How to be Sober...and Happy - with Loretta Breuning PhD

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! This week my guest is Dr Loretta Breuning.  Loretta is the author of an excellent book called the "Habits of a Happy Brain" and she shared many fascinating insights with me. In this Episode The world of neuroplasticity is an exciting one - no longer do we have to believe that our brain shrinks and loses its capacity as we age - if we keep exercising and keep learning we can keep our brains healthy and active for longer Although most of our neural patterns are set in early life we can build new neural pathways as we get older - if just takes a bit more effort and a lot of repetition.  Thats why our 66 day challenge can help you to build a new neural pathway and change your drinking habits for good. Loretta explained that we need to develop many different coping mechanisms to deal with life's ups and downs - we become dependent on alcohol when we have been using it as our only coping mechanism.  That's why it makes sense to build a "distraction list" of all the things that we could to do - instead of drinking. We need to discover what gives us a "natural high" rather than the chemical high which alcohol has been giving us She explained that the Sober members of our community provided powerful inspiration because of the effect of  "mirror neurons" My discussion with Loretta led me to a personal lightbulb moment which will change the advice we give to our community A few months into sobriety I suffered from a long period of anhedonia - my mood plummeted and I felt miserable However I kept going and after a couple of months my mood finally lifted - I thought this was because my brain had been relying on alcohol to make me feel good for so long that my natural "happy chemicals" were taking time to return Loretta helped me to understand that the reason my low mood had finally lifted was because I had set a new goal Getting sober had been my goal for the first few months of sobriety but then I needed another one Setting and achieving goals trigger the happy chemicals and keep them flowing  So if you are suffering from the blues in early sobriety set a goal and start working towards it If you can't think of a goal then book a coaching session to explore possibilities New tribe sober members are entitled to a complimentary coaching session as well as many other benefits Joining Tribe Sober is a great way to start your Sober Curious journey - find out more on tribesober.com We'll put you on a 30 day alcohol free challenge so you can test your dependency Membership also allows you to find your people as we welcome you into our supportive community Just go to tribesober.com and hit the "join our tribe" button to read more about the benefits of membership More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober 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 [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] 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 Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you            Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help.  Please subscribe and share. If you enjoyed the podcast then please leave us a 5 star review on Apple podcasts, take a screenshot of your review and DM it to Tribe Sober’s Instagram page - we'll send you something special to say thank you! We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and join our Tribe Sober Club on Clubhouse - we are on Clubhouse every Sunday afternoon at 5pm SA time so come join the conversation. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening!  Till Next Week Janet x