EP 365: Naked Life Story - Barbara T.

This Naked Mind Podcast

Annie Grace

Mental Health, Education, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2021

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Born and raised in Switzerland, Barbara is a married mom of an adult daughter. Her first exposure to alcohol was when she was 17 years old, working in Italy as an au pair. She didn’t like how tired it made her. She got into climbing and loved the natural high - drinking beer and wine after climbs was part of the culture but wasn’t something Barbara enjoyed. After marriage and childbirth, though, she fell into a pattern of using alcohol to relax at the end of the day. When menopause hit, Barbara began to wonder what alcohol was really doing to her physically and emotionally. Her curiosity led her to read This Naked Mind - what she learned gave her freedom from alcohol. Trained as a midwife in Switzerland where she was hospital-based, and now working as a doula (referring to herself as the Amygdala Whisperer) in the United States, Barbara was amazed to find so many neuroscientific similarities between giving birth and quitting drinking.

Hey, it’s Annie Grace. I want to tell you about the most important book that I never wrote. I mean that. This is This Naked Life. It is 48 true stories of people finding freedom from alcohol. And, it’s so inspiring. It’s our stories, as you know from this podcast, that truly change us, that revolutionize what we believe is possible for ourselves. So, it’s This Naked Life. You can find it on Amazon, or check it out online at nakedlifestories.com. And every single copy, all the proceeds, are 100% committed to keeping The Alcohol Experiment forever free for anybody who needs it. Check it out. It’s such an inspirational book.

And as always, rate, review, and subscribe to this podcast as it truly helps the message reach somebody who might need to hear it today.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Annie Grace and you're listening to this naked mind podcast where without judgment,
0:16.0	pain or rules, we explore the role of alcohol in our lives and culture.
0:20.2	Hi, this is Annie Grace and welcome to this naked mind podcast. I'm here with Barbara. Hi,
0:33.2	Barbara. Hi, Annie Grace. Thank you for having me. We were just chatting about the fact that you are in a hotel room with your fourth birth this week.
0:45.2	Wow, over the last six, six days now. Yes, that's crazy. So you're a doula. Yes, I'm in a, I'm actually a midwife, but because I did my training in Switzerland, I can't work here as a midwife.
1:00.2	So, yeah, you're doing the doula work. I've had doulas and midwives with all of my children and they've all.
1:07.2	Yeah, really, really great experiences. Like I just really, I mean, I'm sure you're familiar with like, you know, me, Gaskin and absolutely when I was in my late 20s and just decided, you know, and I was born at home and my brothers were born at home with midwives.
1:23.2	And so I was like, you know what, I want to just go that route and not have any, you know, any, I mean, obviously, if if something were to happen, I wasn't opposed or anything, I want to be open minded, but I wanted to have, you know, no interventions, no medication.
1:39.2	And so did three done.
1:43.2	You've had that, that perfect, that story, that family story was like almost like a mindset, have knowing that you mom did what, you know, have you home that it really helps.
1:56.2	Yeah.
1:57.2	And it was a really helpful thought like through, through the, you know, most intense parts of it, just like two, two helpful thoughts actually and we'll get into your story.
2:07.2	And it's interesting because it's always comes down to our thoughts and our perspective, right, what makes it.
2:13.2	The two most helpful thoughts for me during the most intensive, all of it, my first, my first baby was like 22 hours of labor, three hours of pushing.
2:22.2	And then my second and third babies were very, very quick, almost born in the car, quick.
2:27.2	They were more painful, they were more intense in the in the rapid major. And the thoughts that kept me going were number one that, you know, for millennia, we have not had hospitals and intervention and stuff like.
2:43.2	This is not new for women and women are super strong and amazing and powerful and then the other thought and this was from my mom, she, she gave me this, this belief is like, there's nothing wrong, like I'm not being hurt, like my brain being hurt, but I'm not being hurt.
3:00.2	There's no.
3:02.2	And I understand some cases there, there actually is danger, but in labor pains, there isn't danger to the body. It is, it is feels like danger, but it's not really was grounding for me like, okay, this is just a feeling I'm not being hurt, like, I mean, I am being hurt isn't pain, but my body, although it feels like it's being ripped apart.
3:23.2	It's not, well, it's a bit like, I don't need to do anything about this. This really, you know, I don't have to take action because we all feel like this is wrong. I need to do something about it.
3:35.2	It's like, you can let it be it's one breath at a time and just come back to that mantra mantra.
3:43.2	So, you can endure it, it will not kill you. It will hurt you, you're going to feel right five minutes after. And by the way, it's happening anyway.
	...

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