A Stress-Busting Blueprint for Smokers, Drinkers, and Over-Thinkers
Learn more than 15 healthy, stress reducing strategies in one-hour
How this Blueprint Can Help You
Whether you're a smoker, a drinker, or an over-thinker, awareness, mindfulness, and better practices are the key to breaking old cycles. In all three cases, the solution is to create a pause between you and your habit that allows you to make better stress-reduction choices. This blueprint is one I developed based on my own smoking, drinking and over-thinking habits and provides you with over 15 better options (many of them mindfulness-based) to choose from.
In this blueprint package, you'll receive:
- A link to an article in which I outline the blueprint
- A downloadable PDF of the blueprint itself
- A one-hour live-streamed webinar in which I go over each of the points outlined in the blueprint
Why You Need this Blueprint
Many cigarette smokers think of smoking as a means of reducing stress. This association is understandable, since "When a person smokes, a dose of nicotine reaches the brain within about ten seconds. At first, nicotine improves mood and concentration, decreases anger and stress, relaxes muscles and reduces appetite" (Mental Health Foundation).
However, "Research into smoking and stress has shown that instead of helping people to relax, smoking actually increases anxiety and tension. Nicotine creates an immediate sense of relaxation so people smoke in the belief that it reduces stress and anxiety. This feeling of relaxation is temporary and soon gives way to withdrawal symptoms and increased cravings" (Mental Health Foundation).
The fact is that the act of smoking regularly creates a cycle--we're constantly going through withdrawal, feeling stress because of the withdrawal, and then smoking to relieve the "stress" of withdrawal.
Although smoking reduces nicotine withdrawal symptoms, which are similar to the symptoms of anxiety, it does not reduce anxiety or deal with the underlying causes (Mental Health Foundation).
A similar cycle exists when we drink alcohol. There's that initial sense of releasing tension. Our mood improves. However, many people report a heightened sense of stress and anxiety the morning after.
According to Health Line, "Alcohol changes levels of serotonin and other neurotransmitters in the brain, which can worsen anxiety. In fact, you may feel more anxious after the alcohol wears off. Alcohol-induced anxiety can last for several hours, or even for an entire day after drinking."
Ruminators, or over-thinkers, also experience a similar cycle. The truth is that "ruminating thoughts, to a certain extent, are actually quite natural. Many people experience temporary rumination when undergoing situational stressors" (The Psychology Group). Unfortunately, because it's natural and good to "chew on" an idea in certain circumstances, our mind can sometimes start to believe over-thinking is necessary in all problem solving situations. In this sense, what is initially helpful, eventually heightens/increases our distress and sends us into that never ending cycle.
Your Instructor
I'm Monique Chénier, and I help people overcome self-sabotaging habits, beliefs and patterns that undermine their self-esteem and distract them from their higher purpose. In the last decade, I've combined my years of experience as an in-class teacher, published writer and certified consulting hypnotist, with a growing understanding of the unconscious mind, Buddhist psychology, yogic philosophy, and mindfulness meditation to help people overcome the obstacles that have held them back in the past. I've been a registered Consulting Hypnotist and a member of the National Guild of Hypnotists since 2012. I have a B.A. and a B.Ed., taught Creative Writing for over 25 years. I completed a 250-hour yoga teacher training and Levels 1 and 2 in Emotional Freedom Techniques in 2017.