Welcome to Baja, ladies!!

FOR THE WOMEN JOINING ME IN BAJA MARCH 2025

Jessica, Betty, Michelle, Caralyn, Melinda, Laura and Tori.

Hi ladies, it’s Wednesday the 19th, and I am here in Baja preparing myself for all of your arrivals. I am beyond excited and so grateful that you have all trusted me to host you on your getaway.

I am writing to you in the hopes that you will have some time (maybe on the plane) to read about some of the tools I will be sharing with you over the next five days. Initially, I was going to share all of this in person. However, I think putting this information down on paper will allow us all to have more time doing these practices rather than talking extensively about each of them.

I also want to say that I am not an expert, nor am I teaching anything. I look at what I offer as simply sharing some of my alcohol-free lifestyle tools and giving space for you to explore them for yourselves. I will also share who I have learned from and who the true teachers of these practices are.

Post retreat, I will send a summary of everything we covered with information for you to go deeper into these practices if you are interested. I am offering you tools that I know work, and you get to decide how far you will take each of them. It’s up to you what you take home with you. My suggestion is to try it all and take what feels best. Put the rest in your back pocket; you may not feel called to something now, but you may return to it months or even years from now.

• These practices are what I have used over the nine+ years that I have chosen to live alcohol-free.

• They have taught me how to get out of my head and into my body.

• They have grounded me.

• They have shown me my shadow and my light.

• They have clarified my thoughts and what I want for my future.

• They have taught me who I want to be and how I want to show up in life.

• They have given me confidence and the ability to trust myself.

• And ultimately, they remind me of who I already am and have been this whole time.

• And they make me feel really, really good.

 In essence, what we cover in the workshops together is part of what I call The Art of Living an Alcohol-Free Lifestyle.

1. Breathwork

2. Body Scans

3. Mapping

4. Journaling / Writing practices

5. Visualization

BREATHWORK

• I was first introduced to BW the first year I gave up alcohol, the practice moved me so much that I continued studying it and am now certified as a Level 4 Breathwork Facilitator by my teacher David Elliot.

• This practice is done laying down on the ground.

• It is a rhythmic two-part breath done through the mouth (as opposed to nasal breathing).

1. One breath into the abdomen, hold

2. Second breath into the chest

3. Exhale out

4. All in and out through the mouth

• This particular style of breathing practice is very active while producing and releasing energy in our body.

• This is one of the best ways to move stagnant energy in our minds and bodies.

• The first five minutes are typically the hardest and bring the most resistance. Once past this, it can become more automatic and you can get out of your mind and into your body.

• Don’t overthink it! 

*I will explain in person more of the benefits/experience you may have with this practice. It’s so good!

BODY SCANS

• I became a yoga instructor nearly two decades ago and five years ago I trained with Jana Roemer in the practice known as Yoga Nidra.

• Body scans are one part of the Yoga Nidra practice. I have found the body scans to be an excellent grounding practice post my active breathwork practice.

• For our purposes and in the essence of what I use on a daily basis, we will be adding the body scans at the end of each breathwork practice.

• We will continue laying on the ground for this part of the practice.

• This is a grounding practice, again getting us out of our heads and into our bodies.

*I will give you full guided Yoga Nidras to practice during your free time and/or prior to bed.

MAPPING

Work via the book The Kindness Method by psychologist and author Shahroo Izadi.

Shahroo worked in substance misuse treatment. 

• This work is all about being kind to yourself.

• As someone who always thought tough love with a side of shame worked to keep me in line, I have discovered that is not the way - Mia

• We all have habits, everything we do is a habit, even “not doing anything” is a habit.

• We first suss out the ongoing conversations we are having with ourselves. What’s that mean girl voice saying to you?

• Mapping is about rewarding, accepting, forgiving, and understanding ourselves. It is not about punishing ourselves for doing things wrong or bad.

What are Maps, and why are we using them?

• Easy and simple verbiage allowing us to see it all in front of us w/o extra wording.

• Collection of observations about yourself and your behaviors that will inform your choices.

• They can help you see where you may be self-sabotaging your efforts.

• Finding access to a goal by reminding yourself what your strengths are, what you are good at, focusing on the qualities that you have - to do the thing you want to do.

• Every Map is personalized – no one tells you what the goal is, these are your own goals.

• Maps help us be prepared for when these choices come up – we won’t always be motivated or goal driven, and our excuses may start to override – Maps help us to remember -quickly and simply. It’s about being prepared. 

• Maps are a tangible memory aid.

• Also, when we move further away from the unwanted habits, we have a tendency to forget why we stopped in the first place – we can romanticize the habit or have reasons why it wasn’t so bad. We forget the negatives. This is called -“Euphoric Recall”

• Maps show us how we speak to ourselves by putting it out into the world in black and white.

• The focus is on strengths and achievements, not deficits and failings. This is a non-judgmental, compassionate approach.

• They are a visual element of seeing all your words as a powerful reminder of why you are making these choices.

• Euphoric Recall- what we do when the hangover passes, we feel better, life goes back to “normal” and we think “well life wasn’t all that bad, I can drink, I don’t need to punish myself.” – This is another time when looking at the collection of Maps that we have made comes in handy.

MAPPING GUIDELINES

• These are private so they allow for you to be as honest as possible, without fear of someone else seeing. We are NOT censoring from ourselves.

• Keep maps close. Take photos of them. Small notecards in wallet/purse for quick reminders.

• Revisit the maps, update your maps, and have a place to quickly make notes of other things that come up that you can later add to your map (Notes app on your phone)

• Read them out loud.

• Reread, revisit, and update them frequently!

Direct notes/thoughts from the book - The Kindness Method by Shahroo Izadi

• Writing letters to myself reminded me of all the goodness that happens when I don’t do the thing that makes me feel like shit

• Act as if. Start treating yourself as the person you are hoping to be. What would a non-drinker do? It’s kind of like: what would the Ideal version of myself (the one I want) do today? Now? Tomorrow? How would she act? What are her choices/habits?

• Exercises: writing letters to yourself, brainstorming to create personalized memory aids and mapping

• This work is not about fixing yourself. It’s about meeting yourself.

• We all know what we need to do, so why aren’t we doing those things? (example: to be healthy, quit drinking, etc). This helps us find how not doing it serves us.

• We first suss out the ongoing conversations we are having with ourselves. What’s that mean girl voice saying to you?

• This is not work that focuses on what we don’t want (behavior, habits) but on what we do want for ourselves. Rewarding, accepting, forgiving, and understanding ourselves

• Not waiting for the “perfect me” - to do the things I want to do

• LIVE YOUR IDEAL LIFE NOW - how does the ideal version of myself show up? What does she do, how does she engage with the world, and what does her day-to-day look like? How I would engage with the world as my “new, better” version of myself - Do that now.

• The Kindness Method is a private, judgment-free, guided process designed to help people achieve self-defined goals by creating their own bespoke program, informed by what works.

• Being okay with self-sabotaging and negative self-talk allows them to come and pass. Staying curious about them. But knowing what they are and that you have the tools to let it pass without falling for it.

• Write down what you would say to someone you love who wants to quit drinking.

• What we tell other people to do vs what we do - or what we do when no one is watching, how we treat ourselves.

• Snapshot letter = an honest baseline of where you are at now. And become ok with who you meet! Start from there.

• Holding compassion and firmness together. You can be firm with yourself and still have compassion for how you are feeling.

JOURNALING / WRITING PRACTICES

• Don’t make it so precious. Regular old notebook, not pretty, not something you save.

• This is just for you, no one will read it. Write as if you know you will burn it.

• Do not edit yourself in any way.

• You do not have to have any writing experience of any kind to incorporate this practice into your life.

TYPES OF JOURNALING ON RETREAT

• Journal Prompts (multiple sprinkled over the days/nights).

• Morning pages – work by Julia Cameron and the book The Artist’s Way

• Dear Alcohol, thank you and goodbye.

• Creating Your Vision

• Drawing the map

FUTURE SELF VISUALIZATION

• Work from CTI (Co-Active Training Institute) and the work of Tara Mohr.

• This will be different from the Creating Your Vision journal practice.

• A guided practice to connect to your future self and to explore the guidance they may have for you.

THERE WILL BE TIME TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE ON ANY OR ALL OF THESE TOOLS - WE WILL GO INTO MORE DEPTH IN PERSON.