Embracing Life: Empowered and Transformed at Sober in the City, Maine!
🦞 Sober In The City was amazing!!! 🚫🍷🤩🙌
In a recent blog, ‘Feel Empowered in Your Alcohol-Free Lifestyle! Be Sober in the City’ I shared all the exciting details about the Portland, Maine Sober in the City event.
Sober in the City (SITC) shows attendees exactly what an ALCOHOL-FREE gathering feels like — pure MAGIC. 🌠🤩✨✨
And SITC Portland did NOT disappoint. 🦞🤩🙌 It was a joyous weekend that showed everyone the absolute awesomeness of living life without alcohol. 🚫🍷🤩🙌
Leading up to the big event, I had participated in many great experiences. I met Susie Streelman of Zero Proof Experiences in person, attended monthly Thought Leader meetings, and created branded merchandise for the first time!
Even getting to the event was fun! I started the day with an ice bath facial and had a great travel day getting there with an extremely smooth and pleasant flight experience! 🧊🧊🤩✈️
And as soon as I arrived at the hotel, there were big hugs with Susie and Peggi Cooney, author of This Side of Alcohol. 📘 😍
The weekend’s transformative experience kicked off with a magical sunset sail 🌅⛵️🤩 around Casco Bay. The scenery was breathtaking, the camaraderie was incredible, and the #ZeroProof cocktails were flowing! 🚫🍻🚫🍹🚫🍻🚫🍹🤩
One of the standout moments of the SITC weekend experience was meeting Gill Tietz of Sober Powered in person and watching a live podcast hosted by Robbie Shaw and Patrick Balsely of the Champagne Problems Podcast!
In addition to Gill, the amazing panel included psychotherapist Tammy Valicenti of Transformation Solution and Kevin Mikolazyk, Director of Guardian Recovery Network.
Among the many great takeaways, the most powerful for me was Gill’s discussion on the many risk factors around the increased likelihood of people struggling with alcohol, with one being how well your body processes alcohol.
She said:
“I was a daily drinker, so my liver was doing a good job of getting rid of most of the alcohol so I could recover by the next afternoon and get ready to drink again that night. I never felt bad while I was drinking, so it was easy for me to just keep going and going.”
If you want to learn more about how alcohol affects you and why it’s so hard to quit, then check out her podcast.
I also had the opportunity to meet the founders of The Sober Edge Book Club, Teri The Sober Nutritionist, and Sarah Showard, and (as I mentioned earlier) this month’s author, Peggi Cooney, in person - bringing many things full circle! ⭕️🤩
What do I mean by full circle? Well, Sarah and Teri were first introduced through This Naked Mind’s program ‘The PATH.’ After that, they met in person at SITC Sacramento and then again at SITC Palm Springs!
They formed a strong bond, and their love of books prompted them to launch the book club (“Where All of The Sober Ladies Hangout”) in June of this year! It’s been a roaring success, and I’m so grateful to be a part of it. 🥰🙏🏻
I had a pretty significant full circle moment myself, with author Peggi Cooney. 😌📖 I’ve actually known about Peggi for more than four years. She is a prolific journaler, is very active on social media, and has bared her soul to thousands in various Facebook groups dedicated to recovery.
Several years ago, I was one of those souls dealing with a lot of pain and suffering, and Peggi offered me a lifeline with her regular check-ins and shares. I remember even having a back-and-forth dialogue with her on a post in the Fall of 2020 (around the time that I was taking a class called “The Bigger Yes” with Laura McKowen), where I was getting really close to total and complete freedom. 🙏🙌
Then, this year, I saw her in a Zoom meeting and got to interact with her as a peer! Fast forward to September 2023, and we finally get to meet in person! I was fortunate to get a lot of quality time with Peggi, and not surprisingly, she’s an incredible listener. 🥰🥰
SITC wasn’t just a social event for me; it was an opportunity for me to take my business to the next level, and I’m so grateful to Susie and Peggi for that. 😌🙏🏻
On Saturday afternoon, I set up a vendor table, which prompted me to make promotional items for the first time, including a newsletter sign-up sheet, travel mugs, UNcocktail tumblers, pens, and postcards with a QR code and a mocktail recipe.
I had a great time chatting with my fellow tablemates, and I learned great insights about being a vendor at events.
I also had to sit in the discomfort of a stressful situation regarding the promotional postcards. A series of delays outside of my control resulted in me getting my hands on them exactly one day after the conclusion of the event. 🤪
I did shed a few tears over those darn things, but it felt quite good to do so. I was pretty low on sleep, and it was a particularly emotional, introspective and intense weekend - the kind that cracks you wide open 💔 (but in a good way), leaving me feeling quite vulnerable.
After the release of letting go, I was able to move on and didn’t stress about them again, and I came up with the idea of displaying them on my iPad, which worked really well!
During the main evening event of the weekend, I had the privilege of leading the entire group through an interactive grounding activity involving the sunset. 🌅🧠 As part of my group activity, I handed out Calm Strips with my sunset logo. Calm Strips are reusable textured sensory stickers. They’re actually very popular with schools, as they are designed to help regulate restless energy and increase focus.
The feedback from the sunset activity was absolutely incredible. Attendees really responded to how relaxing it was for their nervous systems, and some people even shared with me that it was their favorite activity of the weekend. 😭💗
Leading groups has been a central theme of my 2023 journey, and it’s the direction I intend to keep following. Doing this for this wonderful SITC community was an honor. 😌🙌
Throughout the weekend, I made it to several of the events listed on the itinerary including Astro Yoga led by Heather Marie Morse, Therapeutic Journaling techniques by Pamela Walsh, a Sound Bath experience by Rachel Rivera, and an interactive presentation titled “YOU'RE ALCOHOL-FREE... NOW WHAT?” by Scott Pinyard, Modern Coparent Coach and previous This Naked Mind Head Coach.
Our keynote speakers for the weekend were Danny & Helenita Frounfelkner, owners of Sipple, which is Texas' first Non-alcoholic bottle shop! They also led 2 incredible activities with over the weekend which focused on nourishing our mind, body and spirit connection.
If you missed out on the Maine event, don't worry!
You can still be part of the fun at the Zero Proof Experiences SITC events in Tampa, Florida (February 2024, 9-11th) or the tropical paradise of Bali (June 21-28, 2024)! 🙌
Go to Susie Streelman’s Zero Proof Experiences website to learn more!
2023 has been a year of remarkable growth and connection that exceeded my wildest expectations.
I'm immensely grateful to you for being with me on this journey.
By sharing my experiences and openly discussing my path to an alcohol-free life, I hope to offer you the support, encouragement, and belief that a vibrant, healthy, and FUN life without alcohol can be yours, too.
If you're ready to start your own journey, remember that I'm here to help you through my coaching services. Feel free to reach out and book a FREE call with me.
I’m rooting for you 🙌
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Remember…
EVERY DAY IS A GOOD DAY TO BE ALCOHOL-FREE, and SUNSETS ARE THE NEW HAPPY HOUR!
Kristin ❤️ x
