Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Look into my eyes, look into my eyes.......
“……and now I’m going to count up from 10. When I say three you will open your eyes. When I reach one, you will be wide awake. You will wake with a feeling of well-being. You will wake with confidence that you will have no desire to drink to excess. Nor will you have any desire to drink during the week. At the weekend, you will enjoy a few glasses of wine. You will savour them, but you will have no desire to drink more.”
Listening to the hypnotist intone the days of the week on which I've vowed not to drink - enunciating Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday slowly and precisely - is quite giggle-inducing, but once I get control of that, stop thinking about the itch behind my left shoulder and how many bottles of wine l'll need to give up to cover the cost of the £60 an hour fee, I relax and feel myself floating off and totally receptive to her words.
And you know what, it might just work! It's been less than a week since my session, but I've had just one tiny slip and that was a few glasses of wine yesterday (a Monday) to celebrate the reunion with my loved one in Villefranche after a week apart, but as that comes under the heading of special occasions, it doesn't count. So, until Friday, not a drop will pass my lips, although my loved one, who so far has only my word that I felt no desire for a drink, is worried that we may still be in for a few whine filled evenings.
A somewhat drastic course of action you may think, but when you put out your empties and the neighbours congratulate you on holding such a quiet party, it’s time to re-think your drinking habits, which isn’t easy when all your associations with alcohol have been nice ones. When I was growing up, the fun times in our house came only a few times a year, when my rather serious parents became mellow after a few drinks and as an unconfident teenager, I loved the feeling of liberation it gave me. It didn't figure much in my life whilst bringing up the children, but since I’ve been free of those responsibilities, it’s become a very enjoyable, but increasing, habit – there's nothing nicer than good company and a nice bottle of wine. Except it isn’t a bottle any more – there’s the six o’clock aperitif, followed by a bottle over dinner and then a couple more glasses over a game of Scrabble or Match of the Day and at the weekend, a few more glasses over lunch.
The hypnotist assures me she’s had a lot of success with drinking and eating excesses, but then she would say that wouldn't she? I'll keep you posted on whether she's still my new best friend in a while. In the meantime, I'm thinking of any other bad habits we could get rid of - my loved one mentioned chocolate, but I don't think he's remotely serious, but I wonder if she could do anything about an obssessive compulsive desire to abolish the monarchy every time I hear Prince Charles speak.
Listening to the hypnotist intone the days of the week on which I've vowed not to drink - enunciating Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday slowly and precisely - is quite giggle-inducing, but once I get control of that, stop thinking about the itch behind my left shoulder and how many bottles of wine l'll need to give up to cover the cost of the £60 an hour fee, I relax and feel myself floating off and totally receptive to her words.
And you know what, it might just work! It's been less than a week since my session, but I've had just one tiny slip and that was a few glasses of wine yesterday (a Monday) to celebrate the reunion with my loved one in Villefranche after a week apart, but as that comes under the heading of special occasions, it doesn't count. So, until Friday, not a drop will pass my lips, although my loved one, who so far has only my word that I felt no desire for a drink, is worried that we may still be in for a few whine filled evenings.
A somewhat drastic course of action you may think, but when you put out your empties and the neighbours congratulate you on holding such a quiet party, it’s time to re-think your drinking habits, which isn’t easy when all your associations with alcohol have been nice ones. When I was growing up, the fun times in our house came only a few times a year, when my rather serious parents became mellow after a few drinks and as an unconfident teenager, I loved the feeling of liberation it gave me. It didn't figure much in my life whilst bringing up the children, but since I’ve been free of those responsibilities, it’s become a very enjoyable, but increasing, habit – there's nothing nicer than good company and a nice bottle of wine. Except it isn’t a bottle any more – there’s the six o’clock aperitif, followed by a bottle over dinner and then a couple more glasses over a game of Scrabble or Match of the Day and at the weekend, a few more glasses over lunch.
The hypnotist assures me she’s had a lot of success with drinking and eating excesses, but then she would say that wouldn't she? I'll keep you posted on whether she's still my new best friend in a while. In the meantime, I'm thinking of any other bad habits we could get rid of - my loved one mentioned chocolate, but I don't think he's remotely serious, but I wonder if she could do anything about an obssessive compulsive desire to abolish the monarchy every time I hear Prince Charles speak.
