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
Reflections on 2024 and Personal Growth Tips for 2025
Episode 207: Reflections on 2024 and Personal Growth Tips for 2025
In episode 207 of the Sober Vibes podcast, Courtney Andersen discusses a year of reflection and growth. She shares about cherishing moments in motherhood and life. She also encourages you to look at how far you have come in your journey to quit drinking alcohol or your sobriety journey. Growth is growth, and that's how you should look at it.
As we look forward to 2025, I offer empowering tips for continuing our sobriety journey with emotional growth and personal development. Thank you for an awesome 2024!
What you will learn in this episode:
- Mindset shifts for change
- Mindset shifts for going forward
- Sober Living in 2025
- Showing up in your life
Thank you for listening.
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Hey, welcome to the Sober Vibes podcast. I am your host, courtney Anderson, and you are listening to episode 207, and this is the last episode of 2024. So, thank you all for joining me. Good people of the world, and if you're new here, go on and take a listen to the other 206 episodes. Can you guys believe it? We're here at episode 207.
Speaker 1:I'm very, very stoked, I'm excited for the new year. I hope you guys had a wonderful holiday season, and if you didn't have a wonderful holiday season, that's okay. That happens to a lot, right, and there's always next year, this episode. I really just want to reflect and reset for you. If this is going to speak to you today, right, and if you're not, if you went the whole year without drinking, amazing congratulations. But this can also speak to something else that maybe didn't happen for you, or there's something that you wanted to do more of and it didn't happen, or some type of intention or goal that just was not met this year, and that is okay, because there's a new year coming up, right. I really want to look at this past year, reflecting on 2024 first. I really liked 2024.
Speaker 1:I have to say, 2024 was a good year personally for me in the sense of I got better. And I got better because as if you've been a longtime listener, you have watched me go into, you have listened to me If you've been here since the beginning. There was pre-children and now there is post-child, right With the dictator and post-dictator. I definitely and he's three now I definitely had a rough postpartum experience three now. I definitely had a rough postpartum experience and it was this past year that I started to work on myself mentally and physically, emotionally, right, mind, body and soul. And I got back in therapy this year and worked on what then I was diagnosed with postpartum OCD, which I never even knew was a thing. So if you're pregnant out there not trying to trauma pregnancy, dump on you, it's a beautiful experience and for women who can do it, it's a gift. But just know there's a postpartum OCD, okay, and I did not know that. I was just hyper-focused on postpartum anxiety and postpartum depression because that's all you hear about. So mentally I had to work on that and working with that therapist was a blessing. So I can't recommend therapy enough for anybody.
Speaker 1:If you need to talk about anything in your life, a therapist is a good avenue to seek. Just make sure that you vibe with them, of course, right, because that's what you want you want to make sure that you're feeling connected to the person and that they are specializing in what you need. So, working on, I'm very grateful to have worked on that and it made me understand thoughts better, right, and that we do have a lot of thoughts. If you listened to last week's episode with Sam, that was about ADHD and we really talked about thoughts more. So I worked out my baggage, came to the post-Barnum OCD and understanding thoughts more, and it really made me feel good because, talking with somebody as I transitioned into the motherhood experience Because, as a mom knows out, there it's not just three months, it's not just that fourth trimester where you then it's not just that fourth trimester and then all is right, it very much takes some time, and now more and more studies are coming out saying that the postpartum experience is actually up to two years. Up to two years If you have one, if you have multiples, it lasts longer. So I'm grateful that we live in a world now with all of this information so we can have at our fingertips and understand our process and know that your process is your process, right.
Speaker 1:So I had to go through mine and this was the year two. I started working back on my health and losing weight and taking care of myself, setting boundaries back up again and I have to say at the end of this year, I feel so much better than I did at the end of 2023. And even two of just knowing how quickly time has been going, which is something I don't really like to bring up. I don't like to bring this up in the motherhood journey, because I do see how quickly it has gone and once you pop out that child, you have people telling you on the streets it goes by quick. It goes by quick where you're like, I mean, dude, I'm like sleepless nights here, right, stop telling me, it goes by quick, because you just want to appreciate those moments and if you have some good people in your life who you talk to and you respect their opinion, they've told you that, so you appreciate it right. So I've really have tried not to take that on, but I'm just sharing it here of just seeing how quickly that these years go.
Speaker 1:Now, what is it? The nights are long, but the years are quick when it comes into parenthood. Or the nights are long, the years are fast, right. And to another little dictator he's three Like I mean, it's like crazy that I can just I conversate with this child. Now it's wild watching a human birthing a human being and then watching this child. Or, if you're taking care, you didn't birth that human being, but you had that child since day one. It's just so amazing to see these little guys grow up and just the development.
Speaker 1:And I'm just very, very fortunate and I've just in 2024, have lived much more in a space of gratitude and letting go of toxicity still, because I still have some when it comes to family. But this year I really have let it go of like this is not important to me, this is not in my, this is not at like my core family. What the fuck do they call these families when it's just like you and your husband or you and your spouse and that? Can someone please DM me Because now I'm like I'm losing it here, but you know what I'm saying my immediate family, that it's like I'm not. I don't want to let that interfere with this right and I will say the people pleasing.
Speaker 1:And if you come from some toxicity of family right, that takes a very long time to encode dependency. That takes a very long time to weave yourself out of. So if you're in the process of that and you're like what the fuck, why do I get sucked back in? It's like two steps forward, 10 steps back and you will do that dance for a while. I might do that dance a little bit more, you just never know. But I feel like this year I really got I don't want to say I got back to me pre-child, but I got to the. That will crack a woman wide open and that is becoming a mother. That's you wear your heart on your sleeve. The hormone shifts, right. If you suffer too from something of some postpartum A, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, I, j, k, right. Like whatever it is nowadays, motherhood will crack you wide open. But it is the most amazing thing ever to again have that child, as that child chose you, as the dictator chose me and Paul as his parents.
Speaker 1:So I really liked 2024, and I hope you really liked 2024, and I hope that this was a year of change for you and whatever that is. I don't know now why I'm getting emotional. It's talking about the dictator, because I know I like to kid a lot, but I love him with all my heart and soul and he's just the best and, like I said, living in the gratitude of it really just puts a different perspective on things. As I said, I hope you had a good 2024 and it was a year of growth or change for you. And if it wasn't, that is okay and that's where I want you to reflect on 2024 and celebrate your wins, particularly when it comes to this drinking journey. Right, okay, because you have to look back and look at the start of how you were on January 1st, to look at the start of this end of this time. This episode airs on the 26th of December, the day after Christmas, and you have a couple days left, and that's where I really encourage you to reflect on how far you have come.
Speaker 1:Also, a lot of people, when they enter in the space of sobriety, they think that they should be doing X, a, b, c, d, all of it right, and that they should be farther along, and that's not the case. You are where you need to be exactly right now. Okay, you are in the process of your process and of your journey, and that first year of sobriety it's just a lot about focusing on not drinking today and choosing new habits over the old habit that was your ride or die for 20-something years, right, and that identity. A lot of that first year too, is about identity, work and shedding that old identity of that party girl and who you are now. So don't feel like you need to be at a certain point. Okay, because it is again a process and if you allow yourself just to accept it, of like this is a process, this is a journey, this is my journey, this isn't my neighbor Bob's journey, and this is where I'm at in, that is okay. So, if you're in that sobriety and feeling a certain type of way, just know like next year at this time you could be where you want to be, and that's how it was all laid out for you.
Speaker 1:Process of quitting drinking alcohol Because, remember, there's two. There's a process of quitting drinking alcohol and then there's the process of sobriety and recovery. And you're looking back and you're like I said, I was going to give up drinking in the year 2024, right, and you didn't. That is okay, it's okay, but maybe in the year of 2024, instead of you drinking every day, you then just drank four times a month. So you went from every day drinking in 2023 to 2024, where you were only drinking four times a month. That's a lot of days you did not drink alcohol. Or maybe you had nine months alcohol-free and then you had a slip and then you went into a two to three-week bender. You had some fun and now you're feeling like garbage and you're like I don't want to get back here. I don't want to currently live this life. Instead of beating yourself up for those couple weeks, why don't you look at those nine months and be like fuck yeah, I am that bitch. I did a really hard thing and I can do it again, because where I am right now I do not want to be again.
Speaker 1:So start celebrating your wins of the days that you had without alcohol and the changed behavior you have done. This goes so much more into just the quitting drinking alcohol. A lot of this is behavioral. A lot of this is habitual. So you know same thing.
Speaker 1:Maybe this year you decided to do in-person meetings or you got into an online group and started building a community. Have you had 300 and something days of alcohol-free living? No, but this was the year that you started to reach out for help and seek different avenues of help that you weren't doing before. That has changed behavior. That is something to focus on and celebrate and win. And maybe, too, you start sharing in these meetings and that wasn't something that you did years ago. That wasn't even that wasn't on your bingo card right In 2022, like a bitch, I will never be going to those meetings. And here you are, 2024, speaking up sharing your story. But, yeah, you had some days of drinking in this year. That is okay. Again, that is a win. So I don't want you to keep looking and beating yourself up, because that is what.
Speaker 1:Somewhere along this way in life, we are programmed to start reflecting on the shit we're not doing instead of really hyper-focusing on that and harping on it instead of the stuff we have been doing to get us to today. Right, so it's a high and a low until you figure out where you finally are. Like, okay, that last time I drank, I'm good and tired, and it almost might feel like and I will tell you this because I recently had a client who went through this and this is the same thing when people talk to you. If you ever listen to people's stories and if you've listened to mine on this podcast, it's a lot like it was almost a spiritual moment okay, it was, and a lot of people talk about that. Where it was like it was just spiritual moment Okay, it was, and a lot of people talk about that. Where it was like it was just this moment, I knew, whatever the case may be, some type of feeling might have come over them. For me it was when I fucking dropped to my knees and like I couldn't even hear the highway. That was by our house where we were living at the time. I couldn't even hear cars on the road and picking up Fiona and it was like super slow-mo, like a movie. And then she peed on me and it was like right as rain and I just knew in that moment I was never going back to drinking alcohol, right. So it's a spiritual sound, woo-woo on you, but it's an awakening that you have. It's just so a lot of people get to that point. They have that moment, right, and I also believe that that's the universe talking to you. Hey, good people of the world looking for more comfort, enjoy the season.
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Speaker 1:So recently I had a client and she had a slip, but there was so much that happened to her mentally with that slip the next day of where she was like it just started clicking and then she was like it's almost like I was.
Speaker 1:It was like a euphoria feeling I had after and I'm like good, that was your moment right, so you might have to wait to get to that moment where you have that moment where you know it's just that you're done.
Speaker 1:But you have to get to that moment. And in this year, if you've had, or you used to drink every day, to only going to drinking a couple times a month, or just you only maybe have drank three, four times this year, you are getting closer and closer to that moment where you're like I'm done, because all what's happening to you is this awareness of how alcohol no longer fits into your life and that is okay, right, and even going back into, if you are sober, of the simple fact that like, even too, if you're like, at what point am I going to start getting into? Like we're going back to where you feel, like you think you should be at this certain point in your life or like you shouldn't feel these ways towards alcohol still, or like now. It's time for you to work on emotional sobriety Again. You will get to that point and everything pans out and comes into the process of time right, look at these challenges that you're going through and look at them as something good. Look at them as that they are creating this resilience in you to keep moving forward into doing this life without alcohol and again just reconfirming that you are a tough-ass bitch. You are a tough-ass bitch and that you can do fucking hard things. You just got to do them right and that the answer now is alcohol is no longer the answer for you. Same thing in sobriety Maybe lashing out at your boyfriend and telling him to go fuck himself. Maybe that's not the answer anymore. Maybe that's where you start being like, okay, I need to start working on this, because me lashing out like this feels very familiar into my drinking days. So maybe this is the time where you start going to get some help. Like me lashing out like this feels very familiar into my drinking days, right? So like, maybe this is the time where you start going to get some help, and that is and I will die on this hill of to continue going into a alcohol-free living, a sober lifestyle for long-term sobriety for the rest of your days without booze or drugs.
Speaker 1:Right, you have to get help during these times in your life where it's going to look different for you. Okay, that is, I have done it for 12 years. I just shared with you how, this past year, I went for therapy of postpartum OCD because I knew there was an issue that was going on where I was like this doesn't feel good, there's something not right here. To keep developing and working on yourself when you need it right, or maybe two and don't come at me for saying this maybe AA meetings aren't for you anymore and you're in a process of like four or five years sober and you're like I need something different, and that is okay. To go seek out that something different If you feel like you're solid in your sobriety and alcohol-free living, where you're like, yeah, I need to start working on something else differently. And that is going back in to the personal development and helping different parts of your life. Because my first year, compared to year five, it was so different and it was things that I needed to work on that were like it had nothing to do with me quitting drinking alcohol. It had everything to do with me now of working more on emotional sobriety. Because year five I've said this a lot too on the show year five is tricky, but like I had to definitely dive deeper into some emotional sobriety work in year five.
Speaker 1:How do you reset then for 2025, right, and that's where you need to look at this going forward and setting realistic and meaningful intentions for yourself. If the goals fuck you up, don't. Or resolutions, stop setting resolutions, stop setting goals. But if you're very like goals are good, then set the goals or set the intentions right. You got to ditch the all or nothing mindset and focus on attainable, empowering goals and that all or nothing we get very stuck in and actually in my CBD training that I'm learning which I should almost be done here by the time the new year comes about add that into my coaching. That all or nothing thinking is actually very it's not a healthy way of thinking. It really isn't right, and that happens with goals right, like in resolutions. And then when it doesn't work for resolutions and people, it's like I'm a failure. Same thing in the I failed If I drank. It's like no, you didn't, you're doing the best that you can and you just have to learn from that. So ditch that all or nothing mindset and that is where you need to focus on something that's going to be attainable for you In the process of quitting drinking alcohol, instead of saying, instead of saying, okay, I'm going to do dry January, instead of saying that and you guys know why I don't do promotions for silver October.
Speaker 1:Dry January you don't hear me using that verbiage, this is just a personal thing with me. But if it works for you, fine. Instead of saying I'm going to do dry January, how about you just say I'm going to not drink for five days in January and then on that fifth day, then say I'm going to go another couple days and just take it a couple days at a time? If you need to take it one day at a time, just drink it one day at a time. But stop setting this like I'm going to quit drinking forever. I'm going to not drink for 90 days, right? I did a breakthrough session with somebody and she was saying that she was like, yeah, my goal is 90 days. And I was like, why are we only at 90 days? Like, what is it at 90 days? And she couldn't really give me a straight answer for it. Right, like, take that pressure off of yourself. Just, I'm just going to go a couple days. Go from there, or I'm just going to start with January 1st, not drink on January 1st.
Speaker 1:Set small, achievable, intentional goals that you can do and that will empower you once you get it completed, or have that time under your belt, right? Also, set impactful intentions right, like if you need to deepen your emotional sobriety, if you need to start building healthier routines or embracing a new hobby, right Like a new intentional routine for me because it has Lord. You guys, like I was saying, like I was brought to tears about thinking about my little dictator, but my morning routine has been set off lately because of he has been getting into our bed and sleeping with us, like I said for co-sleepers, god bless you. And then in the morning time, as soon as I get up, it's like he like wakes up, like he's like rising out of a coffin and just like mama, I know it's not going to last forever. So my intentions are getting back into having that morning time for me, because I know that time for me and the morning time I work best when I have some alone time, when I have an hour to myself. Okay, so get yourself some more impactful intentions and, again, just set up some small, attainable goals for yourself, right.
Speaker 1:Break it down to the micro goals instead of the big vision, right? I am one for a vision board. I love a vision board, but last year, what I did instead of doing like instead of, because then I would write like my goals down on it. And what I did last year is my word was healing, and I just put a bunch of pictures of words like live, well, I have a one day of it, a time, up there. I'm looking at it right now. There is beauty in simplicity. Love yourself, think it at it right now. There is beauty in simplicity, love yourself, think it, want it, live it.
Speaker 1:I just put some words up there that, for me, I was like that is what I want. There's also a picture of the Magic Kingdom up there, because I knew I wanted to go to Disney 2024 with the dictator for the first time. But do you know what I mean? And like it's just more of visually for me, where that didn't feel so it was more of the intention I was going of living well and taking care of myself and healing the process of becoming a new mom and the stuff that happened in that. Okay, because again, I was coming out of burnout at the end of 2023 after writing a book promoting it. That was a lot, and two of motherhood. So visualization.
Speaker 1:I love a good vision board, but if you need to just do it where it's more of a feeling for you than practical goals like that. Then just do that. Do what's going to work best for you. So definitely create the vision for what you want in 2025. And I have to say this and this has almost become like a little phrase too in the Living on the LH series with me and my sister but it's like how do you want to show up in your life, or how do you want to show up in this life? Okay, and when you think of it like that, it's like does that, does? Is Sally showing up drunk every day? Does Sally still want to live? Like that? I'm just using Sally as an example, but like no, sally doesn't want to drink alcohol anymore, right.
Speaker 1:And then go from there of setting those little intentions and those micro goals, right, and set yourself up like that and the feeling is of 2025, it's like let's do the damn thing, because we only have this one precious life. We don't get a redo of this, but what we have is now and how you want to live and set yourself up going down this year and stop looking at us five years down the road. Just focus in on this year and then break it down to monthly and then break it down to daily on how you're going to show up and what you're going to do to show up in that way. So if it's cutting yourself off from some friends who are toxic, if it's cutting yourself off from family, if it's like for yourself of being like all right, this year I'm going to get some help. I need to get some help in this because I can't keep doing this alone. I need to talk to somebody who gets it. Then find that person who is going to get it for you right. Join in-person or online person communities, especially, too, for your emotional sobriety. So maybe that is too. Then now you starting to do meditations and starting to journal and then starting to work with the therapist and getting to the core of why you are still pissed and acting out right.
Speaker 1:I hope this episode helped you today and I just want to say it as always, I'm so incredibly grateful for the good people of the world of you continuing to press play on the Sober Vibes podcast and listening to me on a weekly basis. I don't plan on taking a break this year with the podcast. We'll see. I might change come here in July if I'm a little burnt out from talking, but I do not see a break in the future and we're going to keep it moving and keep it going.
Speaker 1:If there's any topics you want me to talk about for next year, text them. You can text the show and just go down to the show notes and it's at the very top where it was like text the show and just go down to the show notes and it's at the very top where it was like text the show and just write there. Or just to text and say hello or a subject that you want to hear, or feel free to always DM me and the DMs on Instagram or send me an email sobervivesatgmailcom. As always. I appreciate you listening. If you haven't yet, please rate, review and subscribe to the show. If you need help yet, please rate, review and subscribe to the show.
Speaker 1:If you need help in your sober journey, I have my group coaching program and that is the Sobriety Circle and that's a separate app. Join that. You have till the end of the year, till December 31st, to get your first month for $15. After that it's $25, and then you can cancel at any time. If it's not your vibe or if you're more of a one-on-one girly, then feel free to apply to my one-on-one coaching for 2025. And there is always my book Sober Vibes, A Guide to Thriving in your First Three Months Without Alcohol. Again, I love this community dearly and thank you so much for listening to me in 2024. Keep on trucking and kick ass out there, and I'm excited for what next year has to come. Thank you.
