JUST SAY "NO!" TO YOURSELF

Sometimes you have to just say "NO" to yourself. Yes, to yourself!

Often that’s the best way to handle what’s happening.

Here's what I mean. 

I’m going off coffee right now and my mood is so very low. Imagine that!

I have been on coffee for years! I used to get a mocha every morning during my working days - a treat to myself. Even when I gave up the sugary drink for straight coffee and cream, I still got my morning java. So this is a well ingrained habit.

I really believe I have to stop coffee to heal my gut - the acidity of coffee appears to not be helping my gut heal despite all my bone broth, probiotics, kombucha, and whole foods efforts in the last few years. The fact is, coffee gives me a tummy ache most mornings, which I ignore. Sorta silly, huh?

And, of course, coffee keeps me amped up. All day. As a slow metabolizer genetically, it's literally all day, if not into the next day. So to thoroughly relax into my body and quiet my mind, well, you get the drift!

The only time my blood pressure is high is when I go to the doctor or have a very stressful event (they are one and the same for me!) Doctors have recommended heart meds to me for years! Yet I know that it is only putting a bandaid on the systemic pressure of my body. So I have been seeking other ways, and interestingly enough, coffee elimination seems to be a good choice. The one time I went off coffee and sugar for a week to combat a UTI, then went to the doctors, my blood pressure was NORMAL! Whoa.

I love coffee, though. And especially caffeinated coffee. It tastes so good, and I see many friends at the shoppe as I am a regular (of course!).

I know how to quit things. I've quit cigarette smoking when I was 25. I quit over-working in my 30's. I quit sugar, and flour, and alcohol periodically. I quit junk food. 

So anyway back saying "NO!"

I have to say "NO!" to myself today to that coffee, and apparently my mood is so low right now, because coffee increases dopamine, which is a happy chemical. My energy is low too because going off coffee is keeping me awake at night, which usually isn't an issue for me. So watch out world!

These changes in my body make it really hard to say "NO!" But I know I can do it. So I need to say that "NO!" then refocus to something else besides that first sip.

​It reminds me of when I used to have panic attacks. I learned through my work with anxiety that the best way to interrupt a full-blown panic attack, Is to first say "NO!". STOP IT. 

Then re-focus on the tiny details around you. Look at a tree next to you, notice the veins in a leaf, the pattern of the bark, the ants crawling on it, and the breeze teasing the leaves.

Actually say to yourself,
"I see green leaves."
"I see the red veins running through that leaf."
Look at the wind push that leaf."
"There are ants crawling up that tree." 

Get out of your own head and realize that anxiety attack isn’t going to kill you. If at that moment you can’t run around the block a few times to defuse the adrenaline, then you need to use this mind technique until you can do that.

So going off coffee isn't going to kill me, even though it's rough. Want to join me?