Hey everyone, in this episode I interviewed the lovely and unapologetic Laura Cathcart Robbins of the podcast, The Only One in The Room."

I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and it gave me a fresh perspective because similar to her, I had my addiction really take hold later in my life. 

In this episode, we will discuss:

Being the "only one" in the room! How being a black woman in predominately white spaces led to keeping up appearances and utilizing alcohol as a way to numb ourselves and escape
Motherhood! Pre and post addiction and how Laura learned to put herself first and why it was detrimental for her recovery.
How her life evolved after rehab and what she does daily to keep balance and perspective with herself and loved ones. 
Why she was called to pen the HuffPo article about Hunter Biden's struggle with addiction during the election
Plans for her podcast, her writing, and her world!
I learned a lot from her grace and humility. I hope you will too. Please make sure to follow her on social and check out some more of her writing on HuffPo here. 

About Laura:

Laura Cathcart Robbins is a freelance culture writer and host of the popular podcast, The Only One In The Room, living in Studio City, California.  She has been active for many years as a speaker and school trustee and is credited for creating The Buckley School’s nationally recognized committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Her recent articles in the Huffington Post on the subjects of race, recovery, and divorce have garnered her worldwide acclaim. She is a 2018 LA Moth StorySlam winner and currently sits on the advisory board for the San Diego Writer’s Festival and the Outliers HQ podcast Festival.  Laura is also a founding member of Moving Forewords, the first national memoirist collective of its kind. Find out more about her on her website, or you can look for her on Facebook, on Instagram, and follow her on Twitter. 

https://theonlyonepod.com

Getting Your Sh*t Together

Interview: Recovering Yourself & Redefining Motherhood with Laura Cathcart Robbins

Dropping the first of many bonus episodes, y'all! Today, I want to discuss self-compassion because I think it is definitely beneficial for this holiday season and your life overall.

How do you look at or frame self-compassion? 

Utilizing self-compassion, we give ourselves the same kindness and care we’d give to a good friend or child
Getting sober had me stumbling and falling into figuring out who I was. I had no clue, I talked to myself poorly and it showed up in all my relationships (friends, family, romantic or otherwise). It was nuts. So, I wanted to talk about my journey (that is still going on). In this episode, I will talk about:

Family history and how it shaped me and my drinking
Things I would do when I was dishonoring myself
Tiny steps that started me down the road of reclaiming me and what I'm feeling 

Admitting that at times, this process may be lonely but that's okay! Stay the course.

Ways you can start incorporating the threads of self-compassion into your own life 

Things that I talked about during this episode:

The book that I'm talking about: Self Compassion -  The Proven Power of Being Yourself by Kristen Neff. (If you have Kindle Unlimited, it's now free.99 on there!)

Bonus Episode: Self Compassion Deep Dive

Hey, friends, hey!

I got a Q&A from someone who listens to the show about my stance, view, thoughts on NA drinks when it comes to recovery.

This episode will be short and sweet but net/net is that I decided that like most things in recovery (and how I see it), it depends on you. HOWEVER, I didn't touch NA drinks until after my first year! Trust, my social life was sho nuff interesting.  

Why? Because your girl is QUEEN of not handling sh*t and I would have just used that as my crutch as a way to feel "normal" and not address my stuff.

When in reality, life as I knew it then, had changed. Which, in hindsight, is okay but it sure as hell didn't feel like it then.

Take a listen. Let me know what you think? Agree or disagree?

Q&A: What's your stance on NA Drinks in Recovery?

Friends, friends, friends....we made it!!!

I can't believe it's the end of the damn year! But it's here. I swear, it feels like yesterday we were ringing in 2020 and positioning ourselves to start this new decade with a BANG.

But hey, life had other plans for us, and HERE WE ARE.

I typically like to use the last days of the year to look at how my year was and what I plan to prioritize in the upcoming year.

Friends, there was a lot this year. To be candid -- once COVID and quarantine hit, I got hit with a bad case of depression, and the death of my friend/mentor rocked me more on top of that.

This year, it was about humility. And giving myself the grace to be depressed and not giving myself guilt over it. And man, it was hard, but I got there.

In this episode, I want to talk about some of the nuggets that I landed on to usher me into 2021. Lacey and Nik from the Sober Company podcast also joined me to chop it up about 2020 too. I like to consider it a conversational inventory, which I encourage you to either do on your own OR gather some friends and dive deep into what this year really meant to you.

We discussed:
The clusterfu*k of 2020 overall
What we learned about our recovery
What we learned about ourselves
What we accepted about ourselves 
Diversity + Inclusion in the sober community
Our plans for our podcasts!

End of Year Recap with Sober Company

There is beauty in your chaos and even more in your acceptance of it. They say the 20s are for finding yourself but what about those of us that missed that memo? WTF, right? Don't worry, I have you all the way covered. Each Thursday, join Cynthia, a Brooklynite in her 30s as she adjusts to being sober (it's a thing), while navigating this crazy thing called life...one day at a time.

gettingyoursh*ttogether