Sober Not Somber Hour

Foreign. Welcome to sober not somber hour. Four o' clock on the dot. It is crazy snowfall happening here in Minneapolis and I was supposed to do a guided session tonight and it's all the way like a clear, a drive clear across the city and I don't know if I'm going to be doing that. We might just not be doing that. Although sauna in the snow is like amazing. Super fun to make snow angels. So after this call I'm gonna check in and see if there's anyone signed up for 6:30 tonight and make the call.

Hi. Dream big. Hi. Yeah. Oh yes. Yeah, yeah. Welcome in. We were supposed to be signing together last week, Jean, remember? So like let's make that happen again. Jen Varali, your host. I today have a couple na bevs that I want to highlight and then we're going to get into the topic at hand. So I often get na beverages, non alcoholic beverages sent to me so that I can test them, try them, maybe serve them at events. Today this is a beverage called Undone and they have three varieties in these nice little fun, little colorful packs.

And this one is a pina colada. I don't know if I'm in the mood for a pina colada. You know what, I think I'm gonna do the Italian spritz today. So as I'm cracking that open and pour it in a fancy wine glass because that makes all the difference. Hopefully you guys have a refreshing bed to join in. Could be water even. That's what I was drinking last week at the sauna. So while I let those bubbles kind of settle on the topic of reflection this month in the Cadre sphere, last week I was sharing a little bit about year end gratitude and reflecting on the year and some of the things that have come my way.

And today I want to share a little bit more about what happens in the process of addiction. And I have 11 years of a alcohol free lifestyle and I want to talk about how I integrated more healthy things into my life upon becoming sober. So there was so much time right taken up. If you've experienced an obsession or addiction with anything, there's so much wasted time spent at least for me in active addiction, thinking about where I was gonna get my next drink. Couldn't make it to the end of the workday without really thinking about planning my night around drinking in many cases and toward the end of my addiction.

And so looking at how much time that takes and when I got sober, I always say I literally stayed home for a year and I just like read Books and, like, white knuckled it, like, hadn't figured out what a healthy, sober lifestyle looked like. And my main goal was just to not drink. So today, as we're talking about the theme of reflection, I'm thinking about integration and how did I sort of shift my life from a focus completely on alcohol for, you know, two decades of my life, at least, to a healthier focus?

What things did I integrate from my life prior to drinking? And how could you do that if you are new to sobriety or new to maybe setting a habit aside and really focusing on something healthy? So one of the biggest things that in reflection, I was thinking about is I went back to childhood and I started, you know, reflecting on what is it that I love to do before alcohol or substance use was even a thing in my life. And a lot of it had to do with creativity. And I read a lot as a child, as a teenager, and I love just the.

The art of just being creative. So, like, photography. Photography. Any, like, fun outlet like that. And what I realized in addiction is that I was not doing really any of those things. I didn't have time for that in my life. Oh, wow. Dang, that's Good. This is 61 calories per. Oh, two servings. So one can is 120 calories. Okay. Well, it is packed with flavor. There are some sugars in this one. Oh, wow. I would definitely mix this with some sparkling water to dilute it. I don't really need 120 calories during my happy hour anyway.

It's very good. Just a little too sugary and sweet for me. Yeah. So thinking about, like, past habits or past things that you love to do in your life that you haven't done for. For quite some time, and asking, like, why haven't you done them? And for me, the answer was I was just too, like, focused on drinking and, like, sort of numbing all of those natural, like, creative instincts. And so in early sobriety, 11 some years ago, the first thing I did was I started reading more and I read up on addiction.

I read to understand, you know, what was happening in my body, why, why? And the mental health piece of it as well. And then it began to grow into writing. I started writing more and really tapping into my creativity. So that integration of, like, what I loved during childhood into, like, now as an adult, what I still love to do, which is create and play, I'd ask, you know, where. Where do you fall on that spectrum? What have you integrated could be from your childhood or even over the past year, into your life that is.

Is bringing you joy and how did you discover that that was something really meaningful to bring in? I'm gonna sip a little more while you think on that. Yeah. So integration, previous life kind of loves for me, obviously a lot of writing as I talked about. And I think that is so important to like, look back and reflect on what you used to love and what about it that you loved and how can you bring little pieces of that into your daily life for joy? I'm also reflecting on past Christmases and holidays and what do I want to bring forward into this holiday season and what do I not want to have a part of that?

So being recently divorced over the past couple years, this will be the second kind of holiday season where things are just different. They're just different. They were the same for a couple decades. In the last couple years, they've been different. So I'm thinking about what sort of things do I want to bring forward into this holiday season that are going to be really meaningful and what can I leave behind? I think it's really important to do as we fall into nostalgia and traditions and we just repeat what we've done before.

So really being aware this holiday season, what do you want to integrate? What do you want to bring forward? What do you want to amplify for more joy if you can this season? I'd love to hear it. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking about. For me this season I have. There's been so much snow, so much more than even the past two years. And I'm out walking with my dog like three times a day, which I have not had the responsibility of that for quite some time. So since June, I've been doing like three walks a day with him.

And with this snow, snowfall, it's just gorgeous. It's like I've really embraced that in the element of play and I'm really grateful for my golden doodle copper. He's ready now to go out for a walk. But I think, like, I never thought integrating like a daily walk, like a forced three times a day walk would be a joy and it really has been. So maybe there are things like that in your daily life too that you want to integrate and do more of. Cheers to y'. All. Be safe. If you're in a cold climate, the roads are not super great.

I'm just going to be here sipping my na for a while and yeah, maybe try to get out for a sauna. Have a great Tuesday. See you next week.