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Let’s talk about something that can be a bit taboo: drinking. This week’s guest, Karolina Rzadkowolska, is someone I worked with in my Smart Online Success Academy. Our conversation is a departure from what we usually talk about around here, but it was super insightful and I’m so excited to share!
Many times, people only talk about alcohol in a casual and social way OR if someone has an issue. That leaves a huge gap in the middle. That’s what Karolina is looking to address, as someone who fell squarely in the middle. With that being said, I recap our conversation below.
Karolina was leading a super healthy lifestyle during the week. But then on the weekends, she over-drank and then ended up feeling like crap and feeling down overall. She knew it wasn’t serving her, but when she looked around, everyone else was doing the same thing.
So she started getting curious about her relationship with alcohol. She knew that she wasn’t an alcoholic, but she still had a complex relationship with the substance. Then, she heard about dry January. She was so excited to take a break from alcohol! She felt better, slept better, and was all around happier.
When February came around, she wasn’t looking forward to drinking again, but she wasn’t sold on giving up alcohol completely. Even after just a couple of drinks, her mood was poor and she didn’t sleep as well. She noticed a lot of negative effects of drinking – when it wasn’t excessive in the slightest.
She decided to take another break from alcohol, which has brought her here – four years later! Her life has completely changed because she gave up drinking- she’s done things she never imagined, like running a half-marathon and becoming a published author. Wow!
It’s scientifically proven that alcohol makes us feel worse. It’s meant to change the chemistry of our brains, which ends up leaving us feeling worse than we do without it. A lot of people don’t realize that. Karolina had been struggling with the idea of going alcohol-free for YEARS. That’s something she realized once she gave it up.
Another thing she’s come to realize is that a lot of other people feel the same way as she did around alcohol. She shared that 52 percent of Americans want to drink less or not at all. That’s a stat from a few years ago. With that, she began to shift the way she felt when she went into a social event without alcohol.
Instead of thinking, “I’m the only one not drinking,” she began to reframe it as, “I could be the leader here, showing other people it’s okay not to drink in a situation like this.” Super freeing!
The ripple effect of this allowed her to get more vulnerable with her friends – and the same for them with her. She would be excited to bring a non-alcoholic drink to a party and was excited for people to ask her about it so that she could share her journey. This change added so much richness to her life and it absolutely lit her up – and still does.
Karolina looks at drinking with curiosity and she thinks others should do the same. There’s no shame and no blame in the way she encourages others to examine their intake. The truth is that almost everyone who drinks technically over-drinks per the guidelines that actually exist. It doesn’t take much!
But Karolina explains that it’s also important to ask yourself questions surrounding why you drink. What does it bring to you? What are the motivators behind it? For her, it was a way to outsource her own confidence and make her more extroverted in a social situation.
Once you evaluate this, it’s time to experiment. That means that you should take a break from alcohol, allowing your brain neurotransmitters to rebalance and letting your body detoxify. Then, you can compare which version of your life you like better – the one with alcohol or the one without? Or, it’s also a good chance to change up the amount of alcohol you consume to better match the way you want to feel.
Karolina stressed that at this point, you really don’t have to commit to never drinking again. The term forever can be intimidating or triggering. So don’t put that pressure on yourself!
Drinking can really affect someone’s creativity and motivation. That goes to say that it can be a great idea for a business owner to take a break from drinking. Karolina shared her amazing experience doing this and noted that doing so allowed her to better connect with her intuition and show up more for her content.
It can really allow a creative business leader to reach the next step in what they’re doing. Taking away alcohol will allow you to really explore things like your boredom. It can allow you to discover not only new hobbies but also to tap into your passions and what you feel you’re meant to do.
Taking away alcohol can force you into creation, which is actually quite useful. Imagine how much more your confidence and authenticity alone could shine through without alcohol. You won’t be using the substance to quiet anxiety or mask anything anymore! It’s really powerful. It allows you to break through a huge story in your life that you need alcohol for different things – to socialize, to have fun, to enjoy certain events and situations. That is so inspiring, especially for someone that relies on energy and creativity to push their business forward.
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Karolina’s book has been such a success, right off the bat! She’s always wanted to be an author and used to write a lot when she was younger. But then college came around and her writing just stopped. She believes it was related to her alcohol intake. But, she still felt as though she was meant to write a book.
So she made a resolution to write even just a paragraph a day. She started that, but then she was on vacation and the word “euphoric” came to her. She knew right then that was what would spark her book. She started journaling and then the writer’s block flew away and she was able to start letting the words flow.
Her book is all about reaching a past version of her. She goes over the reasons that you should take a break from alcohol – physically and more soulful things, too. It also provides readers with a plan to stop drinking and to help people give up their entire desire to drink at all. It will guide readers through challenges that come up throughout the process and helps them create space and build their life without drinking.
Writing her book wasn’t a quick or simple process. She started it in 2018 and it hit shelves this year, in 2022. But as Tony Robbins says, the time will pass anyway. That was her philosophy as she chipped away at this passion project that she’s now brought to life. What an amazing journey!
Considering a world without alcohol may seem hard to imagine, but it could be worth trying! Letting that go may spark more creativity, allow you to be more effective in your business, and can transform how you feel in general. It’s definitely something to consider, and this conversation with Karolina is really eye-opening to that fact.
Thanks so much for reading!
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Euphoric by Karolina Rzadkowolska: www.euphoricbook.com
Website: www.euphoricaf.com
Instagram: http://instagram.com/euphoric.af/
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