Two Coaches Talk Dealing With Feelings in Sobriety.

I sat down on the Sober Vibes Podcast to chat with Brittany Young, an international speaker and author with over 12 years of experience in the health and wellness space. Brittany has also been sober for 8+ years! Of course, we had a lot to talk about. In our episode, you can hear her full story and more about where she’s at now. 

Today, I want to share some of our conversation with you! 

Brittany mentioned that she felt like she didn't fit in early on in life and was tempted to drink because of that. Social anxiety at a young age can make making friends really tough. In fact, if you have social anxiety, you have a 20% chance of also suffering from alcohol abuse. 

At first, you try to rationalize your drinking to calm nerves or be more social. However, no one tells us the truth about alcohol - that it’s a depressant. 

And that its job is to boost anxiety, disrupt your mood, and damage your physical health. 

We were sold plenty of lies about alcohol through unethical marketing, Hollywood, and more. It’s up to us whether or not we believe it! Part of getting sober and taking back your life is unlearning the rules society gave you and making your own.

Brittany and I both talked about making our own rules, and for Brittany, she started in the gym. Just a few days sober, she walked in and put her faith into a coach she’d just met. Little did she know then, he was sober too. She’d end up sweating out the beginning of her journey in that gym, coming out stronger than ever years later. As a sober coach, I also work with my clients on improving their wellness to support recovery! Focusing on health when you’re ditching alcohol is one of the best ways to make the journey less stressful, plus get great results. Being in the gym also helped Brittany gain confidence and belief in herself. 

She’s an incredible example of working through your feelings in a positive way! 

So, I asked her... how do we stop numbing out and deal with our feelings?

Her response was, “the healing is in the feelings.” 

To feel peace, we have to give ourselves the time and support needed to deal with experiences (good or bad) in a healthy way. Those feelings aren’t going anywhere, dealt with or not. So why not deal, right!? 

Don’t be afraid to ask yourself why you’re feeling a certain way. Yes, thinking about it might not be easy, but you’ll understand yourself much better. Both Brittany and I love to help clients get to the bottom of confusing emotions so they can grow from them! 

For example, if being in a crowd without a drink makes you feel anxious, why? Identify what makes you feel that way to begin to deal with it. 

To help you do this, here are Brittany’s top three tips for dealing with feelings:

1. Get to know yourself by sitting in a mindful/meditative practice. Listen to what your body is trying to tell you. 
2. Grab yourself a journal and log your feelings.
3. Don’t be afraid to talk to other people. Sobriety is meant to be done alone. Find a support system and people who believe in you. Asking for help is okay. 
4. Also, feeling is okay!!

Listen to the full episode with Brittany Young and Courtney Andersen on the Sober Vibes Podcast right now.

Thank you for listening and reading!