Today we talk about pressure — cravings, wobble, overwhelm, tears in the supermarket aisle — and why they’re not a sign you’re failing. They can actually be proof that you’re rattling the right cages. Drawing on Irish human rights lawyer CaoilfhionnGallagher’s line, “If you’re being targeted, you’re rattling the right cages,” as to rogue states, we look at sobriety through that lens. When the inner rogue state — cravings, old stories, addictive voice — kicks off, it’s usually because you’re dismantling its power. You’re overthrowing an old regime that once ran your life.

Sobriety doesn’t promise perfection, peace on demand, or a pain-free new year. What it gives us is something far morepowerful: the courage to stay. To sit with discomfort instead of running from it. To feel what’s real — especially when the new year (post-holiday season) turns the volume up on loneliness, grief, family tension, and impossible expectations. In today’s Morning Call, we talk about sitting on the mat. Not numbing. Not fixing. Not fleeing. Just staying present through the messy, human moments that sobriety asks us to face — and grow from.You don’t owe the world sparkle, charm, orcheer today. You owe yourself your sobriety.

Today’s episode is inspired by a quote from Mark Mansen and Sue believes that when you strip life back to the studs, three things do most of the renovating: love, discipline, and loss. “One is hard to find, one is hard to master, and the other hurts like a mother fucker”— and yet they shape us into women werecognise and respect. In today’s Morning Call, we discuss: the courage it takes to love yourself sober, why discipline often beats motivation, and how loss can crack us open and clarify what truly matters. Buckle Up!

You don’t start sobriety feeling brave. You start it feeling unsure, wobbly, and wondering if you’ve lost the plot. And that’s not a problem — that’s the point. In today’s Morning Call, Sue dismantles the lie that courage comes first and tells the truth no one puts on a cushion: fear is not a disqualifier, doubt is not a red flag, and white-knuckling the early days doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong — it means you’re doing it honestly.

This is not a TED Talk.
It’s a kind but firm shove in the direction of your own power. If you’re starting Dry January, Day One, or simply sick of waiting to feel “ready,” this call is for you. You don’t have to be fearless. You have to start.

In this episode, we walk through the Five R’s — your sober reset button. When the fantasy voice whispers “sure one won’t hurt,” you need anchors, not wishful thinking. We look at why your sobriety matters to you (Relevance), what’s really at stake if you keep drinking (Risks), everything you gain by stopping (Rewards), what gets in the way (Roadblocks), and why reminding yourself of this again and again is the key (Repetition). You’re not missing out — you’re waking up. Not today, lady. Not today.

Standing at the edge of another year, here’s the truth — we don’t have to do this… we get to do this. Sobriety isn’t a punishment or a life sentence; it’s a privilege many never get the chance to experience. In this episode, we flip “have to” into “get to,” “can’t” into “unwilling,” and claim the fierce freedom of living wide awake. This one is for the women holding the line, starting again, or deciding that this is the year they refuse to abandon themselves. Not today, lady. Not today.

After a week of pure magic with my sons — laughter, pottery, tea, Christmas cake, and the kind of peace you don’t try to improve — the house is quiet again. Goodbyes are being packed into suitcases bound for France and Holland, and the echo has already arrived.

And then a bottle of red wine landed on the kitchen table. Not just any wine — the one that nearly cost me my life. The old favourite, the old trap. A reminder of the years I was held hostage…and how my family was held hostage right alongside me.

In this Morning Call, we talk about the sweet-and-savage mix of love, absence, medical realities, memory, and why we do not drink over any of it — not the joy, not the grief, not the ache of a life that’s still moving forward.

Feel it. Bless it. Let your heart hurt because you love well — and keep going. Not today, lady. Not today.

This Morning Call is for the woman who met herself at 4 a.m. — when the room was dark and the truth arrived softly, like a butterfly… and then stung like hell. That moment wasn’t punishment. It was the beginning. Today we go back to that truth, the one that stripped away the bullshit and said, “I can’t live like this anymore.” You don’t need perfection. You don’t need a glow-up. You just need to remember that sting — your compass, your north star — and honour it. Not today, lady. Not today.

Today’s Morning Call is a straight-talk reminder that the hardest thing you’ll ever face in sobriety isn’t wine, stress, other people, or the neighbour with the 5 p.m. G&T. It’s you. Inspired by The Mountain Is You, this episode strips sobriety back to its raw truth: recovery isn’t about conquering something outside yourself — it’s about meeting yourself honestly and climbing anyway. The fear. The excuses. The old stories. The moments when your ass is on fire, and you still don’t drink.

This is not a summit photo sobriety. It’s the climb. The sweat, the swearing, the staying put when everything in you wants to run. Because every time you don’t drink, you take another step upward. And slowly, quietly, you realise: you were never broken — you were becoming. Press play. Take a breath. Not today, lady. Not today. p.s.Today's episode was Inspired by Brianna Wiest

In sobriety, we don’t choose easy. And thank God for that.

This Morning Call is a reminder you didn’t stumble into this life by accident. You chose it — knowing full well it would ask more of you than the old one ever did.

We live in a world obsessed with shortcuts, numbing, and the illusion of ease. But sobriety isn’t built on quick fixes or surface comfort. It’s built on courage. On choosing presence over escape. Truth over avoidance. Growth over the familiar poison of “just getting through.”

In this episode, we talk about the real question sobriety asks of us every single day:
Not will it be hard? — but which hard will you choose?

Because drinking was hard. Lying to yourself was hard. Waking up ashamed, anxious, and disconnected was hard. Sobriety simply asks for a different kind of hard — one that builds strength instead of stealing it.

This is about choosing the long road.
The brick-by-brick work.
The daily decisions that quietly build freedom.

If you’re navigating discomfort, craving, loneliness, or doubt — this one’s for you. The teacher has arrived. And she’s here to make you stronger.

Take a breath.
Stand your ground.
And remember who you are.

As always — in sobriety, in power, and in community.
Not today, lady. Not today.

We live in a world that worships busyness. We wear it like a badge of honour. Ask someone how they are, and they’ll say, “Busy,” as if exhaustion equals importance. But here’s the truth — most genuinely happy people are doing less, not more. Fewer goals. Fewer appointments. Less proving. More presence.

This Morning Call is about choosing alignment over achievement, depth over performance, and enough over more. Inspired by a quote from Scott D. Clary, I reflect on how slowing down didn’t shrink my life — it expanded it. Since my diagnosis in 2024, I’ve learned this the hard way: pulling in your world can bring you more peace than chasing a bigger one ever will.

We discuss sober living without exaggeration. About gardens, conversations, stillness, and the radical courage it takes to subtract instead of add. About why peace is richer than performance — and why a slower life is often the fullest one of all. So today, practise subtraction. Cancel what drains you. Put the phone down. Say no without explaining yourself. That’s not laziness. That’s wisdom. Take a breath. Look skyward. And say it with me: Not today, lady. Not today.

We didn’t get sober to play small. We got sober to live — loudly, fully, and unapologetically.

In this Morning Call, Sue cuts straight through the nonsense: sobriety is not a finish line, it’s a launch pad. If you’re sober today, you’re already a woman who has walked through fire and come out standing. You don’t need permission. You don’t need approval. And you sure as hell don’t need to shrink yourself to make others comfortable.

This is your reminder to stop toning it down, stop apologising for your joy, and stop handing your power to people who wouldn’t last five minutes in your sober shoes. You didn’t get sober for a half-life. You got sober to rise.

So rise, Queen — today, tomorrow, and every day you’re gifted.
And when doubt taps you on the shoulder, look skyward and say: Not today, lady. Not today.

Sobriety is not a spectator sport. In today’s Morning Call, Sue cuts through the myth of passive belonging and delivers a grounded truth: recovery doesn’t happen by watching, scrolling, or hovering on the edges of your life. It happens through participation. Through showing up. Through telling the truth before you’ve rehearsed it.

This episode explores why belonging is an action, not a feeling — and how sobriety becomes a soft return to everything warm, human, and real when we stop hiding and step fully into the room. Take a breath. Not today, lady. Not today.

You don’t need to understand everything tostay sober. You never did. In this Morning Call, Sue dismantles the myth that insight comes before action — and replaces it with something far more powerful: bodily wisdom. Sobriety isn’t an academic exercise. It’s not a PhD in Why Am I Like This? It’s learning to listen to the body’s signals — and respecting them without negotiation. This episode is about: You don’t need to fully understand it to respect it. You just need to listen — and stop. Take a breath. Say it with her.
Not today, lady. Not today.

Today’s Morning Call is a reminder that none of us planned this life — but thank God we found it.

From a misheard invitation in Cyprus to the fig trees that have followed me across continents, this episode explores how weend up somewhere we never intended… and discover it’s exactly where we were meant to be. Sobriety isn’t the path we dreamed of — it’s the one that saved us.
Root down, reach for your light, and remember: You didn’t set out to get here. But you did. And that is your miracle.

Today’s Morning Call is for every woman who has ever tried to “wing it” through life — only to discover, usually in herfifties, that the toaster dial is minutes and the fuel tank has an arrow.

Sobriety is the one place I finally followed the instructions… and it saved my life.
No hacks. No hidden features. Just the simplest manual on earth:

Don’t drink.
Stay connected.
Take support.
Give support.
Repeat.

It’s not about perfection — it’s about finallyreading the bloody instructions.

Sobriety isn’t a vibe, a trend, or something you commit to once and coast through. It’s high-stakes, daily management — the kind that saves your life. After a hospital day full of tests, scans, and plain truths, Susan reflects on what it really means to stay within a treatment plan… and how sobriety demands the very same precision.

In this episode, she gives you a clear, uncompromising protocol for staying sober: medicate with truth, rest like recovery depends on it, nourish connection, guard your inputs, and run your emotional scans before crisis hits.

A fierce reminder that the cost of not managing your sobriety is everything — so manage it like your life depends on it. Because it does.

In today’s Morning Call, we’re talking about the medicine that doesn’t come in bottles — friendship. The real kind. The kind that heals you simply by sitting next to you on the sofa and laughing about the whitest school socks ever created.

As Sue reflects on a visit from her best friend, she reminds us that sobriety gives us back what truly matters: presence, connection, ease, and memories we get to keep.

December can be a tender month for many women. Not the chronic complainers — but the genuinely lonely, the ones carrying quiet burdens. This episode is a call to reach for one another, to remember that sisterhood is medicine, and to let ourselves both give and receive it.

A soothing, grounding reminder: we’re not meant to do life alone — and sobriety lets us show up for the friendships that save us.

In this Morning Call, we dive into the truth every grown woman needs tattooed on her soul: not everyone deserves a seat at your table.
Adulthood changes the meaning of friendship — it stops being about convenience and becomes about depth, honesty, and the women who can hold your silence as fiercely as your laughter. The ones who stay when life gets messy. The ones who don’t flinch at your fullness.

This episode is a reminder to guard your energy, honour your worth, and stop spending time out of guilt or obligation. We don’t chase. We don’t contort. We don’t hand out access passes to people who drain us.

Choose the women who choose you back. Protect the circle that feels like home. And remember: your worth is measured by how unapologetically you honour yourself.

A powerful Morning Call on boundaries, discernment, and the sacredness of true female friendship.

Here’s the truth: you become what you give your attention to.
Not your talent. Not your potential. Your focus is what builds the next version of you — brick by sober brick.

If your attention is scattered, distracted, or tangled in old stories, your life will follow.
But when you aim it — sharp, steady, intentional — everything begins to shift.

Today, pull your attention back from the chaos.
Back from the noise.
Back from the ghosts of who you used to be.

Feed what matters.
Starve what doesn’t.
Your attention is sacred currency — spend it on the woman you’re becoming.

Not today, lady. Not today.