The Gifts of 35 Years of Sobriety, an interview with Carla Rieger
Freeing ourselves from something we got so acquainted with indeed requires a huge amount of will and dedication to succeed. Could it be a person, a moment, a former addiction, or whatever it is in that form, the battle won’t be an easy one to win over. Nevertheless, so as the saying goes, nothing is impossible with the Creator. It just needs a combination of His guidance and your effort, and in time, you’ll see yourself being freed. “You know, what's your value system? What are you aligned with? Does that fit for you? And if it doesn't, then don't participate because you're not gonna feel good about it.”– Mary Sue Rabe Having yourself overly enjoy things this world offers could be a death trap disguised as a gift. People often see an event as a necessity in the process of building the better versions they’ve thought of themselves as long as it made them happy at some point. However, not everything you’ve once thought is interesting can remain that way in time. This is where people face the challenge of letting go. In this episode, Mary Sue shares the gifts of 35 years of sobriety together with someone who went through the same process – Carla. Learn the power of quitting drinking and its impact on your well-being. What you will learn from this episode: How quitting drinking benefits you, your body, and your well-being How drinking affects how you think and act in situations The essence of having a support system that helps you in the process of quitting Link to a free resource: https://marysuerabe.com Topics Covered: 00:47 – Mary talks about the memory of how she was raised – taking responsibility and making an excuse; the lessons she realized afterwards. 05:20 – She shares the first gift of sobriety she’s learned: the highest good for you, is the highest good for everyone else. 06:24 – Another gift of sobriety: being vulnerable. 07:54 – Worry vs. Praying – which weighs more? No control, no action. 12:52 – She shares more about finding a community of people who can’t speak but she can really relate to; An appointment with Madame Hipple and her interest in tarot cards. 17:13 – The thing that bothered her the absolute most; A narrative back when she was five and her oldest sister was learning to drive; Her sister having intuitive thoughts. 25:03 – Talks about how when you drink, you create holes in your aura; the concept of alcohol spirits. 28:27 – Remembering the four steps: knowing you’re powerless over alcohol, asking God to help you, making a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him, and making a searching and fearless moral inventory. 31:33 – The fifth step: are you willing to share it? Issues in life and family; a glimpse on her and Keith’s story in relation to her father’s response. 35:50 – Another learning: knowing your values; having an overgrowth of Candida. 40:07 – She shares about what she noticed with the change in her relationship with people; what she thinks around people who drink too much. 46:02 – False fun; Twelve stages of drunkenness. 49:43 – Her thoughts regarding people who think they are not alcoholic because they can handle it; the situation of someone who had hashimotos. 52:01 – Her thoughts about people who can’t put an end to drinking; A memory of talking about psychic things with mom and her psychic lessons with a friend who paved way for her to quit drinking. 59:42 – Last things to say about 35 years of sobriety; What she’s happy about. 1:02:00 – Another lesson learned: don’t judge people. 1:03:38 –The next steps for the episode; another thing to talk about: acceptance. 1:07:31 – Short narrative back when she was writing her fourth step. Key Takeaways: “The highest good for you is the highest good for everyone else.” - Mary Sue Rabe “You take care of you and yourself and everything's gonna fall into place for everybody else. Otherwise you're trying to do everything for them and it doesn't work. You're not setting a good example for your children either if you don't take care of yourself.” - Mary Sue Rabe “And it's not really the situation that you're in, but it's what you think about the situation. And if you think it's awful then it's going to be awful. But if you can look for the good in the situation and what do I have to learn from this, then you have a totally different attitude and you can withdraw your emotions from it, where you can make a rational decision instead of, you know, making an emotional decision.” - Mary Sue Rabe “Don't go down that rabbit hole, don't take that option. And I think a lot of people don't realize that they have an option to don't think about whether the outcome’s going to be positive or negative before they do something before they take an action. But to me, that was really helpful. It's like, that's not going to help until against the highest good for me. So it's best for me to not know what he's doing because I have no control over it anyway and it's just gonna be upsetting. So just don't do it.” - Mary Sue Rabe “And the other thing I learned is that you can't really look at things correctly because of alcohol. And so, to me, if you go to a party and you have more drinks than you want to, then you know you're powerless over it.” - Mary Sue Rabe Connect with Mary Sue Rabe: https://marysuerabe.com https://womenhealingtheworld.com • Book: Stand There and Look Pretty Darin’ : https://www.amazon.com/Stand-There-Look-Pretty-Darlin-ebook/dp/B07N3P49L3/