Happiest Hour with Paula Devine

My friend Shannon and I have been walking this journey together for years, and this conversation is one of the most honest we’ve had.

We talk about motherhood, friendship, and the subtle ways alcohol had us performing instead of truly connecting—showing up physically while missing pieces of ourselves emotionally.

This episode is about what changed, what surprised us, and how choosing differently gave us more presence, more honesty, and more of ourselves back.

This week I got to sit down with a very special soul and friend, Brenda. We met through Lighthouse Sobriety Academy.

From the moment you meet her, you feel her energy, joy, and deep sense of peace—but her journey wasn’t always that way.

We talk about her complicated relationship with alcohol, unhealthy relationships, and how drinking looked different during different seasons of her life. Because alcohol isn’t always linear. Sometimes life changes… and our drinking changes with it.

Brenda shares how she found freedom through faith, self-discovery, and learning to trust herself again. This conversation is honest, insightful, and full of hope for anyone who’s quietly wondering if there’s another way to live.

This week on The Happiest Hour, I sat down with Ashley , mom of two, fitness coach, UGC creator, and someone whose story felt surprisingly familiar.

We talked about what happens when alcohol doesn’t necessarily create a dramatic rock bottom… it just quietly stops working.

The overthinking. The exhaustion. The feeling of doing all the things but not fully feeling like yourself.

Ashley shares how she started questioning what had become normal, what changed when she took alcohol out of the equation, and how she’s rebuilding a life that feels more aligned, creative, and present.

If you’ve ever thought, “Nothing is technically wrong… but this isn’t working anymore,” this conversation is for you.

We talk a lot about triggers like parties, stress, and celebrations—but what about the quiet moments?

The nights home alone. The hotel room. The empty house. The moments when nobody’s watching and that little voice says… who’s gonna know?

In this episode, we talk about one of the hardest and least discussed parts of changing your relationship with alcohol: drinking in private, negotiating with yourself, and learning to trust yourself again.

Because freedom isn’t doing whatever you want when no one’s around.
Freedom is feeling peaceful in your own mind when they’re not.

If this is your trigger, this conversation is for you.

This week I sat down with Juliet Warner for an honest conversation about sobriety, relapse, faith, motherhood, and what recovery actually looks like behind the scenes.

We talk about relapse and finding our way back. AA, God, and the magic of the 12 Steps Parenting teens and becoming a more present mom. What recovery gave us that alcohol never could

This isn’t a conversation about perfection. It’s about honesty, second chances, showing up, and creating a life you don’t want to escape from.

In this episode of The Happiest Hour with Paula Devine, Paula sits down with Dana Bowman for an honest conversation about motherhood, nightly wine habits, menopause, sugar addiction, perfectionism, and the complicated relationship so many women have with alcohol.

They also talk openly about relapse — not as failure, but as part of Dana’s story and a turning point that became intentional, honest, and deeply eye-opening. Together they explore what happens when alcohol stops feeling like relief and starts creating more exhaustion, anxiety, and disconnection instead.

This conversation touches on:

Normalizing the nightly glasses, drinking habits & culture

• Midlife stress and sober menopause
• Sugar addiction and coping mechanisms
• Perfectionism and people-pleasing
• Relapse, self-awareness, and starting again
• What real freedom and recovery can look like

This episode is for the woman quietly wondering if there’s more to life than constantly trying to “manage” alcohol while pretending everything is fine.

This week Ashley & I get honest about the thoughts, fears, and mental gymnastics that came with drinking.

Waiting for a reason to stop, hoping something external would make the decision for us, the anxiety after the nights out, and the realization that so much of what we called fun was actually exhausting us.

If you've ever wondered why you kept going back even when you knew something felt off, this conversation will probably hit home.

In this Friday series episode, Ashley and I are sharing 3 things that really stuck with us in early sobriety and beyond.

The fears, the shifts, the small moments that actually matter and what it looks like when everything feels new and a little uncomfortable.

Not the polished version...the real version.

If you've ever wondered : "Could I actually do this?"

or "What does it really look like in the beginning?"

This one's for you!

Sobriety was just the beginning. In this episode with Ali Clark, founder of the Sober Dream Team, we talk about how alcohol, narcissistic relationship dynamics, and a dysregulated nervous system can all feed off each other—and what it actually takes to start feeling safe, clear, and grounded again.

www.soberdreamteam.com

Wendi and I go there.

From “How did I get here?” to actually doing something about it.

If you’ve ever looked at your life and thought, “This isn’t how I thought it would be…” — this episode is for you.

Wendi shares her journey through divorce, motherhood, and working as a first responder—all while navigating her relationship with alcohol. We talk about sober dating, identity shifts, and what it really takes to surrender and seek help.

Because the truth is..nothing changes if nothing changes, and sometimes the bravest thing you can do is admit something isn’t working anymore.

Resources: hanleycenter.org 

phone: 855-751-4673

verobeach recoverycenter.com

phone: 772-584-3083