Welcome to this week's episode of Midlife A F. This week, I'm going to focus mainly on the experience of being in the Great Aussie Alcohol Experiment. And what sets it apart from other programs. Because we are launching at the end of this week, and I want to talk about my experience and how having gone through the Great Aussie Alcohol Experiment, and now running myself the great or the alcohol experiment, what a difference that makes in terms of your ongoing relationship with alcohol. So I'll see you in there. It's going to be back shortly because I'm about to pick my kids up. Alright my lovelies, take care bye.
If you're a woman in midlife whose intuition is telling you that giving booze the elbow might be the next right move. Then midlife AF is the podcast for you. Join counselor psychotherapist, this naked mind and gray area drinking alcohol coach Emma Gilmour for a weekly natter about parenting quirky teens, menopause relationships and navigating this thing called midlife alcohol free. If you're feeling that life could be so much more that you're sick and tired of doing all the things for everyone else. If your intuition is waving her arms, manically at you saying it could all be so much easier. We didn't have to keep drinking, come with me. Together, we'll find our groove without booze.
Hello, everybody, I hope you're well. So excited to be here with you. Today I am having a bit of a crazy day because I am taking my kid to school. So she's going to this special inter school program which is run by the Royal Children's Hospital and the University of Melbourne for kids who are struggling with school attendance. I promised her that I would not be far away. So I've been running my calls today in the car. And I'm going to have to jump off and in probably about 20 minutes and go pick up. But I thought it was really important. We all got we've got so many cool things happening this week, which like all of you I know I am juggling with my mumming duties and you know trying to keep myself in a really great headspace. While some difficult things are happening in my world, and I know I've spoken to you guys about this before, but I think this is a really important part of being alcohol free. But I wanted to take a bit of time because we have a series of lives coming up this week which is going to be sensational. called Live A F and we've got Jane Hutchins talking about the perimenopause and beyond and how to feel rested. We have the most awesome lineup in that we have Dr. Louise Oliver, who is a GP and functional career specialist and she is talking about how breath can actually be one of the missing pieces in perimenopause and particularly for me very important the reason why we find that when we are pair menopausal. Our snoring gets worse which mine has and actually what how we can improve that through our breath. So it's really interesting and also relates to what we've been talking about with Jane about being rested because of course if you're snoring all night and you're not breathing properly, you won't be rested, you won't be getting proper sleep. And I know so many of us women in perimenopause are exhausted fatigue and that was one of my main main symptoms when I first started in this on this journey. Then on Thursday we have the amazingly secured off my mentor hero wonderful woman and we're talking about how we very in line with what I've just said. So we're talking about now we stay okay when the people around us are not okay. And how can we be okay? And also not okay. So I think that's going to be really amazing. She is such a guru to me. I credit her course and courses for helping me get where I have on my journey through midlife. Then we have the amazing Megan Susan they are on diet dieticians which as you know, I'm a very, very, very passionate anti diet person. I'm also training to be a Intuitive Eating counselor. And they're particularly talking about how do we keep diet culture out of our homes? And how do we sort out our own relationship with our eating, diet, culture and our our bodies. So again, close to my heart, everyone, I've got this close to my heart. And then Friday, we've got the most beautiful lady Annabelle Stewart, who also is alcohol free, and changed her relationship with alcohol. Using this naked mind, and she runs a business, which is all about being creative creativity. And so we're going to talk about creativity and mental health and how important this can be in our journey with alcohol. So that is my live AF series. And the reason I'm talking about this now is because we're going to handle those lives, I'm going to make them all into podcast. So if any of you aren't able to make the lives, you'll get to see them as podcast. So there is going to be more lives and podcasts over the course this week. But I didn't want to go into this week without publishing a podcast about what's actually what actually happens in the Great Aussie Alcohol Experiment and why I think it makes all the difference in finding freedom, true freedom from alcohol. And freedom for me is not wanting to drink. So I was just talking to one of my one of my dear clients, and we were talking about the problem being is the wanting, the pain comes from the wanting, the pain comes from the wanting to striving, the striving to stop and the wanting to drink, because we believe that alcohol has some benefit to us. And it does, until it doesn't. So as long as we believe there's a benefit to us from drinking, we will continue to want to drink. And so what this naked minds programs my program do is we transform the one thing. And that's the difference, right? And I remember when I first signed up to my alcohol experiment that I stopped drinking using January 2020. And I remember any saying the difference is it's not that I can't have something, it's that I don't want it. And I thought I want that. So for those of you who are newer to me, and if you are I advise you to strongly go back to the beginning of the podcast, I tell my story a lot about how I got here. And you'll get a pretty good understanding of the cut of my jib by that. But basically, for about two years prior to January 2020, I didn't think I don't think I'd definitely hadn't decided I wanted to stop drinking. And I don't think I even 100% decided that for quite a long time after I stopped drinking. Because when I stopped drinking, I saw I was doing the January 2020 Live alcohol experiment. And I had decided that I wanted to take a year off, I had a feeling in my soul that taking a break extended break from alcohol would significantly improve my quality of life. And there are a million different parts of me trying to tell me that that wasn't the case. Or the parts of me that wanted to keep me drinking because it kept me safe and small. And stopped me letting my freaky light shine. So all of those parts of me and you know, there's so many chemical reasons, there's so many psychological reasons why we might struggle to stop drinking, all of which we work through in the alcohol experiment and read the woods. So basically what you get is you get 30 days of videos to content psychoeducation about alcohol because part of the this naked mind method is that we we need to start with knowledge that we need to understand. Now I'm not saying knowledge is everything because you can know everything in your cognitive part of your brain but the minute your unconscious kicks in, doesn't matter what you know, because it's like you know, your fridge flipped. You know that phrase that was coined by Dan Siegel, who wrote he's written some amazing books if you ever get the opportunity to to read, but he basically says that when you're when your lids flipped, so when you're triggered you go into fight or flight or freeze, and you're no longer working from your cognitive, you're educated, you're thoughtful part of your brain, you're working from your nervous system, your unconscious. And a lot of what drives our behavior. In fact, probably they say 90% of what drives our behavior is the unconscious. Now, it's really, really important that we not only have the knowledge, but we also work on mindset. So we have all these beliefs that's understanding. And part of this, again, is awareness, and knowledge. So it's looking at what are our thoughts and beliefs around alcohol, what's our behavior around alcohol, what's our triggers? What's our routines and rituals. So we get really into that. And then we also learn a lot of information about our car, but we also learn a lot of information about ourselves. And that's probably the most important piece so we understand what is making us do the things that we do. And then the light, and then the last piece is that we put it into action. The thing that makes the hours the alcohol experiment different is, it's an experiment. It's not about stopping drinking, the goal of the program is awareness. So that is what we celebrate every day, for every day, you'll get a video, it's usually about 10-15 minutes from me, there'll be a reflection, so you get the opportunity to put your thoughts on the video into writing, which is a great, great way to impregnate them into your brain that sounds really awful, like some kind of alien thing. But anyway,
there's also a Facebook group. So if you and in that Facebook group, we will post the subjects for the day and the reflections. And so you can also write your reflections in there, which can be a really nice way of being part of the community there. You don't have to be part of the Facebook community to do the course, it is mainly held on Zoom. Video. So that's the other thing, the thing that makes my program really different to any other programs that are out there is that you get at least half an hour. And I will always unless I've got some other commitment, I will always stay on as long as people need me to, you don't have to stay on so you can go whenever you want. But what we do is we literally go in every day, in the evening, in Australian time, there will be a zoom coaching session where we will really focus on what the reasons behind your drinking are. And we will change your mindset transformation, you will work as a group, because group work is so powerful peer support is so powerful in any kind of change, particularly one like alcohol, which is so shrouded in stigma, that we all think we're alone, we all think there's something wrong with us. There's nothing wrong with us. And we learn this and we learn it together. And the beauty of that is we you know, shame goes away, which allows us to get rid of judgments of bed of shame, we get rid of judgment, and it all becomes about awareness, awareness and transformation. So we in addition to that, so we have daily coaching with me. We will also get the videos we will also have the Facebook community we will happen reflections. And then in addition to that, you'll also get my friend Emma Wilkie Walkinshaw who if you haven't heard of her, she's one of my podcast guests as well. She's offering all members of the Great Aussie Alcohol Experiment a month's membership into her 21 minutes of morning magic, which is a great accompaniment to the program. So six o'clock, every morning on Facebook, in this private group, she runs seven minutes of yoga, seven minutes of meditation and seven minutes of journaling, which is a really nice amount of time, very manageable for anybody who wants to start a practice. And I think it's very important. I always start my coaching calls with a grounding practice so that we can start to be able to identify and sit with the discomfort that is our feelings because often it's our discomfort that we're trying to avoid when we drink. And so part of my program is and the thing that I do differently because I have that somatic approach because of the different training that I have. I bring that into my coaching so the content just the same as this naked mind coaching it's delivered by me a perimenopause or mum of two neurodiverse one gender diverse teen, I bring my own personality, my own experience into it. So if you like me, it might be a good fit. If you if you don't why you listening? Podcast. But yes, I bring myself to it. And then of course we've got the we've got the daily coaching as well. And I don't think there's any other program that offers that level of coaching, the value of that level of coaching is unbelievable. The breakthroughs that I have seen happen in the group are extraordinary, we get really close, we spend a month together, you don't have to come to every single one. They're all at different times, I think Monday is eight o'clock and other day six and other days seven, the weekends. I've got Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I think I've got them earlier. So they've got them back five o'clock. So that when you've got that kind of like, you know, late afternoon thing going on, that's a that you've got somewhere there, you've got somewhere to go to you don't have to be on camera, you don't have to dress fancy, come as you are coming your job as I will be, though I give you permission to we will just be 100% authentic, because that is what this journey is all about. Learning how to be with our precious selves. I love this program so much because it is what stopped me drinking and literally every day will be in there going. Okay, so what's the reason why everyone drinks? Okay, let's get into the top 10 least reasons why everyone drinks. And we'll work them through a mindset change together. In addition to that, as well, I've got meditations on there that are free. I've got my recommendations for my favorite, low and no alcohol drinks, I've got my friend Danny at sipping enjoy has given us a coupon, to redeem, to buy to get money off those. And there's heaps of other stuff in there like best podcasts, read best books to read, all that sort of stuff. So I'm starting on the 28th. Monday, the 29th of may, because I like to start on a Monday. And also because I'm flying to Thailand, on the I think 28th of May for my 50th birthday. And yes, it's $450 upfront, or it's four payments of $140. Paid initially and then on a monthly basis. I think that's everything. But as I said, I'm sure that this will probably be a bit too late for some of you that I haven't running a master class on Wednesday. Called the five reasons why taking a break from alcohol can be effortless and change your life. So if you haven't already come and join that. And that's it. I better go and pick up my kid. Lots of love. I hope you're well and thanks for your time by just jumping on here for a quick reminder that I am running a masterclass on the 24th of May, which is a Wednesday on how taking a break from booze can be effortless and change your life. Come and join me. links in the show notes to sign up. Be there
thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of midlife AF with Emma Gilmour. If you enjoyed it please share on Instagram for your friends and tag me at heart rising coaching. If you want to help me grow the podcast please review the episodes for me on Apple podcast that really helps. If you would like to work further with me please go to my website www Haute rising coaching.com for my free and paid programs or email me at Emma at Hope rising coaching.com sending a massive cuddle to you and yours for me and mine and remember to keep choosing you
