Hi Starre
It's great you can identify key goals you want to achieve, such as feeling happiness, motivation, constructive thinking etc. Consciousness is the first step toward change.
Being a gal who drank throughout my years in depression, it wasn't until looking back at those years that I began to realise exactly why I drank. In a nutshell, I was an 'emotional drinker'.
I've found there are often 3 key factors that are linked to emotions. I'll use the emotion/feeling known as 'motivation' or 'drive' as an example
- Mentally, there has to be something that drives us. A mental skill set can drive us, such as a clear step by step guide to reach a goal. Being able to clearly imagine the end goal can also drive us to achieve. A vivid, well exercised or easily triggered imagination can be a driving force
- Physically, emotion is energy in motion. If the energy's not there, say in the form of chemistry, we won't be able to feel it. There won't be the right amount or the right type of chemical reactions to drive us. A lot of energy systems in the body. Vascular system carries the energy found within blood, endocrine system carries energy within hormones, nervous system carries energy through nerve impulses etc. Blood tests are a way of testing energy levels within the blood (such as with Iron or B12)
- Naturally, energy surrounds us in the form of people, places, music etc. As physicists say 'We're energy in motion, being comprised of matter'. So, it's kind of like we vibe or vibrate (on a cellular level) in connection with our environment. Music therapy partly works on the principal of raising or lowering our cellular vibration. This helps explain why 'high vibey' music can put us in a good mood, when every cell in our body is vibrating at a higher rate or frequency
So 'motivation' is not such a simple thing. It can be comprised of so many factors.
With alcohol being comprised of chemistry, adding that chemistry to our own physical chemistry will cause a 'chemical reaction' and that's what we feel - the reaction. If it's an energising reaction, we'll feel the energy.
A poop load of research over time led me to realise why I drank. I drank based on a lack of skill sets, a lack of being led to imagine a life different from the one I was living, a lack of the right chemistry and a lack of understanding regarding how my connection to life works (energetically), among other things. It was a lack of all these things that led me to drink. Hope this helps in some way 🙂
