The truth is, you can't out-think a thinking problem. And yet, that's what so many women try to do—reading, journaling, "working on themselves"—all while staying quietly trapped inside their own minds.

In this episode, Colleen reveals why the real work of emotional sobriety doesn't happen in isolation. It happens in connection. Through years of observation, data, and lived experience, she's found that the single most powerful predictor of lasting success inside The Next Chapter isn't perfection or willpower—it's participation.

When women join accountability groups and actually show up, something profound shifts. They start learning faster, healing deeper, and rebuilding trust in themselves through the simple act of reflection. That's not luck—it's neuroscience and emotional regulation working together in real time.

If you've been trying to "figure it out" alone, this episode will help you see why connection is not a luxury in recovery—it's the catalyst. You'll understand how community accelerates self-trust, quiets shame, and helps you live from power instead of performance.

Because emotional sobriety isn't about never falling down—it's about finally having the support, skills, and structure to rise in a different way.

🔑 Key Takeaways

• True change happens through reflection and relationship, not isolation.

• Emotional sobriety deepens when you feel seen, heard, and safe to be honest.

• Shame dissolves in connection—the accountability group is where courage grows roots.

• You don't need to "do more." You need to belong more.

• Healing happens faster when you stop performing and start participating.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q&A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

Here's what nobody tells you when you're trying to change your drinking: Your alcohol cravings at happy hour are not just about needing a break after a hard day. And they're definitely not about  how much you "just love wine."

In reality, you haven't eaten since noon and your blood sugar is in the basement. This is about what you ate for lunch–or more accurately, what you didn't eat.

What I've learned doing this work—and what my guest today is going to blow your mind with—is that you can't white-knuckle your way through a nutritional deficiency. You cannot mindset your way around a physiology problem. And yet most of us try to do exactly that, and then beat ourselves up when it doesn't work.

Today I'm sitting down with Dr. Brooke Scheller, Doctor of Clinical Nutrition and author of "How to Eat to Change How You Drink." And she's going to explain why your evening drinking habits are not a sign that you lack willpower. You lack protein, vitamins and minerals.

This conversation will give you easy, simple ideas for how to bridge the gap between where you're at and where you want to be. 

Spoiler: You don't need to try harder. You need to eat breakfast.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q&A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

• YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer
• TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer
• Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 
• X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Connect with Dr. Brooke Scheller:

• Website: Brooke Scheller

• Instagram: @drbrookescheller

• Substack: @drbrookescheller

• Book: "How to Eat to Change How You Drink" (Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Audible)

In this minisode, Colleen distills emotional sobriety into its simplest form: learning to recognize when you're operating from your primal state versus your power state. Most of us spend our lives reacting to the world from old programming—patterns shaped by fear, pain, or the need for control—without realizing that we can pause, interrupt, and return to presence.

She explains how to move from being controlled by your mind to consciously using it as a tool, how emotional energy drives every "problem," and how the act of letting go—physically and mentally—is the real path to peace. This is more than nervous system regulation; it's a full reclamation of agency over your inner world.

🔑 Key Takeaways

• You live in one of two states: primal (reactive) or power (conscious).

• Every problem is emotional—it begins with the meaning your mind assigns.

• Letting go is a physical skill that quiets the mind by releasing tension in the body.

• You can't think your way out of stress; you have to feel your way back to calm.

• Power isn't something you find—it's the moment you remember you already have it.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q&A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

In this minisode, Colleen unpacks the hidden link between insecurity and control — and how most of us try to manage our anxiety by managing other people's opinions. Through a grounded, body-based perspective, she reframes confidence not as something you "earn," but as something you practice by returning to yourself again and again.

She challenges the myth that insecurity means something is "wrong" with you. Instead, she explains that it's a call to turn inward — to redirect your energy from controlling perception to cultivating presence. The goal isn't to eliminate self-consciousness, but to move the needle toward self-possession, one thought, one feeling, and one moment at a time.

🔑 Key Takeaways

• Anxiety is a signal to focus inward, not manage others' opinions.

• Your thoughts about what others think are still your thoughts — and you can change them.

• Confidence is a feeling created by intentional thinking, not external validation.

• The "confident you" is built through repetition — one conscious moment at a time.

• True growth is reaching the tipping point where self-trust becomes your default state.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q&A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

When I was in my 30s and 40s, I thought health was something you earned with discipline. I ate clean, drank tons of water, ran marathons and swallowed whatever supplements were trending. And even though I appeared to be doing everything right, my stress was through the roof and my body constantly ached. I was always looking for the next thing to fix.

But here's what I didn't realize: 

I wasn't broken, or even unhealthy. I just wasn't listening to my body. I cared more about how things looked than how they felt. 

I thought I had to prove that I was healthy by doing hard shit–taking on more than I could actually handle. I didn't understand that relaxation isn't something you earn after you check all the boxes. It's an essential ingredient to success. 

In today's episode, I'm talking with Courtney Townley, host of Grace & Grit and author of The Consistency Code. Courtney helps women navigate the health maze of midlife—when your resilience to stress is naturally lower, and the load you're carrying has never been heavier, and the old strategies you've used to just keep going are no longer working.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why doing more often makes you less healthy—and how your definition of self-care needs to change

• How to identify "integrity pain," the tension between who you are and how you're living

• What to do when your motivation disappears and you literally don't have the energy to keep up with your damn self

Being healthy isn't about external metrics…it's when you learn how to experience unconditional love for your body.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q&A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

You can find Courtney at Grace & Grit ---> Grab Her NEW Book, The Consistency Code, launching November 5th!

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

In this episode, Colleen introduces "future casting" — a mindset tool that helps you move from emotional reactivity into grounded awareness. She reframes every "problem" as an emotional one, reminding us that what keeps us stuck isn't the circumstance itself, but the stress response and beliefs we attach to it.

Through this lens, future casting becomes a way to access perspective: to pause, regulate your nervous system, and imagine yourself on the other side of the obstacle — already having moved through it. From that calmer, wiser version of you, the next right thought and action become clearer.

This practice is both deeply practical and profoundly empowering. It invites you to stop fighting your emotions, reconnect with the body, and use imagination not for worry or control — but for possibility and calm.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• All problems are emotional before they're logistical.

• Emotional regulation restores clarity and perspective.

• Future casting helps you access your "resolved self" now.

• Calm creates insight; anxiety blocks it.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q&A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

In this minisode, Colleen reflects on the stories we grew up with — the ones where the lost princess or overlooked heroine is finally discovered and restored to her rightful place. These stories shaped how many of us learned to wait: for validation, timing, permission, or rescue.

She'll reframe that pattern through the lens of emotional sobriety. True power isn't something that arrives once circumstances improve — it's a mindset and a way of being that can exist even in the middle of the mess. Transformation doesn't come from fixing yourself or performing worthiness, but from believing in the person you're becoming before your life catches up.

You are invited to examine where you might still be waiting for rescue, and to practice showing up today as the version of yourself who already knows she's capable, worthy, and ready.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• The hidden impact of waiting to be "chosen" or saved.

• Power as a feeling that creates new behavior.

• How belief precedes evidence in lasting transformation.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q&A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

You don't have a willpower problem. You have a nervous system problem.

In this episode, I'm breaking down the eight principles of self-directed neuroplasticity—how to actually rewire your brain so drinking less stops being a battle and starts becoming automatic.

Here's what most people don't understand: You can't change your drinking habits while you're operating in overwhelm. Your brain literally doesn't have access to the circuits required for behavior change when you're in survival mode.

Which is why all the rules, commitments, and white-knuckling haven't worked. You've been trying to force change from a state that makes change neurologically impossible.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why alcohol use disorder is a stress response pattern, not a character flaw

• The 5 steps of the stress response (and why recognizing The Wall changes everything)

• Why shame makes change impossible—and what to do instead

• The 8 principles that make lasting brain change possible

• Why short, gentle daily somatic practices work better than dramatic or intense lifestyle changes

• How to build new habits without fighting the old ones

This isn't fluffy self-help. This is neuroscience. And once you understand how your brain actually works, you stop blaming yourself and start solving the real problem.

Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL if you're ready to fully commit to your personal growth and do the work to get emotionally sober. Side effects include an 80 percent reduction in drinking.

Want daily updates from me?

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer

Twitter (X): @NotAboutTheAlc

YouTube: @hangoverwhisperer

Do you want coaching from Colleen on a situation you're struggling with? 

Click here to submit your question. Your name will not be mentioned on air!

In this episode, Colleen explores how hidden beliefs quietly shape our choices, limit our vision, and create the illusion of safety at the expense of growth. Most of the obstacles we face aren't outside of us — they're thoughts we've stopped questioning. 

Through the lens of her own experience, she illustrates how well-intentioned reasoning can harden into self-protection, keeping us in familiar patterns that feel comfortable but constraining. This reflection challenges listeners to look beyond circumstances and into the conditioning that sustains them — and introduces a single, powerful question designed to reveal what's actually in the way of change.

🔑 Takeaways:

• How subtle conditioning reinforces limitation and fear.

• The difference between real safety and perceived security.

• A one-question method to identify your true internal roadblocks.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q&A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

In this episode, Colleen traces a quiet, familiar fear that surfaces whenever we step into new territory — the fear of becoming "too much." What begins as a loving message to stay safe or small can become an inherited boundary that keeps us from expansion.

Through her own reflection, she reveals how deeply patterned beliefs about worth, service, and visibility shape the nervous system's response to growth. This isn't a story about trauma, but about awakening — seeing how the rules we once followed out of love can quietly hold us back from the life we're ready to create.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• Growth often feels unsafe because it challenges early emotional conditioning

• Even supportive family messages can reinforce limiting patterns

• The nervous system interprets expansion as risk until safety is redefined

• True empowerment begins when we stop confusing smallness with love

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q&A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript