Drink about it
New research shows that mindfulness can help curb the desire to drink too much
MINDFUL eating — that laborious New Age-y practice of scrutinizing, fondling and sniffing food before you eat it to reduce overdoing it — is coming for cocktails.
Mindful drinking, like its food-focused predecessor, encourages people to tune into their senses and their bodies’ needs. And scientists think it could make a big difference in people’s boozing habits.
A small but promising new study published in the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology examined the impact of mindfulness on 68 “at-risk drinkers” — women who consume more than 112 grams of ethanol (about six glasses of wine or pints of 4 percent alcohol by volume beer) and men who drink more than 168 grams (nine glasses of wine or pints of 4 percent ABV beer) per week.
“We found that a very brief, simple exercise in mindfulness can help drinkers cut back, and the benefits can be seen quite quickly,” lead study author Sunjeev Kamboj says in a press release.
For the experiment, he and his colleagues at University College in London had a group of participants listen to an 11-minute mindfulness training exercise, while a control group received a training exercise that simply focused on relaxation. One week later, they checked in with participants, and found that those in the mindfulness group drank on average 75 fewer grams of ethanol — or about three fewer drinks — than usual over the course of that past week.
These findings may be particularly important at a time when binge drinking has become a “public health crisis,” according to another recent study, which found that alcoholuse disorder among Americans has increased by a whopping 49 percent from 2001 to 2013.
But you don’t have to be a problem drinker to benefit from a little mindfulness.
“Anybody would,” says Lynne Goldberg, a meditation expert who recently launched the app Breethe. “We face cravings all day long, not just for alcohol.”
Because ignoring those desires may backfire, she and the UCL researchers encourage people to work with their cravings instead of fighting them. This means learning to slow down and check your feelings before you chug.
Begin by tuning into your body. Where is that feeling originating from? Your chest? Your head? Then, identify if there’s an accompanying bodily sensation: Does it feel hot? Itchy?
Once you’ve figured it out, say to yourself, “I feel a craving in my chest, and it feels itchy” — and don’t judge yourself for it. As study participants were instructed, “Allow [that feeling] to be there and let go.”
Made it through? You’ve observed a whim of the brain and waited it out. Do it enough, and “you can break cycles of bad behavior and get off the hamster wheel,” Goldberg says.
Another exercise from the study involves interacting more directly with the object of your desire. If you’re facing down a cocktail, evaluate its sensory qualities: its color, scent, texture. Then, imagine taking a sip of the drink, heeding all the sensations and impulses it evokes. Did your mouth just water? Did your hand twitch toward the glass? Again, take stock of all of that — and let it pass.
This crash course is a good start. But for lasting impact, Goldberg recommends meditating regularly. Ideally, she says, people should be tapping into a mindful state daily — not only when temptation strikes.
As she puts it: “If mindfulness were a drug, I wouldn’t take it like an antacid — only right before you think you really need it. I’d take it like a birth control pill: a reliable, daily habit.”