Are you worried your partner is against your sobriety? You’ve noticed some snarky comments, raised eyebrows and some serious doubt that you can stay sober? Your partner may have tried to undermine your efforts, guilted you or accused you of not being as much fun as you used to be… Partners can be our biggest triggers! So, how do you protect your sobriety from a partner who won’t stop triggering you? Let’s dive in…

Alcohol makes us lazy. Fact. The simple explanation is this: We are getting a huge dopamine hit simply from sitting on the sofa drinking our wine and watching TV. That hit lights up the reward centre in our brain. We start to relax and get a bit of a buzz - without having do anything.

If you suspect PMT makes alcohol cravings worse – you’d be right. Women are far more likely to derail their sobriety when experiencing PMT than any other time in the month. That’s because PMT symptoms can create a hormonal imbalance within a woman’s brain.

A successful Dry January takes some planning and special hacks to make staying sober easier, less stressful, and you may even enjoy it! If you’ve taken on the challenge of 30 days alcohol-free and your resolve is starting to wobble, I’ve got you…

There are many benefits in taking a month off booze – and not all of them are physical. Take a 30-day break from alcohol and you’ll feel less anxious, moody, and depressed. The link between alcohol and its impact on our mental health and emotional wellbeing is strong. The impact of a 30-day break from drinking can be dramatic.

It’s my fourth sober Christmas and the way I feel surprises me. I feel overwhelmingly grateful for the decision I made in April 2019, to remove alcohol from my life altogether.

My last boozy Christmas was in 2018 when my drinking was at its highest. I was looking for giddy oblivion, but it didn't come. I was drinking more and more to get the high I craved but I just didn't get there. In hindsight my body was tired and tolerant after an alcohol-fueled lead-up to Christmas Day.

Prepare for Christmas drinking triggers early and the festive season will feel easier, more in control and enjoyable. You’ll master what to say when people offer you a drink. You’ll learn how to say No to events and situations that feel risky. You’ll identify who in your life you need to avoid – for your own sake. Plus, you’ll go into the New Year feeling strong, empowered, and understanding your triggers on a deeper level.

If you’ve quit drinking but after a period of around 3-6 months found you’re looking back thinking ‘I wasn’t that bad’ you may be experiencing Fading Affect Bias. A sort of reshuffling of memories so the painful, shameful ones of hangovers and bad nights fade back and the joyful ones around alcohol are front of mind. You start to forget the crushing anxiety and regret and remember instead fun nights and the rush of feel- good dopamine in that first glass.

Fading Affect Bias can derail your sobriety – if you let it. It’s also really common and happens to nearly everyone at some stage in their sober journey.

There are 3 stages of sobriety. The first stage is the most intense, and you may find yourself white knuckling your way through it. The second stage can feel euphoric and blissful – welcome to the pink cloud. And the third stage is where the personal growth starts to happen, and we peel back the layers on why we started drinking in the first place… Let’s take a closer look at the 3 stages of sobriety and how to get through them.

Do mothers actually enjoy the festive season? Well, sort of. Mothers rush at this time of year. While the pressure to create magical moments builds, we shove our own needs down the list. Until we start to fray. Feel exhausted. Drink too much. Get cranky. And resentful. Sounds enjoyable? Hmm. Not so much. So, how can mothers actually enjoy the festive season this year?

When you create a life you don’t want to numb from, the urge to “take the edge off” with alcohol gets weaker and weaker. You create a life that’s healthier and more meaningful. You don’t get to the end of each day feeling desperate to unwind, switch off or simply go numb.

Friday night is a huge trigger to drink. That’s because we’ve conditioned ourselves to believe Friday night means drinking as a reward or celebration that the working week is over. It’s also a habit that’s deeply ingrained and promoted in our society. So, what to do instead? How to distract, treat, enjoy, and pamper yourself instead of drinking?

Have you ever asked yourself: Is it time to stop existing and start living? It’s a question I asked myself before I quit drinking. I kept thinking ‘Is this it?’ ‘Is this all there is to my life?’ I wasn’t living, I was existing, getting through, numbing my way along.

Ever had hangxiety? You may have felt a jumble of nerves the morning after heavy drinking. You may have felt irritable, paranoid, and filled with dread. That’s hangxiety. It’s hangover-related anxiety experienced the morning after a drinking session.

When you come from a boozy family tackling sobriety can be difficult. Your family may not understand your decision not to drink. They may get defensive. They may doubt your decision. They may erode your confidence. How to tackle it? Especially when Christmas and family gatherings loom closer and closer?

When women pour themselves a glass of wine after a stressful day they probably aren’t thinking about the impact of alcohol on mental health. They are thinking alcohol helps them to relax, unwind and relieve stress. The opposite is true. Alcohol has a negative impact on mental health, exacerbating symptoms of anxiety and depression, causing dopamine to spike then fall and increasing our cortisol levels (the stress hormone).

You may have asked: “What can I do to relax instead of drinking?” If alcohol is your “switch off” or the only way you can unwind after a big day at work, it can feel like there’s no other way to soothe your nervous system. The only trouble is, alcohol makes us feel more anxious and exhausted than we were before. It impacts our mood, sleep, and our mental health.

Sober and love a morning routine? The two go hand in hand. When women give up alcohol they often incorporate exercise into their daily routines. When that exercise is scheduled for early morning, they know they need to be bright-eyed for it. Often they’ll create a strict morning routine with exercise, journaling and affirmations as part of their sober pillars. Routines bring structure, a lifestyle framework and can help you achieve your big life goals.

It’s Christmas morning and you wake up fresh, energized, feeling organised and ready to be present and enjoy the day. You’ve taken a break from alcohol and you’re feeling fitter, lighter and more in control. You’re less anxious about the holidays and having everything done – because you’re approaching it lightly this year, from a place of calm and you feel organised, efficient and you’re still including plenty of ‘me time’ in your schedule.

If you’ve experienced slip-ups in your sobriety, you may have felt regret, shame and defeat. It can feel like ‘it’s all over – you blew it’. But it doesn’t have to feel that way. In fact, we can learn from slip-ups and better prepare ourselves for next time. We can take a slip-up and let it show us how it feels when we drink alcohol – the nausea, headaches and exhaustion. We can see a slip-up as simply part of the journey. No sober journey is linear, after all. It can take many failed attempts at sobriety before it sticks.