New Here with Allison

What could open up to us if we gave ourselves SPACE from the constant need to consume and chase the highs or lows? In this episode, I discuss locking eyes with an owl and how I never could have seen it if I had been drinking, a world that opens up in sobriety, and a new perspective gained from fasting. If you need help with quitting alcohol or substances, please find the help you need. This is a p...

You don’t have to look too far to find a person who is hard on themselves or others for completely natural human expression, exploration, creation, and mistakes. Maybe you’re hard on yourself. I know I can be. It’s quite exhausting, really. It’s not like everyone has everything “figured out.” And besides, aren’t we here to learn, explore, create, and grow? Doesn’t that come with the territory of b...

In this episode, I discuss shame and some of the ways we can avoid feeling it, possibly without even realizing it, avenues through which shame can be woven into our lives (again, possibly without even realizing it), and how shame is useful sometimes, but not all the time. To be clear, I do not come to this conversation as an expert-I’m barely a beginner, but the other day, it became clear to me th...

One thing I continue to discover about health and caring for one’s health, is that you get to find an approach that works for YOU and your life. You get to play with words, mindsets, and feelings, until something lands, lights you up, and excites you and makes the journey enjoyable. Caring for your body and health gets to be enjoyable. Why not? Considering the body as a friend is my most recent mi...

In this episode of New Here with Allison I discuss my experience with suicidal thoughts in early sobriety, what it felt like, why (I believe) those thoughts came up, what those thoughts were telling me, and how I moved through that fire and broke free from those painful chains into a brighter, hopeful, empowered future. I am not giving you advice or telling you what to do. If you need help, please...

Quitting alcohol hit me like a ton of bricks. The booze was gone, my head was clear, and life looked entirely different than it once did through the drunken haze. It’s not that I thought we’d all live forever, but I felt that we would. and maybe we will? Life goes on after we leave this planet (I think!) But I felt that we would never be anything beyond 20/30-something and we’d remain on this plan...

With the new year upon us, I wanted to squeeze in one more podcast to offer some encouraging words for anyone who needs to hear them, and those encouraging words are “All is well, even in failure, even in falling away from the health plan as you originally set it to be.” Can it be so simple? Can you have your back even if things don’t go as originally planned? What if “failure” is just a part of t...

There is something about living in the darkness and BELIEVING you’re meant to stay there forever and that there’s no way out, that can make you feel absolutely hopeless. But what if there’s another way? What if there is a way out and through? What if it’s available to you? What if you just need to keep going and pay attention to the things that call to you and catch your attention to discover your...

Is something hurting you? Does something ache? If not, then But if so, are you willing to acknowledge the pain? Can you identify it? Can you be honest about it? There’s something so powerful about saying “That is where it hurts! OW!” and then making the shifts necessary to free yourself from the pain or at least ease the pain. In this episode, I discuss the power of acknowledging the pain in your...

I’ve been noticing and surprised by the SPACE that can open up when you rid your life of alcohol or whatever else is occupying too much of your world in a toxic way. If the toxicity of your choosing fills you to the brim and flows over your edges, how will there ever be space for new and vibrant life to enter your reality? In this episode, I discuss some surprising fruits of sobriety, the space th...

In this episode I talk about gratitude and the importance of inviting your body into your gratitude, knowing what gratitude feels like in your body, becoming gratitude and radiating as such, and using the physical experience of gratitude to better understand your body so you can it as a tool and help yourself along in this life. If you make it through the somewhat lengthy introduction (thanks for...

For the past 11 months, I have posted on TikTok everyday discussing the topic of sobriety. I’ve included my story, observations, opinions, and approach to quitting alcohol, and listeners have commented on my videos with their opinions, stories, thoughts and struggles in regard to sobriety. Among those comments a few themes have popped up, all of which I relate to, and all of which I have heard thr...

When I first got sober, and could finally see clearly for the first time in years, I felt this intense desire to SPEED WAY UP AND PLAY CATCH UP FOR 20 YEARS OF DRINKING. Every day was filled with a sense of anxiety that told me I was behind, and that feeling guided my days to misery, and funnily enough, it didn’t much help me to move forward in life. ha! Turns out, slowing down is not only allowed...

I drank and abused alcohol for 20 years and when I finally quit, 2+ years ago, everything clicked and I stepped into sobriety with certainty. Don’t get me wrong, since entering sobriety, I have been humbled and my confidence in life has been challenged, but never enough to consider drinking again, at least not seriously. So how did I do it? How did I arrive here at the decision to quit alcohol? We...

A week ago, I had the brilliant idea to get rid of (almost) everything that I purchased in the years I was abusing alcohol: clothes, bags, books, art, jewelry, furniture, a guitar. As I looked around, these items from my drunken years were weighing me down as they constantly reminded me of my old chaotic life while simultaneously trying to build a new freer one. The process of letting go scared me...

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, getting sober is like stepping into a brand new reality. There was before and there is after. It’s undeniable. At least for me. Do you feel that too? This shift in realities deserves attention because if everything is new, then many of us could afford to be patient and caring with ourselves as we find our way in this new life. Many of us could afford to o...

If you’re alive on earth, you live in a body. For our time here, it’s our home and vessel, and so many of us do our best to ignore it, run away from it, numb it, stay so busy we forget it exists so that we don’t have to feel the corners and crevices and vibrations; so that we don’t have to feel the symptoms and messages it is sending us. What are we so afraid of? Do we feel powerless in our bodies...

Recently, 2+ years into sobriety, I realized that something I’m doing isn’t working. A lot is working, but there is a big piece of the puzzle that is missing, and I’m fairly certain it’s that I don’t know how to surrender, have faith, and trust God or myself on this journey. Oof. It’s ok. I’m learning, you’re learning, we’re all learning. Sobriety is a new life, so it’s no wonder I/You/We don’t kn...

Something clicked a few months ago when I realized just how much of my life has been guided by fear. I noticed it as I’ve moved through my relationship with procrastination because I've had to or I won’t get ANYTHING done. But as I’ve, ever so slowly, worked through this part of my life, it’s grown clear that i’m afraid of the unknown. “What will happen there in the unknown? Will I know how to han...

Back when I drank alcohol, there was very little room for expansion or healthy change, as I was filled to the brim with the mental, physical, and emotional drama that accompanied my alcohol consumption.  Post-alcohol, I’ve learned there are endless ways to fill one’s life with noise and distractions, and it can interfere with one’s potential.  In this episode, I discuss the observations I’ve made...

With sobriety and awakenings or years spent drinking or doing anything else destructive, there can be loss and a whole lot of it. It can look like things being ripped out of the palm of your hand or choosing to peacefully part ways with the life you once knew, but loss can occur. And it can be devastating. But it seems that the loss needs to occur for new growth to take place. It seems some of us...

I found myself on an energy drink bender, a surprising new way for me to escape the moment and keep the high going; keep that constant buzz going. Don’t worry, I made it out and through and I gained some wisdom along the way that I believe more people can relate to than one would initially think. And it got me wondering: are those of us who seek out a constant buzz just trying to escape the moment...

I quit alcohol and woke up from a dream and now I feel new here. I am new here. Are you? I’ve come to find that this experience of feeling new after giving up booze is not at all unique, not only because so many others have given up alcohol or drugs and feel new too, but because we are new every minute and moment and every day. Not to mention that we are new when we go through any kind of change a...