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Self-Esteem Boosters

Morning all 🙋🏻‍♀️ We don’t have to wait in limbo for the New Year to start looking after ourselves … ‘Self-Esteem – is how we feel and value ourselves.  Many of us have low opinions of ourselves and this leads to lack of confidence and low self-esteem.  We are not born with this way of thinking.  This is shaped by life events, other people’s Opinions and how society views the so-called…

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Stress Bucket

Ever felt like you’re about to overflow with stress? I’m Corrina Alderton, and today, I’ll guide you through the concept of the “Stress Bucket” — a powerful visualization that helps us understand and manage our stress better. Imagine your stress as water filling a bucket: without release, it’s bound to overflow. But what if you could drill holes to manage the pressure? Join me as we explore how…

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Retrain Your Brain

Good Morning from Australia 🙋🏻‍♀️ This is my little movie for my vlogs but I will change it each day – sometimes with music. I thought it would tie in well with today’s extract from my book … ‘Brain Plasticity (Neuroplasticity) – the good news.  We can repair and rewire our brain and our nervous system, and this will be the case for most of us.  The growth of the brain, its neurons and the…

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Circadian Rhythms

Good Morning from Australia 🙋🏻‍♀️ Feeling much better now that my body is fully on Australian time 🙏 I am so grateful that I am no longer throwing alcohol into the mix … ‘Circadian Rhythms – comes from the Latin ‘Circa Diem’ – around the day.  And this is what our wonderful body does, 24 hours a day.  It keeps everything moving and circulating in rhythm, ticking nicely away, keeping us in time…

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Staying in Control

Good Morning from Australia 🙋🏻‍♀️ Celebrating 3 1/2 years of sober bus driving … ‘Bus – who’s driving yours?  Does this idea sound weird?  This metaphor really resonated with me during ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy).  Imagine our life being a bus and we are the driver.  The passengers on the bus are people, thoughts, feelings, beliefs etc that we collect in our journey through life and…

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Breathing Exercises

Good Morning 🙋🏻‍♀️ Travelling the world alone can be pretty anxiety provoking. But so can stepping outside our door some days. Breathing is my go to, it helps me to stay in control. I hope today’s excerpt will help you too … ‘Breathing Exercises – are great to practice for daily calm, health and wellbeing.  The more we practice them, the more automatic they become for us to use when we really…

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Blackout

Good Morning 🙋🏻‍♀️ I’ve been pretty ill since I landed in Australia but each day I am grateful that I am no longer adding alcohol to the mix … ‘Blackout – I love my blackout curtains, they really do help me to get a good night’s sleep.  Unlike the blackouts my brain and body had when I was drinking.  When we blackout with alcohol we become our own darkness and cannot remember what we have…

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Binge Drinking

Good Morning from Australia 🙋🏻‍♀️ ‘Binge Drinking – many of us think we do not have a problem with alcohol as we do not drink every day.  The occasional bender is OK right?  But the very fact that we cannot stop once we start says there is an issue.  And if we do it every weekend, we are just about getting back to a place of mental and physical balance when we go and do it all again.  Binge…

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Beriberi Disease and Alcohol

Morning all 🙋🏻‍♀️ Another side effect of alcohol. Funnily enough, all my ‘wet’ symptoms have gone since I quit drinking … ‘Beriberi Disease – is caused by Thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency, one of those nutrients that alcohol knocks out.  There are two types:  Wet: causing issues with the heart, circulation and body organs, leading to pain, confusion, loss of muscle function and sensation,…

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Belonging

Morning all 🙋🏻‍♀️ I wrote this 18 months ago in my book. Everyday I become freer and my story is now wonderful … ‘Belonging – this is something I have struggled with my whole life.  I always felt on the outside.  The odd one out.  I took my first ever puff of a cigarette and drink of a ‘snowball’ (eggnog) to be like everyone else, fit in and belong.  My drinking career began at 14 for this very…

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Aspartame

Morning all 🙋🏻‍♀️ Something a bit different this morning as I celebrate 26 days off the sugars – even with 5 days in Disneyland Pais surrounded by French patisseries… ‘Aspartame – an artificial sweetener, also marketed as Nutrasweet.  It’s not technically related to alcohol and sobriety, but the sugar cravings are.  Many of us switch to diet and sugar free drinks and soda and, with the sugar…

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Anxiety

Morning all 🙋🏻‍♀️ There’s a little short to go with todays post as remembering our area of control can help with anxiety … ‘Anxiety – the BIG A!  Arghh!  Absolutely debilitating.  How many of us drink to calm our anxiety and our nerves?  We’ve had a shock – have a brandy.  We’ve had a hard day – crack open a bottle.  I honestly forgot what the kettle sounded like.  As soon as I put a foot…

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Anger Management

Morning all 🙋🏻‍♀️ Following on from yesterdays anger post, todays is about its management … ‘Anger Management – is learning new ways to express and let go of this strong emotion.  One way of doing this is to write a letter to the person, organisation or thing that is making you feel angry.  Get really angry.  Pour it all out, read it, cut the letter into pieces and burn it.  Then either let it…

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Anger

Morning all 🙋🏻‍♀️ What fires you up? 🔥 ‘Anger – ‘is the punishment we give to ourselves for someone else’s mistake’ Gautama Buddha, but we also punish ourselves for our own mistakes.  Anger is a normal human response.  There is nothing wrong with anger, it is what we do with it that counts: fights, arguments, breaking things, self-harm.  These are our behaviours, and separate from the emotion. …

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Are You Abusing Alcohol

Morning all 🙋🏻‍♀️ What is your score on the FAST test ⬇️ I used to do it every week when I was nursing … it took a year to sink in 🤦🏻‍♀️ Alcohol Abuse – alcohol is part of our culture. The majority of us will drink during our lives. But when does it become a problem? I think this is personal, but I like to use Doctor Maté’s take on Addiction as a guide. Most professionals would probably say…

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Affirmations

Morning all 🙋🏻‍♀️ ‘Affirmations – are positive sayings to help us rewire our ways of thinking.  Whatever we tell ourselves our mind and body believe.  I used to refer to these as Mantras but have now discovered these are actually two very different things.  Find some positive affirmations that resonate and work for you and use them when you need to.  There are lots out there but here are a few…

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Alcohol Truth

Morning all 🙋🏻‍♀️ Here’s a little reminder on the hard hitting truth of alcohol … ‘Alcohol – the alcohol we drink is Ethanol and contains formaldehyde, arsenic and multiple cancer-causing chemicals.  It is reported to kill over 3 million people a year worldwide.  This means that in the first year of Covid, 300,000 more people died from alcohol related disease than from the virus.  Alcohol…

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