There's a reason why MANY of us feel like we're suddenly on an emotional rollercoaster in sobriety, especially in early sobriety and again around 5 years sober.
Turns out it's not psychological, it's neurological!
This week we dive into emotions again as emotional sobriety is the topic my students always want to go deeper on. Hope you find something helpful in here.
Xo
Sobriety Bestie
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So instead of wanting to do something to cover how we feel or change how we feel or to basically that's abandoning and rejecting and betraying ourselves. So instead of wanting to do that, what we want to do is we want to become friends. Become friends with what you feel inside. Hello courageous bestie. I'm Kirsten Johnson and welcome to the sobriety bestie podcast where we adventure together through emotional sobriety, unapologetically expressing yourself and building a purpose-driven business because the world needs your wisdom. Each step you take opens up infinite possibilities because your transformation is not just for you, it's a beacon of light for those you're called to serve. So get on comfy, repeat your mantra. This is courage and take that next alliance step into creating the business and life of your dreams. I'll be your guide. Our ability to notice what's happening inside of our body is a sense. So we have a sense of smell, a sense of taste, all that. So our ability to sense what's happening inside of our body is called interoception. So if you've meditated for a while, it's going to increase your interoception, right? If you drink for a while, it's going to decrease your interoception. There are ways to increase our interoception, our ability to feel what's happening inside of our body, to feel our digestion. For example, I remember I was about two years sober and I was feeling my digestion and I was telling my sponsor in sobriety. I was like, oh my God, I feel my digestion. It's so crazy. Like I haven't felt this before. And my sponsor was like, congratulations, you're alive because I had been so numbed out. And so here's what I learned in the science. That's like super cool. That I don't, I've never really heard people like dive into this, but I'm, I love this and so I want to share it with you because maybe you're a little geeky like me too or it'd be like fun to learn about alcohol kills our interoception abilities. It numbs it out. Literally damages our ability to feel what's happening inside of our body. That was a pro. That's what I liked. I liked that alcohol. I didn't know that it damaged. Don't worry. We have neurogenesis, right? We can regrow our ability, rebuild our abilities, right, especially it stays over longer. But so when we drink alcohol, it actually damages our ability to feel what's happening inside of our body. Alcohol is a great emotional number. You don't need to hear this. You already know this, but it literally changes our ability to feel, not just in the moment when we're numbed out, but it changes our ability to feel what's happening inside of our body. So then what happens, right? We get sober because if you're like me, you get sober because you have to, you know, because you want to get sober because you want to live. So then what happens over some time of sobriety, I'm not sure. I'm not even sure if you are sober, but if you are, I don't know how sober you are. Definitely let me know. Write it down. Put it in the comments like how long have you been sober. So here is the interesting part. Your interoceptive abilities is literally an ability of the body. It's a feeling. It's feeling what's happening inside your body. So that builds up over the years. So over the years, we start to feel more. So we start to get our feelings back. So it's really important that if we're going to stay sober and thrive, right? And by thrive, I mean that we have dreams on our heart and then we go after them and achieve them, then we really need to learn this stuff, how to have that new relationship with our feelings so that we don't have to run from them anymore, that we don't have to date all these sorts of people. We don't want to date or watch all these Netflix or eat all these chips or ice cream or whatever going to cross addictions and secondary addictions. This is what we do. If you do catch a feeling and it's one of those ones, you don't prefer and one that you would formally call emotional pain, but now you're calling it sensations you don't prefer. And you notice that you have the feeling in your body just noticing that you have it is the first empowering step instead of wanting to do something to cover how we feel or change how we feel or to basically that's abandoning and rejecting and betraying ourselves. So instead of wanting to do that, what we want to do is we want to become friends, become friends with what you feel inside. This is befriending the sensations where the real kicker here is that the way that we become comfortable in our skin sober is by befriending discomfort. It's actually way easier than it sounds. Nobody wants to be uncomfortable. Nobody wants to have discomfort, embrace it. And when you embrace it, it's like rolling with the punches. It's not that bad. If you move forward experiencing it as something that it's not that bad. That's my dream for you. That is why I'm here for you talking to you in the jungle. You are welcome to the jungle, baby, the sobriety bestie jungle. The reason, by the way, why I'm doing the jungle vibes is because you've heard that phrase before, like it's jungle out there, really what I found from sobriety and especially like sobriety and entrepreneurship together. It's a jungle in there. It's a fucking jungle in there. It is a jungle in there. I'm pointing in my body because the reason why I'm pointing like at my chest and in my body is because it's all of the emotions. It's like a jungle in there. There's a lot to untangle and unwind. There's a reason why I almost drank myself to death, right? That's a reason why I had all those anxiety disorders. There was a lot going on. There was a lot to unwind. There was a lot of shame. There was a lot of grief. There was a lot of heartbreak. There was a lot of betrayal that I had to process. There was a lot of stuff. It is like a jungle in there, but it's okay. It is like a jungle in there, but I'm here to guide you through it. I'm here to guide you through it. I'm here to guide you through it. I'm here to guide you through it. I'm here to guide you through it. I'm here to guide you through it. I'm here to guide you through it. I'm here to guide you through it. I'm here to guide you through it.
