Taming the Lizard Brain: Green Light Thoughts / Ep. 026

In this episode of the "Feel It Alcohol Free" podcast, hosts Susan and Ruby delve into the internal dialogues and rationalizations that often lead individuals to reach for a drink.  They answer this lively question from a listener, “Arrrgh!! Damn you, wine! I am struggling with that naughty voice in my head again, the one that says, "just have a glass. You've done brilliantly, so relax. Stop overthinking it. You deserve it." And I know better. But why am I having these thoughts?”    

The hosts share their personal experiences with these permission giving thoughts and explore the origins of these thoughts in the amygdala and limbic or "lizard brain". they emphasize the importance of creating an environment that doesn't trigger the need for relief at the end of the day and share strategies for overcoming the urge to drink. 

Join Susan and Ruby as they delve into the psychology of alcohol consumption and share their favorite ways to embrace an alcohol-free lifestyle. So, grab a refreshing drink and get ready to "feel lit" with the "Feel It Alcohol Free" podcast.

Keywords
Alcohol-free lifestyle, alcohol freedom coaches, green light thoughts, amygdala, limbic brain, relief at the end of the day, lizard brain, mocktails, celebrating small wins, positive emotions, ritual without alcohol, SodaStream, alcohol-free community, Apple Podcasts reviews, A Wine Free Weekend, yoga snack, Down Dog app, emotional brain, animal brain, prefrontal cortex, stress relief methods, physiological needs, inner toddler, protein for relief, lifestyle changes, subconscious desires, automatic thoughts, environmental influences, conscious awareness.

Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, and ask us any questions you have about breaking free from wine or living an alcohol-free lifestyle. Your question could be the highlight of a future episode!

Grab our Feel Lit Weekend Guide!
https://feellitpodcast.com/Guide

Watch Episode on Youtube! https://www.youtube.com/@FeelLitAlcoholFreePodcast/videos

Websites:
Susan Larkin Coaching https://www.susanlarkincoaching.com/
Ruby Williams at Freedom Renegade Coaching https://www.freedomrenegadecoaching.com/

Follow Susan: @drinklesswithsusan
Follow Ruby: @rubywilliamscoaching

It is strongly recommended that you seek professional advice regarding your health before attempting to take a break from alcohol. The creators, hosts, and producers of the The Feel Lit Alcohol Free podcast are not healthcare practitioners and therefore do not give medical, or psychological advice nor do they intend for the podcast, any resource or communication on behalf of the podcast or otherwise to be a substitute for such.

Transcript

Sick and tired of your love-hate relationship with wine? Welcome to the feel it alcohol free podcast. Hi. I'm coach Ruby Williams. And I'm coach Susan Larkin. We are two former wine lovers turned alcohol freedom coaches exposing the lies about alcohol and giving you, our listeners, the tools to break free so you can feel lit. And when you're lit, you'll feel healthier, freer, and more in control of your life. So relax, kick back, and get ready to feel lit alcohol free. And don't forget, grab a copy of our wine free weekend guide after the show. 

Ruby [00:00:32]:

Hello. Hello. Hello. Welcome back to the Feel Lit Alcohol Free podcast, and we are so excited to dig right into today's question from one of our listeners. Alright. So I'm gonna read it out.

Ruby [00:00:55]:

It's like this. “Arrrgh!! Damn you, wine! I am struggling with that naughty voice in my head again, the 1 that says, just have a glass. You've done brilliantly, so relax. Stop overthinking it. You deserve it. And I know better. But why am I having these thoughts?”   So, what do you think about this, Susan? 

Susan [00:01:25]:

Oh my gosh. Well, of course, we all can relate, I think, can't we? Like that sneaky voice that says, oh, just have one. That's what my voice sounds like. Ya know. You'll feel better. Yeah. So you start to get used to I mean, part of what we do within our coaching is just to start becoming aware of these thoughts that we're having about our drinking.

Susan [00:01:50]:

And I like to call them permission giving thoughts, or you we were talking about calling them the green light thoughts. Right? It's when all of a sudden your thoughts come up and they start to make an argument towards drinking just because it's something we've been doing for a really long time. And, so for me, it was definitely in my story, it was definitely the voice of this is like my permission slip to now finally relax. Like, it's go, go, go, you know, because my drinking escalated. I was working full time. My kids were in high school and elementary school. I was getting my MBA. So there's always something I could be doing.

Susan [00:02:33]:

Right? I mean, kids, dinner, work, school, and alcohol was like my permission slip to finally relax, like, or to over function again. It's like, you know, you'll be able to sit down and do this work at 9 PM when you have to get your homework turned in because it's due by midnight tonight. Glasses of wine will help you be more creative to get that work done or to push through. I definitely used alcohol to push through, like I said, over functioning, you know, it'll make it nicer. It'll make, oh, I have to do this, but having a glass of wine will make it more fun. It'll make, you know, it more tolerable, or to finally relax, like, oh, now I'm finally off the clock, so wine helps me relax. So Yeah. I think we can all relate to all those thoughts, but then it's like, well, where are those thoughts coming from? Right?

Ruby [00:03:26]:

Yeah. So I absolutely can relate, and I think I'll share a story. I don't know if I've shared this before, what it was really like working in the wine industry and then working you know, I had a corporate job. And when I say corporate job, it just was so much stress and pressure. It was like putting out fires every single day. Mhmm. And I would not take lunch breaks. I would push through, work through everything, get really stressed all day long.

Ruby [00:03:56]:

First of all, I should say that I started my day off with brain fog, feeling hungover, so it's not a good place to even start my day. But I remember very vividly so when you work right at a winery, it's right there. Like, it's right on the way to the parking lot. I'm passing the tasting room, which has all the wine. And so, I would just admit it. I would buy a little bottle, those 180 sevens of champagne, and drink it on the way home. Yeah. I I can't believe I've invented that.

Ruby [00:04:33]:

That's like a secret, but that's what I would do. So I was already drinking wine on the way home. And then once I had 1 glass in my system, then I wanted more. It was feeding on itself. Right? So it was that 1 and that thought that I would have is, “I'm so stressed from working all day. I deserve it.” 

Ruby [00:04:56]:

I deserve this glass of champagne, and it'll make my drive go easier. But then on the way home, I'm already buying 2 or 3 bottles to get through the night. So for me, I was drinking quite a lot at the end there. But I do wanna explain, you mentioned green lights. Yeah. We were kind of coming up with fun ideas, and so, like, the green light thoughts, like it's that sneaky voice in your head. It's almost like what comes to my mind is like a Pinocchio, you know, like enticing you. Come, come out and play, or you deserve it.

Ruby [00:05:34]:

If you can come up with, like, what does that voice sound like? That can be a really cool way to, like, get aware, notice it, notice it as a separate voice than the real you. So we came up with a bunch of ideas of, like, what does this voice sound like? It's like, yeah. I deserve a glass of wine. Mhmm. 1 glass is okay. You know, 1 glass is okay. But what happened to me, 1 glass always became 2, became 3. So 1 glass was not okay, really.

Ruby [00:06:03]:

Consciously, I knew 1 glass was not okay, but that subconscious was saying, yes. It is. It's just 1 glass. You know? Or it's Friday night. I worked really hard all week, Friday night became Saturday, and it became Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Yeah. What did you say 1 time? Any day that ends in a day. Yeah.

Ruby [00:06:20]:

Ends in y. Y. Yeah. You know, how about, I'm home alone. No 1 will know. That's another, like, sneaky thought. Or I just need a glass of wine to unwind, you know, or I just wanna have fun, or just f it, f it. You know, that whole reward, I think, from clients, I almost hear this from every single client.

Ruby [00:06:44]:

I think, like, every single 1 of us is, like, has we do what's called thought work around this thought, I deserve it. Just 1 glass. It comes up. So if you have that thought, and just like our listener, you are not alone. Right. And, yeah, let's dig into the real question is, you know, why am I having these thoughts? Yeah. So what do you think, Susan?

Susan [00:07:06]:

Well, what I wanna take apart here is she's like, I know better, but why am I having these thoughts? And so this is the science, let's dig into the science because we love to do that, so there's 2 parts. So it sounds like there's 2 voices. I know better, but why do I have these other thoughts, you know, that are trying to entice me, the green light thoughts, the permission giving thoughts, you know, where are these coming from? And so there's 2 parts of our brain. So there's the amygdala and the limbic brain, which form, and I'm making, like, a I'm there's a great analogy here. So your limbic, your amygdala is like the base of your brain. It's the most primitive part of your brain. It's your survival brain, and your limbic logical brain. So your logical brain knows I'm not just gonna have 1, or knows the information, I don't wanna drink anymore, alcohol is bad for me, or I know I'm just I can't just have 1, but why do I have these other thoughts? They're coming from your subconscious, or I like to call it your lower brain or your lizard brain or your survival brain, your animal brain.

Susan [00:08:19]:

So that's where those thoughts are coming from. And so it is true. You have, like, these 2 parts of your brain. So 1 part of your brain, your animal brain that doesn't think logically and just wants what it wants in the moment, and it wants that relief, and it wants that fun, all the things that it's saying to you. Right? It wants to help you unwind, but it doesn't think of the consequences over a 24 hour period. It thinks it just wants what it wants at that moment. And so it starts to throw up all of these ideas. 1 is okay, live a little, no 1 will know, I just need to unwind, you deserve it, you know, all these things.

Susan [00:08:56]:

And it's just like rapid fire hoping that you're going to light on the one that then will give it the behavior that it wants. Right? That because it the the dopamine reward or or just the physiological feeling, the numbing, the slowing down of our brain, you know, the what we think is relaxation, right, or we associate we're, you know, that's what we're experiencing, but our meaning making thinks that's relaxation or that's what we've been also conditioned to believe about alcohol. Right? So okay. So then the step is you understand you have these 2 parts of your brain, then you start to be able to address that lower brain and understand, oh, this is the disconnect. So this is that liminal process where we start to use our prefrontal cortex to start to talk back, basically, to that subconscious brain once we have that understanding. There's a psychologist. I liked this analogy too because I thought this was a really cool way of thinking of it. Psychologist Jonathan Haidt uses this analogy and argues again, we have 2 sides.

Susan [00:10:14]:

We have the emotional and the analytical side, and he uses the analogy of our primitive brain or, emotional brain is an elephant, and our prefrontal cortex is the rider of the elephant. 0II love this analogy, right, because can you imagine you're a rider on an elephant, and the elephant you want the elephant to go over here, but the elephant wants what it wants over here. And how much bigger is the elephant than the rider? Right. We're bigger. So, and that's the truth of us. Our subconscious brain is extremely powerful. And so when we're beating ourselves up because we did it again, we gave in, it's because that is, it is hard because our subconscious, they say our subconscious brain or our animal brain will eat our prefrontal cortex brain for lunch. Like, that's just it's very, very powerful.

Susan [00:11:08]:

Mhmm. So the rational side, and then, and then he also likens it to the path, which is the environment or the situation. And so these are the places that we can start to work with. So in your environment, it's much easier for you to grab a glass of wine when your brain is saying, just have 1, if you have alcohol in your house. Right? But if you don't, then you have to go, okay. You get this automatic pause. Okay. I have to get my keys.

Susan [00:11:36]:

I have to go in the car. I have to go to the liquor store.

Ruby [00:11:40]:

Mhmm.

Susan [00:11:40]:

So it gives you this, you know, your environment is set up to actually have you stay, you know, make the decision that you want. So, like, what do you think, Ruby?

Ruby [00:11:51]:

Yeah. I mean, that's a really important point that you make, like, to just the first step that I took was to eliminate the actual alcohol out of my home. It sounds simple. Or if you have a spouse, you know, maybe they can move their alcohol if a spouse is still drinking, like, maybe they can move their alcohol to another part of the house, which is not visible. I do think that even a little bit of gap between, you know, just the automatic, the thought, I deserve this glass of wine, and then it's right there, you know, on the counter in the refrigerator. So, yeah, I wanna just talk more about that voice in your head, because, this is really it can feel like a battle. Right? We've talked about, like, the cognitive dissonance. It can also just feel like this effort, right, this permission slip or this green light thought.

Ruby [00:12:41]:

And it's really becoming such a habit. It becomes what I call it like a go to, like a go to thought. It's after work. I'm stressed. Have my glass of wine. I'm cooking. Have a glass of wine. And you just give yourself this permission.

Ruby [00:12:55]:

But thoughts, I wanted to say, like, a thought is we're having, like, 50 to 70 thousand thoughts in a day. I mean, that's so many thoughts. And they're really, like, automatic. They're really you know, we talked about neural pathways before. They're just like, you've had this thought so many times for so many days in a row, and that's where it becomes this habit, right, this go-to thought. And I want you to slow it down. I mean, think that's the most important thing here, and notice the 2 aware of okay. It could be more than 2, by the way.

Ruby [00:13:34]:

You could have multiple. Like, if you could start to name them and maybe even, like I said, Pinocchio, like, something that could even make you smile or laugh or have humor can be really funner way a funner? Is that a word? A more fun way to, like, look at this voice. Right? And then the tool that I love, 1 of my favorite tools, is asking yourself or asking that voice, What do you really need right now? Or, What do you really want right now? And ask that Pinocchio voice or whatever you're calling it, and usually it's just to relax. And then you can start to go, okay, what other ways can I relax? Or what if wine or really, really really, really we can do thought work, change our beliefs, and really work on moving. I call it moving from the lizard brain or the lower brain to the upper brain, to the prefrontal cortex, where you're making really good decisions. Because for me, once I had that 1 glass of wine, all good decisions were gone and I wasn't making good decisions, and it included drinking a lot more than I intended. Yeah.

Ruby [00:14:56]:

What do you think about this, like, this inner voice?

Susan [00:15:01]:

Yeah. Well, I mean, when I first discovered, when I first learned about this lower brain, higher brain, or this, you know, lizard brain, and then prefrontal cortex, like, all of a sudden it just hit me like, oh, and this idea, I don't have to believe all of my thoughts. Like, where is this thought coming from? Then, I mean, I like to liken it to my inner toddler that just sort of wants what it wants when it wants it. And then my, yeah.

Ruby [00:15:27]:

I want ice cream. Yeah. And then

Susan [00:15:29]:

it's like, oh, but then my prefrontal cortex is like an adult. It's like, well but also and we don't yell at toddlers. If we yell at toddlers, they just scream more. Right? So it's this idea of, well, how am I gonna address this toddler? It's like, I understand that it's bad. We usually have wine every night, but we're not gonna do that tonight. Tonight, we're gonna have this mocktail. Or tonight, I know you 're really stressed out and you need some stress relief. So instead of drinking tonight, we're going to go for a walk, or we're going to do 1 dance, you know, 1 dance, 1 song dance party or shake it out or whatever.

Susan [00:16:06]:

We're gonna just experiment with these little things. And so it's sort of like, I hear you because you wanna hear the toddler. You want to hear that you have this need, and we're gonna address it in a different way. And it just takes away that battle that you were talking about. It quiets that voice down a little bit. And also just what do you need? Like you said, sometimes it's physiological too. Sometimes we have low blood sugar and our body just feels like it wants something, and we've used alcohol to meet that need before. But is there another way to meet the need? Through some protein or through a supplement at the time or through just lifestyle changes throughout the day, relieving stress points throughout the day so we don't get to the end of the day.

Susan [00:16:52]:

That would be sort of that path, like creating our environment. Our environment is our whole day. Right? In order to not get to that point at the end of the day where you need so much relief. So there's so many different ways, and this is what's so fun about coaching, there's so many different ways and things to try and

Ruby [00:17:10]:

see what

Susan [00:17:10]:

works for you and to address it. But I remember in my rearview mirror, I had this note I wrote on there with like a lip liner that said, don't feed the animals. And my son was like, what does that mean? And for me, it was like, I don't wanna feed the lizard brain. I don't wanna be giving the lizard brain what it wants because that only reinforces that. Right? So it was just a reminder for me. Real literally, it was the reminder, don't swing by the liquor store on the way home from work Right. In my rearview mirror. It was, like, yep.

Susan [00:17:41]:

It was just that little reminder. Oh, yeah. So just even that analogy of thinking of my higher brain and my lower brain, it just sort of helped me go, okay, which brain do I wanna be thinking with right now? Right. So that was helpful to me. And like you said, giving it a name, making it the voice of not you.

Ruby [00:18:01]:

Because it’s not the true you. It is part of you, and you  really want to say, I hear you. I love what you said Susan. And then, it's like, “I hear you” voice. You're there, and you want me to drink wine, and then maybe ask why. Why do you want me to drink wine? Oh, and then maybe maybe it's physiologic, like you said, like, meaning, like, what are you like, are you hungry? Are you actually thirsty? Or are you, you know, feeling some certain way and you just wanna feel a different way? It could be the stress.

Ruby [00:18:33]:

I like dancing or drinking a big glass of water. I was gonna grab my water, and I should drink it now. But drinking, like, a big glass of water, maybe that's what you need. And as you start to do the new habit, which might be going for a walk or drinking a mocktail instead of a, you know, wine, you start to just reinforce the new patterns. And you wanna celebrate. Remember, celebration's a big part of, like, creating the new neural pathways. So Mhmm. As you do the new thing, you keep celebrating.

Ruby [00:19:07]:

I have pom poms to celebrate, so I'll get the mountains. Yay. You've really Oh, you do too. That's right. Yeah, so if you watch our YouTube channel, you can see our faces and our little hand movements and our dancing.

Susan [00:19:22]:

Our faces, Yeah. Yeah. Yes.

Ruby [00:19:25]:

So But

Susan [00:19:26]:

that science, too, is the science behind BJ Fogg's work, which is that it's not just repetition, 90 days, whatever, to change a habit or to change behavior. It's a positive emotion. So that celebration is so important. And that was really hard for me. I was like, oh, you know, I had a little urge and I in the beginning, and I didn't drink. Big deal. Whatever. And it's like, no.

Susan [00:19:50]:

Every we need to celebrate all these little wins because that celebration and that's where I think we talked about this this before, the urge jar, where you put, like, a little

Ruby [00:19:58]:

Yeah.

Susan [00:19:58]:

Clink, you know, like, giving yourself these little mini rewards for Yeah. Or High fives? Yeah. High fiving yourself in the mirror.

Ruby [00:20:05]:

I love high fiving myself in the mirror. I do it Yeah. Every day. And, you know, you could even start to play around with this using BJ Fogg's model where you have an anchor, like, something you do every day. And this could even be, I'm just thinking on the fly here, but something around your drinking too, where it's like the cue is you cook dinner, maybe, like, the anchor, and you you used to always have a glass of wine. You can say that. I used to do that. And then, put in a different action, but then celebrate.

Ruby [00:20:39]:

You know? Yeah. That you grabbed, a mocktail, for example, or you created some sort of other drink that's more refreshing. It could be even more refreshing, you guys. You just aren't used to it. Yeah. And you think that Yeah. That the chardonnay is refreshing, but it's actually dehydrating you. 

Ruby [00:20:57]:

And try, like, some other fun drink. There's so many fun drinks right now. We are going to have more guests and talk about different things like that because this is really fun. This is the fun part. The beverage industry.

Susan [00:21:08]:

I had this best mocktail at a restaurant, and I'm finding more and more restaurants having mocktails on their menu.

Ruby [00:21:14]:

They called

Susan [00:21:14]:

it at Raleigh, but it was cumber and muddled with some sparkling water and agave. And it was so refreshing. Like cucumber water is just so amazing. And then I just kept filling up more, and then I only have 1, and I kept filling it up with more water. And surprisingly, sometimes mocktails are really expensive, but this 1 was only $6. I was like, yeah. Even at a good price. So yeah.

Susan [00:21:37]:

So yeah.

Ruby [00:21:38]:

I make something similar with coconut water, cucumber, and then I add lime.

Susan [00:21:46]:

Oh. Yes. This had lime. So good. Lime. Yes.

Ruby [00:21:49]:

Yeah. That sounds so good. Combination. You know, it's kind of a mojito ish, which, I mean, hey, mojitos are awesome, but just take out the alcohol, it's still, like, still awesome or more awesome. Because it's just that flavor, that mint, cucumber, lime, to me, it's the sweet spot. Yeah.

Susan [00:22:08]:

So refreshing. So good. And that really works for people. That tactic has worked for so many different women that I've worked with. Then just again, we say, keep the ritual, ditch the alcohol. So if you had the ritual of drinking something refreshing, fun in a fancy glass, you know, as like a little nice thing to do for yourself while you're cooking dinner, just keep doing that. Just remove the alcohol. And it just works for so many people.

Susan [00:22:38]:

They're like, Oh, as long as I have my fancy drink and a fancy class, then it doesn't have to be alcohol. Like, you kind of find out that Right. That it's the ritual that you desire, not necessarily the alcohol. The ritual for me was, like, like, the whole,

Ruby [00:23:00]:

wine, you know, cork, that part. And now I'll tell you because I think I've shared this before, but I got a SodaStream for Christmas. And it's like, I do the soda stream. And so it's kind of like it's a ritual. Right? And then I pour it into 2 glasses and I put just a little bit of the tart cherry in both and a lime, half a lime in both. And it's like, that's what I sip all all evening, and it's really refreshing. Like a ritual too, so it's fun.

Susan [00:23:28]:

Yeah. And doesn't cherry help with sleep? 

Ruby [00:23:32]:

That's why I do that in the evening. Yeah. I learned that. Yeah, we should maybe well, in our Facebook group, we are posting you know what? I'll post maybe today a mock And we do share people and some of our people in the group have put some of their favorites, sparkling the NA drinks, or I love to just give there's so many ideas out there, and we wanna keep up those ideas. But I wanna segue to 1 of my favorite parts of our podcast recordings because I'm learning you know what? I learned from you, Susan, and I think I've heard you say you've learned from me. This is, like, so exciting. Like, we actually have learned from each other, and I hope you all are learning. I'd love for you to just share what you've learned from us.

Ruby [00:24:16]:

But what are you doing to “feel lit” alcohol free? What do you do?

Susan [00:24:22]:

So fun. So fun. Well, and I've been sharing this a lot lately. So I have the same well, I named it this. So I do little, little short stints of yoga, and I call it a yoga snack because it's sort of like a 10 minute, 15 minute little yoga sequence that just sort of helps me reset my nervous system. It helps me to be calmer. The combination of the breathing and the movement takes me out of my brain, like, gives my brain a little relaxation just, and the breath is just so good. It's sort of like moving meditation for me, and I call it the yoga snack because I just do these little short ones.

Susan [00:25:03]:

I think the longest yoga thing, I've taken a class before and I really enjoyed it 1 on 1, but when I do it at home, it's maybe like 30 minutes. And I should probably experiment with longer periods. But anyway, my tactic in my life that I use is yoga snacks. And it's so funny because recently I've been so busy, I haven't been doing it as much. And I've just noticed how stiff my body is because it also helps me with the stretching, and I do, like, weights, and I do HIIT, and I do spinning, and those are all really intense. And I think my body also needs stretching and breathing and relaxation, and I hadn't been doing that. And I just did some yoga last night, and I was just like, wow, my body needs this. And in fact, I could. I was, you know, in my exercise routine, it was sort of like, this should have been a bike day, and it was really hot.

Susan [00:25:56]:

And I'm like, I just did not wanna do that. My body was just craving slow because I've been so busy with stress, slow movements, slowing it down, stretching. And so I just did yoga instead of doing a really high intensity So can

Ruby [00:26:12]:

I ask you a question about that? Yeah. Are you doing it with, like, somebody on YouTube for 10 minutes? Are you doing it all

Susan [00:26:19]:

on your own? No. I like to follow a voice because that just helps me. I can do it on my own too, and I have done that before. But I do, I have the Down Dog app and I just program it to be like a 15 minute sequence, or I do, I have gone through and found all the Yoga with Adriene sequences that I like and put them all in, you know, my YouTube I don't even have a paid YouTube, but just a little, you know, library. And so I just go to one of those. There's one for digestion that's really good, like, if you're having a little tummy problem. I know I discovered this when I was first stopping drinking. I'd never really done yoga before, and I started trying it out as a resource to resource my body and brain.

Susan [00:27:00]:

And again, that's how I came up with the name of Yoga Snacks, because I only liked to do the little short ones when I first started. So, yeah, it really works for me. And plus, when you do it at home like, I fall over. I have terrible balance. It's getting better. But, you know, who cares? You're at home. Yeah.

Susan [00:27:19]:

It’s weird when you feel embarrassed of yourself when you're just alone. I'm like, why am I feeling embarrassed? It's just me, but you're like, oh, I fell over.

Ruby [00:27:26]:

Yoga is just something that's been an anchor in my life since, I think I started it in college. It was my first real yoga class, And I took a whole semester, and I love it. I go in and out of periods where I do it often, like every day or 5 days a week. And then life gets life y, and then I'll stop doing it. And then I notice the older I get, I notice all of a sudden I'm really stiff. I've hurt my shoulder and hurt my hip, and then all of a sudden I'm like, why does my shoulder hurt all the time? Oh, it's because I'm not doing my yoga. And you can just do the snacks like you said, just 10 minutes.

Ruby [00:28:06]:

And I'll usually do it. So I'll do classes where they're an hour or 90 minute classes pretty often, but then this kinda daily little 10 minute I just do it on my own. I'll just focus on my shoulders and hit wherever it's hurting. And as I get older, I love this restorative yoga. Do you know what restorative yoga is? Maybe doing a couple of poses, but you're you're you're laying on your back Oh, okay. For a lot of it. Pose. Yeah.

Ruby [00:28:34]:

You go from a child's pose to a corpse pose, which is laying on your back or something. And some of my yoga classes, even the restorative, will have the singing bowl or the bowls, you know, those crystal bowls. And you just do it or legs up the wall for like 20 minutes. Like, yeah, those are fun too. So I love this. Yeah. Yoga. So good.

Susan [00:28:57]:

Snack. So sometimes I pull them in there, like, a time when you would have a snack, maybe. Do a little yoga snack instead of a food snack, especially if you're craving sugar.

Ruby [00:29:06]:

That's a good idea. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or for me, it's usually it could be any time. If it's a snack, you don't have to put on your yoga clothes. You don't have to get out a mat, you're not gonna sweat. You can do it, yeah, for if you find 10 minutes from your day, in the middle of your day even.

Ruby [00:29:25]:

I remember when I worked at my corporate job, I would close my door, and I had a little sign that said, you know, busy or whatever. And I would do yoga stretches at work for, like, 10 minutes. I'm just in my office. I had a little mat there. Yeah. So something to do. Snack. Yeah.

Ruby [00:29:41]:

I like that word. This is

Susan [00:29:42]:

1 of those things that if it works for you, you could put it throughout your day. And then it's another resource to help that stress not build up to the end of the day. Because that's so many, you know, the people that I work with are like, oh, you know, by the time I get home, I just need that glass of wine. It's like, well, so the resource is to not need that, that relief. Right? So to have some little valves of stress relief throughout the day, and a yoga snack could be 1 of those, or a short 10 minute walk out in nature could be 1 of those, to really because I've noticed that when I do take those little tiny breaks throughout the day, I am not as in need of stress for me at the end of the day.

Ruby [00:30:25]:

It's 1 of my most important tools is just to monitor my feelings, monitor stress, you know, levels all throughout the day. And, like, I well, I'll do it as another “feel it” for another time, but we could talk forever. I just love talking to you, Susan. Me too. Me too. With this podcast we are changing lives even just with this podcast. We have heard from listeners, both of us separately, that people are really getting alcohol free listening to this podcast, and I am just so honored to share and be a part of your transformation. That's it's I mean, actually, when I say these words, I just feel it in my heart.

Ruby [00:31:05]:

I have so much love… I'm going to cry, probably because I'm so much in love. And this mission is so important to me, that, you know, to just share the word about alcohol free lifestyle and how amazing you feel. Right, Susan?

Susan [00:31:20]:

I know. Didn't you tell me somebody was like, I'm writing down everything you guys say. I'm just like, oh my goodness.

Ruby [00:31:25]:

Well Yeah. What am I saying? Yeah. I know. Exactly.

Susan [00:31:28]:

I know exactly. I'm like, oh, I say crazy things, but okay.

Ruby [00:31:31]:

Well, if you want more of us, please join our feel lit Facebook community. That's where we post national resources, and we might post mocktails. And there's a lot of fun people in there posting pictures and sharing, like, they're on day 1 or they're on day 10 or they're, you know, 33 days alcohol free. Like, it's really fun. We're celebrating all of the people in there and their milestones. So please join. Yes. Yeah.

Ruby [00:31:57]:

Alright. Thank you for listening. Bye. Bye. 

Thanks so much for listening to the Feel Lit Alcohol Free Podcast. Do you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show? All you need to do is head over to Apple Podcasts and do 2 simple things. Leave a rating and review telling us what you think of the show. And in that review, ask us any questions you have about breaking free from wine or living an alcohol free lifestyle. That's it. Then tune in to hear your question answered live. Don't forget to grab your copy of a wine free weekend at www.feellitpodcast.com

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