Podcasts

Sober Short – Knowledge is Power!

Tribe Sober – inspiring an alcohol-free life!

Welcome to our sixth “Sober Short” – an interim mini podcast to supplement the weekly Tribe Sober podcast.

I’m going to kick off this series by taking you through our Tribe Sober Toolkit – this toolkit is just one of the things that we share with you during our regular Zoom workshops – click here for more info.

Our workshops have been a gamechanger for so many people – if you want to kickstart your sober journey then sign up today.

In this episode

During the first 5 Sober Shorts we looked at the first 5 Tools in our toolbox:

Tool 1 was CONNECTION

“Connection is the Opposite of Addiction” and if you’re serious about getting sober then you need to connect with others on the same path.

So if you’re not yet a member of our tribe please check us out on tribesober.com “join our tribe” to read about the benefits of membership.

Tool 2 was GET MOVING

We all know is that exercise is “good for us” and many many people exercise daily but they also drink on a daily basis – sometimes excessively. Ditch the drink and keep exercising and you will be amazed at how much fitter you will get!

Tool 3 was BUILD YOUR EMOTIONAL STRENGTH

All about “learning to sit with our feelings” – instead of trying to chase them away with alcohol. Alcohol is the “easy button” and enables us to bypass difficult emotions. We have to “get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

As Tribe Sober coach Lynette says or as Glennon Doyle says: “First the Pain, then the Rising”.

Tool 4 was MINDSET

About changing your thinking – about drinking.

The global alcohol industry spends trillions on marketing every year to convince us that we need their product. The wine industry in particular has done a stunning job marketing to us ladies during the last 2 decades. Many women now believe that drinking wine is essential for a full and happy life.

We have to de-program ourselves — a nice analogy is to think of our subconscious mind as a computer — we need to reboot and load some new software.

Tool 5 was VISUALISATION

3 visualisation tools:-

If you get a craving in the evening then just accept it’s the “wine witch” but she can no longer control you. Grab an AF drink or go out for a walk.
Play the movie forward – if you get the urge to drink then just think it through. Do you really want to keep going back to Day 1 – again and again?
Visualise those 2 paths – the first six months of sobriety are tough so you need to work hard to stay on track – you have to move from a place of instant gratification to a place where you can focus on long term – and life changing goals.

Today it’s time for Tool number 6 – INFORMATION IS POWER!

A long long time ago when I was in my 20’s, I smoked. Most of my friends smoked – we could smoke in our offices and of course in the bars and clubs where we socialised.
It’s hard to believe these days but we had NO IDEA that smoking was bad for us – you could even see ads with doctors endorsing various cigarette brands!
Then came the gamechanger when cigarette advertising was banned from tv adverts and the government committed to banning all advertising saying:-

“Smoking is the greatest single cause of preventable illness and premature death in the UK. We will therefore ban tobacco advertising.”

Everything started to change…
Once they could no longer rely on the revenue from cigarette advertising, the media started reporting that smoking was linked to lung cancer.
That’s when millions of people (including me) gave up – yes we liked smoking, but we certainly didn’t intend to die a horrible death because of it!
So here we are decades later and alcohol seems to be where smoking used to be.
Completely normalised and endlessly glamorised as trillions of dollars are spent convincing us that we need alcohol to lead a full and happy life.
Yet the stats show us that globally 3M people a year die of alcohol related causes – pretty much in line with the Covid death toll. The whole world closed down when Covid hit but the liquor marketing machine just continues pumping out its misinformation year.after.year!
So, to counteract this deluge of advertising – and of course the powerful peer pressure that comes with it – we need to take personal responsibility.
If we want to take back our power, then we must educate ourselves about the harm alcohol can do. The information is out there and just a quick Google search will connect you with scientific research proving that alcohol is linked to 7 different types of cancer and more than 60 diseases.
That’s a good place to start.
Going back to the cigarette analogy, a recent article informed us that from a health perspective, drinking a bottle of wine an evening was equal to smoking 10 cigarettes.
So if you really want to get – and stay – alcohol-free then you need to throw the book at this thing.
You need to treat it as a research project.
Begin your journey by reading The Naked Mind by Annie Grace who will show you just how the alcohol marketing industry creates the powerful limiting beliefs that we hold in our subconscious.
Those beliefs like we need alcohol to have fun, to socialise, to deal with stress etc, etc.
Those beliefs are behind the peer pressure that we get when we try to stop – “but you won’t be fun anymore!’ is a common refrain from our friends!
There are so many books relating to alcohol and sobriety these days that there is a whole category called QuitLit these days.
You can find drinking memoirs like Clare Pooleys Sober Diaries or you can find science-based books like William Porter’s Alcohol Explained.
If you’d like a QuitLit Reading list just email janet@nulltribesober.com
Once you’ve got your reading organized, then get listening – the fact that you’re listening to this would indicate that you’ve discovered the joy of podcasts. More and more people are abandoning generic radio stations in favour of listening to podcasts which explore their personal topics of interest. The joy of podcasts is that you can stick your earpods in and go about your business – shopping, exercising or just chilling out.
So check out the rest of the Tribe Sober podcast episodes for recovery stories and expert advice.
You can also go to tribesober.com and hit the Inspiration tab where you’ll find a wealth of information which will inspire you to get started – and motivate you to keep going.
If you join our tribe then you’ll be able to learn from others on the same path – other people who have struggled and finally succeeded in changing their lives. They will share with you what worked for them. Go to tribesober.com and hit join our tribe for more info.
Treat this topic as a research project – it could just save your life. The more you learn about alcohol and what it does to our bodies and minds, the less you are going to want to drink it!
If YOU’VE got a favourite tip that you’d like me to share on Sober Shorts then just email it to me janet@nulltribesober.com.

More info

Join Tribe Sober and learn how to quit drinking and go on to thrive in your alcohol free life – you can 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 janet@nulltribesober.com

If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email janet@nulltribesober.com

Don’t forget to check out our weekly podcast – its full of recovery stories and expert advice– its called Tribe Sober and it comes out every Saturday morning.

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 Chat with Sue to find out if our membership would help you – email her on membership@nulltribesober.com

Help us to spread the word!

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We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning and a Sober Short on Wednesdays

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Thank you for listening!

Till Next Week

Janet x

PS How to leave a 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 to read your experience).