiful to feel I was normal and it was true all that I felt about alcohol in my body and the realisation that not drinking alcohol myself was my true and loving choice always.
I attended a first aid course yesterday, and the trainer presented that one of the most common causes of seizures is alcohol and drugs. If this is such a commonly known fact it is a wonder why anyone would choose to drink at all. If we care for ourselves even just a tiny bit we would not want to put ourselves in such a position.
It is a beautiful thing when we make wise and loving choices for ourselves; I love the simplicity and power of what you have expressed here Julie;
“The beautiful thing is that no-one told me not to drink. I was just presented with the impact alcohol has on the body and supported to reflect on why I needed it, and it was my choice to stop altogether”.
We cannot be ourselves in truth whilst drunk – yet, use every excuse, justification and rationalisation to convince ourselves that the behaviours displayed when drunk are a part of who we are.
Great point Kylie, I used to always say there is no point in trying to reason with someone who is drunk, you end up going around and around in circles because they are so far away from themselves at this point.
I can just feel the power here of not being told what to do – our minds will go agains what we can’t have -but if we feel something in our bodies and let our bodies decide, then this is very empowering. For example – I get very stubborn if someone tells me I can’t eat something – but if I come to it based on my own unfolding relationship then I feel totally different about it. Recently I let go of sugar and it was easy because my body could not handle it any more – it didn’t come from me watching a documentary about it or getting told to quit it – it came from being inspired to say ‘whats next’
We are so used to someone else telling us what to do. We can bemoan this behaviour and that they never let up – but the uncomfortable fact is that we are often the ones asking for this. For when someone sits back and lets you find out and see how you feel about something yourself, you start to realise your body knew the truth all along, but had just been hiding this fact deep beneath ‘experts’, teachers and friends advice. Your insights with alcohol Julie could easily be applied to everything else. Thank God for Serge Benhayon and those who truly respect others space to learn and find out for themselves.
It’s fairly obvious that alcohol is a poison and yet we insist on ingesting it and it is considered ‘normal’. The horrific rates of domestic violence and child abuse that occur as a result of alcohol intoxication show the true nature of this substance. We don’t think abuse is normal ‘even though it is very common) so why is it ‘normal’ to drink?
I love the description you give of what happened in your body when you drank. Maybe if we would apply more awareness we would get to discover that we feel more than we think.
It is not until you truly stop outside of something, that you often get to see it for what it is.
I wonder how many people have convinced themselves they like beer, wine or to drink alcohol at all?
It is very different when we stop a behaviour because we care for ourselves and have taken the time to feel into the effects of the behaviour and what it really does to the body we live in. No willpower is required when we just know and are honest enough to acknowledge and act on it.
In the end stopping an addiction is all in our own hands, no one is able to affect this choice. And so the only one that can truly benefit from and celebrate this choice to stop is ourself. It is the choice that is from our inner heart, reimprinting our ways and thus being able to stop.
No one can convince us to give up alcohol, cigarettes or drugs. It has to be a choice that comes from us being willing to take responsibility for our health, to honour and love our body and who we are, this is what will truly support us to let go of these unloving choices and the consciousness behind it.
You are so right, alcohol is a poison for the body and there have been many many times I have felt ill from drinking and my body has felt completely battered. Looking back now I know I drank alcohol because ‘it was the thing to do’ but I also drank too much because at the time I found it easier to abuse myself than to love myself and I had unresolved hurts that I did not want to feel or deal with but instead bury. Hence … alcohol. There are also many times I wanted to stop but it just seemed the impossible and that I had little will power. However, after attending Universal Medicine Sacred Esoteric Healing courses held by Serge Benhayon what I discovered was alcohol just naturally fell away I no longer wanted it, bought it or ‘needed’ it and this was not through being told not to drink alcohol but instead how the courses supported me coming back to my essence and true connection once I started to re-connect to this, alcohol had well and truly long gone from my life 💖
“…The beautiful thing is that no-one told me not to drink. I was just presented with the impact alcohol has on the body and supported to reflect on why I needed it, and it was my choice to stop altogether…” When we realise things ourselves, it is effortless to stay with the change in choices.
Julie, this completely makes sense, ‘there was something I was seeking every time I drank – both self-acceptance and the approval of others.’ Since my self worth has improved I no longer feel the need to drink alcohol, I give myself the support and love and so do not need something external to approve me or make me feel ok about myself.
I had a conversation with a friend of mine once and he told me that he can feel the difference in people after they’ve had a drink. I was never a fan of alcohol, however what he said to me felt a bit over the top. However, after spending a night with some friends who drink, I could really see the change in them and it was terrifying.
Being willing to experiment with choices that are outside the so called “norm” of society, like not drinking alcohol, creates the space for you to make your own choice according to what your body needs, rather than doing something just because everyone else does it.
Alcohole affects many people in many different ways. Some people become ragy, some people become violent, angry, some people dance on tables, some people become depressed etc. My question is, why do we consume something into our bodies, that makes us become something we’re not? Why dont people want to be their trueselves? What is it…. they dont want to feel, or distract themselves from?
It is quite strange how much people change even before they finished their second drink. The change seems much bigger than I ever realised before I looked out for it.
Not being a great drinker I had given up drinking alcohol altogether before I was introduced to the truth ,{ it is a poison to the body }by some honest Presentations of Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon. I feel your sharing is a must read for anyone having second thoughts about giving up! Thank you Julie.
I love the tenderness you held yourself in Julie in the changes you made and how when you fully understood what was going on, it became easier to let alcohol go. I gave up drinking some years ago, having started in college to fit in with my friends, and in fact I trained myself to drink as I didn’t like the taste so I had to have alcohol with lots of mixers to drown the taste. Eventually, I thought I’d got it, but all along I always felt disturbed and not myself and it took some time, but eventually I came to a point of honesty one day as I realised I was drinking something I didn’t like the taste of, and so I let it go. I couldn’t imagine drinking again and actually find it hard to remember that I once drank.
I remember that I had actually convinced myself that I liked whisky. However, looking back at it, I realise that it was never that I liked it, I just wanted to look like that cool girl who drinks whisky because she knows how to handle her drink.
It makes me consider what else I do that fits the worlds outside as I see it while at the same time doesn’t support how I feel about it. Alcohol was one of those, it didn’t fit for me and yet I chose it for many many years. I gave what I saw outside of me from my perception more weight then my own feelings. How can this go on? What is possibly killing us? All the ‘things’ we eat and or drink or those yes but also the choice first to override something we have already felt, over and over. I can see the nature the alcohol is itself and I saw it didn’t make sense but yet still chose it. So this says to me there is something more hooking then just the alcohol in isolation. Sure there is the sugar, the peer pressure etc but when it comes down to it it is our choice. I feel when you don’t honour what we truly feel it is like this creates a blind spot in our vision. If we do this to a few things we then create a larger blind spot and it gets to the point of drinking alcohol where you are almost drinking before you have had time to catch what you are doing. What you feel is an important part of what goes on in your view, don’t listen and your view is narrow, listen and the whole world will open up before your eyes. That is my consistent experience.
So many things in my life I started doing like drinking alcohol because it was the cool thing or the thing to do rather than actually listening to my body. I knew I hated it when I was growing up and people around me would drink. It’s funny how saying that I remember going out in my teenage years and drinking at night clubs because I did not want to be there otherwise and also smoking when they were filled with smoke because somehow then I did not get affected by the smoke! Crazy logic but one that I ran with for a while!
Making choices for ourselves is so honouring of the body – because it comes from the body. I have never been able to stop something because someone tells me to do so – in fact I go the other way and rebel. And now I know I can make all my own choices – it is a gift to the body and supports me to keep on looking at what is not loving or what is not me.
I think we all know what alcohol does to the body but if we are not willing to be honest then it’s going to be hard to admit why we are choosing to drink something that is medically a poison to take into the body. If it is to be used it should go outside the body as in creams and deodorants, not into it. You wouldn’t drink deodorant would you? Well some might but that would be considered quite weird.
Alcohol, does not support our bodies, no doubt, I say that now, but ask me 10 years ago I would have started a full on rant…about why I would not stop….largely because I would have said I like it but also because I needed it….but I have stopped, with no trying….no force,, no denial…..how…it has unfolded, but it began by getting honest about how my body felt after I drank…our body aches, is sick, feel tired for a reason…I started listening….
When you described that incremental poisoning of the body with alcohol it felt so familiar, the tingling, the numbing and then the brighter lights. Such a hook. I don’t miss it now, when I was honest about not really liking it in the first place I thought I was a bit dim for carrying on as long as I did!
Our mind is very good at convincing ourselves that it is ok to override what our body is saying. It constantly fights with what the body says. Being honest with our choices is the key to bringing truth to the way we live.
I can really relate to the notion that when we drink we don’t feel like we are ourselves and this used to feel like a good thing to me in days when I had little regard or love for myself. Did I ever ask myself why I didn’t want to feel like me? Not really – it was just a way of escaping the angst I lived with at the time. But what I see now is that healing the angst is not achieved by escaping myself but by going deeper within to the innateness of how I am. The angst was caused by the attempts to not be me, rather than to be my true self.
Julie, this really makes me see just how much alcohol was a normal part of my life, something I would choose again and again regardless of how it made me feel in the days that followed. I can also see how there was a deeper unrest that I was using the alcohol to subdue. And how whenever this unrest would become unbearably alive in my body I would head straight to what I knew would curb it the most – alcohol. Many years on and with the help of your great blog I can look at my life now, yes without alcohol, but still with this tendency to seek avoidance substances – foods that will numb my body so that I do not have to feel the unrest or unsettlement that is rising up within me due to a lack of self-love that I have been choosing to live. This is great because now I can see what work there is to do, rather than being lost to the behaviours that are controlling and subverting what great power I have to actually make changes.
Quite aside from all the facts about what alcohol does to our bodies….I have three children who are now no longer babies, but I have simply never been able to understand how anyone looks after babies and young children with a hangover??!! I mean that torture alone MUST be enough to inspire one to possibly make a different choice?? The fact that, in so many cases it doesn’t, shows how deeply entrenched our behaviours are and how desperate we are for the numbing of the alcohol and the false energy boost of the sugar.
I haven’t “given up” drinking alcohol, I have chosen to commit to being me at all times and to the best of my ability, so I don’t drink alcohol. This might seem like a game of semantics, but the impulse behind not drinking alcohol is actually more important than the act itself – and that same impulse supports me in many other choices as to what I put in my body.
‘I overdid it and got sick’…. how come we don’t stop right there? How come social acceptance of the emptiness we feel inside or our daily malaise leads us on to this time and again? It makes no sense and yet it is so normal, so socially acceptable.
I love the wisdom shared at the end of this blog… when we make a choice that comes from the desire to care and nurture ourselves, things that are abusive to our bodies begin to just drop away….there is no trying or struggle to give something up, because the desire to begin to love oneself is stronger and it all begins with baby steps.
I so agree jacqmcfadden04, that once we have made the choice to change anything in our lives it is so important how we go about doing so; as you say “it all begins with baby steps”. If we try to make it all happen at once we will probably be setting ourselves up to fail, but taking one baby step at a time we will slowly, but steadily, build the new way of living that we have committed to.
What we need to understand is that we use alcohol as a crutch, and then can ask ourselves if we really need this crutch to walk through life or are actually very capable of walking without, freely, with every step determined by our own choice and grace.
Accepting why we do something makes it so much easier to change that choice.
I find it very interesting how we can convince ourselves that we like something, eg the taste of beer, and that it is good for us, eg it’s sociable to go to the pub yet we know we are harming ourselves every time we drink a drop of alcohol. Alcohol is the example used here but it could be said for anything where we ignore our body and place that which is outside of us before what is truly going on the body. Honesty is key.
My life is simpler, steady and fulfilled since I gave up drinking alcohol. When we accept and appreciate ourselves as we are, there is no need to falsely bolster our bodies with any external substance. Just simple re-connect to the beauty that is already within and that becomes our strength.
Both my families, for religious reasons, did not drink alcohol or kept alcohol in the home. I remember how people felt this to be strange. I started to drink, because that’s what everyone else did and remember how disappointed my parents were at the time, but failed to listen to them or my body because I wanted to be part of the crowd. Alcohol does take us away from self. There were times as a teenager and young adult when having a hang over was something to boast about, but also times as I got older when I felt disgusted and disappointed with myself. Thankfully, that is behind me now for over twelve years I haven’t drunk any alcohol and neither have I missed it. I love myself too much to ever wish to pollute my body with toxic substances again.
Julie, I like how you’ve got underneath why you drank, and you remind me of my own experiences with alcohol and how over time I gave it up. And to hear you confirm with your experience how alcohol took you away from you and that ‘the only attention, reward or recognition I received from stopping was from me: from the relief and tenderness I felt for myself for making a choice out of a desire to care for me.’
I struggled to change certain behaviours or addictions until I began attending Universal Medicine presentations. When I first heard about the true effects of alcohol I could feel this truth resonate deeply within me because it was something I had always felt but ignored because I didn’t want to feel left out or different in anyway.
Gosh… So reading a book… Simply reading a book… Can start one on the path of stopping addictive and compulsive behaviours… These must be some books!
Stories such as yours Julie need to be shared with those suffering and wanting to heal alcohol addiction. It is not about the alcohol, it is everything about our relationship with it.
It is beautiful when the body speaks loudly and we stop to hear what it is saying and make the changes that are needed, the wisdom of the body is ever present if we choose to listen.
I haven’t had a drink for 12ish years and I don’t plan on it any time but lately two people that are very dear to me have hit the plonk again and I have found it so amazing how strong the thoughts to drink again are. I would never be able to, literally my body would not allow it, I have built up too much love of the 12 years I have been working on myself, I would bloat out like I am pregnant and imagine that I would be very dizzy. I am visiting some alcohol related blogs as the pull to the pub is back and I felt that reading about other peoples experiences with this would be supportive at this time and it was, so thank you.
For many years I grew up and alcohol was a normal part of life, I learned that it was just a thing that adults do. When I became an adult I decided not to drink after trying a few times and now am beginning to understand why people drink in the first place. At first I saw people who drank alcohol as irresponisble and damaging their health, but now I also see that people drink for so many reasons, and it is only when starting to look behind the behaviour that we understand why we choose what we do and damage our health.
It strikes me that we only go to what we see as giving us what we need to get by so to speak when we feel we cannot be ourselves; but when we’re supported to reconnect and maintain our connection to who we truly are we see how the ways of getting by are actually far from fun but very harmful.
This is gorgeous Julie. It is funny that people often ask us to explain why we don’t drink alcohol when it is so rare to be asked why we do. If someone asked me why I drank alcohol back when I drank it I would have said it helps me have fun, relax and unwind… but it would always be said with a sheepish look and a knowing that the ‘fun’ was always followed by a great deal of pain and damage to my body. Now I have more fun than ever and I know how to unwind without using a harmful substance to get there. In fact Universal Medicine has opened my eyes to the fact that there is a way to live that means I’m not wound up in the first place.
It’s super sad to realise that we are so uncomfortable in our own skin that we need something to take us out of it.
How beautiful, Julie, that you no longer felt the urge to drink alcohol as soon as you started to connect more to yourself and the wisdom within your body.
Its revealing when we choose to feel the impact certain substances, such as alcohol have on our physical and mental state.
“The beautiful thing is that no-one told me not to drink. I was just presented with the impact alcohol has on the body and supported to reflect on why I needed it”. I find this to be the most loving, gentle and effective way to give up any form of food, drink or behaviour that we know is not supporting us to live lovingly with ourselves and others.
We think by drinking alcohol we become more confident and more able to connect with people when in fact it takes us further away from our self and we end up just talking nonsense with no true connection to our self or the other.
It is tragic to consider the enormous damage that alcohol is attributed to in our societies today including alcohol-related deaths, fights, murders, rapes and so much more, but that alcohol continues to be regarded as a socially acceptable beverage — it is simply shocking. Sadly, it displays how in so many ways our advanced and progressive modern-day civilisation with all the latest mod-cons etc, is actually very retarded.
This was beautiful to read, particularly as I’ve just been doing some research on the effects of alcohol in the body. What was beautiful to read in this blog though was the appreciation and power of trusting what we do feel which is that when alcohol is consumed, we are no longer ourselves. The poison we ingest – for that is what it is – allows for another energy literally to enhouse our body.
What I love about this article is the confirmation that we do know for ourselves what supports and nourishes us, or not, and that when someone else talks about it, it simply confirms what we already know and may then provide a boost of confidence for us to really claim and live it in our lives. It also shows me how important speaking up about things is – potentially providing someone else with the support to make changes they already know are needed.
It’s been many years since I have had any alcohol and it was something I stopped without anyone advising me to. I was recently reflecting on drinking alcohol and the way we use it. I was remembering that first stage, where you get a momentary ‘up’ feeling and wondered if this is why we keep drinking. For me it was like I was after that one moment, (that was quickly replaced by dullness and numbness) and we keep drinking in the hope of getting that back. I find its the same with food, the first taste and feeling is the up moment but as I keep eating I just feel heavier and more numb. Our spirit tricks us into thinking we need to keep chasing these moments, yet they leave us feeling empty. Only the steadiness of the soul, of feeling the real you can bring that lasting feeling.
This blog shows that no one needs to tell us that alcohol is no good for us. We know it – we just need to let go of all the things that we think we are getting out of it. This can be feeling from more confident or numb to wanting to belong or fit in. Without these pulls I suspect no one would go near the stuff.
I remember very clearly the moment I felt like I was not in my body when I was drunk one night. The feeling was coming along for several months prior to that, however that night it hit me. I shared this with my friend, and her response was “it’s cool, it’s like you’re observing what’s going on around you”. It wasn’t “cool” though, it was troubling me, but I didn’t stop drinking, in fact my drinking habits got stronger and by the second year of university I used to get drunk quite often. Five months after my second year of university was over, I moved to America where I couldn’t get alcohol because I was under age. Frankly that didn’t bother me, alcohol didn’t even feel like it was missing from my life, and a year later I cannot imagine ever putting alcohol into my body ever again!
Alcohol is often presented as something that is liberating or freeing and encourages us to open up but like you Julie I’ve found that it doesn’t feel great and actually that it opened me up to something that didn’t feel true – the opposite of bringing the real me out more.
Interesting what we choose to have a relationship with in our lives.
May years ago, I have decided that I do not have a relationship with alcohol any longer. I do not need that relationship. It brings nothing to my life.
So, I have stopped it for good.
I love how you knew that when you drank alcohol that you could feel the change from when you were with yourself and when ‘another energy’ took over your body. Such honesty is refreshing, and deeply known by all, even though many choose to ignore what they feel.
This way alcohol has of making us leave our ‘home’ of our body and our inner heart, is something that I see increasingly being discussed. Whilst this is great what comes across from reading your words today Julie is how many things we can use to escape life this way. What I saw yesterday is how I drink emotions in and get high on difficulty and strife just like a vintage wine. So reading this today has inspired me to go cold turkey with letting these false ideals and emotional states dictate my every day.
Thanks Julie, it is very powerful to discover for yourself that something is no longer right for you, it is a choice that confirms a level of love for yourself when it is followed through. When we make the same choices from being told, or because we think we should, then it is like stretching a rubber band… eventually we will snap and go back to what we are trying to discipline ourselves to stop. This is the fundamental underlying premise to being able to make sustainable and lasting change without effort or will power.
It is lovely to wake up in the morning feeling fresh and alive with no imposition in the body. Our bodies are so sensitive, and get affected by so many of the substances we ingest on a daily basis. Our body is always supporting us to come back to ourselves, which I am so appreciative of these days.
‘The beautiful thing is that no-one told me not to drink. I was just presented with the impact alcohol has on the body and supported to reflect on why I needed it, and it was my choice to stop altogether.’ I had the exact same experience Julie. The moment I realised how unsupportive it was, out the door it went. I have never looked back.
It would be interesting to know WHY it was suddenly easy when it was always difficult before to reduce or stop drinking alcohol.
I have to say that not drinking is the easiest thing I have let go of that harmed my body but my mind liked. Funny really as it is so socially acceptable but yet I never miss it. I just got to the point where I loved myself more than I could withstand the pain of a hang over.
I can really relate to that, I was never really a fan of alcohol to begin with so stopping just came super naturally.
What I got from reading your blog was how incredible it feels to be confirmed in what is already known. Then it got me thinking about why do we need that confirmation to begin with, and how far we have come as as a race that we disregard our bodies knowing in order to belong. The more we are confirmed in the knowing of our bodies the more we trust the wisdom it offers.
I remember my first taste of alcohol and it was disgusting, it actually tasted like poison that had been flavoured to try and disguise the taste, the next sip was a conscious decision to override what I felt to join my friends. How crazy that we are willing to hurt ourselves to be part of something, when we’re naturally part of the grandest most magnificent thing of all.
I find it interesting how people feel totally threatened by the fact that I do not drink even though I do not mind if they do. It tells me that everyone knows that alcohol is a poison and that they are convincing themselves that they are ok with that.
I love this line Julie. . . “The only attention, reward or recognition I received from stopping was from me:” . . . and what a reward it is to grant yourself permission to be yourself everywhere you go!
Drinking is a fast way to alter our body. We just love to be able to chemically alter the body and swim into the alteration. The trap is that every alteration is only short lived and that our body gets ‘better’ equipped to handle it, so next time we have to go deeper with alcohol so to have another boost. And so we go.
Being honest about why do we need alcohol in the first place and the ill effects this has on our body is the first step towards a healthier way of being, it allows us to look within and address parts of our life where we need to take responsibility and not have to seek alcohol anymore to check out or not feel what’s there to be felt.
Thank you Julie for sharing your story, it was so great for you to make the self loving choice on your own to give up drinking. Alcohol is indeed a poison to the body and a destroyer of family life. I have never liked the effects of alcohol on my body.
I loved reading your article, Julie and found it really inspiring. The fact that you felt so much in your body and chose to honour this rather than pushing through and continuing to drink along with everyone else is gorgeous. The pressure to conform is enormous, you very much feel the odd one out when you don’t drink alcohol. However, to have been a drinker and then stop seems to annoy people no end …… I was held responsible for spoiling people’s fun because I chose not to drink anymore …. how funny is that!!! The truth is, people don’t like to be shown that there is another option, then they have to face the truth and take responsibility for their own choices, hence the reaction.
Alcohol has such a strong grip on us as a society. It upsets me to witness the binge drinking that goes on, particularly amongst our youth, yet, I have to take responsibility for my own part in that too. I worked in the wine industry for many years, and had my own extensive collection. Whilst I could feel the effects of alcohol in my body and how it changed me, which I didn’t like at all, it wasn’t until I attended my first Universal Medicine workshop that I understood the truth of what I was allowing. I absolutely love the fact that alcohol is no longer a part of my own life and I’m learning to accept the choices of those around me with more grace.
When I first tasted alcohol it tasted disgusting but because everyone around me was drinking it I ignored the signals coming from my body and kept trying to drink it by camouflaging the taste with sweet mixers. What I liked about drinking was it gave me a sense of ‘Dutch courage’. I was quiet and shy in social situations and alcohol loosened me up so this is why I became a social drinker. I am sure that this is why most young people start drinking – seeking a quick fix for their lack of confidence rather than accepting that it is okay to just be themselves.
Yes, Tamara, I have had young people explain to me that this is exactly why they choose to drink, because it allows them to be more confident and talk freely with people that they would otherwise be too shy to approach. They feel they are more fun to be with and they have more fun as a consequence. What they are not considering is the effect it has on their bodies, both physically and energetically. They acknowledge that alcohol is responsible for a lot of aggression and abuse, but feel that they will never be that person as they will be able to control themselves. Their desire to ‘fit in’ and have ‘fun’ is stronger than their willingness to see the reality of their choices, or even being open to considering the possibility of the truth.
What an amazing choice Julie, to stop drinking alcohol and embrace and celebrate being with you! Because of how ingrained drinking alcohol is in our current society and world, it is a huge step to say NO to – at the risk of others looking at you funny, judging you, thinking you are being antisocial, others trying to convince you to return to drinking (which is really rather strange since we know the damage that alcohol causes)! It takes a lot of courage to choose truth when the rest of the world is convinced that what they are doing is fine even though common sense and statistics show this to be otherwise!
When I was in the partying and drinking scene I too said I was having fun. In hindsight it was not fun at all, as really how could it be, as when we drink we are not even present in our body to experience or enjoy anything we are doing. It is a complete fabrication covering our emptiness.
It is sad that there seems to be far greater pressure on us to drink alcohol than to not drink it. Not just the ruthless relentless advertising, but in our peer groups, work and social situations – and one is considered quite weird or freakish to not drink… so how many people actually don’t really care for alcohol but drink just to fit in with people, to keep their friends comfortable, or keep in line for work promotions . . We have been sucked in as a society to consider alcohol in all its glamorous forms some kind of exotic or fun thing, but for some we have chosen to be lured in as in fact it helps take off the edge of our discomfort of a world that doesn’t make sense, or the sadness that we hold inside for not living true to ourselves.
Social alcohol consumption puzzles me at some level. We drink to try to belong to something we know is not true. At the same time, drinking alienates us from ourselves. So what are we doing?
There is no doubt that we all know that alcohol is a poison yet we continue to drink it. Why? and why is knowing not enough to stop us from drinking alcohol? I know it didn’t stop me. It wasn’t until I learned to connect with my true essence and started to deal with the enormous amount of anger and sadness that I was carrying that alcohol lost its appeal for me.
“it was my choice to stop altogether”….it is only when we make the choice that we can stop all together. If you do/stop something because of another person or because you feel you should do it, it can often be a temporary stop. But when you fully make the choice to do/stop, it can have a far lasting effect.
I used to drink to take the tension out of life, now I am learning to live in a way where I can feel and deal with the tension.
Our body is telling us all the while the impact of our every choice. It certainly is worthwhile listening to those signs – be it an ache, pain, sensation or illness which says more than we may care to realise at the time.
A great sharing, Julie, I especially love the way you share that no one ever told you that you should not drink alcohol, but when the facts or the effects alcohol were presented to you by Serge Benhayon, you recognised the truth of that from your own experience, and just knew that you would never touch alcohol again. I used to drink alcohol at times to be sociable when I met my then husband and for a good deal of my marriage, but when I lived on my own after he died, I never even thought of buying a bottle of wine for myself. Actually, I realise I never really felt the need for it myself, so it was always just to be sociable, when others were drinking that I would indulge. But I seemed to be aware that I would lose myself if I drank much, and seldom had more than one or sometimes two drinks. Of course I have learned since meeting Serge Benhayon and attending his presentations with Universal Medicine, that even having a little alcohol takes me away from my true self. It is interesting that over the past few years a couple of members of my family have separately chosen also to no longer drink alcohol, they have not met Serge Benhayon, and I have never suggested that they stop drinking, but they made the decisions because of the way that they separately realised that it was harming their quality of life to drink any alcohol whatsoever. In other words, they must have taken some notice of the messages their bodies were telling them.
A lot of people justify their choice to drink because they only drink in moderation, but as studies are now showing the link to five different types of cancer, maybe that justification will have to be looked at. As is the doctor’s recommendation of a glass or two of red wine is good for you, possibly as with cigarettes it will become as socially unacceptable when we are finally prepared to take a look at the statistics, and not through the bottom of a wine glass.
Nothing that is truly freeing can make you sick when you really go for it.
Amazing what we will do to ourselves to fit in. I did it too. Quite a paradox I feel that it can come to a point that we drink to not feel how horrible it is, and what it does to us, when we do drink.
I remember that feeling when I was drinking.. that I felt safer in a social environment, more confident, less inhibited by my adolescent angst which seemed like a good reason for doing it at the time. But as you say in the blog, I was painfully aware that I was also ‘not me’, not looking at that angst and so always needing the prop. As for everyone I met… if they did not get me, then who did they get?
The honesty of the body never fails – it will always communicate the consequences of our choices. This blog is a great reminder to check in with the body and not just brush off any aches, pains or sensations as nothing. It seems like the more we listen the more we become attuned to the language the body speaks.
The fact that humanity drinks poison to have fun, gets sick and takes days for the body to recover only to do it all again, speaks loudly of the state of the world and why we are so far away from the love we are. Through this I see the devastating effect of not listening to the body, even when it is screaming at us through sickness of being poisoned by alcohol we go ahead and do it again. We’ve all been here, well most of us have anyway, and I am utterly grateful to my choice to not be there again.
I wonder how many people feel exactly the same about alcohol as you did before being presented the truth about it… and i wonder how many people just push through it as it is seen as so normal.
“I had convinced myself that I liked the taste of beer and it just seemed like the thing to do” This would be the case for so many people. I’m not sure i know many people, including myself, who didn’t have to get accustomed to the taste of alcohol… I’m pretty sure the first try is nasty. Maybe a clear sign its not to great for us 😉 🙂
Our bodies truly are amazing markers of truth and when we can stop and listen to what it shares, that is where the real wisdom lies. Great blog Julie thank you.
I too struggled to give up alcohol because I thought I needed it as a relief – and I was also stubborn in not liking to be told what to do. So it took me understanding the impact of alcohol and really checking in with how my body felt when I drank it that enabled me to start to choose differently. Alcohol soon dropped away not because I was told not to have it, but because I got to the stage where I had so much respect for my body that I could not put a poison in it. It has been addressing things in this way that really brings about true change.
Drinking alcohol is not only an ingrained pastime in our culture but it is synonymous with celebration. But when you really stop to think about it does it really make sense to celebrate with a substance that actually numbs what you feel? Where is the true joy in that?
I can so relate to this. I used alcohol as an emotional crutch because I didn’t want to deal with my issues. From the age of 16 up until 40 it was one long party for me. Hang overs, being sick didn’t deter me. I have been alcohol free 6 years now and I feel great and my health has improved three fold
The way you describe alcohol is key in understanding just how harmful it is! It takes us away from ourselves, we no longer feel like ‘ourselves’, and this “It felt like some other energy was working through my body. I could feel the moment the alcohol was affecting me” .. very accurate! The same could be said of any substance which alters the body!
Thank you for sharing Julie and showing that Serge Benhayon has never told anyone not to drink alcohol rather and simple he presents the energetic facts and asks us to consider the impact, if any, it is having on our bodies, By asking the question we then get to see what is really going for ourselves and so it is no longer something we have theorized but have felt in our bodies.
Alcohol consumption is such a sociality acceptable norm in our society with the consequences are not only the harm it causes our bodies but also the damage it causes with in relationships often leading to and domestic violence and family breakdowns.
From reading your blog it makes me wonder just how many millions of people have joined in the drinking culture reluctantly just because it is seen as the normal thing to do, and against everything they feel is true. Maybe it is the time to bring a new normal to our society, one that parents don’t freak out if their child says they don’t want to drink, because they fear the child will be ostracised; one where children are not pressured or called a freak because they feel better without it. How extreme do behaviours have to come before it is ok to call them out?
The poison doesn’t stop with alcohol – it is worth exploring how we too poison our bodies with drugs, caffeine, intense emotions, hatred, even false bliss. Knowing we have a marker in our body that can truly discern what is true for us and what is not, we can guide ourselves back to living truly and to see everything in the world that is seeking to corrupt and take us away from that purity.
Yes, it is the willingness to be quietly honest with ourselves that allows what we really know about the poisons we ingest to come to the fore front of our consideration; from here we can make clear choices. Whilst we do the whole dismissal thing we let the blindness of habit rule; we are in a fog.
What is alarming is how we can actually manage to convince ourselves that alcohol is ok when deep down we do know that it does indeed poison the body.. not just the immediate effects, but the exhaustion and wobbliness the next day, even just after a single glass of wine. Where are we that we so want to like something that affects us so much? For me it was to give up on the world that didn’t make sense, but it didn’t occur to me that choosing that path was not going to help one bit in making the world make any more sense, in fact the opposite.
Once you truly feel, see and hear the changes in yourself and others when under the influence of alcohol, there is no way one could possibly keep justifying or doing it.
Shows that there is something more to the alcohol than just the physical enjoyment of it if we are seeking it despite its physical impact. This is something we all need to get more honest and real about.
I have never seen any true good come out of having a relationship with alcohol, no matter how infrequent the nature of the relationship.
It took me a long time to get real with alcohol. The consciousness around it was so strong, it was everywhere I went. I didn’t even know how to socialise without it. In fact I went as far as saying, I don’t know how I could go out without drinking,….I mean why would you? That is what I would say. These days life is very different, but that didn’t happen overnight, it took a long time to extract myself from that way of thinking and way of living life. I do not miss alcohol at all, it is a distant memory now, but I can bring a huge amount of understanding to those who are very caught up in a drinking culture, because I used to be a part of that too.
There is a beautiful relationship between self awareness and lifestyle choices. For me this has been finding I no longer wanted to drink because I became strongly aware that I was poisoning my body, and it was no longer fun or worth it do have that feeling in my body. So I didn’t even enjoy the feeling at the time, whereas before I grew, or regained my awareness I was able to convince myself I was having a good time even though I was really hurting my body, numbing it and becoming a different person with alcohol.
Growing up there was always alcohol around me, it just became ‘the thing to do’ many many times I got completely drunk and my body would feel a mess the next day .. well it would do after being poisoned! Which alcohol is. I wanted to give up drinking alcohol but never felt I could it would always somehow creep back in. Through Sacred Esoteric Healing I got to feel what was true within my body, more connected to me which in turn meant I had more self-love for myself. Without making a definite decision to stop drinking alcohol or struggling to stop I just did, it fell completely away. I haven’t drunk alcohol for nearly 10 years and have never felt healthier or had more love for me and my body now which is continually unfolding … it’s really lovely. What if in society we made it ‘normal’ to not drink … now that would be an awesome change … and save the NHS a lot too!
Julie, I loved reading your honesty and life experience around the effects of alcohol on your body- not feeling the real you, and how you came to the awareness that it was indeed harming and chose to stop drinking.
Actually it’s interesting the term ‘under the influence’…. this is true, as when we drink alcohol we are under an influence of something that is not us.
I was never a big drinker of alcohol, even the smallest of amounts would affect me so much that in the end it was the easiest thing I’ve ever given up… it was a no brainer really… I didn’t like it, it hurt my body, burnt my throat, made me silly, feel awful, check out and do and say ridiculous things so others would either like me or laugh and think I was cool. Once you don’t drink though, you see how people transform into something else when they drink… and yet we have sex, kiss and hang out with that transformation. The day after we are not only hung-over, we are also feeling the affects of having something else run our bodies and what we have done while under the influence.
I would say a lot of us see through the illusion of alcohol when we are very young. We see the effect it has on those around us – and yet its use is so prolific that for many of us as we get older, we are drawn to its allure. In time, it owns us, and it becomes synonymous with a good time, when in truth it should be synonymous with violence and hangovers. Ludicrously enough, we even view the latter as something to laugh about, such is th degree to which we have accepted alcohol’s use in society.
I had almost an identical experience to you Julie, and I hated that feeling of not being me, but could see no other way of “fitting with the world” other than drinking. 10 years before I met Serge Benhayon I had almost totally given up drinking, and then after learning from Serge what happens energetically when we drink I gave up the next day. I have not missed it for one second.
Time and time again we are confronted with statistics of alcohol abuse or the many experiences presented on the news, accidents, abuse stories, stabbings, murders, so many due to alcohol. Yet we continue to champion alcohol, because it is legal. It is so embedded in the fabric of our society, that we don’t or wont break the cycle of abuse that it causes. We wont take a stand and say that enough is enough. Are we waiting for someone else to take that stand? isn’t it the responsibility for all of us to have a view about such things. Yes we do have to take more responsibility for saying that alcohol is a poison, that it impacts the body and how we function, only when we want to get honest will the story around alcohol begin to change.
I remember always feeling anxious before going out for a ‘big night’… Even though I did so often, it never felt right; I would feel unsafe, uneasy (and would sometimes just drink faster to numb these feelings!) I remember I felt like something was very wrong, or could go wrong – even though I was supposed to be ‘excited and having a great time’ out with friends. I would then feel worse, because if I wasn’t enjoying the so called highlight of the week, the ‘best’ party and so forth – then what was wrong with me? … and so I would drink even more to numb this feeling!!!
I can relate to your experience of alcohol Julie. I would certainly overdo it, and I remember waking up and thinking ‘never again’; it was a ‘never again’ that came almost with a guilt and shame of how I could harm and disregard my body so much. Those days when I would wake up hungover were the worst. There is just nothing worse than not feeling myself. Although, it still didn’t stop me – until I built a life that was so loving that the self-abuse just couldn’t continue any more. Thank heavens. And, thanks to heaven for Universal Medicine.
” Learning the truth about what happens in the body when alcohol is ingested was all I needed to make the commitment to never drink again, and now there is no part of me that would choose to drink alcohol no matter what other people are doing around me.” Always our choice what we do; but learning the truth opened my eyes to what is really going on in the world. Interesting to note that the current Euro football matches in France are sponsored by an alcohol company – and the inevitable clashes that then occur between international fans is then (rightly) condemned. What are they allowing into their systems by choosing to drink?
I used to love going to the pub for a few beers after work. After a hard day, we (my work mates and I) could finally get together and connect and hang out. When I look back now, we had all day together where we could have done that. When I look at how I was during the day, I was caught up in raciness and on getting a job done and I didn’t leave much space for connection with those around me, myself or anyone in fact. That was something I used to save for the end of the day.
Your comment about convincing yourself that you liked beer rang true for me. I did that same thing and used to think I loved it, and that I enjoyed going to the pub to have a beer after work. But when looking back, I can say I never liked beer and it was almost although I was forcing myself to finish each glass.
I don’t miss alcohol in the slightest which is pretty amazing as it was my whole social life for 20 years pretty much but not one part of my body wants it. True healing is as you describe, when you feel what it does to your body and when you love yourself enough to say I can’t do that to myself anymore.
I had a lovely chat with some women the other day about alcohol. It’s so beautiful to talk honestly about why we drink. We tend to say that we like our glass of wine but when we are truly honest, it is not the liking of the wine but there is a need for it. I needed alcohol and it feels very freeing to not be dependent any longer on alcohol.
Love this, getting honest about alcohol can be very confronting for people. I know it was for me when I was completed owned by it. I distinctly remember thinking…..’how could I possibly go out and not drink’ i honestly felt that. It was so far outside of my daily life, to not go out and drink, I just couldn’t even imagine it. Today is a very different story, but it allows me the understanding when I am with others who are equally caught up in the ideals and beliefs that surround alcohol in our society today, it isn’t good, what we have created, not good at all and we all need to support this process of unwinding the mess we’ve created.
When we feel what alcohol truly does to the body it is much easier to stop. What you shared about the feeling of being less and how your awareness of your surrounding changed is very well noticed. I was often not that aware whilst drinking alcohol and as well in the belief that alcohol made you more yourself so that I was feeling different was explained by that… really silly looking back because it does not make sense that you have to drink something that is also a poison to become more yourself!
I can relate to your sharing about needing alcohol as a false form of confidence. Often when I used to drink I wouldn’t stop at one but would keep going until I was passed out. This was never fun but I used to champion it like it was and used to think anyone who didn’t drink was boring (even though I was so paralytic I couldn’t string a sentence together). Crazy how we can become so hooked by something we ‘need’ to release tension that it stops us from being rationale.
As a culture, or society, our relationship with alcohol is quite strange. It is encouraged, it is seen as a right of passage, it is part of rituals, it is part of celebrations, it is even at times touted as being good for our health. But at the exact same time it is acknowledged as being unhealthy, addictive, it impairs our normal ability to function and socialise, and it is even dangerous. It’s a bit like playing with a loaded gun.
With abuse through the roof from the impacts of alcohol on our society, your blog should be splashed everywhere for people to read it is indeed possible to let go of this substance and make more loving choices around what we drink and take into our bodies.
Julie, is it amazing how a substance such as alcohol is so commonly accepted as being a normal part of life when we all know that it is a poison to the body. And far from Serge Benhayon saying not to drink all he does is present the facts just like a loving father would do and for this I am eternally grateful. Trust me if anyone said do not do this or that – I usually do the opposite!!
It is interesting that the myth has been perpetuated that alcohol gives us courage and helps us to relax – when in truth it takes us even further away from ourselves. The amount of friendships and relationships ruined because of things said on a drinking binge; it is not “dutch courage” that we receive but a disconnection and therefore an ability to disregard ourselves and those around us.
Your last paragraph is so important. Until we choose to make a change in our life for ourselves, then it will never actually evolve us, never become a known understanding. This is what I have found to be so powerful about the teachings of the Way of the Livingness. Zero imposition, zero dogma. An invitation and inspiration for me to see the bigger picture of what is going on and then choose, for myself, what I want my next step to be.
And I love your line about the only recognition that I got was me. It’s amazing being amongst people who are drinking – feeling the value that I place upon being with me, whilst those all around me are running away. Many an evening I have driven away (oh – btw – another huge bonus of not drinking – being able to drive!!) from some event and deeply appreciated the choice that I have just made – to stay with me. Gorgeous.
I haven’t drunk for about 10 years now. What still fascinates me is how 99% of people comment on what amazing will power I must have. This couldn’t be further from the truth. It wasn’t will power that stopped me from drinking. It was a super simple choice. I wanted to stop feeling like death in the morning! And now that I have stopped and feel amazing as a result, why would I ever consider having another drink. There is no will power needed. It is the easiest choice ever!!
Looking back, I could always feel the poison of alcohol going through my system. It started with a very sharp electrical jabbing feeling at 2 points in my upper chest when I took my first sip. At the time ignored this warning sign, but now realise exactly what it was.
I remember drinking a small amount of champagne in Wellington, New Zealand once and feeling like I had totally lost control of my body – it really scared me and like you described I couldn’t feel myself anymore. It begs the question – why would I want to lose touch of something so lovely and gorgeous? It makes no sense!
Julie you were obviously already on the right trail when you met with Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon. I have never enjoyed the affects that alcohol has on our bodies. To live a life of relying on the so called positive effJuects alcohol gives, like being more gregarious and relaxed in the company of others I feel is a cop out. We need to look at our lives and relationships and also value ourselves for the beautiful Loving beings that we already are, something we need to be taught at a very young age. Alcohol only lets our body and mind to be controlled by something else and who wants that !
It seems we are often willing to overlook or downplay the harm or even distinguish between some alcohol being OK, as long as not to excess, – however alcohol is alcohol and poison is poison no matter how we label it (& alcohol ‘is’ a known poison) & the effects and harm of this is far more widespread in our families and in our communities, than we are perhaps truly willing to be honest about.
Love this blog Julie G.Like you I know I will never drink alcohol again and this is nothing short of a miracle when I consider that alcohol was a huge part of my life 5 years ago. Thank you for reminding me to appreciate how powerful it is to make choices based on the wisdom our bodies share with us.
What if we all became honest about alcohol, how different the world would be, how different relationships would be, how different everyday life would be?
This is great to read, Seeing the great effects on our body that alcohol has, should actually be a great warning sign of that it is far from healthy.. But it has become so normal, which is sad to see. But as you say, when we are open to seeing the true effects in our body, it is easy to stop and let go.
“…no-one told me not to drink. I was just presented with the impact alcohol has on the body and supported to reflect on why I needed it, and it was my choice to stop altogether.” Julie what you say here is important because the only way we can effectively give something up is if we allow ourselves to deeply feel what it is doing to us and why we have chosen to drink it and then choose not to continue ingesting it. I used to always drink a coffee with breakfast but had a break for a week and when I drank it again I noticed such an alien buzz in my body that I decided not to continue my habit, and I never had another one again because I just did not like how it felt in my body. If we try to give something up because we think we should, it never works unless we have truly renounced it, and even it we do give it up we replace it with something else to satisfy the need that hasn’t been addressed
This is very true Sandra – I catch myself doing this with food all the time. I have come to realise that I need to address the reason why I am choosing to ingest something harming rather than making the food the problem.
The negative impact of alcohol on society is quite huge. However, alcohol is only a secondary issue. Our greatest issue is that we have lost connection with ourselves, and in that, alcohol becomes a satisfactory vice to assist us to get through life. It helps us open up because we don’t feel we can open up. It takes the edge off a hard day’s work. It makes us feel alive. It can make us feel energetic, happy, sad, violent, pumped up, excited, sociable, relaxed, and even go to sleep. But not one of these is a true state of being – not one. And so we have to question why it is we need an artificial vice – and a poison at that – to get us through life.
I agree, Adam that while we have to look at alcohol consumption itself we have to get underneath what is really going on and why we choose to drink alcohol in the first place. This is the only way that things will change.
Alcohol was something I used to let go of the many walls of protection that I had built around me, to fit in with the crowd and to make me “feel better”. What an illusion those reasons were especially that “feel better” one, as once the effects of the alcohol would wear off I would be feeling worse than I did before. But unfortunately that didn’t deter me from taking another drink somewhere down the track. It was my ill health that was the reason I finally gave up drinking and although well meaning friends tried to get me to have – just one more – one more has never passed my lips as no longer do I need a drink to make me feel better, I no longer have any need of a wall of protection, and I definitely know where I belong, as I am now choosing to be with me.
Julie, I had a similar experience to you in that I just stopped drinking alcohol when I heard about the energetic affect that alcohol had. I gave it up on the spot and it was not because anyone told me to, it was because I connected with what I had been allowing for myself.
Julie, I can relate to this, ‘The more I would see the effects of alcohol on the people around me, the less I wanted any part of it.’ I see this with families around me, alcohol is very destructive, it can be used as an escape, as a numbing and the effects on the children and partners is devastating, but because it so socially acceptable this is considered a ‘normal’ thing to do and even if someone is drinking every night they would not be called an alcoholic or an addict as long as they are holding down a job as they do not look like the picture of an alcoholic which is commonly someone living on the streets with no job and family and so the behavior even though is does not feel right is left to continue.
When I sit with people who are drinking alcohol it is interesting to see the change even when they plan what they will drink, then when they order. By the time they actually start drinking they have already changed and then there is a further substantial change once they finish their first glass. It makes quite a difference.
True Christoph, alcohol makes a big difference. I always felt not quite myself when I had a drink as if I had allowed something to take me over. And friends who did things when they were drunk that they would not normally do were excused because they were drunk. So somewhere we all recognise that it is not us but we use this as an excuse to not take responsibility when of course we were responsible for drinking the alcohol in the first place.
Thank you for sharing as alcohol is a factor that heavily burdens our global medical system.
Very true Luke, alcohol is a massive contributor to illness and disease and even though it is widely condemned and a known poison to our body, people do still choose to drink.
When I stopped drinking alcohol I realised that it came as a great relief that I no longer felt the pressure to conform. No great song and dance, just that alcohol is one of those things that I do not drink, along with coffee, and sugar laden soft drinks because I don’t like how they make me feel.
I feel the same Mary . There is such a freedom in taking responsibility for one’s own health and well being.
I felt relieved also Mary as I have never been a big drinker, but drinking had been a big thing growing up and it never occurred to me that it would be ok to say ‘no thank you I don’t drink’. Once I got used to saying it, it became easier and easier.
Julie a great story on listening to your body and feeling the harm that alcohol was doing for yourself. Why do we ignore or override the clear signals our bodies are always communicating to us? I know I did for many years, as everyone seemed to be doing the same so it appeared ‘normal’. When we take the step to get truly honest it changes our life, it may upset a few people as we break the mould but well worth it in my experience and our choices to respect our bodies may inspire and support another to make a different choice.
Quitting alcohol was one of the most loving things I have ever done for myself, this was over 8 years ago and when I think about the money I have saved and the harm I could have caused to my body it is a choice I absolutely celebrate.
Yes Samantha, and one person quitting reflects to others that we don’t have to make drinking the norm and that we can actually enjoy a fulfilling life without it.
Thank you Julie for sharing your experience with alcohol, and learning to make self loving choices, Alcohol is such a scourge on society, a poison that destroys lives, and as you say Brendan if we were honest we would not hesitate to give it up.
The more we care for ourselves the more we can care for others. The more we understand ourselves – and our relationships with many facets in life – the more we can understand each other. The more we heal ourselves, the more we offer other people healings in our every day transactions as the more we heal, the steadier we are and more open as our protectiveness drops away. And this is what the world needs.
Thank you Julie for sharing such an awesomely honest account of your life with alcohol, and to the severing of your relationship with it. I was reading a national news story recently that stated that less young people were now choosing to drink and that felt wonderful to read, but then a few days later there on the same news site was the story of a 17 year old boy who had died as a result of a drinking game. One life lost to the poison that is alcohol is one too many, but maybe this tragic death will serve to teach those around him, both young and old, of the preciousness of life and how it can be so quickly and senselessly extinguished
I like the simplicity in which you write and share your experience about alcohol and being honest about what it does to your body. Thank you.
I love the way that Julie has chosen to not drink for herself, and getting no accolade for it other than her own body feeling amazing.
Thank you for sharing your experience Julie. It confirmed my own experience of knowing the truth in me and making choices around giving up abusive behaviour, then other circumstances arise to offer even more awareness and choices. Within this process I get to see how evolution is indeed consciously chosen and not something that just happens.
It is true what you have written Julie, when you go to Universal Medicine workshops nobody is there telling us not to drink alcohol, but the facts are presented lovingly and we are then free to choose for ourselves. The beauty of it all is that deep down we know that what is presented is truth, and if we give up the things that are affecting the body in an adverse way, straight away or years later, it doesn’t matter to Universal Medicine presenters, as it is our choice – our choice to start drinking and our choice to stop without any judgment.
So simple isn’t it Brenda?. I don’t need a scientific study to tell me what is good for me and what is not. I just pay attention to how I feel.
What I like about this comment Fumiyo is that it shows how much we like to change things around to suit what we want to hear. Alcohol is a Poison . Simple fact. Scientifically and medically a poison. But we love to manipulate and water things down to convince ourselves of what we want things to be. ‘Not always’.
We just lie to ourselves.
This is a great blog – thank you.
I had a simliar experience where I had spent many years drinking. Al the time. It ws really just second nature to me that if I was socialising ( And I used to spend a lot of time socialising) that I was drinking. In fact it was most days I would have a few drinks, and regular drink more than a few. Eventually I just started to get sick of it. So i just gradually gave it up and ended up not drinking. I did this for about 3 years – and then then went back to drinking for a while. After the break It was very obvious how bad for me drinking really is. And how bad I actually feel from doing it – where as I used to kind of over ride how bad it felt. So I just stopped again. Your life changes when you stop drinking. Other things become important. Things become clearer. I hadn’t drunk for about 4-5 years on and off when I first heard Serge Benhayon present the possibility of what happens when we do drink and encourage people to ask them selves why they drink.
And it really just showed me the decision I had made for myself, even though it seems strange to a lot of people as drinking is the social norm, was a really good one.
Giving up alcohol is a really big one, not only is alcohol just about everywhere we go, it is the focus at most events, functions, dinners, get togethers, family do’s, lunches, ceremonies, rituals….everywhere. So when you say that you don’t drink, or giving up, it is seen to be out of the ordinary and met with some intense questioning instead of huge support. I know for me it was a gradual process, but have never looked back, how I feel is amazing.
Absolute magnificance , what you say and have chosen is powerful, loving and true. It reminds me of my choice to not drink alcohol any longer in any way shape or form. I was simply presented a while a go the choice to be more aware about what alcohol was doing in my body and how I was feeling. This was represented by Serge and my mother has also offered me to know this. Even though I did not hear it from Serge Benhayon itself – I was stunned by the truth about alcohol and I wanted to feel it myself. When I drank alcohol after I felt my mom talking about alcohol and her choice to stop it – I began to feel what alcohol actually had been doing in my body all this time – I remembered the feeling of unsettleness, out of focus, indulgence, no clarity and a black shadow of emptiness. I must say that I had felt that very deep down inside what alcohol did to me when I had chosen to consume it. So this reminder by my mother who was reminded by Serge etc.etc. Woke me up. I was no longer wanting alcohol to affect my life and my body. I no longer wanted to feel wasteless, a victim of devastation or emotional . I simply want to truly control my life in a way that I dont let myself be taken over by some form of stimulant . As I always had felt, drinking alcohol was allowing me to be less present in my body and be more present of an energy that was controling me. Absolute evil. This energy has no hold on me anymore – that is over – and it feels fantastic!
I gave up drinking alcohol about 5 ½ years ago. I wasn’t drinking a lot at the time, but would drink a few glasses on the weekend or on special occasions. I had never really stopped to consider why I needed to drink in the first place, however after beginning to attend Universal Medicine presentations, I realised that alcohol was my way of finding relief or reward from my life. Once I was able to be honest, and to begin to listen to what my body was telling me, giving up alcohol was an easy choice because I had decided I wanted to be, and feel, me.
Drinking alcohol has increasing become something you not only do socially but you also do as a ritual for the end of the day whether in company or alone. Just yesterday I heard on 3 occasions “getting together and having a beer” as a way men talked about what they would do to meet up. It’s considered a way of breaking the ice, a way to settle any anxiety you might have about meeting up or to loosen up so you will be freer to share how you feel. For me the more I felt the truth of how important it was for me to really feel everything including the anxiety of being me in a group the less I wanted to drink alcohol. I also began to see and feel through not enjoining the drinking alcohol consciousness how others lost themselves when they drank and although they may have felt like they were having fun and could blow off their troubles for a while there was in fact no love or honesty in their actions, simply an escape and the fun of finding others to come with you for the ride. There is such a false sense of security in enjoining this consciousness I was so appreciative of the joy I discovered in my body when I let drinking alcohol go. There was no way I would want to go back to that way of living and I don’t feel like I am missing out on a thing!
Coming from a family of several alcoholics I was always very conscious of my alcohol intake, however I started drinking at 12 and continued to drink pretty heavily until I was 34. I could drink all night and still be standing but the hangovers I experienced were horrendous and would last for days. My antidote to alcohol poisoning was to ‘carbo-load’ so I would literally pump sugar into myself in the form of cola, chocolate, potatoes, bread, pizza…..anything that would give me a heavy feeling in my body to ‘ground’ me again. As a consequence I became very bloated and over-weight and had quite wild mood swings. I would always fantasise about giving up drinking and then one day I did. I couldn’t bear the feeling of needing to have it to feel normal so I stopped. It was an interesting time – my decision was not popular with my friends. They respected it on one level but became very combative about it when they were drinking and I was not. I recognised the discomfort for I had often felt it myself with people who had self-control with food – it’s like having a mirror held up to you and you need to be either honest with yourself about what you see, or attack the mirror ie. the person offering the reflection. Several years later I started attending Universal Medicine presentations and courses and really came to understand what on a far deeper level what choices I was making when I said no to alcohol. It wasn’t just out of fear of becoming a raging alcoholic, it was a choice to say yes to being myself, saying yes to staying with the good, the bad and the ugly without numbing myself down with alcohol. In that moment I said ‘Yes!’ to life and have never looked back.
I tried to recall the feeling of drinking alcohol in my body and you gave a very detailed description of how it felt. I was very sensitive to alcohol just like you Julie and had a lot of hangovers and a lot of thinking, ‘this is the last time that I will drink alcohol’ or ‘next time I will stop after one glass, and to see myself a few days later with a glass of wine in my hands and another one and so on. No honesty and no love for myself whatsoever. This all has changed by introducing and applying self loving choices, and by coming aware it just made, and makes, no sense to ignore the signals the body is giving me. And this is a continuous process, to discard the choices that do not support me and choose loving choices to build more love.
I agree Sarah, to expose all the beliefs and ideas we have about life is so important. The only thing we have to do is to listen to our body – our body knows exactly what is needed at any given time.
What I find very interesting is – as long as we don’t have a marker of our true self, we can convince ourselves, that by drinking alcohol we feel “better” afterwards. And better means, I numb myself so much with alcohol, that I can’t feel the emptiness and hurts in my body any more. And only when we start to feel the love and joy in our body, then we know, alcohol is just poison to the body and how terrible it feels in the body.
When sharing of your experience of alcohol sensations in the body Julie it reminds me of how I feel with certain food habits that become addictive. How eating foods for comfort literally block out and numb the truth of what is going on within the body. Hiding under the label of food (or alcohol/drugs etc) which bury and prevent us to go deeper within and heal all of what is presented to us. It does all come back to choice. Great blog Julie thank you.
It certainly is enough and the level of joy that is possible is extraordinary, if only we were willing to go there in full which means to truly be that in full all of the time. Attending to our hurts in the world is the most powerful way of being able to truly heal and live more and more and more of this joy within outlives which is a natural and normal way of living ~ we just have to remove all of the hurts we feel have hurt us during our life-time.
This is like me, once I heard the truth of what alcohol did to my body I was forever, never going to touch it again. I would not even dream of putting something so damaging into my body again.
Thank you Julie for your blog. I never was a drinker but I forced myself to have the odd glass in certain situations as it was easier to pretend than to stand out as the party pooper. I have mistreated my body over the years and very often in the name of being accepted although my body and I knew that what was asked of me was in total disregard of what I felt.
Drinking alcohol is just so mainstream, it is part of the current social fabric. So when one decides to not drink, it does stand out a great deal. I know for me it was a gradual decision to give up alcohol, mostly because I didn’t like how it made me feel, but also because of some health issues, that drinking alcohol just exacerbated, so I was always not drinking because I didn’t feel like i could. So helped set up kind of this resentment with my body, that I ‘couldn’t’ drink even if I wanted to. When in actual fact, my body was speaking loud and clear with me, it just took me a long time to listen to it!!!
Very inspiring blog Julie. I found it very liberating to give up alcohol. At first it allowed me to feel how much I used it as such as a social crutch and to give me relief – Of which it does neither – as I realised that in truth it was only attempting to hide the pain I was feeling about my disconnection in life.
Ouch, I can relate.
Masking the whole that we feel when we disconnect from ourselves in life.
Alcohol does this well, and drugs too, and hence we see why so many people are medicating themselves with alcohol.
It works at numbing it for that moment but never does it deal with the root cause. It damages the body significantly as well.
Its true so Julie. We all need to get totally honest about the destructive immediate impact, and the devastating long term effect that alcohol has on our physical bodies and relationships, in our homes and in society as a whole. If we all stood back and honestly considered the statistical evidence of our alcohol fuelled violent behaviour and alcohol related hospital admissions and health statistics, it’s a wonder that one in their right mind would drink. We all need to open our eyes to the devastating effect alcohol is having on our society and actually do something about it.
Alcohol with its numbing effect might seem a short term fix if we want to avoid feeling what we feel, but it is not, and never worth its consequences.
The dullness that comes with the choice to numb gives little relief because the emptiness is always sitting right behind and the pain of feeling that is never really relived by ignoring it. It is not until I stop and take a look at what is sitting underneath that the fog can lift and I can feel again.
What is in the watering can, waters the garden.
well my gosh does this bring our attention to alcohol as well as the sugar problem within our society. Watering and feeding our bodies pure ill-health.
A part of me always knew alcohol was hurting my body and I just chose to ignore that. I observed how I was feeling after drinking even small amounts I would feel hung over the next day.
In vino veritas – truth in vine? That is an absolute lie to me. I have experienced how people change, how families collapse, how aggression arises, how people behave they would never do in a clear constitution. I do understand why people drink, but I do also understand what effects alcohol cause. Though one may have fun in a certain moment, the body tells us in truely truth next day and a few after… what we have done to ourselves and others.
I was never a heavy drinker but I just knew from the after effects that it was not worth the long debilitating, nauseous/migraine sensations in my body to continue to do so. When attending presentations with Serge Benhayon it really allowed me also to feel for once, that deep within that I naturally chose to give this habit up, and that like yourself Julie knew what the truth was regarding the message my body was revealing to me – loud and clear. This was before I chose to bring more self loving choices into my everyday. To date still working on other little ‘habits’ or comforts to eliminate from my daily choices and to honour my body even more. An inspirational sharing Julie thank you.
All of these things fell away without any striving or struggling. Without a foundation of self awareness, love and care I would still be struggling today.
Very true Nicole. When I realised what self-care and self love truly meant, it changed everything.
Self care seems to be used quite freely these days that it has almost become a buzz word given lip service relating to Occupational Health and Safety rather than how we live our everyday lives.
I am starting to get this realisation too and it does change everything. It becomes crucial in the way that we are choosing to live, bringing more and more love to workplaces that need love, from the concept of self-love and choosing to deeply nourish our own selves.
It is amazing that something so many of us struggle with, can be changed in such a loving way. As Jenny said, by truly understanding what self-love is, everything changes.
Absolutely Sarah “making a choice out of a desire to care for me”. When you make choices from there the rest just falls away – no striving no struggling.” reading these comments and pondering on the changes in my life since I introduced self-love so much loveless has just fallen away. I now have so much joy in my life celebrate and appreciate.
I too Julie had a very unhealthy relationship with alcohol on occasions, and I may have thought that it was the catalyst for lots of fun and laughter, but in fact each time I drank my body suffered and then suffered some more the next time because I allowed its messages to be buried under the burning need to be part of the party. I eventually stopped drinking for health reasons, but it didn’t take long to realise that I didn’t miss it, I didn’t need it and more importantly my body began celebrating. “The beautiful thing is that no-one told me not to drink”, I just knew it was time to stop.
Thanks Julie for such a great blog, I loved what you shared here with getting honest about alcohol. What I find interesting is that we know for a fact alcohol is a poison yet it has become very acceptable and normal to drink it everyday and for many vast quantities of this poison- it is really quite crazy to know this yet still harm the body in this way.
I loved reading this, I used to live on a remote island and drinking was a very strong part of the culture of life on the island. Alcohol was also very cheap, when I came to a Universal Medicine course alcohol was never even discussed at the course but when I went home I just never felt to drink again so I stopped.
It was weird as I then started to feel a bit excluded as it made people uncomfortable, there was a lot of pressure to drink, one Friday afternoon after about 6 months of not drinking I cracked as I didn’t want to feel left out so I drank a bottle of wine. I was so sick from it that it was then that I decided, it wasn’t worth it, it wasn’t worth trying to fit in and do that to myself so I never drank again after that.
I can relate to what you share about people around you feeling uncomfortable because you don’t join in the drinking. I too find the same, and years ago when i was a drinker, and was around people who didn’t drink I could not fathom how they had any ‘fun’ or why they didn’t want alcohol.
My oh my…. have i learned to see things differently! I now want to be sober and clear headed and vital in my body. I now see that i can have great fun without alcohol, in fact alcohol is the last thing I would want to have on social occasions.
A brilliant article that should be shared with many – given how normalised alcohol consumption is in our society. This article assists in exposing the ‘norms’ so prevalent everywhere in the world around what is perceived to be needed to have a ‘good time’ socially with your friends and family. Ultimately there’s no true enjoyment or genuine quality of living if we are using something that distracts us from connection with ourselves and others. Thanks for this article – I enjoyed reading it….
For me alcohol was a way to connect to people because I really opened up and a shyness felt away. I can see, after 4 years of not drinking, that alcohol and true connection are an illusion. When drinking alcohol, we leave ourselves and there is no connection at all. True connection and intimacy is impossible with alcohol. I love opening up to people now and yes, sometimes I still protect myself or feel vulnerable, but that is ok, that is just what it is. I am aware of it and every day, opening up more and more.
Great blog Julie, thank you. I stopped drinking one night when I realised that I had poured the drink to not feel how I was feeling after a disagreement with someone. From that moment I never drank again after having drank for around 25 years. Once this link was made it was easy and unquestionable.
I was very aware that I drank to seek relief but it wasn’t until I heard Serge Benhayon present that I began to question how I was living that meant I needed to check out and seek relief.
Rather than consider taking responsibility and changing my life so I didn’t need relief.
A beautiful sharing of your journey with alcohol Julie, and also the fact that Universal Medicine or Serge Benhayon never tell anyone what to do – truth is presented and it is totally up to us what we choose.
Your point…”The only attention, reward or recognition I received from stopping was from me: from the relief and tenderness I felt for myself for making a choice out of a desire to care for me” certainly calls out the reason many have alcohol but also exposes the self-responsibility that comes with making a decision that was truly supportive for you.
I gave up alcohol many years ago and don’t miss it one bit. So I had shivers when I read your description of the first ‘hit’, that moment when you feel it coursing through your veins and down your arms. That for me was always the sign that I’d sanctioned the substance that was shooting around inside me – feeling like I’d just been given a dose of morphine. What’s critical in all this is to observe how as a society this self-poisoning is seen as normal, socially acceptable behaviour; encouraged in almost all circles and leaving one to feel like a social leper if you consistently decline the offer to pick up a glass and join the mass medication.
I get this feeling of ‘not feeling like me’, I am sure I used to seek it, but I got the point where I was actually enjoying being me most of time and I had a sip of a drink one day and felt this change and thought, no doesn’t feel good. I began to honour that feeling and stopped drinking, it was never a struggle, I just enjoyed being me.
I gave up drinking before I came to Universal Medicine. To start with I gave up the “one or two beers” in the evening. Even though I wasn’t getting drunk I could feel very clearly how much it was affecting my next day and, very simply, “I got bored with not feeling alive and on top of my game during the day”. That’s all there was to it. it was no big deal, no big eureka moment, no big drama giving it up. The simple fact of me deciding that I wanted to feel more alive. And boy-oh-boy, has it worked!!
Interesting to ponder it from the other direction. Start with the hang-over; that horrendous feeling of nausea, splitting head-ache, deep lethargy, rock bottom self-esteem, guilt, grumpiness etc..etc…awful. So if we keep that in mind…it’s amazing to consider how disconnected we must be from ourselves if, a couple of days later, we are prepared to go through it all again, prepared to put our bodies through it again. What does that say about the lack of attention, communication, love and respect we have for what our body is crying out at us, screaming at us, begging us….”please, please, please, no more booze, we can’t handle it, we are making you as weak and as uncomfortable and as sick as we possibly can – please listen to us!!” So, as you and many others have said, it is in fact incredibly simple to not drink alcohol – just listen to your body.
When I first tasted alcohol, I didn’t like it. That was a truth, a message from my body that I could have paid attention to. Instead, determined to be ‘grown up’ I tried it more and more until it tasted OK, and by that time I was well into it. My worst times were celebrations – the end of a holiday, leaving work, parties etc. Once I started I wouldn’t know when to stop because the numbing effect of the alcohol removed all my ‘sensible’ senses. Usually when I’d had too much I’d vomit either that night or the next day, then vow never to drink again. Eventually it got to a point where two glasses of wine gave me a headache so I’d stop at one. I was always aware of the physical effects of alcohol, but never thought about the energetic effect until I met Serge Benhayon. Then I remembered seeing how much my friends would change ‘under the influence’, how they would get louder, and more stupid, not at all themselves, as if something else was channelling through their bodies. I wondered if that happened to me too and so it was easy to stop, and I’ve felt great ever since.
Thank you Julie for sharing this awesome and honest blog. It is great to bring awareness to the harmful effects of alcohol. I had chosen to not drink many, many years prior to Universal Medicine, no one told me to not drink, in fact a lot of people kept trying to convince me to drink, but it was a choice I made for myself. What you shared about how you feel your energy changed when you consumed alcohol was what I witnessed when I was around friends who drank. I could see how their behaviours changed, their face and especially their eyes. The reason I chose not to drink was because my body was highly sensitive to it, the poison from the smallest amount of alcohol was having a massive effect on me, so I chose to listen to the signs and didn’t try drinking to just fit in with my friends. I didn’t stop going out with my friends but I felt and witnessed the impact of alcohol had on them and the people all around us. I was baffled why my friends chose to consume it time and time again when it made them feel so sick. A fact, the reason people get so sick is because alcohol is highly toxic and energetically very harmful.
I work in the AOD sector and I have seen a definite pattern of deep hurts and buried issues numbed with alcohol and drugs.Its a merry -go -round for most of them. We offer them love, support and eduction but its up to them to say no. With a deeper understanding of what happens in the body it does make it easier to say no. I love how you said that Serge Benhayon never told you or anyone not to drink, just presented the facts.You said no. That’s where the change takes place with you.
I would get so sick from alcohol, not only would I make a complete arse of myself that I would regret the next day, when I drank I would become more lost than when I was sober, unable to connect with others and on a few occasions quite nasty. Then the next day my body would feel like it had been hit by a train, it felt in short, absolutely terrible. So many times I wanted to give up alcohol but it never happened … until I met Serge Benhayon and something magical and beautiful happened … the alcohol just fell away without me even trying. From what Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine presented I could feel the truth and it made me want to take a step towards me and the love and truth I felt within my body, but just previously either ignored or overrode. Serge introduced self-love and self-care from something he very much walks and lives, which can be felt; not only is this possible but also simple and has really beautiful benefits. You are so right when you say ‘The beautiful thing is that no-one told me not to drink. I was just presented with the impact alcohol has on the body and supported to reflect on why I needed it, and it was my choice to stop altogether.’
Drinking alcohol can give you a sugar hit, take the edge off life and numbs what you don’t want to feel. I persisted for years on the merry go round of drinking alcohol and inflicting many a horrendous hangover on myself only to do it again, and again, and again. Despite observing how destructive its effect was on myself and others in so many ways I never even considered not drinking it- which when I look back is crazy. Awesome blog Julie.
Great article Julie, my relationship with alcohol was a long and drawn out one. I went from it making me sick initially to being able to consume large quantities over a very long period of time.I am amazed my body was able to cope with the punishment I used to put it through. It took me a number of years to finally remove alcohol from my life, nobody told me or pressured me to stop but the more I was able to listen to and feel what my body had to say, the less I could tolerate alcohol and I would start slurring my words sometimes after only having a few drinks which became a bit embarrassing. That is all in the past now and i’m loving being the forever sober person.
This is a great blog, we choose to drink alcohol because we do not want to feel our bodies and what is going on for us so it easy to abuse it and put something that is a poison in it, how crazy is that? Universal Medicine presents how a substance like alcohol affects our bodies at different levels and the reasons why we choose to drink it and in that it allows to make a choice.
Well said Julie, the first time I ever consumed alcohol I was violently ill the next day including loss of memory – I look back on that now and ask myself why did I not stop there where I clearly knew and experienced the poison that it was in my body. The story I kept being told and ran in my head was it was not the alcohol is was the amount.. this later turned to as I got older, it wasn’t the amount of drinking it was the type of alcohol, so I started drinking “more expensive, high quality” wines and spirits. By the time I can to start seeing Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine I was very much over the ill effects of alcohol, in those first couple of years despite the fact that I was presented with the truth of the effects of alcohol I still chose to drink, until such time as my body said enough is enough – I was never told by Serge Benhayon or anyone from Universal Medicine to give up alcohol — I remember however my Mum saying to me, Terri-Anne alcohol just does not suit you. I should have listened then!
It is very honest and awesome what you’ve shared. I realised when it comes down to it, no one can tell you to quit smoking, drinking, drugs or abusive behaviours no matter who they are. When someone is not ready to committing to loving and taking better care of their body it is almost impossible to let go of these comforts and abusive behaviours. What I have noticed with the beautiful people I have met at Universal Medicine is that they choose not to drink alcohol because they are now choosing to love and care for their body. They are choosing to connect to truth and love. This is so beautiful and inspiring.
Yes I feel so much healthier and lighter since I stopped drinking alcohol. For me too it was a gradual thing as I realized more and more how unnecessary it was and how much better I felt without it. I love drinking water, sometimes with a lemon slice or lime slice and get to sense the different flavours of water. I wonder if there will ever be a time when people sample water like they now sample wine…it could be.
It is amazing how much impact drinking has on us, yet how easily we override that. It wasn’t until I began to be honest about the impacts I was actually ignoring that it became a no brainer to stop.
Stopping a behaviour because we have realized from deep within ourselves that it will not support us anymore. This is so different and so much more powerful than trying to stop a behaviour because one should.
I agree Michael. For example I have witness people trying to quit smoking because they have been told to or they think they should but it doesn’t seem to work, they often go back to those abusive behaviours again. Like what you’ve shared it easy to stop these abusive behaviours when ‘we have realized from deep within ourselves that it will not support us anymore’.
The truth about alcohol and what it does to the body and our awareness has been an eye opener. It allows a greater understanding as to why people feel the need to drink and that old saying “I love the taste” really has no merit any more. It is the numbing that is loved and taking the edge off the end of the day to relax is what is loved. How is it that we cannot do that for ourselves naturally, instead of needing something to alter us to bring the relief from the world.
The great thing about Universal Medicine is that it’s showing us the way back to ourselves – for me that’s the coming home. No longer needing food, hobbies, alcohol etc. because I’m learning that what was missing was simply that deep connection with myself. And once we have that connection with self the need for substances and distractions to numb ourselves disappears without any trying or willpower.
So true Deborah,it was as simple as that for me. The moment I deeply connected with myself at the first Universal Medicine workshop, I gave up drinking, drugs and smoking immediately as I no longer needed them to numb the pain I felt about not being connected to me.
Well said deborahmckay- once we connect, it is divine to enjoy our love, joy and harmony within us, no stimulation is needed.
I used to really enjoy getting drunk and the idea of not having this source of enjoyment in my life looked and sounded so boring. Everyone liked me when I was drunk, I was one of those people who became the life of the party. I drank a lot from the time I was 17 to about 26 when I stopped, which happened not long before I attended my first event with Universal Medicine. There were many factors that contributed to my choice to stop drinking alcohol and it wasn’t an easy thing for me to do because it left such a gap in my lifestyle. It took time for me to develop other ways to enjoy myself & socialise… and the best part has been that my life is not boring at all without it – it is actually getting more enjoyable with age ironically like a good wine.
When I now stand on the other side of the fence, the side of being free of the hold that alcohol had on me, it is really liberating. The social consciousness of alcohol, no matter how little or ‘in control’ one thinks they are, you are still under the influence of the consciousness. This is true freedom, it is much more than just giving up drinking, it is a complete and absolute awareness of how hooked in I once was and a total body and mind freedom. It is very lovely to feel.
Thanks Julie. I was trapped by alcohol as everyone I knew was also. I grew up as an ex-pat overseas in South East Asia. Drinking was a big pastime with many gatherings always included alcohol. As a child, I watched many adults drink, drink and drive, which was normal by the country’s standard. This influence was the way life was but in reflection, it was very destructive to relationships as many ended in separation.
I also remember drinking alcohol and having the same experience, like things were buzzy and another energy was taking over me. I very much value my own body and alcohol bring an energy that is harmful to my body. The hangover symptoms the next day confirmed this for me and that I would never want to put my body through that. It seems like such a waste of time to have alcohol because of the process the body has to go through to get rid of it, and it makes us regret it every time. Im glad I said enough was enough and I am so appreciative that I take the time to listen and care for my body.
I love the honesty you got to in how alcohol made you feel and the impact it has – a beautiful confirmation of what Serge Benhayon presents… and yet an honesty that sadly the world does not seem ready to look at, thus denying themselves the tenderness they too could be rewarded with should the same commitment be made.
I never went along with the mainstream of people drinking, not as a teenager and not as an adult. I had a glass of wine on rare occasions and it was never for me but for those around me saying I was no fun when I did not join them in drinking. I wonder now why people actually cared if I drank alcohol or not? Maybe they knew all too well that my choice to not drink was an uncomfortable reflection of their choice to drink a substance that abuses the body and disconnects us from ourselves and others.
‘Learning the truth about what happens in the body when alcohol is ingested was all I needed to make the commitment to never drink again,’ I have had the same experience with alcohol, when the truth about alcohol was presented to me and its effects on our body I could but agree with it. Knowing exactly from my body that that which was presented to me was true. Alcohol alters our state of being, it does not allow ourselves to be the master over our own body anymore and it is a poison to our bodies. A poison our bodies try to get rid of as quick as possible through vomiting or in other cases through a longer process by running it through the body’s filtering system. Either way making us feel horrible, irritable, numb and low in vitality.
What a great and honest blog Julie, when you make that choice for yourself you’re unshakeable.
I was never a big drinker and didn’t like the after effects the next day but still continued to drink as it was the sociable thing to do and I liked being with people, but then after attending Universal Medicine workshops, it was presented that alcohol was in fact a known poison and it just confirmed to me what I already knew, so it was easy to give it up completely after that.
Thank you Julie. It’s interesting that drinking alcohol provides a pleasant feeling, or we think it is, the rush of the sugar and the numbing of the sense but in actual fact it is just a poison and we are literally poisoning ourselves. No matter how it is manufactured and the many different combinations of flavours, colours and fruits, you can’t change the fact that it is a poison.
Spot on Matthew. Whenever I talk about alcohol to anyone I always say that you don’t need to go any further than that it is a proven scientific poison. Funnily enough, most people don’t mind poisoning themselves!!
I never felt the pleasant feeling at the rare occasions I did drink alcohol. It actually still is a mystery to me why people would choose to drink something which makes you lose yourself, which makes you foggy and so unclear in your head and entire body.
Julie I love your last line, “The only attention, reward or recognition I received from stopping was from me: from the relief and tenderness I felt for myself for making a choice out of a desire to care for me”. Why else would we choose to do things? Love it.
Awesome Julie that you no longer choose to compromise on your health.
I never really enjoyed alcohol but joined in to ‘fit in’ and appear sociable. When I listened to presentations at Universal Medicine workshops I felt what I had always known that I was not the true me when I drank alcohol. Choosing not to drink alcohol was easy when I understood how it affected everything about me. .
Julie what you share reflects my experience of alcohol too, I never felt quite right when I consumed it and when I did it was usually to try and keep up with friends or to let go of my inhibitions. Afterwards always felt the same, I felt yuck, often sick and like I had acted like someone other than me. Giving up alcohol was my choice and it is something I have never looked back from as I can’t imagine being anyone else than who I am.
I love this matter to fact blog. It is true, I always knew alcohol was not right for my body, though with everybody saying: ‘It is easier to be yourself when you have a little bit of alcohol’, I gave it a go and well yeah, I was less considerate of what I said for a short while. After that I would get very intoxicated as well very quickly and feel horrible. Though I continued as it looked like it was ‘the normal way to be’. Being introduced to Universal Medicine I heard about the energetic effects of alcohol and that it does alter your state of being. I always knew this and hey, it would actually not really make sense that to be ‘more yourself’ you have to drink a substance that is in its pure form labeled as a toxin…
A truly inspiring journey Julie – after giving up alcohol you gave yourself in return – an amazing gift – you brought self love back into your life.
A truly inspiring journey with alcohol and the amazing gift you gave yourself in return. “A desire to care for yourself”.
Yesterday I had this lovely talk with two colleagues and we talked about alcohol. Both of them don’t drink because of their own choice, so there were three of us in one room not drinking. This is quite rare as alcohol is so normal. Well, for me it is not, it does not make sense at all. Just ask your body and the answer is there, loud and clear.
I had this lovely chat with two colleagues yesterday, one of them quite young. We talked about alcohol and they both shared that they don’t drink. So there were three people in one room that don’t drink out of choice. What can I say, this was a rare moment, because drinking is so normal, that if you don’t drink, you are different or not normal. For me it is very normal to not drink and drinking alcohol does not make sense at all.
I stopped drinking alcohol shortly after I first met Serge Benhayon in 2004 and started having healing sessions. He never once even suggested to me not to drink alcohol and in fact has never told me what to do as that is not his way. However on reflection a part of me always knew alcohol was hurting my body and I just chose to ignore that. After having a session with Serge and experiencing a deeper connection to my body it suddenly became very obvious to me that alcohol was keeping me away from myself and that I felt much better and healthier when I stopped drinking. It feels like a great freedom to not drink anymore!
This is a great blog that would be of benefit to young people before they get caught up in the peer pressure to drink. When I was young there was less emphasis on alcohol, and so it wasn’t a problem until my latter years when I definitely wanted to dull the pain. I knew what I was doing, and couldn’t see myself living without a glass of wine or two in the evening until after I attended a few Universal Medicine workshops and started to take responsibility for the way I was feeling. It didn’t take long before the alcohol dropped away easily because I didn’t need it to feel Ok anymore.
Sometimes we just need the confirmation or acceptance of another when we’ve already felt that something isn’t right for us. There’s a lot going against what we feel so it’s awesome to have other people on the page.. For me it makes me go ‘ah, yes right, I’m not the only one!’
This bit was me to a tee- ‘The feeling I had of being ‘comfortable in my own skin’, to open up and not be shy, seemed to be worth enough that I came back to alcohol again and again’ I liked drinking as it stopped me feeling so uncomfortable with everything that was going on around me.
How true Emily, we know that what we feel is true, yet confirmation and acceptance can be an amazing support in gradually accepting that we indeed know everything and stop from overriding our feelings.
Yea, super true Michael. its an amazing support… for me it’s like a “oh I’m not just wierd!” haha
Such a great post Julie. My experience with ending the drinking game came from a friend who simply asked the question ‘why?’ This was enough to get me thinking. I never really enjoyed the act of drinking…I just liked the after effect. It was a hassle, pouring drinks I didn’t even enjoy the taste of down my throat for the sake of getting drunk and nothing more. By comparison to my friends I drank very little, and far less frequently, because it was not something I enjoyed doing so repetitively and I always felt ashamed when I had that little bit too much which would result in needing help to get home etc. But, I did it all the same, to feel part of society’s bounty of ‘fun.’
The day I gave it up could not have been easier…I finally connected to the truth, being that I never really wanted to drink anyway, and only did it to be part of the action. My social life looks very different these days, but it’s far richer.
Very relatable post Julie. When we deeply realise the level of responsibility and integrity we have towards ourselves and others, there are certain things that become naturally redundant – certainly this was the case with alcohol for me with drinking being very prevalent in my profession and social life too. I thought it most odd to not drink even for celebratory events back then and before Universal Medicine. For me, there was no deliberate ‘i must give up’ , it just happened over night and so easily because I connected to the truth of integrity, and the truth of what Serge Benhayon was presenting on Love.
I used to have very little social life because I did not drink. I was always uncomfortable around alcohol and so avoided social occasions. The problem was not the fact of not drinking but my inability to stand up for myself, my feeling of being less because I did not fit in. Now I express simply, from a deep conviction and without judgement, that I do not drink and leave it at that.
I can relate to what you have written Julie, alcohol gave me a false sense of confidence and bravado, however, I cant emphasise the fact enough, it was a false sense . When I think back to every stupid thing I did or said when I was drinking or how unwell I felt afterwards, I am so glad I no longer have an urge or desire to drink alcohol ever again.
It’s amazing the changes that can occur in our behaviour when we choose to listen to, and honour what our body is telling us. Thanks for your blog Julie.
I remember the first time I had alchohol I ended up sobbing and crying, looking back now it’s because I realised how far away from myself I was.. Didn’t stop me drinking again of course cause it was a normal thing to do. It’s great to have people who aren’t following the common norm- gives opportunity for others as well and a different perspective which is much needed in a world where what we feel is drowned out by social norms.
I’ve never been able to wrap my head around why people drank so much to the point that they were physically ill, but your blog has given me a new understanding. – ‘there was something I was seeking every time I drank – both self-acceptance and the approval of others.’ Great blog
I had always never felt it was right to drink and could never understand why, when to everyone else it seemed so normal and ok to do. This was at least until I came to hear, what the truth of alcohol is and what it does to someone, through a presentation by Serge Benhayon. Then I realised how clear it is from our body that alcohol is not something it likes!
I remember the first time I tasted alcohol and how much I hated it – it tasted foul! Yet the other teens around me wanted to experiment and see what feeling drunk felt like. Alcohol was held in very high esteem by the adults and we wanted in. I don’t think I ever enjoyed the taste of it and luckily never drank much, but it was something I definitely forced myself to do to fit in. I’m sure if my friends said “I hate the taste, let’s never do this again” I would have agreed. I gave up after over drinking on my 23rd birthday, I was so sick the next day I said “Never again”. Everyone treated me like a weirdo but at least I was finally doing what I wanted and what was right for me.
Dear Julie, l love how you came to know that alcohol harms our body, how we know innately what does and doesn’t support our bodies yet without the loving support of what Universal Medicine presents, how we could easily have had a drink now and then. This shows plainly how we override what we know deeply is true. looking deeper in to why we, as humans do this is the key to a truth-full, joy-full life. As nothing feels as good as honouring what it is that our bodies present to us.
Honesty is definitely the key here – not being told not to drink alcohol but really feeling for ourselves just how it affects us and taking responsibility for our own body and wellbeing.
I look back to the days that I used to drink alcohol and it was mainly to enjoin others and not wanting to feel left out, it was crazy as my body always reacted to small amounts of alcohol it took me years to clock it that alcohol is a poison to my body and it was something I did not need at all in my life.
franciscoclara8, like you, I started to drink alcohol when I was in my late teens mainly to ‘enjoin others and not wanting to feel left out’. My body also reacted to small amounts of alcohol but I overrode that I felt, and like you, did not clock it at first. When I first started, I occasionally drank to excess, but by my thirties I was only a moderate drinker and mainly on social occasions and when eating out. After having life-threatening cancer at 50 I drank even less. However it was not until I started to attend the presentations by Serge Benhayon that I allowed myself to fully feel what alcohol did to my body and like you I do ‘not need it in my life’
I too had that feeling of ‘coming home’ when I went to my first Universal Medicine presentation, despite it being very confronting to hear what really goes on when you drink alcohol. I’d worked in the wine industry for years and was a regular consumer of wine. After the workshop I became very analytical when I drank wine and with the honesty and awareness that I allowed myself, I could deeply feel the effect that the wine was having on me; something I’d chosen not to be aware of before. It then became very simple for me to stop drinking altogether. That was over seven years ago and I am loving how I feel in my body, not only in the morning, but all day long.
I had a similar experience too Alison at a Universal Medicine presentation almost 5 years ago now and it made complete sense to me then and there never to touch alcohol again.
I use to drink since I was a teenager, it was the done thing to be social. Getting drunk was ‘celebrated’ whilst the aftermath, I was left nursing a sore head and my whole body feeling it had gone in a washing machine and spat out!…My body really didn’t appreciate what I was doing to it, and then one day my body simply said, ‘no more’ and that was a year ago and I have never felt better. Funnily it would react in the same way when I ate any forms of sugar, so soon as it was removed, it’s amazing how my body is responding. I’m learning to listen to my body more.
“I really felt like I had come home, like I was finding the truth, some of which I could feel I already knew, although at the time I didn’t know how I knew. ” This is so cool as it captures beautifully for me that moment when we have something shown to us that we already know in our bodies and it is confirmed by someone who is already living it.
We all know this in it’s negative or not so supportive form but it so lovely when you start to meet people who are mirroring love and commitment to truth. It really does awaken the something within.
Also being of a slight build, I could feel the effects of alcohol after just one sip. I was so glad to hear the truth of what alcohol does in our bodies physically and energetically as I no longer had to try to pretend that I enjoyed it.
Gosh I can relate to so much of what you shared here. I drank like it was nobody’s business since I was about 17 and only started slowing down in my mid 30’s. I’ve had more hangovers than I care to remember and often wore them as a badge of honour. I had a few periods of 6 months here, 3 months there not drinking and one of those times was leading up to my first Universal Medicine presentation. Like you, it was presented on the impacts of alcohol (none of which was that surprising because you only have to feel the effects of a hangover to know that your body feels like it has been poisoned) and one key one that stood out for me is that – if we are amazing as we are, why do we need to alter ourselves? I could not find an answer to that one. I knew I was not living in my amazingness as much as I could be and much of my life was filled with harming behaviours. So I was deeply inspired to take stock of my life and start removing some of the behaviours that were getting in the way of my amazingness. And giving up alcohol on a permanent basis was one of those and 4 years later I am so glad to be free of its hold. I do not miss it at all – especially the hangovers! And like you Julie, it was done out of a decision to deeply care for myself – one of the best gifts I could have given myself.
I used to drink a lot until about 11 years ago. While on holiday, I had a dream – where I was invited to visit “the Hell” by an invisible guide. I said ‘No, thank you. I have no plan to go there ever, so no need to know’. The next moment, I found myself at some kind of resorty place, with palm trees, people relaxing in their hammocks, playing music, eating, drinking, smoking whatever they wanted, partying, having what I considered to be a ‘good time’. I thought ‘Great. Now I am in Heaven instead’. Then I started to really look into what was going on, and realised – what people were actually doing was numbing their senses and killing their potentials while thinking that they were ‘having a good time’ – so it really was a hell! Those that were in it didn’t see that they were in a hell, because as far as they were concerned, in their already numbed state, they were in heaven and they wouldn’t dream of leaving, so the whole hell system was feeding itself, self-perpetuating. I ran for my life. Then I woke up. Phew. I looked around and recognised the scenery – that was the hell I just ran away from. That’s when I understood the hell I created and trapped myself in. A few days later, I was no longer drinking. When I heard Serge Benhayon presenting on the affect of alcohol it just made sense to me.
What a profound revelation from your dream. When we choose things like alcohol, comfort foods and partying to numb ourselves we really are in hell although we can’t (and often don’t want to) see it. This is the real hell cleverly disguised as something we all want, yet keeping us away from the glory we all come from and deep down all yearn to return to.
It is just so crazy to me that something that has been the scourge of the planet , a major cause of violence , rape and war proven in earnest by the judicial system ,fact – is so openly promoted by its huge money making corporations literally parasitically feeding off everyone who subscribes to the drinking game. I am much healthier ,wealthier and wise by my decision to give up drinking , to feel the vitality in my body without the stimulation and toxicity of alcohol is amazing. I also understand it is an individuals choice in respect of others who choose differently without judgement to them as I also chose to drink for twenty years ,feeling at the time there wasn’t a choice or any others in my world that reflected a different way.
Thanks Julie – I agree whole heartedly with what you are saying. Once we really stop and feel what our bodies are telling us it’s a ‘no brainer’ about the decision of whether to drink or not. If I ever feel like drinking alcohol I have only got to come back to what my body feels in that moment to know that it isn’t worth it and that under that desire is an issue of lack of self worth.I have found it’s much better to use the time to come back to self love and acceptance than to numb/dull myself via alcohol.
I agree it’s a no brainer Helen. Years ago my son brought me a bottle of whisky to help ‘drown my sorrows’ after my husband died. it didn’t work, the sorrows were still there next morning – plus an almighty headache! I never was a regular drinker, it was more because as Julie says, if you went out with friends, you drank, or if friends came round to visit, alcohol was included in the refreshments offered. I don’t even think about it now, don’t touch it, don’t want it, my sorrows have been drowned in love and self care.
This last paragraph was very inspiring and confirming Julie. There is so much misinformation out there about alcohol that half the time (or more) people are masked or veiled from making truly informed choices with regards to the damage alcohol does. Either that or they are not truly supported to look at the reasons why they knowingly consume such a harmful substance in the first place. Starting this educational process from a young age is the key to cutting down the excessive and harmful alcohol intake that occurs so readily on a day to day basis currently.
The sense that we are not ourselves when we are on drugs such as alcohol is something we know very much so, the fact that we really are not ourselves and have allowed another energy to run us is the bit we don’t want to look at. It made a lot of sense to me about how I was when drunk and how others were.
I have not been one to drink alcohol but I can relate to the tingling feeling in my legs and especially my arms. This was when I had an illness and drank a tiny amount. I was amazed how a small amount (less than a quarter of a wine glass) could have such an impact on my body. From this experience and as I recovered from the illness I stopped drinking alcohol as I could feel the harm it was doing to my body. It simply wasn’t worth it!
I drank to fit in and also for confidence (false confidence) but never really enjoyed it and was feeling more and more the bad effects on my body and wellbeing. I’d started to reduce the amount I drank and then I attended a workshop on expression with Chris James where he mentioned that he and some other people he knew chose not to drink. That was all he said it was such a simple and unweighted statement but my ears pricked up and it was like I realised it’s ok not to drink and from then I just allowed myself to give it up, it was a big relief.
The beautiful thing about what Universal Medicine presents is the energetic truth of what is going on when we drink. When I first heard it, it made so much sense to me. I now understand that when I used to drink alcohol I was saying tomyself: I am exhausted and need a sugar hit, I need a reward at the end of the day, I need to fit in, I am not fun enough without alcohol etc. This honesty was a big wakeup call to actually consider what was really going on in mylife. I also got to understand that when I drank alcohol, this opened me up energetically to energies I would never consciously choose to come in. Although I know that people are ‘not themselves’ when they drink or do things they would not normally do, this brings a whole other dimension and awareness to what is really going on when we drink. Once felt and understood I knew I couldn’t go back there and not drinking has never been an issue since. Instead with the support of Universal medicine, I have worked on filling those gaps in my life that I needed the alcohol to mask.
I stopped drinking for three months due to my latest ‘weight loss strategy’ and then I attended my first Universal Medicine course. It was presented to me at this course a whole new way of self-love and self-responsibilty and the effects that certain foods and alcohol can have on the body. I had been a big drinker in my 20’s and 30’s – rarely a photo of me without a drink and ciggie in my hand. I knew it was not good for me but what else do you do! Until I realised there was another way, and now I have not had a drink for about 4 years and feel so lovely to be free of its clutches, and can see it exactly for what it is. I have no judgement on those who drink – how could I when I was one who did it for so long. But to now see, and honour my body so much more, the thought of putting alcohol into it to change it, holds no pleasure in it anymore.
Yes I agree Brendan, it’s awesome that she has such clear insight into the reasons why she was drinking.
I gave up because I felt how divine I was, I actually felt the light of my soul in my body at a Universal Medicine retreat, I felt like liquid gold, it was beyond amazing. I would never ever put alcohol into that !
Thanks for your sharing Julie. It felt like right from the beginning your body was saying ‘no’ to alcohol and rightly so. When I started drinking at 14 I remember the completely freeing effect it had, all my worries and concerns were magically washed away. Needless to say I got hooked. Suffering many a hangover and increased worries and issues as a result of the drinking so no problem was truly gone. Over the years and towards the end of my drinking days I could feel that energy that would come in and take over, some people would say they could see it in my eyes as well. When I came to the work of Universal Medicine I knew I could stop and I did. It was easy and never looked back, not even once. My life has improved enormously since I have got myself back, the thing I most missed for all those years.
Julie thank you for the wisdom you have lived by listening to your body and your willingness to be open to the truth Serge Benhayon presents.
” Learning the truth about what happens in the body when alcohol is ingested was all I needed to make the commitment to never drink again, and now there is no part of me that would choose to drink alcohol no matter what other people are doing around me.” Remembering how I felt when I had my first alcoholic drink – horrid – why do we push through that initial feeling when the body is telling us otherwise?
I can so relate to this Julie. When I first came to Universal Medicine presentations and heard what Serge Benhayon presented about alcohol I was drinking alcohol – and binging most often at that. I took what he said on board and experimented for myself. I could definitely feel the effect alcohol had on my body, and observed how the effects played out on those around me also. I made the choice to stop drinking alcohol altogether too as these effects were just nothing I wanted as part of my life. I am thankful to Serge for never holding back in presenting the truth he knows about these things, so we can all learn and make fully informed choices, should we want to.
The impact of alcohol is indeed destructive Julie
I loved reading your blog and was struck by the fact that nobody told you not to drink; you came to this understanding and decision yourself.
Thank you for your honest sharing and wise words.
Yes, I agree with you Shirley, alcohol is a poison in the body and is harmful, not only physically, but indeed energetically as well.
You only need to see the response of a new born baby in the arms of someone who drinks- they are very unsettled and cry.
Hello Julie, alcohol is a great example of the work of Universal Medicine for me. From my teens I had always said that one day I wouldn’t drink alcohol at all. I voiced this to my friends and at first they didn’t believe me but after years of knowing me they would actually bring it up and say that they could see how this was true. In other words even though I was still drinking alcohol my friends believed and had accepted that one day I wouldn’t. Like you Julie just prior to seeing anything Universal Medicine I actually made the decision to stop drinking all together for many reasons but the main being how it made me feel. When I came to Universal Medicine they just confirmed something I already knew and in fact most of my friends also already knew. No bells or whistles just confirmation of a feeling I already had. But what they did give me was support, support with my feelings. Alcohol was an easier one for me even though I was a heavy drinker as it just didn’t make sense. The support to trust, really trust what I feel came in bucket loads from everyone associated with Universal Medicine and that was the key for me. Like alcohol I had always had the feelings but just didn’t have the support. Thank you Julie and thanks to Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon.
I hated the taste of alcohol, so conditioned myself into liking it by starting out on the very sweet wines until I could stand to drink “real” wine. When I had my child I could feel that once I had any alcohol at all, I was no longer so clearly me. I felt like I was betraying the relationship I’d had with her from pregnancy. When I think of ingesting anything that makes me not me, I just don’t see the point, let alone going into why I would want an ill tasting poison in my body.
Lovely Julie G. Thank you so much for your deeply honest blog. I love it very much that you describe so easily and honestly about the impact alcohol has on your body – I could exactly feel what you described!!!! My feeling is we are all familiar with it so actually it is really a bit weird that some people chose to have this feelings again and again.
Giving up alcohol for me started as a discipline. I gave it up at first because I saw what is did to others mostly, but in time I started to see the benefits to my own health of having given it up. What I noticed in time was that there was a relationship between the times I craved a drink, and when I was feeling deep tension within me. Alcohol was a stress reliever, but not one without heavy side effects. It also exhausted me, and wrecked my sleep, leaving me tired the next day even when I was not hung over. There are in truth much better ways to deal with our tension in life, ways that actually assist us to get to the root core of the issue so that we can truly heal, rather than bury such feelings under the glaze of a glass of wine.
Absolutely Adam. Alcohol is like a toxic medication we use to numb ourselves from some inner tension or turmoil or uneasiness but with serious side effects that cannot be ignored and are arguably worse than the inner tension we are trying to escape from in the first place.
It’s so simple; but it’s a feeling that each of us who chose to drink need to feel, before we can make a choice not to drink.
Thank you Julia. I was in my late teen/early 20’s when I started drinking and never enjoyed it, but persisted, to fit in, be one of the boys, be socially acceptable and socially lubricated. My body very clearly was telling me it did not like the effect of alcohol. . Having nursed many people with dependencies on alcohol, there is no education or lecture that can be given that will make anyone stop drinking. This is what’s so amazing about the work presented by Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon – there is no lecture, just simply presenting the truth and it works.
When “presented with the impact alcohol has on the body and supported to reflect on why [we need] it”, that is powerful Julia. To have that moment whereby we are free for at least a small window to see things clearly, unimpeded by a substance, behaviour or social pressure, so that we can assess whether something is truly good for us or not. This is what I understand true esoteric healing to be – to be given a moment where we are completely free to make a clear and self-loving choice. And this is the gift I have received through the work of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine time and time again – absolutely priceless and very, very precious.
Not drinking alcohol is wonderful for my body and supports me. I feel empowered and self loving to always consider myself in all decisions I make for me.
Absolutely Concetta – my body loves me for it.
Thank you Julia for sharing your story , yes isn’t beautiful that we are offered the opportunity to choose and live in that choice, to feel the consequences and in our time and understanding to make another choice.
Alcohol is definitely a poison, I can see how it changes peoples behaviour, mobility and speech. I used to go out and watch my friends change throughout the night and at the end of it I feel I no longer recognise them as they have changed so much from drinking. I have never been able to drink so it has always been very interesting to observe the affects of alcohol and the damage it does to people.
It’s of interest that Serge Benhayon of Universal Medicine has presented a way to stop drinking for good that people find so easy. True health and wellbeing is presented by Serge Benhayon in such a simple, easy way overall. This could be of great interest to society as a whole considering the massive impact alcohol and other lifestyle diseases have on it, and the healthcare system.
Great to hear Julia that you could actually feel the poison of alcohol in your body. Most people just override that feeling and keep drinking regardless. I drank heavily for many years and eventually attended AA meetings. I stopped drinking at that time but didn’t address the reasons of why I drank so heavily in the first place. It is only since attending Universal Medicine events and receiving support from Universal Medicine Practitioners that I have been able to address the anxiousness, lack of self worth and lack of confidence in expression that caused me to drink in the first place.
That’s so beautiful, that we get to know ourselves in why we do the things that we do and with the honesty it takes to look at the hurt and the pain, the decision to quit gets a lot easier.
‘ I stopped drinking at that time but didn’t address the reasons of why I drank so heavily in the first place’. Great point irene sheard, unless we address why we drink in the first place, we leave a door open it feels to take up alcohol again as soon as we feel any tension or stress… It takes courage to face ourselves and to clear and heal the underlying causes such as you mentioned, the anxoiousness, lack of self worth and lack of confidence in expression…..but it can be done as you have shown.
Julia you already knew for yourself exactly what alcohol did to you and how it felt in your body. Attending a Universal Medicine course adhering a discussion on this only confirmed what you knew to be truth for you. This has always been my experience with Serge Benhayon and all that he presents. It always confirmed what I have always felt yet sometimes maybe ignored or overrode.
I used alcohol as a crutch for years and was totally dependent on it; unable to go for one day without it. When I didn’t drink, because I was trying to get pregnant – people understood. But when I then gave it away for good after being made fully aware from Universal Medicine presentations what it did to the body, people were in reaction to this choice. Alcohol is such a social norm. We accept that cigarettes and binge drinking are bad for us but cannot at all consider the harms of drinking in moderation. I couldn’t believe how uncomfortable people were when I stopped drinking. The stubbornness of holding on to the right to have a drink is strong in our communities. As a teacher I see young adults presented with the harms of binge drinking but nowhere are they presented with assurances and support to be able to claim the decision not to drink – so many do so under pressure from peers – it sometimes feels like a right of passage to becoming an adult. It is interesting to observe young adults only made aware of harms of binge drinking and to drink in moderation but not offered the choice to just simply NOT drink? All very interesting.
The fact that you were able to feel what affect alcohol had on your body and make the choice to not feel like that, therefore easily giving up alcohol, is as it should be, but how many of us choose to not feel, until our body makes us. Alcohol is such an accepted part of life people assume it is ok to drink, but it is a poison, and I wonder have the long term effects of even of a small but regular amount ever been truly studied?
There is a lot of talk, well gossip, about Universal Medicine telling people what they should and shouldn’t do, eat, drink etc. It occurred to me when reading your blog that it would be very difficult to tell people to give up alcohol since it is such an addictive product and used in so many different ways by people. If you told someone to not drink alcohol, it just wouldn’t have the success rate that Universal Medicine students have, and if it did, then surely they’d be onto something that health and diet industries would want to know about. Presenting the truth about the effects of something so a person has that information to choose for themselves does seem to work for those that choose it.
This is great, Julie, thank you. The fact that you did listen to your body and honoured what you felt even before coming across to Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon is truly fantastic.
It is always self empowering when you make the decision yourself to stop drinking, which has usually come about by an understanding of why you needed to drink in the first place, along with the awareness of how alcohol is truly a poison in the body.
I love how you have made it clear how you really felt while drinking alcohol, and also the effects it was having on your body, plus the effect you could see it having on others bodies. It’s like you were trapped, because you wanted to feel free, and alcohol seemed like the only way you could feel freedom, but was it a fair trade? It’s like selling yourself, your being and your body over to experience a gasp of air (so to speak) Then meeting Serge Benhayon and Universal medicine felt like coming home. For me, Universal Medicine feels so true, and it does not hurt any part of you at the expense of feeling home, you get the WHOLE true feeling that really does teach you how to live free in your life.
A beautiful story, thank you Julie for sharing.
Awesome Julie…It’s pretty cool that you were able to recognise and feel the effects of alcohol before going to a Universal Medicine course.
The alcohol I drank was to sometimes mask how stoned I was – it was socially acceptable to be a staggering slurring drunk than a washed out stoner. Amazing that one day the choice to stop presents itself and its done – a simple choice that was felt. The teachings of Universal Medicine consolidate loving choices.
Follow that with coffee (still capitulate with occasional decaf/soy) and now the toughest drug sugar.. immense freedom to feel when that is curbed – longest I’ve lasted is maybe 8 weeks without sugar and it was awesome. Enough to want to do that again and again. Alcohol = why bother being buzzed by something so mundane. Sugar free = feel the hum of who you really are.
Great analogys there Andrew! Awesome stuff!
At a Universal Medicine workshop Serge Benhayon presented that one of the reasons people drink alcohol is because of the high sugar content in alcohol. This made sense to me and I realised one of the main reasons I drank was because I was exhausted and the sugar kept me going. I started to deal with my exhaustion and soon after I easily gave up drinking.
I agree Julie, once we really allow ourselves to feel the effects of alcohol to our body, mind and soul and what it does to those around us, the choice to never drink again is easy to make. There is no way I would ever make an exception to that choice.
The day I stopped drinking alcohol was a big turning point in my life. In that moment I got to feel that drinking alcohol no longer worked for me. It was something that I no longer wanted to do and by my own choices. I had known Serge Benhayon for several years at that time and he never made comment to my drinking. I was only ever supported to feel what it was like to be me when I wasn’t drinking and how I also changed once I had begun drinking. Two amazing points in my life was meeting Serge Benhayon and giving up drinking to discover me.
Julie I totally relate to the having really bad physical reactions to alcohol. The first time I met Serge Benhayon was a one-day workshop. On this occasion Serge did a healing on all participants. For the next three months I had not one inkling to drink alcohol. Now this was quite something because while my body rejected it without a doubt, my mind was hooked. After three months I let my mind take control and because of a ‘particular engagement that I was participating in I felt drinking alcohol was a part of the occasion. I remember it even took a bit to get used to the taste again, and remember how quick I was to override the initial sensations that went through my body. But the hooks where firmly back in. It took another few years until I actually made the choice and commitment with my mind and body that there was never going to be a better time and that it was time. From that moment it has been the best choice I’ve ever made and never regretted for a moment.
Like so many of the false truths that we have been led/fed to believe one of the ones around alcohol is that people are ‘more themselves’ after a drink ! Many people see the supposedly more relaxed version of them as more real. Not true. Not true at all. In fact we get further and further away from who we truly are with alcohol. You only have to consider what happens if you keep drinking to know it’s a myth. On the other hand though consider what happens if you keep on making loving choices…….you become more and more who you truly are. Bingo, zingo, alar casar!
I too used to be a ‘social drinker” mainly to get approval of others it would only take one drink and I could feel the effects straight away I knew it was poisoning me but just could not say no. Since attending the presentations by Universal Medicine I have understood the effects alcohol on my body and have learnt to honour what I feel with regards to drinking, and my body thanks me everyday!
I can relate Julia particularly how I would drink alcohol to be socially accepted and to fit in even though I did not like the taste and my body clearly did not enjoy it. On reflection I can’t believe I actually chose it when all the signs were saying this is not right. At that stage of my life I wasn’t choosing to listen to myself in my wisdom and would dismiss or override what was true. It’s a good thing I have my ears and my heart wide open now because there is no way I would harm myself like I did back then.
I had the same experience Marcia and when I stopped drinking I started to feel a vitality and connection to my body that I never experienced before. What I believed to be fun for decades suddenly stood out as absolute abuse.
I was a social drinker all my life. I first started to see how many socially accepted beliefs there are around alcohol when I was having friends from another faith where alcohol was not part of their life. All of a sudden I was the only one ordering alcohol, the others soft drinks. Then I started to question myself why alcohol (nice wine) was a must with fancy dinner parties. I realized then it was just a belief. Still I continued drinking. When I started to attend courses with Universal Medicine, it hit me (almost like a hangover does, but with opposite effects) that alcohol energetically does. Yes, it alters you. I started to pay close notice to myself and others when alcohol was involved. I could see, feel and hear the changes. A checked-outness, level of connectedness including conversation dropped. At one point it was very clear for me: not one drop of alcohol in my body, or I loose a drop of me.
Julie I can relate to your story of drinking as a teenager to feel ‘free’, which I continued well into my 20’s. For me alcohol was an escape from feeling me. It wasn’t until I began to make the choice to feel and connect with my body and address my reasons for wanting to numb out that I was able to really feel the effects of what alcohol was actuallly doing to my body. From the honesty of what I was feeling, it was then easy to give it up. Not from a ‘have to’ but because I wanted to, because I valued my connection with me more than the disconnection.
Like you Julie I have probably only been really drunk once in my life, although I did drink moderately from the age of 19 to 50, when I then had a serious illness and cut back significantly – only having half a glass and the occasional liquor when we had guests.
In fact during that time, alcohol was considered an integral part of any dinner party! Since meeting Serge Benhayon and starting to listen to my body, I could no longer contemplate even a sip of alcohol! In fact it is no longer something that is in my consciousness. And the lovely thing is that not only do friends know that we do not have alcohol in the house, but they no longer feel they have to have a drink either before or after visiting us . . . and they say how well they feel in the morning!
Awesome to read that you listened to your body and through self-care chose not to drink. I too did the same in my early twenties. It was an easy choice because I wasn’t reliant or addicted to it. When we choose to listen to our body it will give very clear signs that alcohol is highly toxic.
I was raised in a family where alcohol had a daily presence and had my first alcohol when I was about 10 years old. I was eased into it from the idea that a women should not be drunk and therefor need to learn how to hold her liquor…..(!).Just a little bit of red wine mixed through a glass of water. Every summer there would be a bit more wine and less water. In this way i was never truly aware of what the affect of alcohol was on my body. I could drink a lot and never really got drunk.
Not until I got really ill and my body forced me to start paying attention to the consequences of my choices did I start to notice how the alcohol actually felt in my body and then one day, I decided that the glass of wine was just not worth what I felt in my body the next morning and I simply stopped drinking.
Ditto Carolien it just became not something I was willing to put my body through and then it became super simple to let go off, it was a process and not over night by any means, like you have shared in your blog Julie it was through developing greater awareness of the why and what was really at play for wanting to drink and lots more self care that meant I was able to stop drinking with ease.
I don’t even remember how I gave up drinking alcohol. It just seem to happen. I had been wanting to give up for a long time and new I had become dependant on it over the years to numb me. Once I started Universal Medicine workshops and seeing practitioners I dealt with some of my issues/hurts I actual didn’t have a need to drink anymore. It was interesting when I did give up my head would be telling me to have drink and my body (taste buds) would be going yuk and I would feel sick preventing me from having another drop of alcohol. It feels wonderful to be free of alcohol and not poisoning my body.
To stop drinking alcohol because we have felt what it actually does in the body, doesn’t require willpower or resolutions, it is just the next logical and sensible thing to attend to and very simple – you just stop.
I found that to be true Gabrielle, alcohol was the easiest of things for me to stop as I could feel so clearly that it wasn’t right for my body. And at no point since then have I needed willpower to not drink, it is just something I know I will not return to.
Absolutely Gabriele, once you realise what it does in the body there is no other sensible choice but to just stop.
Yes Gabrielle, I too gave up alcohol because I began to feel what I was actually doing to myself and how false the “good happy giggly ” stuff was. I stopped drinking 8 years ago and have never looked back.
Yes, It is as simple and straightforward as that Gabriele. Pure common sense!
It is very exposing when we stop and ponder on why we drink alcohol – to relax, because we like it, it’s social and the list goes on. For me, I didn’t feel like myself when I drank, and I enjoyed not feeling like myself – what did that say about how it felt to be me? So I stopped drinking and started spending more time feeling like me and then actually realised that I am alright and I began to enjoy being me. These days there is no enticement that could get me to drink alcohol as there is nothing I would rather do than be me. And if someone asks me why I don’t drink, I tell them that I don’t need to.
The body knows and we are tuned into it even when we think we are not and let our mind run the show! Real life example Julie. I am currently working with people who are substance addicted – alcohol and other drugs. Many are in their 40’s and 50’s and look like they are 70. The body has spoken and now they regret ignoring it.
Thanks for sharing Julie, I too have had a similar relationship with alcohol, enjoying the fact that I could be more outgoing but not really feeling like myself, and the next day wondering who that person was. Since stopping alcohol I now much prefer to be just myself and knowing that is more than enough.
Even more powerful Julie, you had started feeling the effect sod alcohol on your body. What was presented to you was the confirmation that allowed you to know from your heart “never again”.
Everyday we are saturated with images and sounds wanting to influence us on what to eat, drink, wear, buy or do. There is not one part of our lives that is left untouched. So when I went to a Universal Medicine workshop and was simply presented with an alternative, I met a community that was saying you can stop and choose. I was presented simple life changing strategies and by implementing these, the effect on my life has been profound. When we are presented with functional alternatives life can become very simple, and loving. There is no magic tricks but, there is magic in simplicity.
Not one cell in my body ever wants to consume alcohol again, it is that simple. There is no abstinence, no self disabling, no feeling of being limited or on a diet, creating a rule that I shouldn’t drink. People find this hard to believe, but I live this every day and it is normal – it was the same with smoking and it has become the same with some food types, particularly sugar. Basically anything that takes me away from feeling me in my body.
I still find it incredible how we so determinedly override what the body loudly tells us – and for me, alcohol was one of the things I worked hard at being able to handle. I ended up being able to ingest large amount of alcohol, even though I am also, like you Julie, very small framed. Years of numbing abuse ensued until I also was presented with the information through Universal Medicine on the truth about alcohol and the effects it has on us. It still took some time to fully choose myself and my health over and above my lifestyle, but becoming alcohol free is certainly one of the best decisions I have ever made.
It’s crazy how alcohol is ‘normalised’ to the extent that it has been by society. Since I have stopped drinking I’ve noticed that if I happen to be around people who are drinking ‘socially’, I can feel the affect the alcohol has on them immediately eventhough they may not be ‘drunk’. Their energy changes. It’s no longer them that I’m talking to but the entity they have let it. The same entity that suposedly makes them feel more confident and able to fit in with their mates, when in fact its covering up how empty and checked out they have become.
Thank you for sharing your experience of alcohol in such an honest and down to earth way. I am happy to see that you felt your way out of it when it could have been very easy to over rule all that you felt.
I once did a short course on the effects of alcohol to the body not for myself but for a judge. Anyway within the day it was repeatedly mentioned alcohol is straight out a poison, I was thinking who is this clown… Its not killing me it’s alright …wow right, so on my way home I stopped in at the local bar and had a water, hmmm no my drinking days continued very heavily for another 7 yrs until the first presentation I attended with Universal Medicine, I recall alcohol being mention the real effects of it but not a great deal, I went back to my campsite after the workshop and cracked a beer as you do when your on holidays, took a mouthful spat it out, tipped out the beer and gave the carton away to the next person that walked by that was 7/8 years ago. It takes one to walk the talk to truly inspire another this I have never forgotten
I was encouraged to drink from a really early age by my parents. I think the first time I got drunk I was eight, my parents laughed. Alcohol was just a normal part of life for us. At high school when my peers were discovering alcohol, I was an expert at getting drunk and having no memory of it the next day. A ‘happy drunk’ they called me. Of course, I was deeply hurting inside. By the time I was in my mid twenties I was over it, turned to marijuana instead…no hangovers (that’s another story). When I started reading the books of Serge Benhayon it all made sense and confirmed all that I had felt about alcohol. Then it became time to heal all those wounds, let go of the pain and learn to self love. Thank you Julie for making so much sense and exposing the poison for what it is.
It amazing how Helen mentioned that we train ourselves to like alcohol as I can remember the first beer I had as a fourteen year old, the foul bitter femented taste.
As I grew up with my mates we mimicked our male role models and started to learn to drink beer from late teens, thinking that it was what we had to do to be accepted as real men. At that time there were no other refections I could see, showing a different way and a choice to drink or not. It was only, learn to drink or be outed from the group as a pussy or whimp, so we grinned and beared the not nice taste and kept training ourselves to drink, getting used to the taste over the years and hooked on the intoxication effect and escapism. I am glad of my choice to give up the poison, I have a much deeper enjoyment of life, me and others. I also feel that I can offer the choice by refection to my son and others that you don’t have to drink if you don’t want to.
I know when I started getting honest about what I was seeking in a glass of wine – acceptance, recognition, a social boost, combined with being honest about how it made my body feel, then it became a very easy choice to stop. Yet I had spent years drinking alcohol, starting with a glass of wine with dinner when I was a teenager, to doing my part in supporting the brewing industry in NZ while I was at university. I can reflect back on these times now with the honesty that drinking was a way to numb how I really felt about myself in social settings – shy, awkward and unsure of myself. But with a drink I could cut loose and have lots of fun, until the next day that was. What I have learned from Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine is that being the real me is the best way to deal with any social situation and there are no hangovers!
If someone had told me 7 years ago that I would shortly never drink alcohol again, I would have thought they were crazy. I worked in the wine industry and regularly conducted wine tastings, not to mention my extensive wine collection. However, after attending a Universal Medicine workshop I very quickly realised that the person I became when I drank, was not ME. I had always felt an anger pass through me after I drank, but chose to dismiss this warning signal that something wasn’t right. The hardest thing to stop was the momentum of having drunk for so many years, so I chose to be quite analytical about it and really felt into how I felt before I drank, during and after. It then became a very easy choice and, like you Julie, nothing would entice me to take another drop again.
Julie I love this blog. Nobody ever told me not to drink but after being very sick, unrelated to drinking alcohol, my body just didn’t want to drink anymore. I then heard Serge Benhayon speak about the affects on alcohol on the body and I have never considered drinking again.
I totally get and agree with what you wrote Julie. Once I learnt what the alcohol was doing to my body and the nastiness it attracted no one could convince me to have ‘just one’ & I also noticed in my circle of friends it wasn’t that big of a deal. It was me with the issue…