Hey there!

Every month Annie has a call with our Path 365 members and answers their questions.

She tackles a wide range of topics from what to do with big emotions what kinds of tips and

advice she has for addressing difficult situations how to deal with cravings and

so much more listen in as she does some real life coaching for our path

members. Hi, this is Annie Grace, author of this naked mind and the alcohol experiment

and I am answering readers questions today so I have a question and this is hello I have found this naked mind to be incredibly helpful in becoming and remaining sober I'm a huge fan of the podcast so I listen regularly so thank you that's awesome I would love to submit a

question for the podcast I'm six months sober and I feel great but I abused alcohol for years and found sobriety to be the

answer because I can't just have one drink I drink to get drunk I've completely

turn my life around and I've been more ambitious and motivated in the past six

months and I've been in the past three years however I find myself feeling

incredibly smug about this realization I find myself judging those who drink in excess

and wasting their time and feeling really morally superior.

What's the best way to deal with these judgmental feelings

and share how good I feel as an alcohol-free person without coming across as a pre-T totaler.

So I'm going to start this conversation with this one sentence and that is that nobody takes advice they don't ask for.

So that's the reality. If we want to be influential, we need to do it in a way that is influencing without preaching as you've already highlighted. And so first of all, I just want to say congratulations. This is amazing. I mean, it's so great. And sometimes we get our fuel, we get the emotions that sort of propel us forward from all different walks of life.

And if it is feeling a bit smug

and a bit, you know, proud of yourself,

then I actually think that's great. I think that there's a point to where it becomes problematic and we'll talk about that and it really depends how these feelings feel inside you. Here's the reality. In my first few years not drinking, I would look around. I would be out at a bar or something because I did everything I used to do. You know, I was like, I'm just going to carry on my normal life and then eventually over a few years I realize I don't really like doing these things and I did change a lot of my habits but at the time I was just doing everything I used to do and I remember looking around at a bar and I remember ordering my ice tea or having my, you know, just tonic water with a lime in my glass and looking around and just feeling like, gosh, I feel sorry for people. I feel bad, like I'm so stoked for myself. I'm so pumped that I'm not going to have a headache later. I'm not going to do or say anything that I'm going to regret tomorrow. I'm not going to have a hangover. Like it was so affirming and I don't think those beliefs and those feelings are necessarily bad. I think they can be fuel. I think they can help you just maintain and further commit to the life and the person that you want to be. You know, I think equally if you were say that you climb mountains and you love climbing mountains and you love being you know up high and breathing the cold air and do you look around and you can literally just look at people who don't have that experience and be like man, I'm sorry you're not having this experience.

This is an incredible experience for me.

Maybe you'd want it, maybe you wouldn't want it, but I would choose it.

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