If you’re going into one of your first holiday seasons with the intention to abstain from alcohol, it’s likely that you’re feeling the tiniest bit wobbly about the whole thing.

And understandably so. The holiday season is notoriously the most indulgent season of the year, with plenty of pressures, opportunities, and excuses to imbibe.

Whether it’s the allure of a “special occasion”, the overwhelm of a packed social calendar, or the stress of navigating family dynamics turning to the consummate cure-all we know as alcohol can be very tempting.

I used to lean into this narrative and was the first to turn to a glass of “holiday cheer” as I cutely called it, to manage the stress and chaos of the festive season. I’m now approaching my eighth alcohol-free holiday season and I’ve helped hundreds of sober curious women stay sober through the holidays and beyond.

Here are the four simple steps I’d have you take if you were feeling nervous about navigating the holidays alcohol-free.

1. Commit to yourself & make it non-negotiable

So often, the women I work with go into the holidays already giving themselves an “out”. They approach it with language such as “I’m going to try to not drink.”

I hate to be harsh, but this kind of language sets you up for failure. It also sends a subtle signal to your brain that you don’t believe in yourself. It communicates to your subconscious that you don’t believe you have what it takes to hack it; therefore, you’re just going to try.

Instead, I want to encourage you to make a commitment to yourself that you are not making any exceptions this holiday season. Even if it’s done just as an experiment to see what it’s like. Give yourself this one holiday season without booze and plan to reevaluate afterward.

2. Advocate for yourself

Figure out what you need to make sticking to this commitment easier. Is it a slower social calendar? A secret stash of fun and yummy non-alcoholic drinks? Is it an accountability plan? Clear communication?

It is your responsibility to do what you need to set yourself up for success. As the saying goes, “Fail to prepare and prepare to fail.”

Some simple preparation and self-advocacy steps I’d recommend include:

• Establishing personal clarity on what feels like too much this holiday season. If there is something that’s going to compromise the commitment you made to yourself, you have to ask if that event or obligation is really essential or if you can skip it this year (you probably can).
• Share your goals with others. Keeping quiet about goals is a huge trap my clients often set for themselves. They chalk it up to not wanting to be a nuisance or not wanting to draw attention to themselves. I want to encourage you to look at this through the lens of empowerment, not shame. You are taking care of yourself and it’s okay to let people know that — this year — self care includes not drinking. Put together a small script that you can use when put on the spot. Make it easier on yourself by notifying hosts or family members about your non-drinking status before an event so that you can ensure there will be something alternative for you to drink, or arrange to bring your own if the host isn’t willing to accommodate you.
• Stick to your boundaries. If you feel overwhelmed, wobbly, or bored, you can simply leave early. It’s seriously no big deal.

As you can see, it’s not only important to communicate clearly with others, but also to set and enforce boundaries with yourself if you want to navigate social situations successfully.

3. Update your toolbox

Emotional stressors and triggers are going to happen. If you’ve been in the practice of using alcohol to navigate such stressors and triggers, you’ll need a higher-quality replacement so that you’re not left white-knuckling it through the holidays.

You can research emotional regulation tools for specific stressors you experience or talk it through with your coach or therapist who can recommend techniques that can be helpful.

The most important thing to remember is that none of these tools will seem quite as effective as alcohol in the moment. However, they are much more effective long-term. Remember, if alcohol actually helped you manage social anxiety or stress, the anxiety and stress wouldn’t return (sometimes even worse) once alcohol wore off.

4. Get support

Just because it sounds simple enough to not drink this holiday season, we all know simple does not equal easy.

I recommend you seek out support in the form of a community, mentor, or both! I’ll share some ways below that I could support you, but do remember there are tons of resources out there to help hold you accountable. The most important thing is that you remember that you are the only one responsible for you. You must make a commitment to show up for yourself. When you do, I promise you’ll roll into the new year with a sense of pride and confidence you’ve never had before.

Ready to dive deeper into the sober curious movement? I provide more resources & tools for embracing an alcohol-free lifestyle over on Instagram and inside of my bestselling book, Unbottled Potential.

I’ll never forget that fateful New Years Day in 2017 when I put my half-drank beer on an empty table in the pub where my friends and I were celebrating and walked out.

In that moment, I didn’t know that this would be my last sip of alcohol. I thought I was simply embarking on a 30-day sobriety experiment for Dry January. But, what started as an experiment extended to 90 days, to 6 months, then to a year.

Now, seven years later, I’ve become a notable voice in the alcohol-free community, a top transformational sobriety coach, and a bestselling author. In my time as a student and teacher in this space, I’ve made it my mission to be ruthlessly observant and curious about the ways in which we allow alcohol to permeate our lives.

Each year, I take some time to reflect on the lessons I’ve learned about alcohol and, in honor of seven years alcohol-free, I’m sharing seven of the most poignant lessons I’ve learned about alcohol.

ALCOHOL ISN’T YOUR PROBLEM, IT’S YOUR INEFFECTIVE SOLUTION.

As someone who identified as a “casual” or “social” drinker, I didn’t resonate with language centered around addiction or recovery. And yet, I couldn’t deny the fact that alcohol had become something I turned to as a crutch. The reality is, though I didn’t have a “problem” with alcohol, I was using it as a solution to the very real problems I had in my life. Once I took a look at the perceived character flaws, emotional struggles, and social insecurities I was using alcohol to solve, it became clear where I had work to do in my life. Once I devoted time and energy to solving those problems rather than using alcohol as a short-term quick-fix, alcohol became obsolete in my life.

YOU DON’T NEED TO HAVE A PROBLEM WITH ALCOHOL FOR IT TO BE A PROBLEM IN YOUR LIFE.

One of the factors that caused me to continue drinking even after I began questioning my relationship with alcohol was the fact that I didn’t have a diagnosable problem or addiction. Though I’m grateful for this fact and am acutely aware that my habit could have easily evolved into a problem if left unchecked, this also made sobriety seem like an extreme solution. However, after attempting several approaches to moderation and realizing they required more energy than I was willing to give, I realized that alcohol was doing nothing but creating friction in my life.

If alcohol is in any way keeping you from living out your dreams, it’s a problem. Therefore, investigating your relationship with alcohol can become your life’s biggest opportunity.

THERE WILL NEVER BE A CONVENIENT TIME TO QUIT DRINKING.

Back in my sober curious days, I was always looking for a convenient time to commit to taking a break from alcohol. Spoiler: There wasn’t one. No matter which page I flipped my calendar to, there was always a socially acceptable opportunity to drink. Even if my calendar wasn’t stacked up with social obligations, I realized that there would always be a celebration to toast or a sorrow to drown. There would always be a special occasion, a decadent meal, a shit day at work, an uncomfortable first date…the list goes on and on. I was never going to be short of excuses to imbibe. Taking a break from alcohol was a decision and commitment I had to make by myself, for myself.

The most convenient time to change your relationship with alcohol will inevitably be the day you decide living out your potential is more important than your comfort.

IF IT’S NOT FUN WITHOUT ALCOHOL…IT’S JUST NOT FUN.

Drinking alcohol dulls your tolerance for not-fun things, making them appear more interesting than they really are. Point blank: If you don’t enjoy a person or experience without alcohol, it’s likely that person or experience simply isn’t for you.

This is a good thing, REJOICE! Let’s make this the year you stop doing unfulfilling things and dulling your mind down so that you can tolerate them. Let’s make this the year you determine what you really enjoy and do more of that!

BEING ALCOHOL-FREE RAISES YOUR ENERGETIC FREQUENCY.

Everything you interact with has energy. No matter how you look at it, alcohol is a depressant. It’s a low-vibe substance that generates low-vibrational energetic returns. Yes, even when you’re drinking “high-quality” alcohol or imbibing as part of a celebration.

When you make low-vibe energetic investments, you get low-er vibe energetic returns. Conversely, when you raise your energetic frequency, you start to attract others who vibrate at a similar frequency and repel those who don’t.

WHEN YOU STOP DRINKING, YOU START MANIFESTING

Your energetic vibration impacts how quickly and easily you can attract your desires into your life. Even if you’ve managed to attract relatively amazing things into your life as a drinker, I’m willing to bet that you could attract more with less effort if you removed alcohol from the equation.

SOBRIETY IS A COMPETITIVE EDGE THAT CANNOT BE MATCHED

On a more practical level, every aspect of your life has the potential to expand when you remove a substance — like alcohol — that (even if consumed in moderation) stunts your growth. Further, being alcohol-free will set you apart from the crowd in all areas of life. Choosing sobriety will give you opportunities that other people don’t get simply because you are willing to do something out of the social norm. This isn’t weird, it’s amazing.

Not to mention the fact that electing to be sober will give you more energy, increase your creativity and help you tap into intellectual and emotional ranges that many drinkers don’t have access to or awareness of.

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Do these insights hit home? Go here to check out a list of my most up-to-date resources and offerings to learn how to dive deeper into the world of sober curiosity and alcohol-free living.

I’ve always been a high achiever. I graduated at the top of my grad school class (earning an A from a teacher who infamously ‘didn’t give As’), I landed my first job out of college working with a well-respected businessman and author where I was often celebrated by company executives.

By the time I turned 30, I’d purchased my first house and been named one of the “top 20 young professionals under 30” by a posh Midwestern magazine. By all accounts, I was flying high.

Except I wasn’t. I was doing the thing a lot of us do in our early careers, burning the candle at both ends by overworking myself at my 9–5 and partying the weekend away with my other successful young professional friends.

It didn’t take me too long into my professional career to realize that I’d chosen a career path that was in my Zone of Excellence rather than my Zone of Genius (terms coined by Gay Hendricks in his book, The Big Leap). Sure, I was good at my job, but my glamorous career in marketing wasn’t my passion or what came easiest to me.

My discontent only grew as I climbed the ranks in my career, leaving the Midwest for a move to a marketing gig in Texas. Again, my life looked great on the outside. I was making more money and rubbing elbows with the elite at charity events, but I wasn’t happy.

I masked my discontent by throwing myself further into the weekend party scene with the “see and be seen” crowd which left me dragging myself into work on Monday morning, still in the fog of a lingering hangover.

By the time I reached 30, I’d all but had it with the work hard, play hard routine. I was ready to figure out my next steps and find a career path that felt inspiring and aligned. I started digging deep into the world of personal development and self-help, often binging podcasts and audiobooks, desperate to figure out my next move.

Somewhere along the way, I began to sense that my weekend drinking habits might be — somehow — getting in the way of the transformation I was seeking. Although I couldn’t prove it, I had the intuition that my completely normal, social drinking routine was actually doing more damage than met the eye.

There was only one problem: I didn’t have a problem. I was no more than a normal social drinker. I didn’t embody a significant number of behaviors to label myself with alcohol use disorder (alcoholism/addiction). And, nearly a decade ago, there weren’t people talking about going sober outside of the traditional model of recovery.

I felt stuck. I worried that I’d become a social outcast if I quit drinking. I couldn’t fathom how I’d navigate the booze-centric work events that I was obligated to go to. And, don’t even get me started on how impossible it felt to be on the singles scene as a non-drinker.

The path of sobriety looked like a dismal one. And yet, I couldn’t help but feel pulled to take a step back from the party scene. I had a growing intuition that my wildest dreams were just on the other side of a break up from alcohol.

Spoiler: I was right.

Somewhat reluctantly, I decided to participate in a 30-day sober experiment during January, 2017. The popular challenge, otherwise known as “Dry January” felt like a less-intimidating time to commit to a break from alcohol because I knew several other people like me who were doing the same.

That 30 day break led to breakthroughs, which eventually culminated in an unintentional, yet completely miraculous break up from booze.

In fact, January 1st, 2017 was the last time I drank alcohol. I’ll save all the details for another time, and cut to the results.

Within 90 days of ditching the drink, I started to feel more clear headed and creative. I began to see possibilities that before didn’t seem available to me. I was also sleeping better, eating healthier, and working out super-consistently; which only contributed to my good feeling.

At the six month mark, I noticed a major shift in my mood and self-esteem. I’d begun to conquer things sober that I’d needed alcohol to survive before. That felt good. I started thinking more clearly and even more creatively. I had more energy, enthusiasm, and emotional resilience. At this point I began to invest in education for myself to prepare me for whatever was coming next in my career.

After a year of abstaining, alcohol had basically become insignificant in my life. I’d invested a lot of time in working on myself to dismantle the limiting beliefs that caused me to stay attached to alcohol for so long. Although my life wasn’t perfect, for the first time in a long time I felt hopeful; as if I were really on the right path.

Around this time, I started miraculously attracting new opportunities into my life. Whether these were professional partnerships, connections, mentors, or random financial abundance; my life seemed like it was really in flow.

In the Fall of 2019, 2.5 years after I quit drinking, I made the move to leave my corporate job to pursue my growing passion for supporting women as a holistic life coach. By the Spring of 2020, I felt motivated to start explore the possibility of writing my own self-help book. I hired a coach to support me and by January 2021, I’d signed on to have my dream literary team represent me in getting my book idea in front of publishers.

With my agents’ help, I landed a book deal with a top publishing house and my first book (Unbottled Potential: Break Up With Alcohol And Break Through To Your Best Life) was published in October, 2023.

In just seven short years, I went from pretty miserable and unmotivated in my career to ticking off almost every professional goal I’ve had up to this point (don’t worry, I’m working on my new visions now!).

Here’s what I have to tell you: All of this came to me with relative ease once I made the decision to get out of my own way and stop wasting my time with alcohol.

(Note: I’m extremely spiritual and I believe that quitting alcohol and doing personal development work helped me raise my energetic vibration so that I was more aligned with my desires, which caused them to come to fruition with greater ease, but that’s a concept for another post).

Being free from alcohol gave me precious time and energy I needed to pour into my goals. An unexpected side effect of ditching booze was that I also grew my self confidence and sense of worth because I was forced to tackle limiting beliefs and life challenges that I used to attempt to forget with alcohol. Further, with alcohol out of the way, I began operating at a higher level creatively. Suddenly, my mind was a treasure trove of ideas and possibilities. What’s more, because I have more energy and confidence, I actually believed that my wildest dreams were within reach…they were.

If you’ve made it this far and you identify as someone with big dreams and professional goals, I can tell you this: Your dreams were meant to be yours. They were put on your heart for a reason and even your wildest dreams are small in comparison to what you are actually capable of.

Of course, I’m not sure how much you drink or how often. But, I can say with certainty that if you consume alcohol on a regular or consistent basis, it is absolutely holding you back from achieving those dreams. Even if you have managed to have some wild professional success thus far in your life (and I imagine you have), that success pales in comparison to what you would be capable of if you were always operating at maximum capacity.

What I want you to know is this: Now, more than ever, we need you operating at maximum capacity. No, not so you can hustle and grind harder (ew!). We need the version of you that is operating in their Zone of Genius. We need that special gift you have. We need to see your dreams and desires come to life. Why? Because your self-expression and actualization is going to have a tremendous impact on those around you. We absolutely need that.

If you feel called to take a break from alcohol as a way to accelerate your dreams and desires, I’m here to cheer you on. I know that you have big things to do in this world, and I know that you will accomplish your dreams faster and with more ease and flow with alcohol out of the way.

PS: You can learn more about living an alcohol-free lifestyle over on my IG page. I also host an annual Dry January Challenge you can learn more about here.

What if the unique reason you’re attracted to an alcohol-free lifestyle is also the exact thing keeping you from choosing sobriety?

It’s more common than you think. Every day, I talk to powerful, ambitious, amazing women (like you!) who use alcohol to stay in their comfort zone.

These women have big work to do in this world. They have big hearts, big ambitions, and big emotions. In my nearly seven years working as a leading alcohol-free life coach, I’ve noticed three specific types of women who are inexplicably drawn to sober curiosity.

These women are not alcoholics or in need of recovery support. Rather, they are average, normative drinkers who consume alcohol socially or in moderate frequent quantities (think an evening glass of wine or cocktail).

While these women wouldn’t say there is anything exceptional or particularly problematic about their drinking, they all share a sense that alcohol has started to wear out its welcome in their lives.

This subtle intuition starts to tug at their hearts, causing them to consider what it might be like to explore a more moderate and mindful relationship with booze. They begin to contemplate how much better and easier life might be without the constant, repetitive cycle of drinking and hangovers. Most importantly, these women sense that there is something miraculous awaiting them on the other side of their relationship with alcohol.

And yet, these women also express a resistance to choosing sobriety. They let the practical side of their brain convince them that choosing to be sober might be too drastic or unnecessary. They rationalize that going alcohol-free will ruin their social lives or relationships. They worry that becoming sober will make them boring or leave them with no way to cope, celebrate, relax, or unwind.

Have you been there?

I have. Toggling between being curious about sobriety and terrified of sobriety was my constant mental push-and-pull the year I turned 30. Around that time, I’d begun to wake up to pursuing spiritual study and personal development and drinking didn’t feel like it fit in with my new life pursuits. So, I tried to compromise, committing to my mindfulness journey persistently during the week and allowing myself to drift into the mindlessness of boozy culture on the weekends.

It didn’t take too long for this form of “balance” to feel like an exhausting juggling act. Essentially, I was living a double life and trying to keep up both because society told me I was supposed to drink in order to fit in. Further, I was led to believe that people who didn’t have a problem with alcohol didn’t need to quit drinking…they should just figure out how to moderate and enjoy alcohol.

The fact of the matter is I did enjoy alcohol until my desire to explore my potential outweighed my desire to fit in. I wonder if you’re here because you, too, have started to lean into the curiosity that you have untapped potential that can’t quite be expressed with alcohol in the picture.

In my experience, sober curiosity isn’t random and it doesn’t have to mean you have a problem with alcohol. I believe you’re feeling sober curious for a reason. I believe YOU have a sober curious calling, unique to you, that has been tugging at your heart, begging to be expressed.

After facilitating hundreds of hours of coaching calls with sober curious women, I’ve come to identify three unique sober curious callings. These personality types are typically drawn to sober curiosity as a means of stepping into this calling.

Ironically, these same individuals also use alcohol as a way to avoid exploring this calling. Why? We live in a world where — women especially — have been taught to conform, play small, and dim their light as a way to fit in. We also live in a world where there is one, seemingly harmless, tool that subconsciously contributes to our conformity, smallness, and dimming down: Alcohol.

Perhaps you have started to feel the gentle tug towards choosing to be sober. If so, I wonder if you resonate with one of the three archetypes I’ve identified:

• The Spiritual Seeker: Use alcohol as a socially acceptable way to abandon their authentic essence — the thing that makes you uniquely you. Then, they continue to drink to dull the discomfort of living out of authentic alignment.
• The Ambitious Achiever: Use alcohol as a socially acceptable way to abandon their talents and dreams — the unique thing you were put here to do. Then, they continue to drink in order to dull the discomfort of living out of alignment with their authentic purpose.
• The Authenticity Alchemist: Use alcohol to avoid looking at areas where their social and emotional growth have been stunted. When they drink, they abandon their authentic power and truth in order to behave in ways they perceive are most socially acceptable.

In my work supporting ambitious, intuitive, sensitive women on a sober curious path, I’ve honed in on specific characteristics that make up each of these Sober Curious Callings including elements of their upbringing, their personality traits, their subtle drinking habits, their biggest life challenges, and their personal purpose.

If what I’ve shared above resonates with you and you’d like to learn more about your Sober Curious Calling and how it might be keeping you from choosing sobriety, go to amandakuda.com/quiz to take my quick 5 minute quiz and learn which Sober Curious Calling you’re most aligned with (and what do do next).

PS: I also wrote a bestselling book on living an alcohol-free lifestyle called Unbottled Potential — you can check it out here.

I stopped drinking on January 1, 2017, as part of an experiment. At the time, I was in the midst of a massive spiritual awakening (coupled with the completion of my Saturn Return — yay!) that was rocking my world.

At this point, I’d been on my spiritual path for a few years, frantically absorbing any new-age spiritual teacher or text you’d put in front of me. By the time I hit 30, my Audible library looked like the who’s who of Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday.

By all accounts, I was checking the major boxes of what it meant to live a spiritual life. I was studying, praying, meditating, doing affirmations…you name it, I was willing to try it. While all of these actions created positive results in my life, I wasn’t quite feeling the miraculous transformation and sense of connectedness that my spiritual teachers were talking about.

At first, I touted this inexplicable discontent up to something I wasn’t doing right…maybe I wasn’t praying hard enough, meditating right, or using the proper affirmations…something simply didn’t add up.

Then, I started looking at the possibility of elimination; maybe living a spiritual life wasn’t about doing more, but doing less. After all, some of the greatest gurus chose to live a rather simple life. When I looked at my modern lifestyle, suddenly a lightbulb went off: alcohol. It had to be alcohol.

As a single, social, thirty-something, this epiphany that alcohol might be the thing getting in the way of my spiritual enlightenment didn’t sit well. I tried several times to talk myself out of sobriety as a plausible path. After all, people who didn’t have a problem with alcohol didn’t just stop drinking, did they?

So, I did what any spiritual-ish person would do: I asked for a sign…and the Universe delivered. Slowly, I began to realize that many of the spiritual and self-help teachers I’d been drawn to — from Wayne Dyer to Gabrielle Bernstein to Brené Brown lived sober lifestyles. Yet, I still hesitated, the only examples of sobriety I could find were rooted in addiction work. Because I wasn’t addicted (I did take the online assessment and consult my therapist to be sure, by the way), I was resistant to these recovery-based approaches. To be clear, I absolutely support addiction and recovery, but the approach didn’t feel like a fit for my particular situation.

Yet, I couldn’t ignore the examples of people I admired who genuinely seemed to be happier and more fulfilled without alcohol in the picture. I decided sobriety was less about the approach and more about the outcome. So, hesitantly, I decided to give it a try. I started with a 30-day commitment that quickly turned to 90. And, somewhere within those 90 days, I got my sign…

While taking my morning shower and listening to a podcast, I heard a distinct message from my Inner Guide, “Amanda,” it called, “I see you doing big things in this world, but I can’t see you doing them with alcohol in the picture.”

This was the second or third time my intuition had clearly tried to get my attention in recent months, and each time the effect was the same: An intense warmth rolled over my body coupled with the sensation that I’d been punched in the gut. I crouched to the shower floor as tears welled in my eyes. The message was loud and clear, I absolutely could not unhear it.

From that point forward, continuing my alcohol-free lifestyle became a non-negotiable. I decided that I’d use the free mental and physical space to throw myself more earnestly into my spiritual study along with the pursuit of my dreams and passions.

Fast forward almost seven years and, today, I am living the life I read about all those years ago in all the spiritual books. I’ve tapped into my intuition and embraced my energetic and gifts. I have a connection with a higher power of my own understanding. Through this connection, I have felt more grounded, supported and resilient. I’ve also become incredibly magnetic, easily attracting desires and experiences that I once had to struggle for.

Over the last seven years of exploring the intersection of sobriety and spirituality, I’ve recognized more deeply the spiritual effects of alcohol — and how sobriety can help you expand more deeply into your spiritual connection:

The Spiritual Effects of Alcohol

Before we get started, let me caveat this conversation with the notion that alcohol is not immoral or unspiritual. You likely know of many spiritual practices that integrate alcohol into ceremonies. However, while Jesus did alchemize water into wine, I don’t think he and the disciples were playing slap the bag with a box of chillable red or throwing down a bottle while studying the good word.

The following observations are not intended to make you feel shame or guilt (fear tactics are very unspiritual, IMO), but rather to open you up to experiences you may be having if you are on a spiritual journey and feeling somehow disconnected from the process. In my work as a spiritual teacher and coach, most of my clients feel a sense of clarity and affirmation when they are presented with the realities of the spiritual effects of alcohol. Hopefully, you will, too.

Alcohol amplifies the voice of the ego

The ego is the internal voice of fear, lack, anxiety, judgment and separation. The ego thrives on your discomfort and stagnation and inner turmoil. The ego is discrete in its tactics, convincing you that it has your best interests at heart when its only concern is its own survival. In this sense, alcohol is a fantastic tool for the ego. Alcohol — a depressant — naturally exaggerates existing feelings of fear, lack, anxiety, judgment and separation.

Think about why you drink in the first place. It’s typically to help you shift into a state that you perceive to be “better than” your natural sober state. Then, consider the types of activities you participate in while you are drinking, in my experience, even higher-vibe activities could go south quickly. Finally, consider how you feel after drinking alcohol. Most commonly, I imagine you feel lackluster, anxious or even hopeless. All of these negative states delight the ego because they allow the ego to stay in control.

It is tremendously difficult to live a spiritually-guided life when you are being heavily influenced by the ego. You’re likely to feel hopeless, frustrated or broken — as if the spiritual connection you desire is available to others, but not you (this is how I experienced it, at least). The ego delights in this sense of confusion and discontent. This is precisely why, if you’ve ever considered changing your relationship with alcohol, you’ve felt uneasy and come up with a laundry list of reasons sobriety would be an epic failure. The ego is doing what it does best by filling your mind with fear to keep you stuck in behaviors that ensure its survival.

Alcohol muffles the voice of the Inner Guide

The Inner Guide is the internal voice opposite of the ego. The Inner Guide is the voice of love, abundance, peace, forgiveness and connection. The ego thrives off of your success and happiness. Unlike the ego, which is loud and obnoxious, the Inner Guide is gentle, yet persistent. It is the Inner Guide that encourages you to pursue your dreams, desires and passions. Yet, in a world where we glorify materialism and hustle, the Inner Guide’s messages can seem too good to be true.

It doesn’t hurt that as alcohol amplifies the voice of the ego, it simultaneously muffles the voice of the Inner Guide. Drinking alcohol is like giving the ego a state-of-the-art iPhone next to the strongest cell tower and giving the Inner Guide a 1990s flip phone in a tunnel. Although you are always able to connect with your Inner Guide, you can see how this communication would be more consistent with a clear connection.

It is the voice of the Inner Guide that nudged me towards changing my relationship with alcohol all those years ago. Your Inner Guide will always encourage you towards paths that will support you in living out your truest potential. Even when the encouragements of the ego seem fantastical, please know that the Inner Guide does not whisper to you at random. If your Inner Guide reveals a dream or possibility, it is meant to be yours.

In a world where we’re constantly conditioned to turn to the voice of fear, it is a rebellious and expansive choice to lean into your Inner Guide.

Alcohol dilutes energetic gifts

We are all deeply intuitive beings, the level at which we are all called to tap into that intuition in this lifetime may vary. Your intuition can come in the form of a gentle sense of knowing or even manifest as one of the clairs (such as clairvoyance or claircognizance). Your intuition and intuitive gifts are like superpowers.

In addition to intuitive gifts, you may also have energetic gifts such as being an empath or a highly sensitive person.

In a world where we’ve been taught to operate by tuning out and disconnecting so that we can better participate in the hustle-and-grind culture, it’s likely that you’ve never been taught about or encouraged to tap into your intuitive and energetic gifts.

What’s more, you may have been made to feel weird, strange, or different for these gifts. Therefore, it’s likely that you’ve invested a great deal of energy in shutting these gifts off or diluting them.

One of the most effective ways in which we can tune out intuition and energetic gifts is through drinking alcohol. Why? Alcohol alters the chemistry of your body, effectively disrupting every natural process that exists within your body…alcohol is indiscriminate about which process it interrupts. So, if you’ve been drinking regularly and consistently, even in a moderate amount, you can bet that you are not operating at full capacity mentally, physically, or metaphysically.

In my life, I desired a deep connection to my intuition. I wanted to tap into my energetic gifts — embracing rather than rejecting them. Most importantly, I wanted to learn to anticipate and call upon my intuition and energetic gifts. With alcohol coming in and out of the fold, I never had the opportunity to truly master these gifts. Even now (again, nearly seven years alcohol-free), I’m still learning how to embrace and manage my gifts. It’s an ongoing process, but it’s been made so much more manageable and predictable with alcohol out of the way.

Alcohol hinders manifestation

Here’s where things get interesting. One of the most awe-inspiring spiritual practices of our time is manifestation. With the rising of techniques like the Law of Attraction, many are fascinated with the notion that they can become a magnet for their dreams and desires. Let me be clear, you are always manifesting (just like you are always in connection with the Universe and your Inner Guide). Simply put, the effectiveness and consistency of your manifestations can be deeply hindered with alcohol in the picture. Here’s why:

Everything is energy. And every person, place and object has its own energetic vibration that ranges from low vibe to high vibe (this is a radical simplification of the process, by the way). Unfortunately, the energetic vibration of alcohol is low (it is a depressant, after all). Therefore, when you consume alcohol (even with the best of intentions), you lower your personal energetic vibration.

When it comes to manifestation, you can most easily manifest that which you are an energetic match for. Therefore, if you are constantly lowering your energetic vibration with a substance like alcohol, you can manifest your desires, it is just a heavier lift for the Universe.

In my experience practicing manifestation, I was absolutely able to manifest as a drinker. The frustration was that my manifestations were not consistent or reliable. The process seemed sporadic, at best. Once alcohol was out of the picture, I began to manifest consistently and with ease. Alcohol’s impact on your ability to manifest is actually pretty deep (and something I’ve studied at length. I explain this process in much more detail in my program Stop Drinking, Start Manifesting which I created for women interested in exploring the intersection of sobriety and spirituality.

Alcohol opens leaks in your energetic and auric fields

The word “alcohol” is said to come from the Arabic word “Al-kuhl” which translates to “body-eating spirit” (ew). Although I don’t claim to be an expert on the history of alcohol and spirituality, I do know that many believe drinking makes you susceptible to disruption from dark entities.

Think about it this way, when you drink alcohol, you start to become relaxed, often causing you to let your guard down. Likewise, when out drinking, you’re frequently in mixed atmospheres, exposing yourself to the various vibrations and energies of others. For those, like me, who are hyper-sensitive, highly intuitive or empathic, drinking can make you vulnerable to picking up lower-vibe energies.

This might contribute to a feeling of over-emotionality when drinking or feeling extra drained, depleted, or anxious the day (or even days) after drinking. For me, as a non-drinker, I am often reminded how sensitive I am to the energies of others when out in public spaces (particularly those that are crowded). I once explained this as a general anxiety, but now realize that one of the ways in which I used to make bars and clubs more tolerable for my sensitive disposition was to drink. Now, as a non-drinker, my level of tolerance for these same environments is short-lived. I realize (after more study and understanding of energy) that my system is hyper-sensitive to the energy of others and that I don’t dig hanging out in places where I’m more susceptible to picking up wonky energy from others.

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For me, electing to be sober has been part of my spiritual experience. I am able to make better use of the spiritual tools and connections available to me as a non-drinker. Does that mean you should stop drinking if you want to be spiritual? Absolutely not. However, if you’re like me and you have an intuitive sense or inner knowing that alcohol is holding you back from the spiritual connection that you desire, exploring sobriety is something I absolutely recommend.

For me, that looked like removing alcohol from the equation entirely. Why? Because after I achieved a sustained period of abstinence and had the space to really do my inner and spiritual work, I started to feel so connected, supported and magnetic that the thought of drinking alcohol — even casually — was no longer appealing. Whatever route you take, my number one recommendation to experience the true spiritual benefits of sobriety is to take a substantial, uninterrupted, non-negotiable break from alcohol. In my years of practice as a coach, the initial time period that has seemed to be most beneficial is 90 days, with room for reflection and reevaluation thereafter.

If you enjoyed this article and resonated with my observations on the spiritual effects of alcohol, I’d love for you to support this post.

If you want to dive deeper, you can follow me on Instagram or TikTok, listen to my podcast, or join my free 5-day video series: Awakened without Alcohol.