Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol free life!

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! This week my guest is Kate from the Sober School About 7 years ago when I was casting about for help with my own drinking problem I stumbled upon a blog by Kate who had already been sober for a couple of years. She was the first person I ever heard suggesting that sobriety could be fun – rather than the grey and miserable place many drinkers imagine it to be. I now know that she was absolutely right of course so it was a real pleasure to chat to Kate about her own drinking story and the work she is doing these days. In this Episode When Kate looks back she realises that at University she used to drink alone in her room – even though there were numerous bars and opportunities to drink with other students! If you enjoy drinking alone then that’s a bit of a red flag because it means that you are not using it to “socialise” – you are using it to relax or perhaps to try to calm your anxiety. As you heard Kate cleverly gave up drinking at the tender age of 30 but for many of us the pattern seems to be that we DO use alcohol to socialise in our 20’s and 30’s and then as we get into our 40’s and 50’s it often turns more into self medication and that when we enjoy drinking alone. Kate had been worrying about her drinking for years before she actually did anything which is not at all unusual – A recent study highlighted the fact that it takes an average of 11 years between realising that you have a bit of a “problem” and actually doing something about it. This is a shame because for many of use our dependence and our unhappiness worsen during this period. I think it takes such a long time to tackle our drinking for two reasons:- 1. As Kate said society tells us that we are either a “normal” drinker or we are a raging alcoholic –if we are a raging alcoholic we must to go AA – if not then we are fine. We do see articles about “cutting down” which make it sound simple but of course once we’ve crossed a line with our drinking that becomes impossible. Personally I spent my 11 years of procrastination trying to “cut down” so that I wouldn’t have to quit completely! 2. Second reason we resist reaching out for help is that we don’t know where to find it. Many of us don’t want to go to AA or we try it and it doesn’t work – then we just get stuck. But times are changing and the modern recovery movement means there are many online solutions these days. Solutions which work for the millions of people who are not “raging alcoholics” but they are not “normal drinkers” either. Kate had been sober for 8 years and back then there was very little help around. However she discovered a blog – (the blog was Unpickled by Jean McCarthy) and it resonated with her. For the first time she felt that there was someone out there “just like her” – which is exactly how I felt when I discovered Kate's blog. So it’s all about “finding your people” – that’s the first step in the journey. Her own journey to sobriety began with a blog where she connected with others on the same path and did a 100 day challenge – she felt a “shift” after those 100 days and found herself reflecting on whether she could make sobriety enjoyable – rather than something to be “endured”. We both agreed that doing a Dry January is too short to experience any benefits of sobriety so by gritting our teeth and getting through all we teach ourselves is that sobriety is a miserable place to be! We discussed the value of of writing a Goodbye to Alcohol letter - you can check some out here I loved Kate's Breakthrough story when she was organising her 30th birthday party in early sobriety. Rather than organising a big party she decided to do it completely differently. Accepting the fact that she actually didn’t like socialising in big groups she organised several small gatherings – and loved them. She realised that she’d been using alcohol to squeeze herself into what society expected her to be! This happens to SO many of us and in fact a whole book has been written about the subject! Do get hold of a copy of the book Quiet by Susan Cain which explains that roughly 50% of society are introverts but society favours extravert behaviour which leaves many of us using alcohol as a coping mechanism – fascinating! The subtitle of Susans book is:- The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking and she argues that: modern Western culture misunderstands and undervalues the traits and capabilities of introverted people, leading to "a colossal waste of talent, energy, and happiness". So if you ARE an introvert and use alcohol to help you cope then please read this book – it will help you understand yourself – and your power – so much better! Kate explained that the impact of quitting alcohol is deep – we lose our shame, guilt, worry which is SO freeing. We also free up our mental space and start keeping our promises. We agreed that another advantage of dealing with our drinking problem is that we get to know ourselves so much better than p

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is Soberfishie Dawn. Her nickname is Fish. Of course she got the nickname because she drank like a fish! For Dawn her journey began back in 2016 when she decided to try an alcohol free year. She blogged about her journey, decided to stay alcohol free and is now a Sobriety Advocate with a membership and a large social media following. I always enjoy talking to people who do similar work to myself and in fact I had one of my “light bulb” moments during this conversation which I will highlight at the end.. In this Episode Dawns original plan was to do a Sober Year – she had done short stretches in the past but wanted to see what kind of results she got from a longer period. Well the results were overwhelmingly positive which is why she is still alcohol free 5 years later! So if you’ve done lots of Dry January’s and Sober Octobers but then gone back to drinking with great enthusiasm then you’re missing out. You’ve done the hardest bit (those first few weeks are tough!) so now you need to keep going for a bit longer! In 66 days when you will have built a new neural pathway you will not only find it easier but you will also experience more benefits - a win win situation which may well result in your choosing an sobriety as a permanent lifestyle choice. After all there is nothing so exhausting and demorolising as spending your life jumping on and off the wagon! Dawn shared her drinking story – started at 14 years old when she discovered that she didn’t really have an off switch once she got started. She would pre-load her drinks before going out – in theory to save money on drinks when she was out but she would drink as much as ever. We both agreed that there was a time when we would anticipate the week ahead and not arrange any activities for the day after drinking as we knew we would be feeling miserable and hungover Inevitably Dawn set herself some “rules” to try to limit the drinking – she actually came up with one that I hadn’t tried – she set herself a curfew – a set time when she had to leave her event and come home. She actually managed this a few times but then found herself drinking when she got home! Maybe to celebrate that she’d kept to her rule! We both suffered from blackouts and agreed that we’d put ourselves at risk in this way We also found ourselves at a bit of a loss when we first got sober – unlike “normal people” we had not built up hobbies or interests over the years because all our leisure time had been taken up by drinking! As Dawn put it we found ourselves wondering “what do normal people do with their time?!” Dawn got started on her sobriety journey by blogging and walking. She also "Saturated herself in Sobriety" to change her mindset. Like many of us she needed to change her thinking about drinking! Unlike willpower a different mindset will enable us to sustain our sobriety. We agreed that when we got sober 6 years ago sobriety had a definite image problem – it was seen as a dark and miserable place. Things are changing and just a couple of weeks ago I interviewed Susan Christina, editor of the amazing Hola Sober monthly magazine. This magazine is free and its busy making sobriety just as cool and glamorous as we all thought drinking was - you can access a copy HERE Dawn talked about what she calls her “contentment line” – when we drink we are either on a chemical high or on the hungover low – we rarely sit “on the line” which is actually where we live when we are sober. The contentment line is a peaceful and happy place to be – when Dawn feels a bit low and knows she is below her contentment line she knows how to self soothe – without alcohol. In early sobriety we zig zag all over the line, the highs of the pink cloud and the lows of FOMO but hang in there because the contentment line will be yours after you’ve done the work and notched up a period of sobriety. So talking of “doing the work” that’s where I got my light bulb moment thanks to this conversation with Dawn. It hadn’t really occurred to me until Dawn said it but “the work” is different for each of us AA talk about “doing the work” and of course they mean working systematically through every one of the 12 steps but I prefer William Porters approach that we should see it as a buffet and choose what works for us. For Dawn and myself “the work” has involved sharing our stories, writing about sobriety and leading a sober community – neither of us knew in advance that this was “our work” – we just did what felt right and gave us joy. So let’s think about sobriety as a journey of self discovery – some of us missed out on creating hobbies and interests because we were too busy drinking – but now we have time and even a bit of extra money to explore – to discover what we really like doing That’s why the Tribe Sober membership program offers yoga, nutritional advice, coaching and different types of therapy – we want to you to experiment and get to know yourself! I ended

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! My guests this week are Tom and Tamsin Sheehey, co-owners of The Shala Yoga Studio in Cape Town, South Africa. They are both yoga teachers and Tom is also a health coach with expertise in nutritional guidance. They will both be offering their expertise to the Tribe Sober members. In this Episode Tom’s studies were in what is now called “complimentary medicine” which we both agreed is a better description than “alternative medicine”. If we want to use things like nutrition, yoga, massage, acupuncture etc as part of our healing process then it should be seen as complimentary to traditional medicine – not as an alternative. He talks to us about how regular alcohol use can put the body in a state of chronic inflammation which is a pre-cursor to many illnesses including cancer. In fact a recent study showed evidence that alcohol is linked to 7 different types of cancer https://www.webmd.com/cancer/news/20160722/alcohol-seven-types-cancer From his nutritional viewpoint Tom also pointed out that alcohol is simply liquid sugar which will affect our blood sugar levels which can lead to diabetes which again can lead to multiple health issues. We talked about whether alcoholism is genetic and Tom agreed that if people have alcoholism in the family then they may well be more pre-disposed to developing dependency issues but he firmly believes that our health is dependent partly on our genes, partly on environment and partly on our lifestyle. More on whether alcoholism is genetic in this podcast episode with Mary Anne Shearer - episode 31. When Tom works with his clients we tends to coach people mainly on lifestyle changes as that is what is usually in our control. He talked about the negative impact of alcohol on the gut which is twofold. Not only does it prevent us from absorbing some of the nutrients in our food but it also means we are less efficient at expelling metabolic waste – resulting in increased toxicity. Tom coaches people around the 4 pillars of health which are diet, stress reduction, toxin reduction (alcohol being a toxin of course) and moderate exercise. He advises us to increase the three dietary essentials – oxygen, water and vegetables and reduce refined sugar refined salts and synthetic foods…. If you do this and remove the toxin that is alcohol you are going to feel amazing! Tamsin explained that she took up yoga because she wanted to access her body’s natural vitality. Although she was only in her early twenties she didn’t feel great and wanted to understand her body better. 20 years into her yoga practice Tamsin is a wonderful role model of health, strength and serenity. Becoming a yoga teacher has made her own practice sustainable as she integrates what she is teaching into her own body. She loves her healthy lifestyle and the fact that she now gets to “teach it forward” We talked about how yoga can help in recovery and Tamsin explained that it’s about coming home into your body. With the focus on breathing and mindfulness we become aware of what’s going on in our body. Getting on our yoga mat gives us the opportunity to check in with our bodies and discover how we actually feel. If recovery is about connecting with something greater than ourselves then there is a consciousness that comes with yoga that can facilitate that. Yoga is not a competitive sport and Tamsin urged us not to be intimidated however old or unfit we are – especially now that we can do yoga online in the privacy of our own home! As we get older a yoga practice becomes more and more important – we need to keep our bodies strong and flexible and we need to move our joints to prevent arthritis. We are never too old to begin yoga and Tamsin explained that she has clients that do chair yoga or even bed yoga. She adapts the classes to her clients. I discovered Tamsin after reading a feature in a magazine about “lymphasising” – I was recovering from cancer and read that it was an aid to recovery. So that’s how I discovered trampolines. You heard her saying that bouncing was essential to health and wellness. Tamsin begins her day with a session on the trampoline and sees that as a lifetime practice. If like me you spend all day sitting at your computer then get a mini trampoline and get up and bounce for 5 minutes every hour. There are SO many health benefits and we really do need to keep “doing the dishes” as Tamsin described it! Sobriety is a journey of self discovery. When we give up drinking we have time on our hands and recover our energy– we actually want to try new things and start to look around at other areas of our life. Do we need to clean up our eating habits, do we need to do more exercise and some yoga for example. One of my podcast guests (Will Black on episode 52 calls this the Domino Effect) So if you think your diet could do with a bit of a review and if you are ready to give yoga a try then please take this opportunity. If you are not yet a member of tribe sober then ple

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is Jon Turner, the founder of Soberpunks – he is a musician, a blogger and is busy helping others to ditch the drink. He shares his personal recovery story and explains how he feels that not drinking is not only rebellious but it’s positively punk.. In this Episode Like many of us Jon spent a decade trying to cut down – using those tried and tested “rules” that of course are useless once our drinking has crossed that line into dependence – lets face it people who can moderate just do it – they don’t need to impose any rules We agreed that accepting that we can not drink any alcohol at all is a key moment on the path to sobriety – “if you can’t have one – have none” or as AA say “one glass is too many and a thousand is not enough” Jon drank as a teenager and found that he quickly became the one urging the rest of his mates to drink more and more – we discussed the fact that for some of us the buzz of alcohol is more intense than others – and that’s one of the reasons we get hooked when others can take it or leave it It was love that gave Jon the impetus he needed to give up drinking – he met a woman who loved him but hated the person he became when he drank – she made it pretty clear that she would not be sticking around if he continued to drink – so he stopped – and they got married What I really love about Jon’s story is that he gave up drinking to please his partner – but after a few months of sobriety he realized that his life was SO MUCH BETTER without the booze he was motivated to continue. Many of us give up drinking to save our relationships and our health but not many of us are expecting sobriety to be much fun. I for one was expecting it to be a grey and boring place but in fact it’s turned out to be the opposite for both Jon and myself – so if you’re listening to this and you know you need to ditch the booze just try it for 6 months – you will be amazed at the improvements in your life and the chances are you will want to stay alcohol free. Jon eventually got divorced from the lady who convinced him to stop drinking. By then he was hooked on his sobriety and had not intention of restarting his drinking career. As he puts it – “it would only make a horrible situation worse” That got me thinking about one of our recent Zoom Cafes – several of our members had been through a very tough time – three of them had recently lost a parent and they all said – I’m SO grateful to be sober – I have the strength to cope so much better. I found that really interesting as I remember feeling relatively secure in my sobriety after about six months but often wondering if I would turn to alcohol if something dreadful happened – so it’s lovely to hear that Lucy, Merleen and Lexi were not even tempted. Well done ladies. Jon and I agreed that being present for the tough times is key to our emotional development – I remember listening to a podcast with Glennon Doyle when she describes alcohol as the “easy button” that we use to bypass the pain – but we are also missing out on an opportunity to become stronger. Along with being present comes the importance of “getting comfortable with being uncomfortable” – sitting with our thoughts is part of the healing process and can be cathartic. We talked about dealing with partners who drink too much and agreed that people have to want to do it for themselves rather than for anyone else – although Jon had in fact give up for his girlfriend he had been struggling for a long time and was pleased to get a concrete reason to make the change. He did say that sometimes the partner has to decide that in order to protect themselves they will just have to walk away – which can be really hard but may avoid years of pain. I asked Jon to list the benefits of sobriety and he had plenty! Weight loss and having more energy (stop drinking and start running was his advice) Reduction in anxiety – Jon used to have such a feeling of dread on his way into work that he was wishing his train would crash! - since he is sober he is enjoying his work and is busy fulfilling his career potential. That made me think of one of my previous podcast guests – Ken Middleton, episode 23 - he said “even if alcohol doesn’t destroy you it will prevent you from reaching your potential” – that is so true. Jon feels sobriety is a journey of self discovery and he is learning so much about who he is and what he really likes to do. We talked about the joys of a sober community – about how we immediately understand each other and can have fun together – we agreed that ex drinkers have been through a lot and proved themselves to be strong and resilient people – yes ex drinkers rock! Jon is passionate about the fact that those of us in recovery must support others as part of our own recovery – that’s exactly what he is doing via his blogs and his FB group. So if you want to join a community please check out tribesober.com and also take a look at the SoberPunkGang FB

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is Susan Christina is an Irish lady living in Spain. She’s on a mission to rebrand sobriety and make alcohol free living as attractive and glamorous as we thought drinking was She’s an advocate for the modern recovery movement and wants women to take back their power! In this Episode Susan is using her considerable communication and marketing skills together with her experience in the global drinks industry to rebrand sobriety. She talked about the way that the wine industry has targeted women and how we have bought into the idea that wine is our “me time” – we’ve come to believe that a glass of wine is an act of “self care” when in fact it’s the exact opposite for many of us! Susan’s personal story was a familiar one – successful career woman holding down a responsible job, bringing up a family – and drinking a bottle of wine a day. I think so many of us can identify with her description of getting home, opening a bottle of wine and gradually working our way through it during the evening – it just felt so normal and because we weren’t getting “drunk” we didn’t really think twice about it. But 7 bottles of wine a week is not sustainable – as she says we have to ask ourselves not whether we are an alcoholic but whether we can sustain a happy and healthy life drinking this amount of alcohol every week. Like many of us Susan was able to change course when she found “her people” – she signed up for the Sober School and met other people like herself – people she could relate to – she felt she had found accountability partners and connection. The relief of finding other people on the same path is considerable. She created a WhatsApp group and talked about having “people in her pocket” who she could reach out to when she is travelling – that’s exactly what we provide with our membership program – an international community who support and encourage each other – because connection is the opposite of connection. Go to tribesober.com and hit “join our tribe” if you would like to join a community who are busy supporting each other on this life changing journey. Knowledge is everything and so many of us drink for decades without the slightest idea of the harm it is doing us. Even when I got breast cancer I was still in denial – I simply refused to join the dots and carried on drinking. Susan found that once she had understood the complexity, the toxicity and the way we use alcohol to numb the pain she began to see everything differently and was able to make the changes she needed to. I asked Susan what the biggest benefit of sobriety has been for her and she said “being present” - present for the ups and downs of life – after all our personal growth comes for being present and dealing with difficulties, rather than zoning out. She talked about the “drinking train” that many women board and pointed out that it was only travelling one way – the way of increasing dependence, rehab and for some people it’s unfortunately travelling to disease and death. Susan set up a support group for her class when she graduated from Sober School and sent them daily mails and PDF’s to keep them inspired. She started to collate this content which gave birth to the fabulous monthly magazine she now edits which is called Hola Sober. This magazine is quite simply rebranding sobriety – from a place of struggle to an aspirational lifestyle choice. It is a beautiful publication and relects how to live fully and joyfully in sobriety. It’s absolutely free so sign up and then share it with everybody you know. Susan also has a website called holasober.com as well as an IG account – just this week she’s published a brilliant PDF called “The Giant Feck” which is a must read. Susan and I agreed that AA is not the only gig in town as she puts it – there are so many alternatives. We are both providing alternatives to AA and the people we work with would never dream of going to AA. Woman are bonding together via recovery groups – women are taking back their power! All of us on this journey need to be advocates of the Modern Recovery Movement – we are part of something powerful – we’ve got smart and are seeing through the BS pumped out by the liquor industry. Sobriety is a Superpower so lets get the word out there – lets get this sober party started! Step one in making a change is to find a community – find your people – if you are looking for a community then just go to tribesober.com and hit “join our tribe” More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our "Annual Tracker" or our e-book "66 Days to Sobriety" please email [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is Casey McGuire Davidson who is from Seattle in the US. Like me Casey was caught in the corporate workhard/playhard culture as well as the mommyjuice trend…using alcohol to cope with stress and anxiety and becoming more dependent over the years… But somehow we both found our way out of that trap and now we are finding joy in helping people to do the same In this Episode Casey realised in her 20’s that she had no “off” switch – I think that’s true of many of us yet we delude ourselves that we don’t have a problem because we can go for days without drinking – but if you do finding yourself drinking far too much after that first glass then you probably need to make some changes Casey’s first glimpse into the trouble that alcohol can cause came when she read “A love story” by Caroline Knapp – if you are worried about your drinking then reading some QuitLit is a great way to start – if you want a reading list then just email me [email protected] Casey went to doctors and therapists about her anxiety and insomnia – most of which was caused by alcohol but she was in denial about her drinking and just didn’t CONNECT THE DOTS Like many of us Casey started making rules – in fact Casey and I had a whole conversation about the rules we used to make that you can find on her podcast (Hello Someday – episode 77 ) The reason we make these rules of course is that we are still trying to moderate as we can’t imagine our life without it – having to give up completely is our worst nightmare – whereas with hindsight both Casey and myself can say that giving up completely was the best thing we ever did! Casey managed a year of sobriety (partly due to her pregnancy) but then was soon back to her bottle a night habit. The second time she gave up she understood so much more – she had joined up the dots and realized that alcohol was the cause of her anxiety and insomnia. She hired a Sober Coach and checked in with her every single day – because she was sick and tired of being sick and tired. Many of us get to this stage eventually – at our workshops I often hear people say “I’m done – I just can’t do this anymore” – and those people usually succeed and go on to thrive in their sobriety We talked about the strong women we work with – and how many of us managed to hold it all together through the drinking years. Once we are liberated from the shackles of alcohol addiction there is no stopping us and we go on to achieve great things. Sobriety is a Superpower I always say! We talked about mindshift – Casey has gone from seeing alcohol as a “reward” to seeing it as a “maladaptive coping strategy” – alcohol is NOT self care – how on earth did the liquor industry convince us that a “glass of wine at the end of the day” was an act of self care when for many of us it’s the opposite! I loved Caseys description of her breakthrough moment – how on Day 16 she’s had a terrible day at work and wanted to buy a bottle of wine so much she was actually shaking – she managed to resist and then continued to get stronger. I loved her “magnet” analogy as well – how the pull of alcohol is SO strong in the early days of sobriety but the more AF days we stack up the weaker the pull “Sober Firsts” are so important – Casey cleverly reconfigured her Italian holiday so she went to bed early, got up early to explore, went on gelato crawls instead of wine crawls and treated herself with Venetian jewellery with the money she'd saved from not drinking. Casey has some great analogies – we heard the magnet one and she also talked about how being dependent on alcohol was like carrying a backpack of rocks around – and how sobriety lets you put the burden down. Apart from reducing her anxiety and improving her sleep Casey loves the clarity of mind that sobriety gives us – we can look at our lives with fresh eyes and sometimes we can spot the things which were actually driving us to drink You heard Casey saying that she realized that corporate life had lost its appeal and that she wanted to retrain as a coach which has given her real purpose in her life I asked her for a final tip and love this one:- “don’t wait until you WANT to stop drinking – it’s never going to happen! - just say you are sober curious and want to take a break to see what sobriety feels like. Keep going for a few months and you’’ begin to glimpse the joy that alcohol free living can bring. Do have a listen to Caseys podcast which is called Hello Someday, her website is called hellosomedaycoaching.com, she does 1.2.1 coaching as well as offering a course and some freebies. Another great analogy we heard from Casey is that in early sobriety we really have to “throw the book at it” – make it a priority for 6 months, treat it as a research project and “do the work” – the payback will be huge! So check out Caseys website, think about joining Tribesober.com, read the quitlit, listen to the podcasts.. Step one in making a change was to find a

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is from Canada! Currently we have the grand total of 4 Canadian members in our tribe and we would love to welcome some more! Sarah Kate agrees with me that we need to “get smart” and see through the constant pressure from Big Alcohol to consume their product – the wine industry has particularly targeted women, trying to convince us that “mommy needs wine” etc etc Well here is one mommy that’s fighting back! In this Episode Sarah Kate had some scares with alcohol – going over the top a few times but generally progressed in her drinking career like many of us As a career girl in her 20’s she began to realise that she had no “off” switch – this happens to many of us and I think it’s a real warning sign – when we can go for days without even thinking about alcohol but once we’ve had a couple of drinks we just want to keep going! We agreed that we seek out friends who drink like us so that we can validate our own drinking Many of us in the tribe had friends and relatives who would helpfully suggest that we just “had a couple” of drinks (rather than a whole bottle!) – and that’s the beauty of the tribe – we understand each other and would never suggest that! Sarah Kate passed out on the bathroom floor at her 30th birthday party and began to feel ashamed of her drinking problem We talked about the shame women feel about their drinking and agreed that so many of us get trapped because of it – we don’t want to “come out” about our problem so we battle alone and get nowhere, just more dependent and more depressed– have a listen to Claire Pooleys fabulous TED talk called “Making Sober Less Shameful” As Sarah Kate went on to become a mom she got more and more dependent and after the birth of her second child she became seriously worried that her baby would be affected by the alcohol levels in her breast milk. She was part of the mommyjuice culture and believed the hype that “moms need wine” taking a sippy cup of wine to the farmers market We talked about how crazy kids parties have become and how even at 1 year old parties the wine is flowing Sarah Kate tried to moderate many times – she is a runner and would schedule her drinking around her running – she feels she was running to counteract her addiction – almost as a punishment She finally managed to make a change when she read The Naked Mind – realizing that drinking heavily for a number of years will make anyone become dependent - alcohol is an addictive drug and that’s what it will do! That’s when Sarah Kate realized that there was nothing wrong with her and was able to ditch the shame and make a change She did Annie Grace’s Alcohol Experiment and while she was not 100% alcohol free she probably reached a very respectable passgrade of 90% We talked about the value of seeing the big picture – that’s why Tribe Sober offers annual trackers so that people can observe their sober stretches getting longer and longer and keep some perspective – much less danger of giving up if you have a slip up – if youd like an annual tracker then just email me at [email protected] On Christmas day Sarah Kate found herself buying a bottle of red wine (even though husband doesn’t drink wine and her kids certainly don’t!) – it made her reflect on the power of conditioning – if it’s a holiday we must drink! (what an amazingly effective job Big Alcohol has done!) In fact her daughter was furious with her for having a glass of wine at Christmas lunch so that was it for Sarah Kate – she wanted to be a role model for her kids – someone who could stick to a commitment – so that was it for her We talked about the importance of education and how every university should offer a module called “The Science Behind Drinking Alcohol” rather than irresponsibly forcing dangerous quantities of alcohol on new students who are away from home for the first time Sarah Kate also emphasized that we should remember that it often takes a long time to pull ourself out of the clutches of alcohol and that we have to be patient – especially if we’ve been drinking for decades! Sarah Kate is playing a role in educating us about alcohol via her online magazine “somegoodcleanfun.com” She’s coming at it from the wellness angle and has created it’s a platform which will encourage us to “rethink drinking” – as individuals and as a society. Not so much a sobriety magazine but more a platform aimed at women who care about their health (eat organic, gluten free, exercise etc – yet still drink a bottle of wine a day) – she wants them to appreciate the impact that alcohol has on womens health. We agreed that the explosion of the alcohol free drinks markets was a very positive sign of a societal shift We agreed that step one in making a change was to find a community – find your people – if you are looking for a community then just go to tribesober.com and hit “join our tribe” More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website cl

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is Sara-Jayne Makwala King Sara-Jayne is a household name here in South Africa - she's a journalist, a radio presenter and an author. In this Episode Sara-Jayne’s birth was the result of an illegal affair between a white British woman and black South African man during apartheid – she shares her extraordinary story in her memoir Killing Karoline. As a child she used to read voraciously as a form of escape and as a teenager she went on to develop eating disorders and cutting to numb her pain Her alcohol use began to get out of control when she moved to Dubai – she never really acknowledged it was a problem as her brother was a severe “alcoholic” and she was not like him – she was a functioning alcoholic We talked about alcoholism being on a spectrum… one end…the other. most of us are in between Sara-Jayne got fired from her job as a journalist in Dubai for being so difficult – she felt so angry unhappy that one day she was even tempted to crash her car when driving along a busy road. Her mother and partner got her into rehab – she was only supposed to stay for 28 days but she actually stayed for 10 months – she was learning, digging deep and becoming aware that she needed to “do the work” if she was to recover Sara-Jayne believes that recovery can’t be forced on you – you have to be ready. And she was ready It was connecting with the other people in rehab that healed her – she appreciates the deep value of sharing Sara-Jayne realized that she’d been carrying her birth mothers secret and shame for a long time – a secret that was not even hers to carry – that had been the root of her addictions and her unhappiness so these days she strives for truth and authenticity She realizes that we can’t hang on to secrets and shame – the that only the truth will set us free We see this at our workshops – when we ask people to share their stories you can see the relief in their faces as they tell their stories about how unhappy alcohol has been making them – stories they may never have said out load before We agreed that “connection is the opposite of addiction” – scientifically proved by the “rat park” experiment which is featured in Johan Haris TED talk – Everything you thought you knew about addiction is wrong - catch it here Sara-Jayne feels that Recovery is about finding a space where you can feel safe and share your feelings – it could be Tribe Sober or it could be AA – there are so many alternatives out there We talked about the recent study by the Tempest which showed that the average time between realizing that you had a problem and getting help was 11 years – Sara-Jayne agreed that sounded about right but that we should acknowledge that seeds can be still be sewn and growth will take place during those years If you are listening to this and would like a bit of support to make a change just go to tribesober.com and check us out – you can grab a freebie, do a challenge, join our community or do a workshop Sarah-Jayne is on Cape Talk 567AM on Saturdays and Sundays 7-10am You can buy Sara-Jayne's fascinating book Killing Karoline here More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our "Annual Tracker" or our e-book "66 Days to Sobriety" please email [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Book a Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. If you enjoyed the podcast then please leave us a 5 star review on Apple podcasts, take a screenshot of your review and DM it to Tribe Sober’s Instagram page - see PS for instructions - we'll send you something special to say thank you! We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x PS How to leave an rating/review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS device) 1. Open the Podcasts app. EASY. 2. Choose "Search" from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (i.e., "Recover Like A Mother") into the search field. 3. Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes). 4. Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews. 5. Click "Write a Review" underneath the displayed reviews from other listeners. You'll then have the option to rate the show on a 5-star scale, and write a review (you can rate without writing, too but it's always good t

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is Andrea Newton. Andrea is a Corporate Consultant, Keynote Speaker, Mental Health Advocate and a Podcast Host. Alcohol took Andrea to a dark place but thankfully she recovered and is now doing some very worthwhile work. In this Episode I found Andrea’s account of how alcohol made her feel suicidal as rather chilling – the fact that she actually had a plan to end her life – and her point that alcohol can provide that “Dutch Courage” to actually go through with it These days Andrea works for the National Centre for Suicide Prevention Centre in the UK – she delivers a workshop that helps people to have crucial and difficult conversations – which can save lives. She explained that the risk of suicide is 8 times higher if alcohol is involved and that 20% of suicides in young people in the UK are alcohol fuelled. We discussed the “work hard play hard” culture that pervades in so many companies –and the fact that you are sometimes perceived as “boring” if you don’t go for the weekly drinks with your colleagues It can even have career implications as well – when was in my 20’s I worked for the BBC and I remember being given a nudge by my boss to go to the BBC Club more often as it was valuable for “networking” – so I did and it was there I discovered that drinking was an essential part of the networking! I mentioned the book (and TED talk) Quiet by Susan Cain about introverts/Extraverts introverts often use alcohol as a coping mechanism to help them manage pressure of networking, entertaining clients – and of course socializing – if you are an introvert then please read this book – it will be very good for your self esteem – after all we live in a society that often seems to favour extraverts We talked about the difficulty of socializing in early sobriety and how it’s actually the drunk people rather than the sober ones who are the “boring” ones – I shared the tip from our Tribe Sober toolkit that it helps to “be an anthropologist” We talked about the pandemic and the fact that working from home may have encouraged more people to rely on alcohol – and the fact that managers may have to deal with this issue when employees return to work Which led us to discuss her consulting work which is based around 7 conversations – “difficult conversations” that many managers may struggle with. Andrea helps them to structure these conversations and offers them some very valuable training. It struck me that these “difficult conversations” are of course something that many of us have to deal within our personal lives as well– the kind of conversation we may need to have with a family member who is drinking too much. I’m planning on asking Andrea to write a guest blog for our website on this subject. Do have a listen to Andrea’s podcast as there is so much helpful advice in there – advice about how to have difficult conversations in our work and our personal lives To contact Andrea go to her website www.confidentconversations.co.uk and her podcast is Really Useful Conversations If you are listening to this podcast and are really feeling low or you know someone who is suicidal then please contact Andrea – or you can email me on janet@tribesober and we’ll connect you to someone who can help More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our "Annual Tracker" or our e-book "66 Days to Sobriety" please email [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Book a Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. If you enjoyed the podcast then please leave us a 5 star review on Apple podcasts, take a screenshot of your review and DM it to Tribe Sober’s Instagram page - see PS for instructions - we'll send you something special to say thank you! We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x PS How to leave an rating/review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS device) 1. Open the Podcasts app. EASY. 2. Choose "Search" from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (i.e., "Recover Like A Mother") into the search field. 3. Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes). 4. Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews. 5. Click "Write a Review" underneath the displayed reviews from other listeners

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is an inspiring young man - Liam is a Brit who is now living in Germany. He began drinking at 13 and finds himself in early recovery in his 30's. In this Episode Liam’s first experience of alcohol was at 13 when he downed half a litre of vodka and promptly passed out That experience would put many people off but in fact he was keen to do it again and carried on drinking heavily – keen to fit in with his skateboarding crowd. At 16 he left home to gain more freedom and that’s when drugs entered the mix. By the age of 24 he knew he had a problem on his hands and he did try to sober up now and again – problem was every time he did this his relapses would be serious – anything from a week to a month when he would be drinking from the moment he woke up – to the time he went to bed. Alcohol took Liam to a very dark place – he felt he had created a horrible life for himself and he just wanted to escape it. He had suicidal thoughts which were being fuelled by alcohol. In 2018 he started journaling - he would read back over the pages and see the pain in the words – he knew he had to do something or he would not survive. He chose an unusual method to get sober (one that is certainly not in our toolkit!) – he decided to move to a different country! Liam moved to Germany, where he re-invented himself as Sober Liam – he created an entirely new friend circle – anyone who didn’t accept his sobriety just didn’t fit in with his new life This approach reminds me of the “Pregnancy Principle” which Laura McKowan talks about in her book “We are the Luckiest”. She says treat your sobriety as a pregnancy – it has to be protected above anything else. Anybody or anything that doesn’t fit in with your sobriety has to go! In spite of his resolve it was obviously not an easy path and a few months into sobriety Liam wanted to drink – "to have a bit of fun" as he puts it. He powered through this difficult patch and started writing – the writing really helped him. He was writing about sobriety and it gave him some accountability. He was researching his articles and educating himself about the harm that alcohol does to us which also helped him to resist it. Liam is such a talented writer and I discovered him via his articles on Medium – his Soberversary is next month so I’m hoping he will write a "Goodbye to Alcohol" letter for our collection. If you haven’t discovered our "Goodbye to Alcohol" letters yet then please go to tribesober.com and hit Inspiration We talked about Liam's future – he has many happy and healthy years ahead of him which certainly wouldn’t have been the case had he still been drinking! He even gave us a few tips… Find a community of people on the same path – people who will understand you. If you broadcast your sobriety to all your family and friends too early then you may find they are not all supportive. Have your story ready - sound confident when you say you’re not drinking – people will be less likely to persist. Accept the fact that you will never be able to drink and make it a priority for a while (back to the pregnancy principle) Don’t wait until you hit rock bottom! Spend time alone - search for activities which will bring you joy Here at Tribe Sober we start our annual 66 day challenge on 27 September - Sober Spring here in South Africa but can be a Sober Autumn as well! Membership also allows you to find your people as we welcome you into our supportive community - and this month new members will get a complimentary Sober Spring Challenge Just go to tribesober.com and hit the "join our tribe" button to read more about the benefits of membership More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our "Annual Tracker" or our e-book "66 Days to Sobriety" please email [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Book a Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. If you enjoyed the podcast then please leave us a 5 star review on Apple podcasts, take a screenshot of your review and DM it to Tribe Sober’s Instagram page - we'll send you something special to say thank you! We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is one of those people who are passionate about helping those in recovery. Dr Dawn Bantel, a naturopathic doctor with many years of experience in the recovery space. In this Episode Dawn agrees that to be really healthy we shouldn’t drink at all but just recently she was surprised to learn that even a few glasses of wine a week will raise a woman’s risk of breast cancer We talked about alcohol and anxiety and how it was a real issue – it may calm the brain at first but then it will just increase anxiety When Dawn did a short video on TikTok about alcohol and anxiety it got half a million views! Dawn pointed out that people who develop addictions tend to be “all or nothing” kind of people – so true! She takes advantage of this tendency with her clients as she finds that they put their all into getting healthy – just as they did with their substance abuse(!) so once they are on the right track there is no stopping them! She believes that recovery gives people a second chance at life – and I certainly can relate to that! I asked her for some guidelines about healing after years of alcohol abuse SLEEP/DIET AND EXERCISE are of course the pillars of recovery and Dr Dawn feels particularly strongly about the value of sleep Poor sleep will put us at risk of relapse so she urges people in recovery to find something that will help them to sleep – obviously she favours natural remedies (green tea, amino acids) but if that’s not working for you then use meds for a short time at the beginning We discussed the value of community in recovery and how there is great relief in meeting others on the same path – we are not alone, or broken.. and those of us further along can reassure people of the various stages because we’ve been there – and got through to the other side Dawn has found that many people with alcohol dependency are high flyers – very successful people who feel that they that they’ve achieved so much that they should be able to fix their addiction - but of course it’s extremely hard to go it alone and we all need to remember that “connection is the opposite of addiction” We talked about PAWS – Post acute withdrawal symptoms – anxiety, depression, lack of joy, low energy seem to be the main ones – it takes time for the body to adapt to sobriety – time to heal Dawn mentioned that a guideline was a month in recovery for every year of drinking The value of such a guideline is that it helps people to understand they need to be patient (we get people on our groups who say “I’ve been alcohol free for 3 weeks and I don’t feel great”..) So if you are on this journey you will need to be patient but on the bright side there will be some “quick wins” – no more hangovers, better skin, no more 3am wake ups filled with anxiety.. so just hang in there We talked about the importance of gut health and the fact that alcohol damages the micro biome and causes leaky cut. In Dr Dawns practice she takes people on an integrative recovery journey – starting with extensive testing and then setting goals for healing the brain and the body She also has a course to educate people in recovery which can be purchased from her website which is integrativerecoverymedicine.com Dr Dawn also has a great IG feed –handle is Dr Dawn Bantel – she has some really great practical tips and videos on there so make sure you follow her Here at Tribe Sober we start our annual 66 day challenge on 27 September - Sober Spring here in South Africa but can be a Sober Autumn as well! Membership also allows you to find your people as we welcome you into our supportive community - and this month new members will get a complimentary Sober Spring Challenge Just go to tribesober.com and hit the "join our tribe" button to read more about the benefits of membership More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our "Annual Tracker" or our e-book "66 Days to Sobriety" please email [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Book a Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. If you enjoyed the podcast then please leave us a 5 star review on Apple podcasts, take a screenshot of your review and DM it to Tribe Sober’s Instagram page - we'll send you something special to say thank you! We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! This week my guest is Australian therapist Deb Clarke. 17 years sober Deb talks to me about her drinking years, how she stopped and how her life has changed. In this Episode Deb was very much a binge drinker – she could go for several days without drinking but once she picked up a drink she had no “off” switch Because she COULD go for a few days without drinking she felt she couldn’t really have a problem and in fact her friends reassured her that she just needed to “drink less” – which was not at all helpful! At some point she managed 2 years sober but it wasn’t a good period as she hadn’t changed her thinking about drinking and felt sorry for herself – and in fact she was relying on willpower to stay away from it Recent research has shown that willpower is actually a finite resource and will run out..almost like a muscle gets tired after an hour in the gym Just imagine you’ve had a really tough day at work and needed all your willpower not to lose your temper with colleagues – and then you get home and remember it’s a “non drinking” day – much harder to stick to than if you’ve had an easy day.. Once we’ve had a problem with alcohol the only way we can stay alcohol free and BE HAPPY about it is by changing our mindset – otherwise we’ll always feel that something is missing and have bouts of FOMO – we have to identify our limiting beliefs around alcohol – and then overturn them When Deb got sober there was nothing available except AA – and she resisted that because (although she needed help) she thought AA was for “real” alcoholics and like many people had an image of an alcohol as a homeless man in the park. Debs turning point came when she had a call from a hospital to go to turn off the life support machine of her son who had taken a drug overdose – she found herself bargaining – let her son live and she would never drink again Her son lived – so it was time for her to keep her side of the bargain – she did this by going to “meetings” – she had still not really recognized herself as an alcoholic so convinced herself that she was there to listen and learn as she may be able to help her son to deal with HIS drug problem One thing she did enjoy at AA was listening to all the stories – there is such power in telling our stories to a group of people who are struggling with alcohol – not only is it cathartic for us but it reassures others that there is not something “wrong” with them – they just got addicted to an addictive drug! We see this at our workshops which we always begin with a “share” – people are so emotional when they talk about just how unhappy alcohol has been making them – and you get a sense with some people that it’s the first time they’ve said the words out loud.. there is a such a deep bond created when we speak our truth – it’s all about the power of vulnerability Deb talked of her reluctance to step on the sober journey as there always seemed to be a party or Christmas or a birthday round the corner. The thing is that there is never a “right time” to quit the booze – we just have to get started, get some sober time and get those “first” sober parties done – they probably won’t be much fun but they will get easier Apparently Deb went to her doctor for tests as she worried about the effect that alcohol may be having on her body – her did some test and told her she was fine – many of the standard liver function tests will still look normal even if you drink far too much but don’t be misled as the damage could well be happening. If you are interested in a more realistic test to assess the effect alcohol is having on your body then you may be interested in the CDT testing – have a listen to episode 22 with Scientist Jean Deenmamode Testing is not the real issue however – the real issue is whether your drinking is on your mind – if it is, if you worry about it then reach out and get some help I asked Deb what the main benefit of sobriety was for her and she simply said “freedom’ – I so understand what she means – the relief and the peace that comes with sobriety is priceless – and our life opens out again, we enjoy everyday pleasures Of course Deb herself has been in the very difficult position of having a son with a drug problem which led us to talk about the difficulty of dealing with a loved one with an issue – Deb felt it was about unconditional love – and being there but obviously the person has to decide for themselves. Deb is now a therapist and specializes in Root Cause therapy which looks at limiting beliefs – stories we tell ourselves – such as “Im not good enough” – the beliefs that sit in our subconscious Deb is working with Tribe Sober these days – offering her Root Cause therapy to our members and will be running workshops for our Australian members – so if you are in Australia and would like to attend a workshop just email [email protected] and we’ll keep you posted We start our annual 66 day challenge on 27 September - Sober Spring

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! This week my guest is Researcher and Activist Professor Charles Parry, who works tirelessly to bring about social change in South Africa. He is the Head of the Alcohol and Drug Unit at the SAHMRC, an organisation which reports directly in to the Department of Health and has the overall goal to improve the health of the nation In this Episode Although many people in South Africa don’t drink the ones who do are drinking excessively A whole industry exists which makes a profit from these heavy drinkers – profits which are demanded by their shareholders Charles talked about the tricky role which alcohol has played in the history of this country – as a tool of oppression – during apartheid miners who lived far from home and had nothing else to do at night apart from drink in beer halls which of course provided more profits for liquor suppliers And of course the dop system where farm workers received part of their wages in alcohol –creating a generation of dependent drinkers – and also playing into the fact that SA has incredibly high levels of Foetal Alcohol syndrome The dop system is now of course prohibited but alcohol remains a major source of harm – 170 people a day die of alcohol related causes and the burden on the health care system is tremendous Of course poverty and the unemployment rates play a big role in the binge drinking culture – lack of alternative recreational activities and the feeling of lack of a future, as well as peer pressure all have an influence Young people are also convinced by the marketing industry that successful people drink – usually expensive brands of whisky or brandy! Charles has been very involved in the fall out from the pandemic over the last 18 months – he talked to us about the 4 alcohol bans and the fact that every time alcohol was banned the admission to hospital trauma units fell by a staggering 60% - releasing space for Covid patients It’s been like a massive social experiment - like turning a tap on and off! Medical staff talked of the changing nature of their work - trauma units no longer smelt of blood and alcohol during alcohol bans We discussed how alcohol weakens the immune system making us more susceptible to disease, including Covid Covid patients who were heavy drinkers had poorer chances of surviving than non drinkers The liquor industry of course pushed back against the alcohol bans and lamented their reduced profits but this was a false rhetoric because in fact their profit increased due to people stocking up before the bans! Obviously banning alcohol for ever is not a possibility but the bans have proved to Charles that government IS PREPARED to take drastic action when required It proves that something CAN be done and government needs to implement a plan of measures that will address this problem Charles shared some of his ideas – some of which he has already presented to government –Covid has actually strengthened his case with the stark reminder of the harm that alcohol is doing to south African society Charles posts daily on his TW account – some really great links and comments on there so please follow him if you can – we need to support the great work he is doing! His TW handle is @profparry We start our annual 66 day challenge on 27 September - Sober Spring here in South Africa but can be a Sober Autumn as well! Membership also allows you to find your people as we welcome you into our supportive community - and this month new members will get a complimentary Sober Spring Challenge Just go to tribesober.com and hit the "join our tribe" button to read more about the benefits of membership More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our "Annual Tracker" or our e-book "66 Days to Sobriety" please email [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Book a Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. If you enjoyed the podcast then please leave us a 5 star review on Apple podcasts, take a screenshot of your review and DM it to Tribe Sober’s Instagram page - we'll send you something special to say thank you! We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! This week my guest is tribe member Clive Vanderwagen. Clive is a business and leadership coach who is also a wine expert! In this Episode Clive’s father offered him a taste of wine at quite an early age in an effort to make it “less exciting” but looking back Clive feels this was a bit naïve and if he was ever a parent he would probably share with his kids that he had struggled with alcohol himself and that it should be treated with caution. Educating our kids about alcohol is SO tricky but one thing is for sure – it’s easier to do it if we don’t drink – it’s no good saying one thing and then modelling another as we open our nightly bottle of wine! Like many of us Clive felt invincible when he was younger and the fact that he became dependent on alcohol took him by surpise. Alcohol dependency tends to sneak up on us over the years and its only when we try to cut down or give up that we realise we have a problem! That’s why regular breaks are so important – if you want to try 66 alcohol free days with online, community and audio support then just sign up for our Sober Spring Challenge I could really identify with Clive when he said he went to AA to see everyone chain smoking and talking about their rock bottoms and just didn’t feel he fitted in! He just didn’t feel like an alcoholic because he wasn’t drinking in the morning, crashing cars, losing jobs etc The thing is we don’t have to wait until we hit “rock bottom” before we make a change:- If we worry about our drinking or if we drink more than the low risk limits then we should make some changes – at the very least take a break just to test your dependency, Like most of us Clive tried “moderation” and we agreed that our “drinking neural pathway” will always be there so once you’ve crossed a line with your drinking moderation is no longer an option. Clive talked about being triggered by a sunny day and the thought of drinking rose – he has a sensible approach to his triggers – he just recognizes them, gets a bit curious about them and then lets them pass without acting on them One way of dealing with those triggers is to create another ritual to replace it – for example if Clive started enjoying a glass on AF bubbly everytime he sat drinking in the sunshine then his subconscious would gradually create a new and less harmful trigger. Clive’s Madonna Story was a classic example of how we expect alcohol to enhance our experiences – in Clive’s case he ended up almost blacking out and missing most of a concert he’d been looking forward to for months! Clive has made the joyful discovery that “Clive doesn’t need alcohol to be Clive” – he can still be the life and soul of the party when stone cold sober! 11 months into his sobriety Clive feels he's regained control of his life and reduced his anxiety -he feels strong and is proud to be alcohol Clive ended our interview by reading his stunning Goodbye to Alcohol letter which he found a powerful and cathartic experience – his letter is very moving and if you would like to read it along with some others just hit this link. We start our annual 66 day challenge in September - called Sober Spring here in South Africa but can be Sober Autumn as well Membership also allows you to find your people as we welcome you into our supportive community - and this month new members will get a complimentary Sober Spring Challenge Just go to tribesober.com and hit the "join our tribe" button to read more about the benefits of membership More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our "Annual Tracker" or our e-book "66 Days to Sobriety" please email [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Book a Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. If you enjoyed the podcast then please leave us a 5 star review on Apple podcasts, take a screenshot of your review and DM it to Tribe Sober’s Instagram page - we'll send you something special to say thank you! We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and join our Tribe Sober Club on Clubhouse - we are on Clubhouse every Sunday afternoon at 5pm SA time so come join the conversation. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! This week my guest is Staci Danfield. Staci is a neuroscientist who loves working with the sober community. In this episode she shares some really practical and useful information about our brain. In this Episode Staci’s husband walked out on her just before her 50th birthday – she was devastated at the time but now the years have passed she is able to look back and see that event as a catalyst for change… a real Wake Up Call Realising that she must take responsibility for her own happiness she went to grad school to study neuroscience Staci has no issues with alcohol but her father was an alcoholic – the whole family had tried to convince him to stop for years but only when he decided to stop himself did it work.. We talked about rehab and Staci explained that the success rate is a shockingly low 13.8% She explained that our brain tricks us into thinking that alcohol is making us happy but in fact it is a depressant – if you’ve been drinking for years then the alcohol will have altered the balance of your brain which is why you become increasingly dependent. When we understand how our brains work we can work with it – and that’s when the magic will happen – a great analogy is to think of how we use our computers – we work with programs that are installed in our computers – not against them! Understanding our brains means that we can understand ourselves better and see what we are gaining by ditching the drink – we need to create a “pattern interruptor” We mustn’t try to alter multiple habits at the same time – far better to focus on just the one Here at Tribe Sober we say “Just chase one rabbit at a time – if you chase several the chances are that they will all escape!” Staci advises that we focus on our successes “today I resisted a drink” and don’t look too far into the future (or avoid the F word as we say at Tribe Sober!) If you listened to Tribe Sober podcast episode 55 which was called “The Happy Brain” with Loretta Breuning, you may remember that she recommended setting an overall goal and dividing it up into smaller goals – this will keep our happy chemicals flowing as just aiming for a mini goal will trigger dopamine and of course we’ll feel good when we reach it. Staci is in agreement with Loretta and used the marathon analogy – if we sign up for a marathon we don’t immediately go out and try to run 26 miles – we design a training program and divide it into daily sessions – running a bit further every day.. You can find a great example of this on Episode 15 of the Tribe Sober podcast with one of our Sober Springers Kai – he did SS, achieved 66 AF days, then aimed for 100days, then 6 months, then a year – and now 3 years later he still hasn’t had a drink – but still doesn’t say its forever! Staci explained how our primitive lizard brain will go on autopilot unless we intervene – she calls her Lizard Brain Earl and calls him out if he tries to hijack her behaviour! She confirmed that our 66 day Sober Spring Challenge is long enough to create a new neural pathway to change our drinking patterns She also said that the “secret sauce” of Sober Spring was the community support We discussed the fact that our “drinking neural pathway will always be with us (if we’ve been drinking for years) – and that its easy to reactivate if we start trying to “moderate” after a period of sobriety. Staci loves our Goodbye to Alcohol letters and suggests reading them regularly to remind ourselves how bad the drinking got! She came up with a list of quick tips to boost our happy chemicals We start our annual 66 day challenge in September - called Sober Spring here in South Africa but can be Sober Autumn as well Membership also allows you to find your people as we welcome you into our supportive community - and this month new members will get a complimentary Sober Spring Challenge Just go to tribesober.com and hit the "join our tribe" button to read more about the benefits of membership More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our "Annual Tracker" or our e-book "66 Days to Sobriety" please email [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Book a Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. If you enjoyed the podcast then please leave us a 5 star review on Apple podcasts, take a screenshot of your review and DM it to Tribe Sober’s Instagram page - we'll send you something special to say thank you! We release a podcast episode every Satur

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! This week my guest is Mandy Manners. Mandy has her own recovery story to tell. Alcohol free for more than 4 years she is now a recovery coach and author. In this Episode Mandy and I are both Brits married to Frenchmen, so were able to discuss and contrast the very different attitudes to drinking in Uk & France. Mandy's French husband was able to cut down easily when they became parents but for her it was not quite so easy.. She believes that in France you are either seen as an "alcoholic" or someone who can have just one glass. When she first moved to France she had two young children and felt isolated which meant that her drinking got worse. Mandy had a touch of sober curiosity when she met her sister in law who didn't drink yet she seemed to be happy! After stopping and starting for years she reached out to Soberistas for help and found the community a great help We both agreed that "finding your people" was an essential first stop - find a community that suits you She had been a binge drinker during her teenage years and also took recreational drugs. Mandy highlighted the fact that hard drugs are demonised whereas alcohol is encouraged. Like many of us Mandy tried to moderate for years - setting (and breaking) many of her own rules about when she should drink. Due to a trauma in her teenage years Mandy had underlying issues which meant she needed to work with a therapist Mandy said that many people feel that once they've sorted the rest of their life out then they will address their drinking - however it should be the other way round - stop drinking and you will be able to sort your other issues Mandy is now 4 years sober and thriving in her alcohol free life - she has a better relationship with her husband and kids - she sleeps so much better She is now a recovery coach and has written a book called "Love Yourself Sober" - she has a podcast called "Love Sober" and her website is mandymanners.com Joining Tribe Sober is a great way to start your Sober Curious journey - find out more on tribesober.com We start our annual 66 day challenge in September - called Sober Spring here in South Africa but can be Sober Autumn as well Membership also allows you to find your people as we welcome you into our supportive community - and this month new members will get a complimentary Sober Spring Challenge Just go to tribesober.com and hit the "join our tribe" button to read more about the benefits of membership More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our "Annual Tracker" or our e-book "66 Days to Sobriety" please email [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Book a Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. If you enjoyed the podcast then please leave us a 5 star review on Apple podcasts, take a screenshot of your review and DM it to Tribe Sober’s Instagram page - we'll send you something special to say thank you! We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and join our Tribe Sober Club on Clubhouse - we are on Clubhouse every Sunday afternoon at 5pm SA time so come join the conversation. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! This week my guest is Dr Loretta Breuning. Loretta is the author of an excellent book called the "Habits of a Happy Brain" and she shared many fascinating insights with me. In this Episode The world of neuroplasticity is an exciting one - no longer do we have to believe that our brain shrinks and loses its capacity as we age - if we keep exercising and keep learning we can keep our brains healthy and active for longer Although most of our neural patterns are set in early life we can build new neural pathways as we get older - if just takes a bit more effort and a lot of repetition. Thats why our 66 day challenge can help you to build a new neural pathway and change your drinking habits for good. Loretta explained that we need to develop many different coping mechanisms to deal with life's ups and downs - we become dependent on alcohol when we have been using it as our only coping mechanism. That's why it makes sense to build a "distraction list" of all the things that we could to do - instead of drinking. We need to discover what gives us a "natural high" rather than the chemical high which alcohol has been giving us She explained that the Sober members of our community provided powerful inspiration because of the effect of "mirror neurons" My discussion with Loretta led me to a personal lightbulb moment which will change the advice we give to our community A few months into sobriety I suffered from a long period of anhedonia - my mood plummeted and I felt miserable However I kept going and after a couple of months my mood finally lifted - I thought this was because my brain had been relying on alcohol to make me feel good for so long that my natural "happy chemicals" were taking time to return Loretta helped me to understand that the reason my low mood had finally lifted was because I had set a new goal Getting sober had been my goal for the first few months of sobriety but then I needed another one Setting and achieving goals trigger the happy chemicals and keep them flowing So if you are suffering from the blues in early sobriety set a goal and start working towards it If you can't think of a goal then book a coaching session to explore possibilities New tribe sober members are entitled to a complimentary coaching session as well as many other benefits Joining Tribe Sober is a great way to start your Sober Curious journey - find out more on tribesober.com We'll put you on a 30 day alcohol free challenge so you can test your dependency Membership also allows you to find your people as we welcome you into our supportive community Just go to tribesober.com and hit the "join our tribe" button to read more about the benefits of membership More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our "Annual Tracker" or our e-book "66 Days to Sobriety" please email [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Book a Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. If you enjoyed the podcast then please leave us a 5 star review on Apple podcasts, take a screenshot of your review and DM it to Tribe Sober’s Instagram page - we'll send you something special to say thank you! We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and join our Tribe Sober Club on Clubhouse - we are on Clubhouse every Sunday afternoon at 5pm SA time so come join the conversation. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! This week my guest is someone I've known for more than a decade. When I first met her and discovered she was "sober" I was intrigued. How could you be "sober" but still be happy and having a lot of fun - was it really possible? When I finally ditched the drink Robyn became my role model - she is still my inspiration and has gone on to inspire many of our Tribe Sober members. In this Episode Robyn has been in a relationship with alcohol since before she was born – the Durban moms used to sometimes drink alcohol when they were pregnant as the dangers of foetal alcohol syndrome had not been highlighted back then. Her mother and her grandfather had a problematic relationship with alcohol and Robyn found it heartbreaking to see her mother who was a highly accomplished person grow more and more dependent on alcohol. Between the ages of 17 and 27 Robyn developed her serious wine habit. Like many of us she began setting rules such as 2 glasses only but then she just bought bigger glasses ;-) She could sometimes keep to her rules but sometimes she didn’t. It was a constant push and pull and she spoke of it being such a relief that alcohol is no longer even on her radar. Her turning point came when a friend of her moms came to visit her in London and noticed that Robyn was drinking a bottle of wine in less than an hour (which she did every night) - she advised Robyn to try a trick that she had done to give up smoking. Write a lipstick mark for every alcohol free day – these visual reminders are so powerful and we use annual trackers here at Tribe Sober. If you would like one just email a request to [email protected] Robyn had a rock bottom at the age of 33 when she had to be carried off a plane at Dubai airport. This was during one of those periods when she had decided that she could "moderate" yet one glass of champagne had led her to drink so much that she passed out. On her return to SA she checked herself into rehab. She now believes that the world is divided into two types of people. - those who can drink a couple of glasses of wine to soften the edges - and people like us, who need to ditch the drink and create a basket of tools other than alcohol to take the edge off When we ditch the drink we have to replace it with something else – we need to create a personal basket of tools Robyn shared some of her tools with us:- - a hot bath at wine time - 6pm yoga and meditation – body and breathwork nature – she’ll walk barefoot in the forest feel the sun on your face listening/watching/reading – get out of your own story by listening to someone else’s listen to podcasts, read a book, watch a movie community – reach out to a friend/Tribe Sober sweets – not ideal but better than wine! After 14 years of sobriety the last thing the Robyn would reach for in her basket of tools would be a bottle of wine We talked about the “mommy juice” syndrome – although Robyn was already sober when she became a mom she understands why many moms reach for the wine at the end of the day We talked about how difficult socializing was in the early days and how we need to take it gradually – as Robyn said the last thing we should do is subject ourselves to a 3 hour party in early sobriety – just don’t go! We agreed that socialising will eventually become easier and be able to hold a non alcoholic drink definitely helps. Robyn finds “breathing exercises” an essential tool to change her nervous system and took us through two breathing exercises. Robyn mentioned The Shala which is a wonderful yoga studio here in Cape Town. Tribe Sober members can book discounted online yoga sessions with the Shala so yet another reason to go to tribesober.com and hit that “join our tribe” button To find out more about Robyn and check out some of her awesome paintings just go to her IG page RobynDennyArt and her website is robyndennyart.com Joining Tribe Sober is a great way to start your Sober Curious journey - find out more on tribesober.com We'll put you on a 30 day alcohol free challenge so you can test your dependency Membership also allows you to find your people as we welcome you into our supportive community Just go to tribesober.com and hit the "join our tribe" button to read more about the benefits of membership More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our "Annual Tracker" or our e-book "66 Days to Sobriety" please email [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Book a Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more pe

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! This week my guest is Lane Kennedy. A mother in long term recovery she is a podcaster who has used meditation as a vital tool in her recovery journey. She now helps others to learn how to meditate. Lane quit drinking in 1996 so is 25 years in recovery. In this Episode Lane describes her drinking life as glamorous and great fun - until it wasn't Her drinking was inconsistent - she would sometimes only have two glasses - on other days she would drink to blackout She did notice that she drank differently from her friends Although she lived in a big house in Hollywood Hills and had lots of "stuff" but she wasn't happy - drank to figure out why She didn't have a specific "rock bottom" but knew her whole life was falling apart Some well meaning friends tricked her attending an AA meeting, where she heard the message of recovery for the first time It took her a year to get sober - up to 90 days it was really difficult and she missed alcohol which was her coping mechanism 9/11 changed her life - she left the US and joined a Buddhist retreat in Thailand - looking for safety She realised that in fact the only safety any of us will find is deep within ourselves - and meditation enables us to reach that place Meditation got her to the place she was looking for when she was drinking - a place of peace Lane now believes that meditation and mindfulness are keys to handling addiction She has a podcast called "Recover like a Mother" which includes episodes devoted to meditations We discussed the "mommyjuice" syndrome - and how motherhood is glamorised via social media We talked about the importance of sober influencers - Lane's podcast provides a platform for sober moms to spread the word Lane has a podcast and a website - recoverlikeamother.com Lane is thrilled about the rise of the Sober Curious movement which enables more people to find the space to try sobriety Joining Tribe Sober is a great way to start your Sober Curious journey - find out more on tribesober.com We'll put you on a 30 day alcohol free challenge so you can test your dependency Membership also allows you to find your people as we welcome you into our supportive community Just go to tribesober.com and hit the "join our tribe" button to read more about the benefits of membership More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our "Annual Tracker" or our e-book "66 Days to Sobriety" please email [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Book a Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. If you enjoyed the podcast then please leave us a 5 star review on Apple podcasts, take a screenshot of your review and DM it to Tribe Sober’s Instagram page - we'll send you something special to say thank you! We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and join our Tribe Sober Club on Clubhouse - we are on Clubhouse every Sunday afternoon at 5pm SA time so come join the conversation. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! This week my guest is Will Black. He is a Life Mastery Coach and a registered Yoga teacher. He was clever enough to realise that alcohol was not serving him at an early age and these days his life and work is guided by the ethos of finding balance. Will’s mission is to help people to overcome their limiting beliefs and behaviors so they can live balanced intentional lives. In this Episode From almost the first time Will drank it was apparent that he was going to develop a problem – he had blackouts, guilt and remorse He was sensible enough to realise that he had to quit but had no idea how he was going to make a change Like many of us he put the moderation “rules” in place – and like many of us proceeded to break those rules! Will raised the interesting point that for many of us we use booze because we want to “break free” One or two glasses of wine won’t get us to that place so that’s why end up breaking the moderation rules. We agreed that when we get to the stage of wondering if we have a problem with alcohol the answer is Yes! Of course Will was worried about life without booze would be a kind of “half life” – no friends, no fun no relationship! The foundation to Will's sobriety was fitness and meditation - he watched videos, listened to podcasts - did it alone He now realizes that it would have been easier if he had found a community and connected with others who had done this His first year was difficult and he felt awkward and weird at social events but he persevered and it got easier He explained how meditation helps in early sobriety as we learn to become an observer of our thoughts Will raised the interesting point that when we drink we are trying to calm our mind – meditation does that, but in a healthy way Yoga, meditation and physical activities are ideal as they will reduce the dopamine deficit which hits us in early sobriety. He talked about the Domino Effect – quit drinking and you will start looking at other parts of your life You can find Will on IG – The Balanced Self and his website is WillOwenBlack.com – he teaches yoga and is a coach Although Will got sober alone it was an uphill battle – with hindsight he recommends that people connect with a group Tribe sober is one of those groups and we’ve been changing lives for five years now. Why not check us out on tribesober.com Joining Tribe Sober is a great way to start your Sober Curious journey We'll put you on a 30 day alcohol free challenge so you can test your dependency Membership also allows you to find your people as we welcome you into our supportive community Just go to tribesober.com and hit the "join our tribe" button to read more about the benefits of membership More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our "Annual Tracker" or our e-book "66 Days to Sobriety" please email [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Book a Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. If you enjoyed the podcast then please leave us a 5 star review on Apple podcasts, take a screenshot of your review and DM it to Tribe Sober’s Instagram page - we'll send you something special to say thank you! We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and join our Tribe Sober Club on Clubhouse - we are on Clubhouse every Sunday afternoon at 5pm SA time so come join the conversation. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is Lynne Brown - our very own Sober Buddy Mentor! A Brit like me Lynne came to South Africa 20 years ago and fell in love with this beautiful country! She is also a volunteer Alcohol Counsellor in the UK. In this Episode Lynne never had a “rock bottom” – she just became more aware that she always felt a bit “below par” She was aware that giving up alcohol would improve her health - and indeed it has She was drawn to learning more about addiction and she realized she could help others who were struggling Lynne has experienced considerable benefits since she went alcohol free – she sleeps much better and can eat more! We talked about the massive increase in alcohol problems in the UK during the pandemic - and the difficulty of making a change We have to reconfigure our lives when we stop drinking – especially if our lives have revolved around alcohol related activities. This has been really hard during lockdown of course – fewer opportunities to meet new people or develop new interests We talked about Tribe Sober’s Sober Buddy program – it all began because some people who got sober wanted to stick around Our "graduates" wanted the personal connection but also to help new people or people who were struggling The Sober Buddy program was informal at first but then Lynne came along and put some order in the system! We now have pictures and bios of all our Sober Buddies on the website - together with guidelines As a qualified counsellor Lynne has been able to offer support and advice to our Sober Buddies Joining Tribe Sober is a great way to start your Sober Curious journey We'll put you on a 30 day alcohol free challenge so you can test your dependency Membership also allows you to find your people as we welcome you into our supportive community Just go to tribesober.com and hit the "join our tribe" button to read more about the benefits of membership More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our "Annual Tracker" or our e-book "66 Days to Sobriety" please email [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Book a Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. If you enjoyed the podcast then please leave us a 5 star review on Apple podcasts, take a screenshot of your review and DM it to Tribe Sober’s Instagram page - we'll send you something special to say thank you! We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and join our Tribe Sober Club on Clubhouse - we are on Clubhouse every Sunday afternoon at 5pm SA time so come join the conversation. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is William Porter - a lawyer with a passionate interest in the science behind alcohol dependency. He has written two books on the subject - Alcohol Explained and Alcohol Explained 2. In this Episode William started drinking and smoking at the tender age of 14! He managed to give up smoking by reading the book by Alan Carr - he was impressed by the methodology in that book He managed to quit drinking after delving into the science of dependency - and discovering just how harmful alcohol is We talked about "hangxiety" and how it's caused by chemical changes in our brain - when it becomes over-sensitised If you drink a bottle of wine every night then your brain will take the first glass as a signal that the rest of the bottle is coming! That's why moderation is so difficult - and it's exhausting as we are thinking about it all the time Cravings happen when we have a thought about drinking and then we start fantasising about that drink The joy of giving up altogether is that we don't entertain the idea of a drink so the cravings fade away Dependency happens once we learn (consciously or subsconsciously) that another drink will quell the anxiety caused by the first William explained FAB - Fading Affect Bias - when we think back fondly about our drinking days - and forget how bad we were FAB is responsible for many people falling off the wagon as they think they can now have "just one" - which is not sustainable Rather than worrying that we are an "alcoholic" William suggests we consider whether alcohol is taking away more than it gives us We both agreed that "sober socialising" is tough but that the best way to cope is to "feel the awkward and do it anyway" He explained why it's a complete myth that alcohol helps you sleep - the truth is that it ruins our sleep! His advice to people who want to stop is to write down all the reasons they want to drink - and realise they are all false beliefs You can purchase Williams books from his website - alcoholexplained.com - download first five chapters for free Joining Tribe Sober is also a great way to start your Sober Curious journey We'll put you on a 30 day alcohol free challenge so you can test your dependency Membership also allows you to find your people as we welcome you into our supportive community Just go to tribesober.com and hit the "join our tribe" button to read more about the benefits of membership More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our "Annual Tracker" or our e-book "66 Days to Sobriety" please email [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Book a Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and join our Tribe Sober Club on Clubhouse - we are on Clubhouse every Sunday afternoon at 5pm SA time so come join the conversation. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is Justin Lamb - podcaster, musician, asset management professional and therapist in training! In this Episode Justin grew up with an alcoholic father and his brother was also using - like many of us he started using alcohol to socialise A medical diagnosis of auto-immune disease forced him to quit drinking for five months - he was anxious to restart! He managed to stop drinking by educating himself about the harm it does - he went on a course about substance abuse Justin has experienced many benefits of sobriety. He feels gratitude that he is now able to "feel what I feel" - whether love or pain He is now able to better follow things through and complete his projects - he came up with a nice metaphor involving kayaking.. We talked about the normalisation of alcohol and how pharmaceutical drugs on US tv list the side effects - not not alcohol His advice about dealing with peer pressure is to take control early on - don't be shy about your sobriety! These days Justin is happy to hang out with responsible drinkers - but not the heavy drinkers. Although he got sober alone he is now enjoying the community support he is finding in the Clubhouse rooms. We discussed the value of Clubhouse and how people will be able to hear recovery tips and stories without going to meetings Justin has a podcast called Friend Request and you can follow him on Instagram @friendrequestpodcast We also agreed that people are far more likely to identify themselves as "Sober Curious" than "Alcoholics" Joining Tribe Sober is a great way to start your Sober Curious journey We'll put you on a 30 day alcohol free challenge so you can test your dependency Membership also allows you to find your people as we welcome you into our supportive community Just go to tribesober.com and hit the "join our tribe" button to read more about the benefits of membership More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our "Annual Tracker" or our e-book "66 Days to Sobriety" please email [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Book a Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and join our Tribe Sober Club on Clubhouse - we are on Clubhouse every Sunday afternoon at 5pm SA time so come join the conversation. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is Molly Watts, a senior living specialist who believes that we can create habits which will lead to a longer and healthier life. Going alcohol free is a healthy habit which will certainly help! In this Episode Molly was just 13 when she first challenged her mom about her drinking - and talks about growing up with an alcoholic mom Her mom continued to drink in spite of going to rehab 4 times - she died from an alcoholic binge at the age of 80 In spite of witnessing the damage that alcohol can do Molly went on to develop a drinking habit of her own She never hit "rock bottom" but she was drinking 3 or 4 glasses of wine every evening which was draining her energy/motivation Like many of us Molly had a constant nagging voice in her head about her drinking - was following in her moms footsteps? However she worked hard at making a change and now has a "peaceful" relationship with alcohol She began to understand that she was drinking as a buffer to deal with emotions - stress and overwhelm Molly realised that her drinking habit was in conflict with her passion project which was all about healthy and positive ageing She is a self confessed science geek and her key to changing her drinking habit was information The more she learned about alcohol the less the felt like drinking it! Molly talked me through what happens in our brains when we have a drink - and why we end up with Hangxiety She emphasised that there are absolutely no health benefits to alcohol - in spite of what the media tell us about red wine! Every time we drink we act as our own "petri dish" - as the alcohol has a different effect Molly explained that less than 10% of people who drink too much are physically addicted She talked about the DSM and how it examines your relationship with alcohol We agreed that the best way to make a change was to get "sober curious" - joining Tribe Sober is a great way to start! Join Tribe Sober and we'll put you on a 30 day alcohol free challenge so you can test your dependency Membership also gives you access to a wealth of information in the "Members Area" of our website More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our"Annual Tracker" please email [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Book a Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and join our Tribe Sober Club on Clubhouse - we are on Clubhouse every Sunday afternoon at 5pm SA time so come join the conversation. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is Dr Stephan Neff - a German who is living in New Zealand Stephan began to drink heavily at university and carried on into his twenties and thirties The medical profession was demanding and he used alcohol to cope with stress In this Episode At the age of 35 Stephan realised that his drinking was becoming problematic but pushed it to the back of his mind Alcohol was numbing the pain and giving him a temporary respite from the stress His wife also drank a lot - they were both A type personalities - striving to succeed - using alcohol to relax Stephan's wife managed to stop drinking and then began to urge him to make a change but with no success He was getting worse and worse - not enough alcohol to numb the pain Stephan hit rock bottom one night and was found crying in his garage - his wife arranged for him to go to rehab two days later She issued him an ultimatum - he would lose his family if he didn't go to rehab - he felt relieved but also full of shame Not everybody has to hit "rock bottom" before they make a change - get some help and join tribe sober Rehab was life changing for Stephan - in the bubble of rehab for 4 weeks - everything changed The staff were great - many of the staff were ex-addicts who were clean and thriving - they inspired him Stephan felt that he was being "listened to" and could "speak his truth" finally We offer a complimentary recovery coaching session to our members so they can experience the power of being listened to As part of his treatment he wrote a letter which was full of grievances - to help him deal with his resentment and anger Coming out of rehab was a bit of an anti-climax - nobody was that interested - he had to "walk the talk" to show he had changed Stephan has learned to avoid HALT - being Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired - which is could trigger him He talked about the difference between a "lapse" and a full blown "relapse"- after a lapse we need to "get curious" Our annual trackers help our members to get stay on track after a lapse - if you'd like an annual tracker - [email protected] In his book "Steps to Sobriety" he goes into details about relapses and what causes them - often a lack of self care Stephan has a podcast called "Into the Light" and a You Tube channel Treat a craving as a wave in the ocean - surf it rather than let it drown you! More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our"Annual Tracker" please email [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today. Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Book a Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and join our Tribe Sober Club on Clubhouse - we are on Clubhouse every Sunday afternoon at 5pm SA time so come join the conversation. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is Vicky Vanstone - a Brit who is living in Australia Vicky was a binge drinker whose identity was pretty much as a "party animal" However like many young women she found the transition from party animal to stay at home mom a very difficult one and eventually decided to stop drinking completely - and now she inspires other moms to get "sober curious" In this Episode Vicky had surrounded herself with other drinkers so her binge drinking was completely normalized As a party animal she enjoyed recounting funny stories from the night before Things changed for Vicky when she had her first child - motherhood introduced an element of shame into the morning after She felt hugely anxious and guilty that she was struggling to look after the baby when she was hungover These emotions led her to becoming "sober curious" at the age of 34 We agreed that the "sober curious" movement is hugely helpful as it implies that we can get off the slippery slope We don't have to hit "rock bottom" and become an "alcoholic" before we make some changes For Vicky the transition from independent party girl to stay at home mom was a huge shock - as it is for many women She believes that's where the mommyjuice culture comes from - the need for a release from the stress and boredom Motherhood is a tricky mix of mndane tasks and huge responsibility and women need more information to prepare them for that Just as drinking is glamorised by the media so is motherhood - which makes reality an even bigger shock Vicky got some help by going to a therapist - she learned that she had to value herself rather than "people pleasing" She has now been alcohol free for 2 years and has her own podcast called "Sober Awkward" Vicky's website is www.drunkmummysobermummy.com and she also has a FB group Joining Tribe Sober is also a great way to start your sober curious journey.. More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our "Annual Tracker" please email [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today. Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Book a Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you - calendar on homepage of tribesober.com Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and join our Tribe Sober Club on Clubhouse - we are on Clubhouse every Sunday afternoon at 5pm SA time so come join the conversation. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is the lovely Loyiso Mkele. We met long before I started Tribe Sober and we had no idea that we had a "drink problem" in common ;-) However once I managed to stop drinking and started Tribe Sober, Loyiso reached out for help. She's been sober for two years and is thriving in her alcohol free life - have a listen to how she did it! In this Episode For 13 years Loyso was drinking at least a bottle of wine a day - she knew the problem would just get worse She knew she would have to make a change but had no idea HOW to make the change One day she heard me on the radio and because she knew me personally that shocked her into action - Loyiso realised that there was a support group for people like her Coming to the workshop was a huge relief for Loyiso - not only had she found her tribe but she now had a practical toolkit By using the toolkit and connecting with the tribe she was able to stop drinking - she loved the sense of community She was inspired by people who were hitting their milestones - and eventually became a role model herself She is now a Sober Buddy with two years of sobriety and enjoys helping our newbies to get started Loyiso had some tips for people starting out - find your people and connect with them daily. Immerse yourself in quitlit and podcasts - expect to be tired for a while and to get cravings for sweet things - eat fruit! Remember that alcohol free wine is your friend - take it out with you and use it at home when you would normally have a drink More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our"Annual Tracker" please email [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today. Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Book a Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you - calendar on homepage of tribesober.com Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and join our Tribe Sober Club on Clubhouse - we are on Clubhouse every Sunday afternoon at 5pm SA time so come join the conversation. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! This weekend is a special one for me - my sixth soberversary! So I'm talking about my six biggest challenges - and how I overcame them. In this Episode I summarise my story of how I got hooked on the booze and why I decided to make a change Then I go through my six biggest challenges and how I overcame them CHALLENGE 1 - Finding my People. I tried for many years to give up drinking alone but finally reached out for help and connection CHALLENGE 2 - Keeping Perspective - accepting that it was going to take time - first year about "not drinking" then going deeper CHALLENGE 3 - Dealing with Emotions - I had learn to cope with my emotions - to get comfortable with being uncomfortable CHALLENGE 4 - Dealing with Anhedonia - in early sobriety I struggled to find pleasure in anything - I had to push through this CHALLENGE 5 - Saying Goodbye to my Best Friend - I drew a line under my drinking years by writing a "goodbye to alcohol" letter CHALLENGE 6 - Finding my purpose - I had to embrace my alcohol free life and discover new interests and passions I linked a tip with each of my challenges which I hope will help others on this journey More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our"Annual Tracker" please email [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today. Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Book a Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you - calendar on homepage of tribesober.com Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and join our Tribe Sober Club on Clubhouse - are on Clubhouse every Sunday afternoon at 5pm SA time so come join the conversation. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is hypnotherapist Belinda Roxburgh - a valuable member of the Tribe Sober team. She came to one of our early workshops and has been alcohol free ever since. Belinda has worked with many of our members and helped them to overturn their limiting beliefs around alcohol. In this Episode After years of drinking we need to find a way to heal our minds as well as our bodies - that's where hypnotherapy comes in Belinda explained how addiction narrows our world and our ability to experience everyday pleasures Hypnotherapy can open up our world to other possibilities We talked about limiting beliefs and how hypnotherapy enables us to question those beliefs Belinda explained that she had been to several doctors/therapists about her anxiety- nobody asked her about her drinking Since she has been alcohol free her anxiety has reduced significantly She now realises we must take responsibility for our own healing - rather than relying on doctors who will just prescribe drugs We agreed that a Tribe Sober workshop plus a session with Belinda can enable someone to overturn their limiting beliefs Feelings and emotions are the language of the subconscious and hypnotherapy allows us to reach our subconscious mind She wasn't sure how well her hynotherapy sessions would work over Zoom but to her surprise they are working very well We talked about the number of sessions needed and Belinda explained that it varies but that 6 was the average We talked about our 66 day challenge which is based on the theory that you can create a new neural pathway in that time A few hypnotherapy sessions during the 66 days would increase the effectiveness of the challenge For more info go to Belinda's website www.riversidehypnosis.ca.za or email her at [email protected] More info To sign up for our 66 day challenge click HERE Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our e-book "66 days to sobriety" please email [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today. Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Book a Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you - calendar on homepage of tribesober.com Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and join our Tribe Sober Club on Clubhouse - are on Clubhouse every Sunday afternoon at 5pm SA time so come join the conversation. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is Cici Reagan - a recovering addict and a domestic abuse survivor With a difficult upbringing and then an abusive partner the odds were stacked against Cici and she became an alcoholic - but she also found solace in her writing Not only has writing saved her own life but she is now helping others to heal - using the power of poetry. In this Episode Cici's father was an alcoholic - and so was her first partner. That is quite a common pattern She went to AA as that was the only thing she knew about - it took her years to find the right group - but eventually it worked As she got sober she was feeling emotions she'd buried for years - she had no idea how to deal with them She's been drinking since she was 14 so lacked the emotional maturity to deal with her emotions As she worked through her traumas Cici recognised that the drinking had just been a symptom Throughout everything she had been writing - poetry, short stories and journal entries. She shared what she was going through and when she got sober she sarted a community for people like herself Cici used to feel a lot of shame about her drinking but can now look back at her younger self with compassion We recommend journalling as a key recovery tool here at Tribe Sober If you feel you need help with your creative writing then check out www.cicireagan.com for free resources which can help Cici also runs workshops If you would like a copy of our e-book 66 days of sobriety then please email me [email protected] More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our e-book "66 days to sobriety" please email [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today. Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Book a Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you - calendar on homepage of tribesober.com Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and join our Tribe Sober Club on Clubhouse - are on Clubhouse every Sunday afternoon at 5pm SA time so come join the conversation. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is Dr Avishkar Sabharwal who specialises in Obesity and Lifestyle Medicine. Avishkar has a passion for helping people suffering from lifestyle diseases, especially obesity, he aims to help people facing obesity get their lives back on track. In this Episode Avishkar suffered from obesity himself and has developed a passion to help others who have this problem We talked about the relationship between alcohol and obesity and Avishkar explained that alcohol is a source of empty calories Not only does alcohol have a detrimental effect on evey part of our body but it's a source of empty calories Even though alcohol adds no nutritional value at all it will still cause us to put on weight We discussed the similarities of dealing with a weight problem and alcohol dependence - and the importance of mindset for both We talked about the fact that food has always been a "social binder" within communities but these days it includes "non foods" "Non foods" are essentially junk foods - nutrient deficient yet acting on our addictive pathways (like alcohol) We agreed that accountability is hugely important - whether we are losing weight or giving up alcohol we need community I explained that at Tribe Sober we encouraged accountability via our Annual Trackers and Sober Buddies Avishkar stressed the importance of dealing "underlying causes" - whether for alcohol or obesity - therapy may be required We discussed Intermitted Fasting as a way of dealing with excess weight and also meal replacements Both of these methods are effective but it's important to choose a program which will be sustainable Avishkar has a free Facebook Community to help people wishing to lose weight - to to www.decodingobsesity.com for link He also has a weekly podcast called Decoding Obesity - available of Apple, Spotify etc If you would like a copy of the Annual Tracker (for logging your alcohol free days) email me [email protected] More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our e-book "66 days to sobriety" please email [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today. Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Book a Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you - calendar on homepage of tribesober.com Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and join our Tribe Sober Club on Clubhouse - are on Clubhouse every Sunday afternoon at 5pm SA time so come join the conversation. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is US integrative doctor - Dr Grace A self confessed "science geek" Dr Grace has a deep knowledge of how the body can function at its very best She's the perfect person to help us understand how we can repair our bodies and minds after years of alcohol abuse. In this Episode Dr Grace believes in optimal gut function and repair as the foundation of good health She explains how alcohol damages the gut and produces acidity - making us more prone to diseases like cancer Alcohol harms our brains as well as our bodies - and actually decreases our brain plasticity It causes our estrogen levels to increase and that's why it's linked to breast cancer The best thing we can do for our health is to stop drinking - that should be the foundation of our good health We discussed how we can rebuild our health in early recovery - one of the most important things is an alkalising diet We need supergreen smoothies and fermented foods like kaffir, yoghourt, kimchi and sauerkraut Fermented foods will help our bodies to absorb vitamins and will also help with sugar cravings we get when we quit drinking Stevia is a very sweet plant - a few drops of Stevia in our tea will satisfy cravings Alcoholics are always dehydrated - every glass of wine robs your body of 4 glasses of water - so drink lots of water If you are feeling low in early sobriety due to loss of dopamine then take a 5HTP supplement which should lift your mood. More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our e-book "66 days to sobriety" please email [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today. Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Book a Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you - calendar on homepage of tribesober.com Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and join our Tribe Sober Club on Clubhouse - are on Clubhouse every Sunday afternoon at 5pm SA time so come join the conversation. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is the fabulous Clare Pooley Clare is 6 years sober and has inspired thousands of women via her blog and best selling book - the Sober Diaries. You can see her TED talk HERE Clare has been guest speaker at two of our London workshops In this Episode Like many of us Clare started drinking socially and gradually evolved to drinking a bottle of wine every evening Her rock bottom came one morning when she found herself drinking red wine to quell a hangover Her main strategy to ditch the drink was writing - every day for 3 years she poured her heart out to her anonymous blog Clare's blog is a great resource and anyone who feels alone in this journey should check it out here mummywasasecretdrinker These days she feels angry that we feel so much shame around our drinking - and thats why she did her TED talk on that topic Her strategies were writing, hot baths, hot chocolate, cleaning (!), books about alcohol, exercise, audio books and podcasts CLAIRE's TOP TIP - she reconfigured her day - went to bed at 7pm (to avoid evening drinking) and got up at 5am feeling great! As cooking the evening meal was a big temptation for her she cooked it in the morning and heated it up in the evening Like many of us she had a major low in early sobriety - she calls this "the wall" and believes it's our brain chemistry adjusting Her advice is to accept that we will have ups and downs on this journey but that they will get less extreme if we hang in there Her blog - the obstacle course went viral and is essential reading in early sobriety Clare's key message in the blog is to keep going however hard it gets - stopping and starting is the hardest way Her top tips for newbies - write down how bad it was so you don't forget, write your WHY list - why are you doing this? Be excited - you will gain more than you lose and another tip is to create a vision board Clare also said it was essential to "find your tribe" and recommended tribesober.com More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our e-book "66 days to sobriety" please email us at [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today. Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Book a Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you - calendar on homepage of tribesober.com Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and join our Tribe Sober Club on Clubhouse - are on Clubhouse every Sunday afternoon at 5pm SA time so come join the conversation. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is South African Communications expert - Nicole Klassen You can see her TEDx talk HERE Nicole signed up for our first Sober Spring Challenge back in 2018 and it changed her life. In this Episode Nicole realised she was on a slippery slope when she started to drink alone - rather than socially She felt very emotional during early sobriety - and spent lots of time crying! We agreed that if you've been numbing yourself for years with booze then the emotions will spill out when we stop Sobriety helped her to find her voice again - and she wrote a beautiful blog about "66 days of feelings" Many of our Sober Springers have been inspired by Nicole's blog which you can access HERE Nicole explained how her meditation practice enabled her to better observe her own behaviour Benefits of sobriety included losing puffiness and 10kgs - she has developed a better relationship with her body A significant insight for her was the fact that ALL of our feelings are necessary (good or bad) She realised that our behaviour is triggered by a feeling which is triggered by a story we have in our past Since she stopped drinking Nicole has become more productive in her work and has become more consistent We talked about the "feminisation of alcohol" - as she comes from a marketing background she knows exactly how they work IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR 66 DAY CHALLENGE PLEASE CLICK HERE More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our e-book "66 days to sobriety" please email us at [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today. Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and join our Tribe Sober Club on Clubhouse - are on Clubhouse every Sunday afternoon at 5pm SA time so come join the conversation. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - inpiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is Canadian author and life coach, Tamar Medford. Since overcoming her own 20-year battle with drugs, alcohol and obesity in 2012, Tamar has dedicated her life to empowering others to reach their true potential. In this Episode Although Tamar had a really happy childhood she went off the rails during her teenage years She remembers getting drunk at a party when she was 14 and feeling that the world had gone from black and white to colour She spent years chasing that feeling - and believes that those of us who become dependent experience a more intense high In her twenties she got into hard drugs which enabled her to drink even more - she saw herself as the "life and soul" of the party She got into addiction and yoyo dieting - eating too much fast food and putting on lots of weight She was married to an alcoholic - they drank lots of beers and vodka each evening - seeing it as the norm Tamar was at her lowest ebb and feeling suicidal when she decided she was going to make a change As she put it she decided to "stop digging" - rather than go on and reach her "rock bottom" With the help of her AA community Tamar managed to get clean and create a different life She created a personal vision "to empower others to live up to their potential" and everything she does aligns with this vision These days Tamar likes to push out of her comfort zone - believing that if she is not uncomfortable then she's not growing.. When we get sober we have to "get comfortable with being uncomfortable" in order to discover who we really are Tamar was worried that she wouldn't be able to have any fun if she gave up drinking but in fact she has found purpose and joy She has used her life experience to help others reach their potential and has written a best selling book She is also a podcaster and a Life Coach - more info on www.theroadforward.ca Tamar's podcast is called "The Road to Health" and her book is "Hope Elevated" More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our e-book "66 days to sobriety" please email us at [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today. Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and join our Tribe Sober Club on Clubhouse - are on Clubhouse every Sunday afternoon at 5pm SA time so come join the conversation. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - inpiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is British journalist Phil Cain. Author of two books about alcohol he brings a fresh and scientific perspective to the dialogue. His books have spawned a wide range of activities, including hosting panel discussions - which is how I met Phil. In this Episode Phil explains how he was keen to write a book from a scientific perspective, rather than personal experience. He stopped drinking while he was writing his books - to better understand the "discomfort" that sobriety can bring We agreed that Sober Sprints are essential for regular drinkers - the only way to check that you are not becoming dependent If you would like to do a Sober Sprint then sign up as a Tribe Sober member to join our 30 day alcohol free challenge Phil explained that the "low risk limits" (one and a half bottles of wine/6 beers a week) are not widely known Covid has brought extra stress into everybody's life and many people are self medicating with alcohol Drinking alone has become more common in these days of the pandemic - it's so easy to drink more when you are alone We agreed that "drink sensibly" is an oxymoron as alcohol actually removes your ability to act sensibly! Phil believes that we should encourage people to look at their drinking by "selling sobriety" rather than emphasising the dangers He explained why "Sobriety Sizzles" and if there was a pill that achieved what sobriety does it would be hugely popular! Phil's books are called "Alcohol Companion" and "Alcohol for Nerds" - go to www.philcain.com to sample and purchase At our workshops we recommend treating sobriety as a "research project" - these 2 books should be an essential part of your research More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our e-book "66 days to sobriety" please email us at [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today. Read more about our 6-step program and subscribe HERE Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and join our Tribe Sober Club on Clubhouse. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - inpiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is British Psychiatrist Dr Tony Rao. He is an international expert of alchohol misuse in older people - with more than 20 years experience in this area. He works with Baby Boomers in the UK who have alcohol issues - I was one of those for many years so found this conversation fascinating.. In this Episode Dr Tony explains how his interest in the field started with his parents who were both medics He believes it's essential to understand the community his patients are from if he is to understand their problems The baby boomer generation is more susceptible to alcohol abuse as we grew up with very different cultural attitudes We believed it was ok to get drunk sometimes and the "work hard, play hard" ethos was encouraged in many corporates After decades of drinking the older generation have not even tried to cut down - many of them rely on it more as they get older Dr Tony believes that the "low risk" limits for alcohol should be reduced for older people as our bodies are less resilient Extra risks for older people include falls, mixing with medications and the fact that it takes longer to metabolize We agreed that although people are living longer the emphasis should be on "living well" for the last 10 years Alcohol and Covid - not a good mix as both stimulate imflammation causing a cytokine storm which can reduce survival changes Dr Tony advises that we take the low risk limits seriously and reach out for help if we need it - there is always help. He has written a book called "Catch Me When I Fall" which dramatises the issue - available via Audible More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our e-book "66 days to sobriety" please email us at [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today. Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - inpiring an alcohol-free life! Welcome to our first Tribe Sober podcast - rebranded from Goodbye to Alcohol - to Tribe Sober If you missed out on the lowdown regarding our transition from World Without Wine to Tribe Sober then you can catch up by listening to our last episode - Episode 32 My guest this week is Podcast Business Coach and Weight Loss Guru - Adam Schaeuble. His story is similar to mine in that he resolved his own issues and then went on to help others to do the same In this Episode Adam shared his personal transformation story with us We agreed that many of the methods he uses to help his community can be used in the Tribe Sober community The first step - asking for help - is the hardest - we have to put our ego to one side and reach out Adam uses a strategic approach with his clients - gets them to plan 28 days in advance and look for "danger zones" We discussed the importance of not letting a "slip up" derail you - just get back on track straight away Anchor points are essential - they give you a dopamine hit to keep going forward - at TS we have milestone badges! Adam explained the difference between motivation and inspiration - we need to be inspired if we are going to succeed If you don't feel inspired then get some coaching - if you come to the coaching session "motivated" you will leave "inspired" He shared his transformation timeline with us - and stressed the importance of finding a new purpose at the end of the journey More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our e-book "66 days to sobriety" please email us at [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today. Read more about our 6-step program and subscribe HERE Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - inpiring an alcohol-free life! After running Tribe Sober for 5 years it's time for a change - we are rebranding and launching a whole new membership programe. We are rebranding to Tribe Sober! This is a solo episode before we get back to our usual interview format for our newly branded Tribe Sober Podcast. In this Episode I explain the rationale behind the name change I talk existing members and would-be members through our "6 steps to Sobriety" membership Model Step 1 is about connection - joining our Chat Forum, Zoom Cafe and checking our our Member Bios Step 2 is about Preparation - get in those AF drinks, read some QuitLit and do a Workshop Step 3 is about Doing the Work - take a Challenge, download a Tracker and grab your Milestone Award Step 4 is about getting more support - do you need a Sober Buddy or some Coaching or some help from our Doc Step 5 is about Healing your body and mind - access discounted Yoga, Nutrition advice and Hypnotherapy Then it's time for Step 6 - time to celebrate by joining our exclusive One Year Club and Paying it Forward. Please make sure you are Subscribed so that our rebranded podcast arrives on your phone next week! More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our e-book "66 days to sobriety" please email us at [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today. Read more about our 6-step program and subscribe HERE Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - Your guide to alcohol-free living! After running Tribe Sober for 5 years and helping hundreds of people to ditch the drink and embrace alcohol-free living I've learned a thing or two. My biggest insight has been that sharing our stories around alcohol is the most powerful way we can help others - that's why the heart of this podcast is recovery stories. This week I look back on our last 30 podcast episodes and pick up the ten most popular ones. In this Episode All will be revealed on the next podcast episode so watch this space! This episode highlights out top ten episodes - we've had 18,000+ downloads so which ones got the most listens? Coming in at number 10 (332 downloads) was episode 29 "14 tips to get through an alcohol free month" Number 9 was episode 9 with Marietjie (479 downloads) "How I stopped drinking and changed my life" Number 8 was episode 17 with Lucy (480 downloads) "How I stopped drinking and changed my life" Number 7 was episode 20 with Janis (489 downloads) "5 years of sobriety" Number 6 was episode 7 with Vuyo (510 downloads) "How alcohol took my parents" Number 5 was episode 30 with Mary Ann Shearer (537 downloads) "Coping with cravings" Number 4 was episode 6 with Jen (551 downloads) "The normalisation of alcohol" Number 3 was episode 5 with Jane (746 downloads) "How I stopped drinking and changed my life" Number 2 was episode 1 with Janet (1320 downloads) "How I stopped drinking and started a tribe" Number 1 was episode 28 with Eusebius (1365 downloads) "My relationship with alcohol" More info Subscription membership you can join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our e-book "66 days to sobriety" please email us at [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today. Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE. Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - Your guide to alcohol-free living! After running Tribe Sober for 10 years and helping thousands of people to ditch the drink and embrace alcohol-free living I've learned a thing or two. My biggest insight has been that sharing our stories around alcohol is the most powerful way we can help others - that's why the heart of this podcast is recovery stories. This week I'm chatting to an inspirational woman Mary Ann Shearer who is a best selling author and a motivational speaker. In this Episode Mary Ann is a woman before her time and was advocating veganism thirty years ago! Her first book "The Natural Way" was written more than 20 years ago She explained that if you give your children lots of sweet things it sets them up for alcohol dependency later in life Mary Ann had alcoholic parents and as a result she craves order and control and has never drunk alcohol We agreed that children of alcoholic parents tend to be like her - or they tend to follow the pattern of their parents She advised people who have stopped drinking to satisfy their cravings by eating fresh fruit not chocolates or sweets Our bodies need glucose and eating fresh fruit satisfies the craving for alcohol Mary Ann feels that alcoholics are clever people who need a creative outlet - sobriety will give them the time and space to find one She explained the damage that alcohol does to our endocrine system - and how it makes menopause much worse To find out more about Mary Ann go to her website www.mary-anns.net - her book is called "The Natural Way" More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE To join our January Challenge click HERE - a small donation to a good cause will provide you with community and online support during January If you want to go it alone and would still like one of our trackers then email us at [email protected] Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today. Read more about our 8-step program and subscribe HERE. Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

After running Tribe Sober for 5 years and helping hundreds of people to ditch the drink and embrace alcohol-free living I've learned a thing or two. My biggest insight has been that sharing our stories around alcohol is the most powerful way we can help others - that's why the heart of this podcast is recovery stories. This week I'm doing a solo episode - 10 reasons to do an alcohol free January - and 14 tips to get you through. In This Episode REASONS TO DO AN ALCOHOL FREE JANUARY Here in South Africa alcohol has been banned for a few weeks - so we can't buy any! A dry month is a great way to test your dependency - if you can't get through a month without booze then you need to make some changes Alcohol is so toxic that just taking a month off will have significant health benefits Alcohol is linked to liver disease and 7 different types of cancer - 1 glass of wine will raise your risk of breast cancer by 15% Alcohol will weaken our immune systems - and put us more at risk of becoming infected with Covid 20% of regular drinkers will become dependent over the years - drinking more than a bottle and a half of wine a week may damage your health A month off alcohol will reduce your anxiety, freshen up your looks, help you lose weight and enable you to get some good quality sleep Making a donation to our January fundraiser will give you a dopamine hit (giving makes you feel good) and enable you to receive online and community support for 31 days - you can sign up here SOME TIPS TO GET YOU THROUGH Shake up your daily routine and exercise every day Be ready to cope with your emotions - if you've been numbing your feelings with alcohol they will come to the surface Use a journal to track your progress, note your triggers and process your emotions Listen to music, make a soundtrack for your January Challenge - a real mood changer Have your go-to drinks -drinknil.co.za are offering 10% discount on all their alcohol free drinks for people doing our Challenge Find your tribe - its hard to do this alone - check out our membership program here Please donate to our Earthchild Fundraiser - and get 30 days of community and online support - sign up link is here MORE INFO To access our website click HERE EPISODE SPONSOR This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today. Read more about our 8 step program and subscribe HERE. Please subscribe and share this podcast so we can reach more people who need our help. Thank you

Tribe Sober - Your guide to alcohol-free living! After running Tribe Sober for 5 years and helping hundreds of people to ditch the drink and embrace alcohol-free living I've learned a thing or two. My biggest insight has been that sharing our stories around alcohol is the most powerful way we can help others - that's why the heart of this podcast is recovery stories. This week I'm chatting to broadcaster, political analyst and author Eusebius McKaiser. Eusebius hosted a daily radio show in South Africa and often invited me as his guest to discuss all things alcohol related. Many of our community found their way to Tribe Sober via his show so I am truly grateful for his ongoing support and friendship. In this Episode For those of us missing his radio show Eusebius reminded us of all the other ways he engages.. He writes regularly for the Mail & Guardian - read one of his thought provoking articles here Eusebius is of course the author of three books - Run Racist Run, A Bantu in My Bathroom and Could I Vote DA - link to all 3 books is HERE His latest project is a book show called Cover to Cover - three episodes already in the can - here is Episode 1 We talked about his relationship with alcohol - he began drinking at college and then binge drank during his 20's and 30's Always competitive academically he still passed all his degrees and build a successful career Eusebius signed up for Dry January a couple of years ago and to his surprise maintained his alcohol free period for six months He then signed up for the next Dry January and apart from one glass of wine has not had a drink for a year He thinks his alcohol free lifestyle may be permanent this time and we discuss the benefits that he is experiencing He explained how he has substituted different kinds of music for alcohol - to stimulate the right mood when he is writing We agreed that as we get older we tend to start "self medicating" with alcohol - convincing ourselves that it's "fun" Eusebius wrote a blog for our website called "Sober Diary Reflections" - you can read it here He mentioned my Goodbye to Alcohol letter which you can hear me reading out on his show here Eusebius feels strongly that it's not our job to justify the fact that we are not drinking and that the onus should be on those challenging us We talked about Earthchild and how the children on the Cape Flats rarely get to experience quiet and a feeling of peace The yoga classes provided by Earthchild can bring those children some relief from their difficult environment So please donate to our Earthchild Fundraiser - and get 30 days of community and online support - the link is HERE More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE To join our Dry January Annual Fundraiser click HERE - a small donation will provide you with community and online support during January Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today. Read more about our 8-step program and subscribe HERE. Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - Your guide to alcohol-free living! After running Tribe Sober for 5 years and helping hundreds of people to ditch the drink and embrace alcohol-free living I've learned a thing or two. My biggest insight has been that sharing our stories around alcohol is the most powerful way we can help others - that's why the heart of this podcast is recovery stories. This week I'm chatting to a truly inspirational woman - Janna Kretzmar - Founder of the Earthchild Project In this Episode 2020 will be the sixth year that Tribe Sober has collaborated with the Earthchild Project for the Dry January Challenge Over the years we have raised more than R220,000 so in this episode we discover how that money has helped 880 children Janna tells us how she came up with the idea to start the project in 2007 - and why she thinks it's been such a successful project She worked on an eco project in Brazil and read a book by a yogi about a project in schools in India - these were her influences She realised that it was important to partner with the schools/teachers for the long term - not just come in for short term projects Earthchild Clothing paid the salary of their first facilitator so that's how they got their name We talked about the power of positive role models in communities and how she is developing young leaders Earthchild provides yoga classes, gardening lessons, eco clubs, hiking clubs - connecting the children with their bodies and the environment The children come from communities with high levels of gang violence and unemployment - yoga provides a tool to help them cope with stress Some of the children who started yoga classes when they were 6 years old are now young leaders working in the Earthchild Project More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE To join our Dry January Annual Fundraiser click HERE - a small donation will provide you with community and online support during January Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today. Read more about our 8-step program and subscribe HERE. Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - Your guide to alcohol-free living! After running Tribe Sober for 5 years and helping hundreds of people to ditch the drink and embrace alcohol-free living I've learned a thing or two. My biggest insight has been that sharing our stories around alcohol is the most powerful way we can help others - that's why the heart of this podcast is recovery stories. This week I'm chatting to Michael Gallagher - an author, a speaker and a coach. In this Episode Michael talks about his hectic childhood - with a mother who was a Jehovah's Witness and a father who was a career criminal Looking back on his years as an addict Michael realises he "mistook pleasure for happiness" He built a successful career in sales but was still drinking heavily - mostly vodka During his last stay in rehab he attempted suicide and cried out for help - and something shifted for him We talked about the importance of living in line with your values - creativity and loyalty are important values for Michael We need to know what's driving us so that we can stop drinking and change our lives We talked about how corporates promote the "work hard, play hard" culture - and that the "play hard" always involves alcohol Michael is trying to change this by promoting mindfulness and meditation programs within companies Michael has written a book called "Waking Up - A Guide for Transformation - available on Kindle and at Amazon For more information on Michael and his work check out his website:- https://michaelgallagherspeaks.com/ More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE To join our Dry January Annual Fundraiser click HERE - a small donation will provide you with community and online support during January Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today. Read more about our 8-step program and subscribe HERE. Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - Your guide to alcohol-free living! After running Tribe Sober for 5 years and helping hundreds of people to ditch the drink and embrace alcohol-free living I've learned a thing or two. My biggest insight has been that sharing our stories around alcohol is the most powerful way we can help others - that's why the heart of this podcast is recovery stories. This week I'm chatting to Carlen - who works in the wine industry! In this Episode Carlen had been a bit worried about her drinking for a long time and knew she needed to make a change She did a private workshop more than 6 months ago and found it quite easy to stop drinking She was really clear about WHY she wanted to make a change - no more fights with husband, no more health worries She requested a Sober Buddy who helped her enormously - a bit of extra support and accountability We both agreed that it's so important to know WHY a change is needed - reasons which will keep you on track over the months Four years ago Carlen had a hypertension episode - in ICU - has regular check ups - since she gave up drinking it has improved dramatically She is finding her running is so much better now that she's stopped drinking - it's on a different level The cognitive dissonance has gone - no more voices in her head saying how, why, what did I say etc No more waking up at 2am feeling full of regrets and shame - sleep has improved - plenty of energy Carlen is in the wine industry and is still enchanted by the process - but she can taste - but doesn't see herself as a drinker any more She keeps a tracker and ticks off her alcohol free day in the morning - she doesn't want to have to correct it later! Carlen has been in advertising and is in the wine industry so the marketing doesn't get to her.. The fact that there are so many AF products on the market has made it SO much easier to give up drinking She loves seeing new people joining - and how the others in the community help them get through Carlen has started a blog about her journey which is called wynvlieg.com More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today. Read more about our 8-step program and subscribe HERE. Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - Your guide to alcohol-free living! After running Tribe Sober for 6 years and helping hundreds of people to ditch the drink and embrace alcohol-free living I've learned a thing or two. My biggest insight has been that sharing our stories around alcohol is the most powerful way we can help others - that's why the heart of this podcast is recovery stories. This week we're chatting to Fiona and Caroline - who have just launched South Africa's first online store for Alcohol Free drinks - Drink Nil In this Episode I have witnessed a revolution in the AF drinks market since I stopped drinking 6 years ago The choices available have gone from zero to more than one hundred! Duchess was the first, then AF beers and now AF wines plus many more Caroline, who comes from the wine industry, was planning to create an AF drink of her own but cashflow was an issue So she decided to create an online platform specialising in AF drinks - and drinknil.co.za was born - in October 2020 We discuss how the demand for AF drinks is coming from different groups - moms, millennials, the health conscious - and people who just need to drink less - or not at all! We talked about the irony of eating healthy, exercising daily, doing yoga - and then drinking a bottle of wine a day! We discussed the fact that our community often bemoans the fact that alcohol free wines just "don't taste the same" Caroline made the excellent point that perhaps the manufacturers shouldn't be raising our expectations by packaging the AF wines exactly like alcoholic wine - we agreed the AF choices should be seen in a category all of their own Fiona took us through the difference between alcohol free, non alcoholic and de-alcoholised categories More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today. Read more about our 8-step program and subscribe HERE. Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - Your guide to alcohol-free living! After running Tribe Sober for 5 years and helping hundreds of people to ditch the drink and embrace alcohol-free living I've learned a thing or two. My biggest insight has been that sharing our stories around alcohol is the most powerful way we can help others - that's why the heart of this podcast is recovery stories. This week we're chatting to Jo who achieved 2 years of sobriety but then relapsed. Have a listen and find out how she bravely got back on track and tried again.. In this Episode Jo started blogging the day she gave up drinking - her blog was called "Coins in a Jar" She put a coin in a glass jar to represent each alcohol free day - see them pile up kept her motivated She did well and achieved almost 2 years of sobriety - however when she moved to a new city things started to change Jo had become a bit complacent and started to take a few sips of her husbands beers from time to time Before she knew what had happened she was buying wine and back into the old routines After a few months she knew she had to get back on track but this time round she tried a different approach She decided to tackle her underlying issues - she's always suffered from depression to went to see a psychiatrist Jo took some meds, got some therapy - and stopped drinking - and began to feel much much better She is now a few months in and feels stronger this time around We agreed that the danger of relapse can higher for people who don't take the time to deal with their underlying issues You can catch up with Jo's new blog on Facebook - this time she's called it "Coins in a Cracked Jar" More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today. Read more about our 8-step program and subscribe HERE. Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - Your guide to alcohol-free living! After running Tribe Sober for 5 years and helping hundreds of people to ditch the drink and embrace alcohol-free living I've learned a thing or two. My biggest insight has been that sharing our stories around alcohol is the most powerful way we can help others - that's why the heart of this podcast is recovery stories. However in this brand new series we are also interviewing some experts - we've got a doctor, a psychiatrist, a professor, a journalist - and this week we get to meet author and sobriety advocate Ken Middleton In this Episode Ken explains that when he became an entrepreneur he decided to "give it his all" by ditching the drink and putting in 100% effort His thinking behind this decision was that alcohol wasn't ruining his life, but it WAS preventing him from developing his potential He was planning to take a break from alcohol but once he started experiencing the benefits he decided to continue We talked about the "work hard, play hard culture" that prevails in many corporates - and how will catch up with you eventually The science tells us that after a couple of decades of heavy drinking many of us will become dependent We agreed we should never wait until he hit "rock bottom" - it makes far more sense to step off the slippery slope while you can Ken explained how his travel routine changed when he stopped drinking - rather than staying in a bar he actually explored the city! He wants others to discover how to thrive in alcohol free life and writes regularly for Medium He has his own newsletter and is writing a book You can read his article about the science of why you should quit drinking HERE You can subscribe to his newsletter - Alcohol is Not Your Friend HERE More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober you can join up HERE To access our website click HERE Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today. Read more about our 8-step program and subscribe HERE. Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x

Tribe Sober - Your guide to alcohol-free living! After running Tribe Sober for 5 years and helping hundreds of people to ditch the drink and embrace alcohol-free living I've learned a thing or two. My biggest insight has been that sharing our stories around alcohol is the most powerful way we can help others - that's why the heart of this podcast is recovery stories. However in this brand new series we are also interviewing some experts - we've got a doctor, a psychiatrist, a professor, a journalist - and this week we kick off the series by interviewing Mauritian scientist Jean Deenmamode about the CDT test. In this Episode Jean takes us through his career development and explains how he first came across CDT testing back in 2008. He explained how the traditional "liver function" that many of us rely on is just not a reliable indicator of whether or not alcohol is harming our health. Alcohol harms many other parts of our bodies so there is no reason to focus only on the liver - for example it is linked to 7 different types of cancer The CDT test is a simple blood test that will show elevated markers if a person has been regularly drinking half a bottle of wine or more These elevated markers are a clear indication that alcohol is taking its toll on the body and that a change needs to be made It's not a test that puts people in a box and calls them an "alcoholic - it's a lifestyle assessment that can prompt them to change their drinking habits Seeing the results in black and white (as a number) can make all the difference - and often shocks people into taking action If people do a CDT test they get an early warning and may be able to adjust their consumption, rather than having to stop drinking completely. If you drink within the low risk limits of one and a half of bottles a week you are unlikely to be harming your health. When a patient presents with anxiety/depression a doctor can do a CDT test to open the conversation about the patients drinking habits Alcohol increases anxiety and when people give up drinking their anxiety will often lift The test is inexpensive (30 Euros, R600) and can be arranged by your Doctor Tribe Sober members can contact Dr Judy who will arrange for the test If you are unable to source the test then you can contact Jean Deenmamode directly on +44(0)7917026152 or [email protected] More info Subscription membership a month - you can join up HERE To access our website click HERE Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today. Read more about our 8-step program and subscribe HERE. Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help. Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening! Till Next Week Janet x