Making Sobriety Less Shameful with Clare Pooley

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is the fabulous Clare Pooley Clare is 7 years sober and has inspired thousands of women via her blog and best selling book - the Sober Diaries. You can see her TED talk HERE Her talk is called "Making Sober Less Shameful" and addresses the fact that "alcohol is only drug we have to justify NOT taking! Clare has been guest speaker at two of our London workshops   In this Episode Like many of us Clare started drinking socially and gradually evolved to drinking a bottle of wine every evening Her rock bottom came one morning when she found herself drinking red wine to quell a hangover Her main strategy to ditch the drink was writing - every day for 3 years she poured her heart out to her anonymous blog Clare's blog is a great resource and anyone who feels alone in this journey should check it out here mummywasasecretdrinker These days she feels angry that we feel so much shame around our drinking - and thats why she did her TED talk on that topic Her strategies were writing, hot baths, hot chocolate, cleaning (!), books about alcohol, exercise, audio books and podcasts CLAIRE's TOP TIP - she reconfigured her day - went to bed at 7pm (to avoid evening drinking) and got up at 5am feeling great! As cooking the evening meal was a big temptation for her she cooked it in the morning and heated it up in the evening Like many of us she had a major low in early sobriety - she calls this "the wall" and believes it's our brain chemistry adjusting Her advice is to accept that we will have ups and downs on this journey but that they will get less extreme if we hang in there Her blog - the obstacle course went viral and is essential reading in early sobriety Clare's key message in the blog is to keep going however hard it gets - stopping and starting is the hardest way Her top tips for newbies - write down how bad it was so you don't forget, write your WHY list - why are you doing this? Be excited - you will gain more than you lose and another tip is to create a vision board Clare also said it was essential to "find your tribe" and recommended tribesober.com 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 e-book "66 days to sobriety" please email us at [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            sign up today.            Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE                   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. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can find Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and TikTok    You can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening!  Till Next Week Janet x