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February 13, 2025 15 mins

My sobriety is at the heart of my spirituality - there is so much to say here. 

I will go on to talk a lot about sobriety and addiction - and the relevance of that particular journey as it pertains to spirituality. But for now, I wanted to broach the subject by saying that, for me, it is the ultimate spiritual upgrade. 

I really hope you enjoy, relate - or that it provokes some food for thought?! Please leave me a review as it makes a big difference! Thanks so much. 

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Hey! I'm Rachel! I am a qualified Holistic Life Coach and Mind Body Practitioner, Embodiment Coach, Yoga 500hrs (plus lots more extra yoga quals). I'm also an award winning content creator and have 20 years' experience in digital. I'm a mum of 3 kids and I live in the Peak District - oh and I have ADHD and I am sober. My passion is helping midlife women turn meltdown into magic!

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:40):
Hi everybody.
So episode five I think we'reon.
Hopefully you're getting an ideaabout the type of thing that
we're going to be talking abouthere at Conscious Book Grounded.
You may not even be listening tothem.
Who does that?
Who goes, in order, insequential or chronological
order?
Nobody does that.

(01:01):
So I don't know why I'm evenreferring to that.
So wherever you're listeningfrom, maybe it's five years into
the future, maybe it's one dayafter this is recorded hi.
So I'm finding that certainlysetting out my stall for this
podcast, what's working for meis to record when I'm walking,

(01:23):
when I'm traveling.
I know, I knew I wanted torecord things that just came.
To me, I think that works best.
In therapy sessions, it workswell, the therapist might say,
what's on your heart today?
What's going on?
And then things just come forth.
And I think there's somethingreally beautiful there.
Because we don't overstrategize.

(01:46):
We let things flow a little bit.
We let things just happen.
And there's so many things Icould talk about, like if I
start a list, I'll never stop.
If I make notes, I will makenotes on every single thing on
planet Earth.
So one thing I want to do, apartfrom, I feel like everything's

(02:06):
been quite extreme ofconsciousness and rambly, is
focus down a little bit, focusdown a little bit.
And so today I wanted to talkabout one of the things that
Probably I'm known for now,which is one of the things,
which is my sober journey and mysobriety story is very much one

(02:28):
of a non linear route todrinking less.
A hell of a lot less, almostnothing.
And then where I stand today,which is, I'm on a dog walk, so
that's probably what you canhear, which is very much in that
kind of one day at a time, butit's very much not like I'm not
like clinging to the work tops.

(02:50):
I don't really think aboutalcohol.
I do occasionally.
So at this stage, I'm about, I'mcoming up for 50 days on this
trip around the sobriety traintrack.
I do feel very solid in mysobriety really solid.
I felt this solid before andthen drunk again.

(03:12):
So I take those statements witha pinch of salt, even though
they're coming from my own lips.
And I've learned now to just bea little bit more humble and Not
be complacent.
So when a thaw or a littlegermination of a little seedling
drops in, I take steps to makesure it doesn't bloom into
anything else, it doesn't takeroot.

(03:34):
My, I'm gonna be really concisewith my drinking story here
because I think So many of youhave heard it, but what I wanted
to share, what I wanted to focuson in this podcast episode is
how to spiritually upgrade withone lifestyle decision.
And that's getting sober.
It is no coincidence that somany people in sobriety have a

(03:57):
spiritual practice.
It is no coincidence that a lotof spiritual people are sober.
I actually had a a podcast aboutit called The Sober Woo.
We did about seven episodes oreight episodes or something like
that.
You can go check that out.
Sober Woo.
It's still live, I believe.
I think there's a huge link.
I've also mentioned in one of myprevious Conscious But Grounded

(04:20):
episodes that there isdefinitely a link between people
who seek out altered states andalso people who seek out
spirituality and Want to exploreother realms, feel awakened,

(04:44):
searching for something and it'scomplicated, right?
It's really complicated, it'sreally nuanced, it's really
personal, and it goes into therealms of brain science, trauma,
all these different things.
So I just wanted to speak frommy own experience, which is that

(05:04):
definitely my drinking has aconnection to my spirituality.
I felt like when I drank, andeven as recent as the last time
I drank I feel like there's animmediate off switch to Sorry,
that's a train going past.
Hopefully I can block that bitout on the sound.

(05:27):
And, There's an immediateturning off of my spiritual tap
as soon as I pour a drink, inthe same way that I've seen
memes about people with ADHDthings like that, which I
definitely identify with.
As soon as they have a drink, itturns off the noise, right?
It tunes it out.
I don't have a spiritualconnection, hardly at all.

(05:48):
When I'm actually having adrink, I could easily sit that
Sunday in the garden and have adrink and kind of, Connect in a
very surface level way.
I often would speak to my Nanbecause I feel like she gets me.
I feel like we have some stuffin common and I would be like,
sorry, Nana.
I know it's probably not thebest thing for me, but it's just

(06:10):
what's happening right now.
And so there was thatconnection, still, but really.
That kind of sense of flow,sense of magic, sense of crown
chakra connection to source, tosigns.
Every time I had a drink allsung over I would never see any
signs.

(06:30):
What's that about?
Like I would never notice thenumbers, I would never see the
feathers.
As soon as I'm Sober and in flowand in creativity mode, in
creation mode, helping people,connecting, doing my thing.
Signs left, right and center.
I will walk out my door, I willsay something kind or do

(06:51):
something kind or somethinggood.
And I'll look down and I put myfoot on a big fat white feather.
Or I will be on the phone tosomebody who I know is right, a
good connection for me, planningsomething with them.
Look at the clock.
It's 1444.
It's just nonstop.
It's nonstop.
Okay.
And then when I'm Drinking orhungover, that connection just

(07:13):
seems to evaporate.
I'm sure, absolutely sure, therewill be also not just a
spiritual reasoning for this.
There will also, I'm sure, besome kind of psychological
reasoning for this, of course.
But in my spirituality,psychology and science are
spiritual.
It's all encompassing.
There's nothing that's notspiritual when you believe that

(07:35):
life is spiritual.
That there is, people say, oh,what about this?
What about that?
But that is spiritual.
Every single part of how we are,how we act, how we show up is
spiritual.
So in the yoga sutras, it'sbasically a mental health
manual.
I'm like, this is describingcognitive behavioral therapy,
but by an Indian sage.
Thousands of years ago, so whatI'm really wanting to bring home

(08:03):
is that I made the decisionabout 10 years ago to start
looking into whether alcohol wasstill serving me.
I was very much just like atypical 90s, yeah, I said I'd
give you my story and I neverdid.
I'm going to do it in a fewsentences.
Typical 90s drinker, blah, blah,blah kept up with the boys, big
drinker then went to uni,continued drinking, then settled

(08:27):
down a little bit but still hadbinges, was a binge drinker, had
kids, realized the two thingsdid not get on very well.
and started to really think,shit, I think I need to do
something about this.
Not because I'm an alcoholicthat needs to go to detox, but
that this is a habit that Isocially and spiritually,

(08:48):
psychologically am reallyconnected to and I'm finding it
really hard to stop thispattern.
I was never really, saying thatI was going to say that I was
never someone that could haveone or two.
I actually could, If I was likecooking at home, there was
definitely a period when thekids were young when I could
definitely have one or two.
Over the years it became Icouldn't and it was very much

(09:10):
like we're either drinking orwe're not drinking.
And that was my pattern, to behonest, in most of my drinking
career.
And it just didn't go like theperson I wanted to be, the mom I
wanted to be.
I was in a constant state ofcognitive dissonance where you
know one thing is true.
But you can't stop doing theother.
And you're a foot in both campsand it's tearing you in half.

(09:33):
Whenever I had a drink, it wouldimmediately alleviate all of my
stressful feelings.
It would help my rage ordepression.
I was absolutely selfmedicating.
100%.
Particularly because thedrinking takes less of a social
turn.
It's more about Drinking wine,in your garden, having a fag,
hiding it from the kids to justcope with the craziness of home

(09:56):
life.
Sometimes, it wasn't always ohmy god, this is awful, I need to
medicate myself away from thissituation.
Sometimes it was like, it'sFriday night, like I want to
feel all those going out vibeseven though I'm not going out,
but then the next day, I wouldfeel impaired.
I would feel low.
Like I'm actually somebody that,I'm honestly addicted to feeling
good.
Hence why I got into drinkingalcohol in the first place.

(10:19):
It feels good.
Hence why now I'm like reallyaddicted to being.
It feels good.
I don't like feeling bad.
Part of my healing story hasbeen about distress tolerance
and cold water therapy andthings like that, like getting
in the ocean in January inIreland.
That will help you learn a bitof distress tolerance.

(10:39):
In terms of this podcast subjectand what I wanted to really Talk
about and introduce or even justreiterate for the listener who
is also sober and spiritual.
It's just like sometimes it'snice to listen to a podcast that
just confirms like you're in thesame headspace as that person.
It's like the number onespiritual hack.

(11:00):
Have a closer connection to theuniverse.
You can do all the things but ifyou're still drinking, you're
lowering your frequency.
People talk about highvibration.
Honestly on a scientific level Idon't even know what that means.
Frequency vibration on ascientific level.
I don't know what that means.
What would that look like if itwas to be measured?

(11:21):
What I do want to know, what itfeels like on an energetic
level.
I absolutely do.
On an energetic level, it meansgetting out of bed, feeling
positive, feeling you can carryout the tasks in the day ahead,
not just begrudgingly and withmisery and ugh, God, but with a

(11:41):
real spring in your step andalso just a connection.
You're driving the car on theway to a kid's activity and
there's a beautiful rainbow andyour heart just sparkles and you
have those glimmers, right?
And you're high vibed, like yourskin has a sheen to it, like the
physicality of being high vibed,all of that stuff.
It's all great.
It's all great.
And we can all relate to how ifyou don't drink alcohol for a

(12:04):
sustained amount of time, you'regoing to get that back.
That's what I understand aboutbeing high vibe.
It's also about, you've got thatmotivation back.
So yeah, you are going to go tothe gym.
You've got that energy back.
So you are going to practiceyoga.
Then your channel to the divine,your channel to this next level
understanding of what it is tobe alive is getting clearer and

(12:25):
clearer.
and you start to think, is thisjust my imagination?
Mate, your spirituality is yourimagination.
Your imagination is spiritual.
That's where our spiritualitytakes shape and takes shape.
It takes shape and kind of theform takes in our imagination.
So when we close our eyes and wemeditate, we can use our the

(12:46):
blackness and the colors behindour eyes to guide us.
We can see impressions there.
I've seen all sorts of thingsthere that I've needed to see.
Those things only happen whenyou're sober.
And also, and this is somethingI'm yet to discover because I
only ever clock up,historically, speaking the
present as an affirmation, Ihistorically only clocked up

(13:08):
months and months, long chunks.
But I've never done a completesober full year and so people
have told me, long term soberfriends have told me just wait,
wait till you are a year sober,wait till you're two years
sober, three years sober.
I consider myself long termsober on the one hand but on the
other hand it's not beencontinuous sobriety so I

(13:28):
honestly can't own that at all.
And I'll never not be honestabout that because that's part
of my story and what is thepoint in not being honest about
your story?
I own very much where I'm atwith my sobriety and my sober
journey.
And yeah it's not been a linearone, but the biggest spiritual

(13:49):
hack, the biggest upgrade ishonestly putting down the drink.
So if you're somebody thatlistens to this, you're
listening to this now, andyou're like, I'm loving all this
spirituality, I'm getting intoit.
Perhaps you're in the early daysor a year or two into your
spiritual journey.
and you're still drinking.
Honestly, I really don't judgeyou.
Everyone in my life,practically, apart from my sober

(14:10):
friends, obviously, drinks.
But what I would say is, startto stack up some time, do a
week, do two weeks, do a month,and do 90 days.
And 90 days is something we allagree in sober circles, is the
first kind of real Trunk of timewhere you go, whoa, and if you
have a slip here and there it'sokay Just keep going.

(14:32):
Like I said on episode fourabout for spiritual
entrepreneurs It's just soimportant to Keep going on this
journey.
Keep going with the notdrinking.
It's the biggest spiritualuplift that you will have.
It's clearing out that mind crapof alcohol.
It's a toxin.
It's a neurotoxin.
It's gonna cut off those amazingparts of our brain and our soul

(14:57):
that can connect to some kind ofhigher consciousness.
and it really will upgrade yourspirituality.
Guys, I'm going to leave itthere.
I just felt that was animportant subject just to touch
lightly on and just channel andjust get out there because it's
been such a huge, probably thebiggest part of my story has

(15:17):
been Quitting alcohol and howthat changed my relationship.
It gave me a more authenticvoice It enabled me to become
more confident and not give ashit what people think and not
give a shit about what peoplesay about the content that I
create and be more brave andauthentic and Actually anchor

(15:38):
into what I know to be true forme and that has all happened
through quitting alcohol.
So please leave a review, reallyhelps my little podcast.
If you leave a review, leave acomment, email me, hello at
rachaelbradyyoga.
com.
Follow me on Instagram atrachaelbradyyoga.
Yeah, that's all for now guys.
Take care, bye.
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