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英単語学習:When the Drinks Are Free

禁酒コーチRachel Hartさんのポッドキャストから
英単語の説明と解釈の学習メモです。
はなし言葉ですので
語彙も、そこまで難しいわけではありません。
どんなふうに、使われているのか、そこがポイントになります。
スクリプトは引用です。

私たちは、無料ドリンクとかなんとか
そういうものに、
つい反応してしまいます。
コストがかからない、いいじゃない、
リスクはない、なんでダメなの。
という考え方になり
お酒を控えようとしていたにも関わらず
次から次へと、お代わりをして
飲み過ぎてしまったりします。

それは、簡単な例でいうと
低い脳と高い脳があって、
生き残るための脳、サバイバルしてきた脳が
強く反応する。
食べたい➡食べろ!
飲みたい➡飲め!
買いたい➡買え!
というように。

欲望の言うことを聞くのは悪いことではないが
欲望のままに、ただ突き進むと
私たちは、本当の意味で
自分の望んだ生き方から遠く離れてしまうことになる。

私たちには、自分の中に高度な脳もあり、
深く考え、想像し、創造し、変化し、
豊かに幸せに生きていける。

パーティや、飲み放題など
無料がからむとき、私たちは
何も考えずに、得だという考えに魅了されてしまうけれど。

本当の自分。
自分の中の高度な脳は
自分の人生を長い目で見たときに
どうしたいのだろうか。



You are listening to the Take a Break podcast with Rachel Hart, Episode 352.

Whether you want to drink less or stop drinking, this podcast will help you change the habit from the inside out. We’re challenging conventional wisdom about why people drink and why it can be hard to resist temptation. No labels, no judgment, just practical tools to take control of your desire and stop worrying about your drinking. Now, here’s your host, Rachel Hart.

Welcome back, everyone. We’re talking today about something that comes up a lot when I am working with people. Now, it is difficult to say no when the drinks are free. It might be an open bar. It might be bottomless mimosas at brunch. It might be a free happy hour at the hotel, or free drinks in the airport lounge or on the plane. Or waiters handing out bubbly at an event. We encounter a lot of free alcohol in the world.

Which means if you want to drink less, if you want to change your relationship with alcohol, if you want to stop drinking, this is a piece of the puzzle that you need to figure out. But here’s the thing, our attraction to “free” is often with more than just booze.

booze

【名】 〈話〉酒、ビール、アルコール飲料

He can handle a lot of booze.  
彼はお酒に強い。
He's gone off the booze.  
彼は酒を絶った.
I really loved booze.  
本当に酒が好きだった
on the booze
大酒を飲んで; 酔っぱらって.
Go easy on the booze.
酒は控えめにしなさい

“Free” can be a very powerful word when it comes to all sorts of things, when it comes to food or stuff or shipping. Why? Because we hear the word “free” and think that we’re getting something valuable for nothing. So, we have this sense that there’s only an upside. What’s there to lose? Why not?

“Free” implies only benefits and zero cost. Why not say yes to what is free? There’s no downside, right? Of course, there can be a downside. Not just to the free drink, but to anything that is free. But the downside may not be what you expect. You have to really understand what the downside is if you want to intervene successfully with the excuse, “Why not? It’s free.”

So, I want to back up and just talk about the brain a little bit; in particular, your lower brain. We’ve talked about this. The brain is very complicated, there are many, many different parts. But for simplicity’s sake, we talk about the lower brain and the higher brain.

The lower brain is that part of you that really cares about survival. Its job is to keep you alive. Survival happens through a pretty simple equation, find pleasure, avoid pain, and save energy while you’re at it. So, what that means, is that the lower brain prioritizes rewards. It prioritizes things that are fast and easy.

Your lower brain is always going to think that free stuff is amazing. Always. You’re getting something without expending any energy. You don’t have to open your wallet. You didn’t have to earn money to pay for it. It’s just free. So, we have this sense that free things are more valuable, but only because we don’t have to pay money for it. And so, our knee jerk is like, ‘Well, okay, who cares? It’s free.’

knee jerk

《医》膝をコンとたたくと足がピョコンと上がる反射。
〈話〉反射的な行動、思慮に欠ける発言◆軽蔑的
〈話〉ワンパターン[お定まり]の言動◆軽蔑的

I think about all the free crappy glasses of wine that I have had in my life, free crappy mixed drinks, and free crappy champagne; too many to count. They’re not usually offering up top shelf liquor when you’re getting things that are free. But here’s the thing, even if it is a free drink from the top shelf, it isn’t actually free, there always is a cost.

crappy

〈話〉〔質・技量・気分などが〕非常に悪い、ひどい◆直訳すると「くそ(crap)みたいな」であり、やや下品な言葉だが、日常語として使われる。

Now, I want to be really careful when I’m talking about this, because you might hear me say ‘there’s a cost’ and expect what I’m going to be talking about is alcohol is bad for you, and it’s bad for your liver. And that thing that you think is free is actually costing you your health. But I think that that explanation is too easy.

You can make that argument, sure. There are reasons why alcohol is having an impact on your health, but there’s also a reason why focusing on health is often not very persuasive in the moment.

In fact, trying to tell yourself, “I’m going to regret this tomorrow. It’s going to screw up my sleep. I don’t need these calories…” Sometimes trying to argue with that part of you that’s like, ‘Yeah, but it’s free. Why not?’ Sometimes when you try to go down that path, it ends up having the opposite effect. It makes you want to rebel

Why? Because we desire to feel good. For a lot of us, having a drink is a tried and true way to do just that, to feel good. So, the idea of ‘okay, well, I want to feel good and now you’re trying to make me feel bad. Now you’re trying to guilt me into saying no, or shame me into making a choice because it’s not good for me.’ Well, you can imagine what happens, you’re probably going to dig your heels in, and just be like, “Oh, screw it.”

dig in one's heels


自分の主張を一歩も[頑として]譲らない、自分の意見に固執する

So, let’s put aside for a second the cost of your physical health and consider something else. The cost I want you to think of is the cost of reinforcing that your lower brain runs the show. Because that’s what is happening in the moment when you say yes to the free drink. That split second, when you’re offered the free drink, and you’re like, “Yeah, sure, why not?”

reinforce

【他動】強化する、補強する

reinforce an army  軍隊を増強する.
reinforce a bridge  橋を補強する.
reinforce supplies  補給を増す.
reinforce the elbows of a jacket with leather  上着のひじを革で補強する.

The new evidence reinforces my argument.
この新しい証拠は私の議論を強固なものにする.
The news reinforced his fears.
その知らせを受けて彼の不安は強まった.

run the show

采配を振る[振るう]、仕事を取り仕切る、主導権を握る

split second

《a ~》瞬時、一瞬

That moment of saying yes to something free, of reinforcing the belief that rewards are all upside and no downside, in that moment, what you’re actually doing is saying, “Hey, you, lower brain, you’re the one in charge. You’re the one making decisions. I’m going to follow your lead.” That is a real problem.

Now, I don’t want to demonize the lower brain. The lower brain is important, it’s important for survival, but we don’t want it running the show. We don’t want the lower brain directing our day-to-day lives. Because when that happens we have a life that we don’t really like.

demonize

【他動】 〔~を〕悪魔化する、悪霊にする 〔~を〕悪者扱いする
demonize  悪魔に見せる
demonic   悪魔の(ような),悪魔に取りつかれた,凶暴な
demonish  悪魔と同様な;悪魔に似て
demonization  極悪非道の悪者として示す
demonizing  悪魔に見せる,demonizeの現在分詞

We’re just saying yes to all the urges. “Let’s have more food. let’s have more stuff. Let’s stare at my screen longer. Let’s sit on the couch more and not move. Let’s be driven by fear and impulse.” And of course, “Let’s drink, and let’s go back for another and another.”

impulse

〔行動のきっかけの〕弾み、勢い〔突然起きる〕衝動、強い欲求◆予測できない感情や行動を引き起こすもの。衝動的行為〔行動の〕誘発要因、傾向
a man of impulse  衝動的な人.
on the impulse of a moment  時のはずみで.
on the impulse of curiosity  好奇心に駆られて.
He felt an irresistible impulse to say no.
彼はいいえと言いたい抑えがたい衝動を感じた.
react to an impulse  刺激に反応する.

impulsive  一時の感情に駆られた,衝動的な,
impulsively  一時の感情に駆られて,衝動的に,前後のわきまえもなく
impulsivity  衝動性
impulsiveness  インパルス性

That is not a life that actually anyone wants. There’s a reason why we don’t want that life, that has nothing to do with trying to be trim and fit and having extra cash and extra time and being hangover free. The real reason that we don’t want that life is because you are meant for more. We don’t want our lower brain running the show.

Because inside of each and every one of us, we have dreams and ideas and goals and things that we want to achieve and accomplish. We have a purpose and a reason to exist. And that reason is not checking off things off the to-do list.

This really is the beauty of the human brain, that it’s not just a brain that is built for survival. The human brain is built to think and ponder and create and discover and invent. It’s built to do all these amazing things, but in order to do it, in order to kind of free up space, we have to manage the lower brain, and we have to manage our impulses and our urges.

Otherwise, we’re just running around trying to find the fastest, easiest way to find pleasure and avoid pain. We have to manage our knee-jerk response when we’re offered something for free, that appears to have zero cost but actually is quite costly in the big picture of your life and what you’re here to do.

So, think about the cost of your lower brain running your life the next time you encounter a free drink and you have that knee-jerk thought, “Sure. Why not?” Think about the cost of that. Nothing is truly free.

There is a cost. A cost to who you want to be, a cost of what you want to do and your purpose, and how you actually want to spend your limited time here on Earth. Ask yourself, what’s the real cost of saying yes to that free drink? A free drink that you might be choosing simply because someone’s giving it away.

Alright, that’s it for today. I’ll see you all next week.

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