I sure love a fine beer. And nowadays, I have a pretty ideal selection just about anywhere I go. I mean, with the touring the band has done through rural Texas and Arkansas and I can still find a solid IPA at the diviest of dive bars? I’ve got it made….

Jess and I go to a bar that cycles this picture up on their TV screen menu above the bar…

And we laugh every damn time, without fail. But those kind of bars just don’t really exist anymore. Which is pretty awesome for me. But it also creates a little bit of an issue. 

Sounds crazy, right? What could be wrong with that?? 

Quite honestly, I’ve recently started questioning what kind of habit I’ve developed because of the fact that I can find a tasty beverage everywhere I go. 

I’ve always trusted my judgement and have been extremely cognizant of what I consume. I know that alcoholism has known to be a hereditary issue. 

But I do think that the trend for me, especially working from home, is that leaving the house after the work is done to grab a beer signifies the end of the work day and the start non-work evening. Which is totally fine… until the beers start piling up regularly. 

I talk a lot about conscious living for men – making decisions based purely on intention, focus and with a specific purpose. Being present with your thoughts and actions. But when does conscious decision making take a back seat to habitual instinct? In many cases, it can be after a couple beers at happy hour, when those couple turn into several.

I generally consider myself to be incredibly healthy. I pay pretty close attention to the ingredients in my food, I haven’t had a soda in years and I love making Jess and me some green juice throughout the day. But I also sometimes think I use the healthy eating as an excuse for an extra beer in the evening. 

Maybe the culture has just gotten to me. It’s something I really really love… the homemade aspect of it and walking into the brewery and being able to smell the brew process… it’s just pretty damn cool. To me, it’s a completely different dichotomy than grabbing a case of the cheapest beer in the cooler. The problem is, I just think it’s too easy for us to continue to do it over, and over, and over, and over again…. Without realizing where it’s taking us. 

Look, this isn’t supposed to be an, ‘I’m giving up drinking,’ or a ‘We’re all drinking too much’ kind of post. It’s really just a reminder that sometimes the conscious actions can disappear and the habitual instinctive action can take over. And when that happens, that’s when we start to lose our own abilities and the actual joy has been removed. And this is the case in any sort of habitual activity. 

If we let the numb take over, the Gift of Now disappears. 

So last night for dinner, we went to the beer bar that shows the above image… 50+ delicious beers available from all over the country. But I realized as I perused the menu that a beer didn’t actually appeal to me. I went from one type to another, none of which really calling out to me. So I ordered a 0% ABV kombucha. And for my 2nd round with dinner, I ordered a non-alcoholic hoppy tea (yeah… apparently that’s a thing… and it’s insanely good). 

Conscious action… because why settle for anything less? 😉