Why Mixing Mindfulness & Keg Culture Is A Counterproductive Cocktail
This weekend I had the pleasure of hearing a wonderful talk about mindfulness by a local female entrepreneur who I deeply admire. In her work, she often speaks to corporate offices whose team members would benefit from interrupting their daily grind with a bit of mindfulness. Indeed, mindfulness can help you to re-wire your brain and shift the way you respond to everyday stressors.
I believe that everyone can benefit from mindfulness practices and that it’s so valuable to have our minds open to new and healthy ways of processing our realities. There’s only one problem...I also note that many of the organizations who bring in mindfulness practitioners and other self-care experts tout company kegs, bar carts and frequent happy hours as benefits to being a part of their company culture.
They’re missing the point. You can’t meditate away stress, sadness, exhaustion, overwhelm, or trauma if you’re simultaneously self-medicating those symptoms with alcohol (or other substances). YOU. JUST. CAN’T.
Sure, you’ll still reap some of the benefits of meditation and mindfulness, but trying to become mindful while actively attempting to mind-numb is counter-productive at best.
(Note: this is not to imply that all employees at a company who have a drinking culture are self-medicating. This is also no discredit to those teaching or sharing mindfulness practices, but rather a challenge to ourselves to consider other sources which might be contributing to our stress).
But, none of us want to read the studies which show the short-term and long-term effects that alcohol has on our brains. We’d prefer to conveniently ignore the notion that drinking lowers our ability to deal with stress, sadness, anxiety, and other negative emotions far after the physical effects of a drink have worn off. We’d much rather read an article about the perceived benefits of beer or wine or latch on to the idea of meditation as a saving grace because these headlines have more social currency and they re-affirm our behaviors.
The reality is, mindfulness is an excellent choice to make. It is an essential building block of a self-care routine. However, if you’ve coupled mindfulness with a frequent routine of imbibing, the likelihood is that you’re barely breaking even.
You see, if you’ve taught your brain that when stress, anxiety, or other negative emotions occur, you get a drink - a substance which chemically alters your brain, BTW - you lower your brain’s ability to truly experience the benefits of mindfulness activities - it’s like walking upwards on the down escalator...you’re moving, but you’re not really getting closer to your intended destination.
I get it, many of us work in fast-paced, high-stress, demanding environments where we’re encouraged to drink in order to take-a-load-off after a stressful day, to network with our peers and clients, to get our creative juices flowing, or to celebrate a major success. It can be easy to fall victim to the pressure of conforming to what everyone around you views as normal behavior.
However, if you’ve felt the pains of overwhelm, stress, or anxiety in relation to your job (or, hell, life in general), I can assure you with full confidence that alcohol is only adding fuel to the fire and making it more difficult for you to process the emotions you’re experiencing.
If you’ve been feeling your job is so stressful that you need or deserve a drink to survive, I challenge you to see what your life might be like without the “assistance” that alcohol provides. If you’ve been trying to integrate in mindfulness activities like yoga, meditation, etc., but are still drinking and are wondering why everything you’re doing isn’t quite working...ask yourself what you are doing to sabotage your efforts. Then, ask yourself how much you value feeling good.
For me, the desire to feel good FINALLY became a priority over all of the superficial things I did for fun or to fit in with my peers. When I made the commitment to stop drinking in January, 2017. My life changed. I stopped feeling stressed out and triggered so easily. I handled obstacles and chaos with ease. I rebounded quickly when something unexpected threw me off course. I began THRIVING rather than struggling to survive. I became the most emotionally resilient person I know.
Furthermore, the practices I’d been implementing with lackluster results (meditation, mindfulness, spirituality, journaling, self-care, yoga, etc., etc., etc.) FINALLY started to really kick in. I took myself to another level of personal wellbeing when I decided alcohol no longer had a place in my life.
And do you know what? I became an even better employee - one who could focus fully and use my entire intellectual capacity in my work. I became a more present and patient co-worker who communicated more effectively and showed up more fully for my peers. Most importantly, I became a more aligned version of myself and was able to see where my current job was no longer serving me and have the confidence to know that I deserved something which did. Ultimately, I was able to attract my dream working situation and that is a miracle I would not have had space to even dream of had I continued to dull out my thoughts with alcohol.
Friend, I want the same for you. I want you to show up for work as your best self. I want you to tackle stressful projects and tedious tasks with ease. I want you to recognize how much more you could achieve if you allowed yourself to show up for life at full-operating capacity. I want you to realize your biggest, boldest dreams and have the self-confidence and energy to go after them. I want you to meditate, and pray, and reflect, and write and truly be able to soak in the life-changing impact these activities can have in your life. I want all of this for you and more.
If you’ve been lost in the hamster wheel of the 9-5 hustle and wonder if alcohol is only adding fuel to the fire, I invite you to join the waitlist for my new programs, which I’ll be introducing this fall. Whether you drink a little, a lot, or not at all; I will have something for you.