Annie’s goal is to help you decide that alcohol is a substance that isn’t making your life better so that you’re able to walk away from alcohol painlessly, genuinely feeling that you no longer want or need to drink. Yeah. And I think one of the things when you talk about the emotion is also the emotion behind why you’re doing it. One of the things I think people love about your work is that it’s not punitive, and it’s not shame and blame, but rather, you’re taking steps towards a better life that you actually want.

Alcohol Experiment by Annie Grace | Goodreads The Alcohol Experiment by Annie Grace | Goodreads

If you’re reading this right now, you’re questioning how much you drink. Maybe you know you drink way too much, and you want to quit. Or maybe you’re just curious. You’re questioning whether you might be overdoing it a bit. No matter where you are on the drinking spectrum, you’re not alone. I’ve been there. And thousands of people inside the This Naked Mind community have been there, too.

Success!

And then the second one is curiosity. And I think those things go hand in hand, because when you are approaching whatever situation, it is with curiosity, you will awaken possibility. So as an example, if I’m going into a happy hour, and I haven’t, I mean, in my case, I hadn’t been at a happy hour without drinking, except when I was pregnant for like, more than a decade. And I’m walking into this happy hour. And I have this for sure narrative in my head that this is going to be miserable minus will not even be here, what is even the point? I promise it will be miserable. But if I just allow a little bit of curiosity to instead of okay, maybe it won’t, I don’t know that for sure. I haven’t actually done it in a decade, I actually have no idea what it’s like to walk into a happy hour and drink iced tea instead of you know, a martini, I’ve no idea what that experience is like, what might it be? Oh, my goodness, that opens up a whole new realm of possibility and experience. And inevitably, when people do those sorts of experiments on themselves, they walk out of it, and I’m like, Whoa, it wasn’t that bad. Or sometimes it was even fun. What can a wife to do support her husband who set a goal to stop drinking for a year, gave up alcohol for two months, and then she came home to find him drinking? Should she get angry? Give him tough love? Encourage him to keep trying? Leave him alone to wallow in his judgment and self-doubt? Annie shares her thoughts on what exactly constitutes success and how we can take what we interpret as failure and use it to our advantage. I think, yeah, I think it is two phases. I think that’s really a really astute point. Because I think initially, you have to allow enough of a mindset shift to awaken, okay, maybe it’s gonna be okay. You know, because our experience no matter what is going to be our best guide, right? Even if you’ve quit drinking completely with willpower, and you might have to be four or five 610 years into it. I mean, this is legitimately true for people who’ve totally quit with pure willpower. Eventually your experiences will show you that life is tolerable without alcohol. And but if you have a mindset shift, you can go into it like life might not just be tolerable, but it might be Really fun. Yeah. And I think also, you know, there’s so much shame and not wanting to be in that category, that we don’t talk about it. I mean, I think the whole concept of why can they be a normal drinker? I mean, obviously, in this work, so many more people struggle with it, then ever talk about it, because it’s like the third rail, you don’t want to raise even the question, because nobody else is raising the question. Yeah, absolutely. And that’s why me too, like exact, exact journey, you know, really allowing that, being gentle with myself figuring out what I needed. And I think that that is probably the most common denominator in the long term success is that and to be fair, not everybody is drinking to self-medicate a lot of us are but not everybody is. But when people are drinking to self-medicate, the most common denominator is, and it’s the most exciting thing, although I will say that awareness is always the best thing. Because it’s always the place from which we can affect change. We cannot change something we’re not aware of we if we don’t know what’s happening to us, we don’t know we’re talking to ourselves, very mainly in our minds, we cannot change it. But awareness is always painful, because we’re seeing something that kind of wish it wasn’t true. We kind of wish we didn’t have to go there and fix that. But if we can celebrate that, and say, Okay, well, I’m here for this, I’m going to live, learn how to live awake, I’m going to learn how to live without self-medicating, and I’m going to do the work. And it might be a significant amount of work, but it’s all good work. And it’s all fun work. And it’s all forward progressing. I think humans, in my experience, we are happier in momentum towards growth than we are with all those circumstances being perfect in the world. Yeah, like we would you would find human beings, and this is I think, just evidenced by how much we have in our culture and society today. We don’t have a lot of people who are desperate, you know, for survival fearing for their physical safety. I mean, I know that there are certain circumstances but as a whole, most of us had food on the table. We’re not being chased by the lion and yet depression and suicide is off the charts. And I think a lot of that is because we are not allowing like that momentum of growth, right?

Naked Mind The Path by This Naked Mind

I made it 25 days. I ended my streak because I was spending a night in a lovely apartment in a village in the European countryside with a balcony overlooking nature, with a view of the stars above, and my hosts had graciously offered me a bottle of local wine along with a fresh fruit plate. This is the context in which alcohol is made to be consumed. I enjoyed the wine, the constellations, nature, and a long chat with a loved one, and slept in peace. Every one of our own emotional snags, where we feel judgmental of ourselves, judgmental of our circumstances, let down by someone else. All of those things are these big flashing neon signs saying, hey, there’s something in you that you need to work on, that you need to find peace with. And that journey towards cultivating and finding more and more peace in yourself in your heart, I think is the number one thing without a doubt over time. Don't think about what you're giving up. Think of what you're gaining. (I'm not giving up alcohol, I'm gaining a more fit body.)

I’m not drinking already

Yeah, exactly. And that’s the thing is that when we introduced so much fear into the conversation, and I can speak to this so well, because it was where I lived. For many years, I think I’ve estimated between 6 and 7 years of living in that cycle that you were just so eloquently talking about, of making those rules saying, you know, not this type of alcohol or not on these dates, or only this much, or taking this sort of break, and always coming up with either. This experiment was a success. Something the author wrote on Day 2 hit me hard and something shifted. It's Day 30 now and this was honestly not that difficult. I had a few weak moments (mostly at night with friends), but overall I've lost the desire. Learn how to let go of alcohol as a coping mechanism, how to shift your mindset about sobriety and change your drinking habits, how to create healthy routines to cope with anxiety, people pleasing and perfectionism, the importance of self-care in early sobriety, and why you don’t need to be an alcoholic to live an alcohol free life. If you’ve tried to give up or moderate your alcohol consumption in the past and failed, you need to know it’s not your fault. There’s something going on that you’re probably not aware of. And once you understand it, your eyes will be opened, and you’ll be able to undergo this experiment in a meaningful way. It won’t be just another failed attempt at willpower.

The Alcohol Experiment by Annie Grace - Audiobook - Audible UK The Alcohol Experiment by Annie Grace - Audiobook - Audible UK

Annie Grace holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and a Master of Science in Neuro-Linguistic Programming. She worked as a global marketing executive for Fortune 500 companies before leaving her corporate career to focus on helping people improve their relationships with alcohol. You’re of two minds about drinking -- you both want to drink less but also feel like something is missing whenever you abstain. So actually, the Holy Grail around here isn’t sober days, or counting days, or being in recovery or being abstinent, it’s really finding peace with your relationship with alcohol, kind of whatever that means to you. So, you know, for some people, their goal will be that they want alcohol to be small and irrelevant. For some people, it will be that they just don’t want it to have so much control over them, you know, and whatever that means. That is how we approach it. And so it is, it is tough, because people are on such an individual path.

Let’s Do This!

You are ready to regain complete control over your drinking habits, your life, your health, your happiness, and your freedom. Welcome to a vitally important episode of the This Naked Mind podcast. You're getting an exclusive front row seat inside The PATH:365 today. Only members of The PATH:365, gain access to monthly group coaching calls led by Annie Grace herself. These calls are an opportunity to delve deep into the science behind our drinking, gain valuable insights, receive expert advice, and tap into real-world experiences, all centered around the pursuit of an alcohol-free life. In today's session, one member poses a crucial question: "How can I start controlling my critical inner voice?" The Hello Someday Podcast helps busy and successful women build a life they love without alcohol. Host Casey McGuire Davidson, a certified life coach and creator of The 30-Day Guide to Quitting Drinking, brings together her experience of quitting drinking while navigating work and motherhood, along with the voices of experts in personal development, self-care, addiction and recovery and self-improvement. The time it takes to read The Alcohol Experiment book depends on the individual reader’s reading speed and pace, but it typically takes around 3-4 hours to complete. Absolutely. And that is a fantastic podcast, and you have like 400 episodes or more. Is that right?

Alcohol Experiment - This Naked Mind Log-In | The Alcohol Experiment - This Naked Mind

Yeah, that is incredible. You’re reaching so many people. I love it. Well, thank you so much for your time. I truly appreciate it. This is my 100th episode. My, can’t imagine a better, better guest to have on. You can go a few days without alcohol but it feels miserable, like you’re being deprived of something important. Annie Grace welcomes Kelly this week to share her Naked Life story. Kelly shares her powerful journey of retreating from alcohol, shedding light on the intricate relationship between her drinking and her career as a flight attendant. She opens up to Annie Grace about how the pandemic unexpectedly intensified her drinking habits and reveals a pivotal moment when an episode of Red Table Talk served as the catalyst for her transformative journey away from alcohol. Annie and Kelly discuss how retreating from alcohol ultimately leads us to discover the truest form of ourselves.The first few days of the experiment involve examining why we drink and the role that alcohol plays in our lives. Readers are encouraged to think about their reasons for drinking, such as social pressure or stress relief, and to consider how alcohol affects their physical and emotional health. At 26, Annie was the youngest Vice President in a multinational company and her drinking career began in earnest. At 35, in a global C-level marketing role she was responsible for 28 countries and drinking almost two bottles of wine a night. You have a love-hate relationship with alcohol - and find yourself setting limits and then breaking them and losing control when happy hour rolls around. Lifetime access to the archived Facebook group and to the daily recordings in your Membership Area (off-Facebook). Your membership area (off Facebook) contains all of the video content and replays of the coach Q&A calls. Return to the content over and over again to ensure you are reaching your goals and achieving lasting success. Welcome to another insightful episode of This Naked Mind podcast. In today's exclusive peek into The PATH: 365 monthly group coaching calls led by Annie Grace, we delve into a critical question posed by one of our members – "How do I stop running away from life and emotions and turn towards action and curiosity instead?" The journey to living alcohol-free presents its share of challenges and obstacles, and Annie Grace is here to provide expert science, insight, and advice, drawing from her real-world experiences. This episode is your opportunity to explore the profound insights she offers to help you build a life you don't want to escape from.