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Sober Vibes Podcast
Welcome to Sober Vibes, where sobriety meets empowerment! Hosted by sober coach, author, and mom Courtney Andersen—who’s been thriving in her alcohol-free life since 8/18/2012—this podcast is your go-to space for real talk, proven strategies, and inspiring stories from women who are redefining what it means to live without alcohol.
Each week, Courtney dives deep into the topics that matter most—from conquering cravings and navigating social settings to rebuilding confidence and finding joy in sobriety. Whether you’re newly sober, in long-term recovery, or simply curious about life without alcohol, the Sober Vibes Podcast delivers the support, insights, and encouragement you need.
Join a like-minded community and discover how sobriety can unlock a healthier, happier, and more fulfilling life. Don’t just get sober—let’s thrive together!
Sober Vibes Podcast
One Practice That Will Help You Stay Sober
Episode:185: One Practice That Will Help You Stay Sober From Alcohol
In episode 185 of the Sober Vibes podcast, host Courtney Andersen talks about this one practice that will help you stay sober from alcohol. It's helped her stay sober from alcohol for almost twelve years. She used this practice regularly since day one.
What you will learn in this episode:
- Number one practice you use
- Keeping a positive mindset
- Remembering where alcohol has taken you
- Remembering the person you once were
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Hey, welcome to the Sober Vibes podcast. I am your host, courtney Anderson. You are listening to episode 185. It is a solo dolo episode, so if you're new here and you're like what is she talking about? It just means it's me sharing, coaching, kicking your ass in a good way of living another day without alcohol and helping you on this journey. We will be back next week with a new Living on the Edge, all right.
Speaker 1:So today's episode is an important one and it's kept coming back up and, for people who've been here since day one, when something keeps coming up, I'm like I need to share this on the podcast and something that I was working with with a one-on-one client a couple of weeks ago. She was feeling so good, right, quitting drinking. I think she was like four or five weeks in. She was feeling so good where she almost forgot of what it felt like in her active relationship with alcohol, and this is very common. This is so common. So if you have gone through this or going through it and you're like, okay, yeah, that is why and we talked a little bit more and I had to remind her and she's like I forgot who that person was when I did my consult and I was like you can never forget who that person was. That person was and this is such a huge tip that is going to help keep you on the alcohol-free sober train. You have to remember who you fucking were in your active relationship with alcohol.
Speaker 1:Okay, I have given bits of this in this podcast for 184 episodes. I have said this in my book, but I have not dedicated I don't believe I've dedicated a whole episode to this topic. You cannot forget who you are. You can't, you can't. Okay, you can forgive. The process of forgiveness is going to take you a minute, but you can never forget. The moment you start forgetting, that is when shit can hit the fan and it might be so easy for you just to say fucking and pick up the bottle and then, in a couple of weeks time, you are exactly where you started and you're exactly back to that person and you are exactly back to the way that you fucking were feeling and be like oh my God, this took me quicker than I thought and that's why moderation with people who have already have a problem with alcohol does not work. It doesn't, it doesn't. So I know that the people who live under the bridges, who like to come out on social media and drop that in the comments.
Speaker 1:What about moderation? It's just like dude, shut the fuck up. I'm not talking to people about moderating. I don't think it is possible. And why I don't think it is possible? Because I have tried it myself and I have known way too many of you who've tried to do moderation and it just leads back to the same point. So, yes, it is an extreme to quit drinking alcohol, right, but it has to if you want your life to start looking differently.
Speaker 1:So, to keep remembering who you are. And let me add this disclaimer I'm not trying to tell you to live in trauma, disclaimer. I'm not trying to tell you to live in trauma, okay, I'm not trying to tell you to to live in the past. And a couple of years ago I worked with this guy and he was like, well, I don't want to keep living in the past. I was like this has nothing to do with you living in the past. This is you taking little moments of that old version of yourself and remembering it present day, so you never go back there. And this is something I did for many, many years, many years, right, many fucking years. And I still do it on my sober anniversary, which my 12 year is coming up, august 18th Okay, and I will do it on that day when I wake up and make Matt wake up with the dictator, so I can sleep in and have a little alone time to myself. So, and I will sit there and do this practice, because it is something that will help me to remember that life that I don't ever want to go back to, so fucking.
Speaker 1:Remember a time where you had a killer hangover. Remember a time of embarrassment okay. Remember a time of waking up and feeling that anxiety, where then that anxiety turns into a panic attack later and you are crying to yourself because you're like am I going to die right? Or remember a time where you were so thirsty the day after a night of drinking and you could not quench your thirst for three days because you were so dehydrated. Remember the time of disappointment in your kids' faces. Or the embarrassment of I don't know telling one of your bosses at the Christmas party, asking him if he enjoyed blowies. Okay, your bosses at the Christmas parties asking him if he enjoyed blowies. Okay, go back to one of my Christmas episodes. I explained that, which I did. I asked a boss of mine if he liked blowies and then I blacked out after.
Speaker 1:So think of 101 times of how you felt after a day of drinking and then I want you to sit in that feeling and sit in that memory for a couple minutes. Okay, I will give you like two to five minutes of sitting there and really thinking about it. And again, don't let this then like sour your mood for the whole day. That's not the point of this. At some point you have to breathe it in, sit with it for a minute Again, not such a triggering thing for you. So don't pick a triggering memory or a trauma-filled memory, but just pick a minute where like, oh, I lost a job opportunity because of this right Like something, and sit and think about it and then afterwards be like I never want to go back there. And do you know what this is doing to you? This is conditioning you to never want to drink again.
Speaker 1:Lately I've been telling a lot of my one-on-one clients. I'm like I'm going to start conditioning you right, and that in like a terrible way, that in a negative, where this is like brainwashing, and now this is like the cult of silver vibes, because I never want to run a cult. That's just terrible. But I want to condition you and prime your brain of like, of getting into the mindset and remembering where alcohol took you. Because in that remembering, remembering in that feeling of feeling that like, because when you think about something, especially when it still has some shame on you and some ick around it, you're going to be, you're going to be like I don't want to do that again.
Speaker 1:And then that remembering of that feeling a morning after being hung over, the next morning being so goddamn hung over where it leads you to a panic attack, where you feel it, you like, feel the anxiety, right Like it's almost giving you a little bit of it's like a body memory slash or, if you wanna use the word, ptsd, but it's giving you of that body memory of like. Oh, I don't wanna feel that. So that's when every till this day, saturday, sunday, mondays are I love waking up with no hangovers and that is fun for me. And waking up because I lived that life for so long, for a decade, that I will never forget it. But I also conditioned myself never for to forget it, right. So I want you to do that.
Speaker 1:You cannot forget who you were. Yes, you can still live in a present state of feeling good and writing that out and continuing that feel good into your sober life, but you still have to remember who you were, because you remembering who you were and feeling that feeling of low self-worth, low self-esteem, low self-confidence which I'm pretty sure is mainly all the same thing right Of being like, why, why, let me get out of this? Let me get out of this, like I want out of where you want to crawl out of your skin and just stop the madness. Remember that, because then, therefore, you're never going to want to go back there again. You just won't. You won't. How could you?
Speaker 1:If you looked back to think and use this practice. If you need to do it more than once a week, do it more than once a week, but you need to take one day a week and start doing this so you do not disconnect from that person. Again, there's a big difference here. I'm not telling you to live in the past. Living in the past would be. If you still lived in the past, in your drinking life, I mean, you could still be drinking, right? You know what I mean? Like, so you have to start moving forward with progressing.
Speaker 1:I think I'm just telling you that of like. This isn't about living in the past I don't know where I was going with that but and it's just about remembering, and just for a couple minutes each week. If you are newer, then do it twice a week, right, like? And it's just a conditioning of your your brain and of your soul, and almost priming of your brain of that is where you don't want to go. And I have to say that that is one thing that I made a practice for, for myself, and I really do believe it's helped me continue forward. I truly, truly, truly do, and I know it's going to help you. But you have to make it a practice. We've all been there. You say you've never drinking again and then you drink.
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Speaker 1:I have been using Exact Nature for, I think at this point a year and a half, maybe almost two years, for a long time. I use it every day and it has by far helped me with my mood. Again, exactnaturecom, enjoy. And I think too and I'm going to say this, this might be a bold statement, but it's just my opinion I really do think too, besides, of people relapsing, especially if they have longer term of sobriety. I'm talking like a couple of years, five, 10, 15 years, like in between that let's just say in between three years up.
Speaker 1:Right, it's because there is a forgetting of what that feeling was like and who that person was. Right, and I'm sure something triggered of a relapse and long-term sobriety. But it's because time is so weird. Time is a strange thing right, so like. Even on my, when I wake up on my sober anniversaries, I remember waking up 11, 12 years ago of that day of just like, oh, this looked a lot different so many years ago. But when you say that like, oh, this looked different 12 years ago, right, like, and it just feels like yesterday. So time is strange. I think we all know, as we've gotten older, that time is unique, but you just have to keep remembering of the places and the person you don't ever want to go back to and, two, all the hard work you've put in.
Speaker 1:Where is your life today? And I know you can honestly tell me that your life in some shape or form is much better with you not drinking. I get a lot of people I shouldn't say a lot of people, but there's a percentage of people who always like when I do my lot of people I shouldn't say a lot of people, but there's a percentage of people who always like when I do my 30, 60, 90 days, it's like, well, I don't feel good. Yet it's like, okay, you might not feel good because everybody's different of taking time right, and then there's mental illness that lies under there, but I have to believe that there is at least one positive thing that has happened to you since you quit drinking alcohol. And I'm sure, in that short period of time, that the one positive thing that since you quit drinking alcohol is that now you're not living in a hangover state. So you've got to start looking at little wins of it being positive, right, and not just like doom and gloom. Take the little wins and look at them every day and it will start adding up.
Speaker 1:That's also why, too early on, I just would wake up and say I'm just grateful for another day of sobriety. Okay, because I understand the mindset. It's not all rainbows and sunshine. Okay, but you have to start to living in somewhat of a gratitude of the fact that, all right, I opened up my eyes today, I made it through another day, and if that is the only positive thing that you can think of that day, no problem. Fucking, take it and run with it.
Speaker 1:If that is the only positive thing that you can see for a year and be grateful for, take it and run with it, because with the living in gratitude, it will help and start changing your mindset, because you were in a mindset of doom and gloom for a long time, and even if you were high, functioning alcohol still clouds the judgment, and so your thinking could be a little bit negative, could be a little bit negative. So condition your mind to start changing, and a lot of this road is about mindset shifting. That's why I say my fun is waking up now on a Saturday, sunday, monday, without a hangover, and not being a bag of dicks, right, all right, I hope this tip helps you. I hope this tip helps. I hope this episode actually, I hope you played it and you're like this is what I needed to hear. So use this tool, use both of these two tools, but mainly, use the tool of conditioning your mind to remembering who that person was.
Speaker 1:I mean, on some of these consults that I have with women, on my free consults for coaching, I mean one woman was puking on the phone with me, right, like we joked about it, what her one-on-one coaching was done, but I kept saying that to her. I'm like, remember when you were puking on the consult with me, do you ever want to go back there? She's like no, she's literally puking in the toilet. I was resting my head on the toilet seat. I'm like it's disgusting, right. So that's what I'm saying. You've got to take a low point that is not trauma-based, but just one that you were living in such a state for so long and when you are living in that hangover cycle and shame and guilt, like that's enough. After you have some time away from it, that's enough to never want to go back there again, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever. Right, all right, I hope this episode helped you.
Speaker 1:If you have not already, please rate, review and subscribe to the show. Those reviews help the pod. Check out the sponsors of the podcast and if you have not got to my book already, make sure you do. It's called Sober Vibes a guide to thriving in your first three months of sobriety I'm sorry, first Three Months Without Alcohol.
Speaker 1:And it's one year birthday is coming up in August. I can't believe it's been a year. So it's helped many people. It will help you. And I get asked all the time well, I'm not in that time frame, like people will be, like I'm five or six months. I wish I would have had it at the beginning. Many people who have read this have been out of that time frame and have said it's helped them. So I do believe that it will help you and that book, as I'm talking about, like Priming the Brain. That book will help you to remember of the places and the person you don't ever want to go back to, and you will only go back there if you choose to drink alcohol today, will only go back there if you choose to drink alcohol today. All right, I mean amen, everybody. Thank you for being here. I'm so grateful for you as a listener. Keep on trucking and stay safe out there, thank you.
