On the identities we no longer need, the alchemy of recovery, and mourning the person we used to be.

• (0:00) – Introduction and Background of Allison Derani
• (2:13) – Allison's Journey and Grief in Recovery
• (5:21) – Parenting and Self-Abandonment
• (7:04) – The Ambiguous Grief of Self-Abandonment
• (7:50) – The Liminal Space of Sobriety
• (18:39) – The Importance of Listening to Questions
• (22:57) – The Practice of Slowing Down
• (25:21) – Closing Thoughts and Future Plans

Allison Deraney is a woman in recovery from alcohol who credits sobriety for waking her back up to her first passion—writing. Currently a licensed real estate attorney, running her own business, she's writing more creativity into her days via her Substack, Dare To Be, and working on her first book, a memoir about the healing and revealing as we recover from the ambiguous loss of self-abandonment. Dedicated to speaking up and speaking out about living a conscious sober life, Allison lives in Massachusetts with her husband, two kids, and two rescue dogs, spending her free time wandering and wondering in nature, and cheering her kids on from the sidelines of the basketball court.

Allison's book-to-be is about grief; not the traditional kind, though there is some of that in there. The biggest lesson she's learned in recovery is this: Rejecting grief, in all its iterations, is a form of self-abandonment. Grief requires that we surrender to it. So does addiction, compulsion of perfection and aging.

It's a book that explores how my midlife journey is intersecting with the deeper parts of recovery in the most terrifying and beautiful way. It's a unique book in that it is written during the transformation. Because I am still in it. Sobriety has been my portal to Divinity and I'm here, feet planted on the threshold, weaving words to capture the experience as best I can.

https://allisonderaney.substack.com

Here are Allison's three favorite posts from her Substack, DARE TO BE, out of an immense pull to write through her sobriety.

https://open.substack.com/pub/allisonderaney/p/setting-off-our-own-fireworks-a95?r=rkt4u&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

https://open.substack.com/pub/allisonderaney/p/its-been-a-whole-hand?r=rkt4u&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

https://open.substack.com/pub/allisonderaney/p/my-permission-sticks-they-still-keep?r=rkt4u&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

On the root causes of emotional eating, tools with which to begin your healing process, and gifting yourself grace as you go. And you're not broken.

• (0:00) – Introduction
• (3:10) – Self-Sabotaging Behaviors and Societal Conditioning
• (9:09) – Emotional Eating and Coping Mechanisms
• (13:24) – Building Awareness and Coping Strategies
• (20:01) – Healing the Relationship with Food
• (28:16) – Practical Recommendations for Blood Sugar Management
• (33:05) – Conclusion and Encouragement

Amber Romaniuk is an Emotional Eating, Digestive and Hormone Expert, with 12 years experience helping high achieving women create a level of body confidence, intuition and optimal health through powerful mindset healing, self-care and overcoming self-sabotage with food.

She does this through addressing the key negative thoughts, patterns and limiting beliefs that keep women stuck in the same behaviors for years and decades, that they haven't been able to break.

Resources:

Emotional Eating Quiz
Free 30 minute Body Freedom Consultation
Amber's podcast
Amber's YouTube
Amber's Instagram

On the undeniable gift of becoming our own ally, when personal healing becomes shared, universal healing.

• (0:00) – Annetta Knopf's Journey and Book Introduction
• (5:12) – Challenges and Insights in Writing the Book
• (9:50) – Personal Trauma and Healing
• (19:57) – The Concept of Femininity and Masculinity
• (29:27) – Practical Practices for Healing and Transformation
• (31:26) – Final Reflections and Gratitude

Annette Knopp is a meditation teacher, somatic counselor, and nature mystic who favors an integrative approach to living in wakeful and embodied connection. For twenty years she has mentored clients on their unique journeys of healing and awakening. She spent nine years living in India, Japan, Australia, and the Netherlands before moving to the US on a religious worker visa. In 2009 Annette and her husband Stephan opened the Blue Spirit Retreat Center in Nosara, Costa Rica. Today she divides her time between Costa Rica and Woodstock, New York. In the US, she is often teaching at the Upaya Zen Center and Omega Institute in Rhinebeck..

Mystic Nomad: A Woman's Wild Journey to True Connection https://www.annetteknopp.com/book.