Since finding sobriety, I’ve accomplished many things I never considered to be an option, and I was only able to do so through my sobriety. If you would have asked me early in my recovery if I ever intended on sharing my story, I would have told you no. In fact, in the first two years of my sobriety, I was told on numerous occasions I should and my response always was—“I don’t have a story worth telling”.

Almost a year ago we were in the ER for the second time less than 24-hours before this picture was taken.

This trip to the ER went differently than the first, we didn’t get to have an ultrasound to ease our pain and worry of knowing that our little one was okay. Our hearts sank as the doctor spoke the words ‘threatened miscarriage’ and there wasn’t anything they could do besides send me home and for me to rest.

The thought crossed my mind, for the second time, to cancel our photoshoot because of my previous history of miscarriages. How could I pretend to be happy when I knew what the outcome would be? For those of you who do not know, six years ago I had a non-viable pregnancy and was forced to terminate. I found myself on a very dark path of heavy self-medication—more than I ever had before. Which nearly destroyed me.

A year later, I found my sobriety and took back the power alcohol had over me and my life. While there was more loss to come, throughout my recovery journey I reconnected in my faith and hung on by a thread, but didn’t give in to that temptation.

Self-care isn’t always something we think about. We have others that depend on us for their survival and we go through the motions on a daily basis that we forget about ourselves and before we know it days, weeks, and maybe even months have passed. This can put us into a state of exhaustion, making us more susceptible to outside forces.

When burnout sets in we become frustrated, cranky and irritable and start looking to others to fulfill the needs we are lacking. This can contribute to low self-esteem or even depression because we feel our needs aren’t being met by those around us and we may have difficulties communicating exactly what those needs are.

This week On The Blog I share with you how important it is to carve out time for self-care and how I made it apart of my daily routine to prevent future burnout.

In our society failure is viewed as a sign of weakness, and is unacceptable. Regardless if we come from a highly-successful family or a family of dysfunction. This instills fear in us down to our very core, that we HAVE to be high-achievers like our parents—or better yet our siblings—or we put this overwhelming amount of pressure on ourselves that we HAVE to be better than where we came from.

For me I didn’t come from a family of success, I grew up in poverty surrounded by drugs and alcohol. There was no ambition or guidance on how to be successful in life. This made me determined that one day I would make something of myself and be able to give my children the life I never had. I was so determined to break the cycle, that if I fell flat on my face or even stumbled, my life as I knew it was over.

Failure can be incapacitating. It holds you back from putting yourself out there and give up on your dreams, but it doesn’t have to be that way. In this week’s blog post I share with you the five things to stop doing in times of failure to find success.

You may have recently experienced a life-changing event that caused you to realize that your drinking has gotten out of control and you want to change. This change can be overwhelming and scary for many reasons, but I am here to tell you that you are not alone and I’ve been there!

I hit my rock bottom almost five years ago and became empowered to give up alcohol and the control that it had over my life. I had no idea what my recovery would look like or if it were even possible—after all I had tried in the past and failed—I just know that I had to!

A year ago I found myself laying on my living room floor staring blankly at the ceiling as tears ran down my face. I was defeated. I was less than six months into the official launch of my marketing business and I had already failed, or that is what I told myself at least. I fell into the trap of negative self-talk and repeatedly told myself all of the lies that I used to believe, some of them being my own and some being the lies of others. I began questioning everything about myself.

When Kari was just seven years old, she experienced a question that is unusual for a child of that age. The question was, “Is this all there is?” She knew this was not a common question.

Kari wondered if life was really this lonely and empty. A profound statement for a 7-year-old. That was also the same year she declared to her mother that she would become a cigarette smoker. And so she did but waited until she was a bit older, at age eleven.

Are there times when you feel that no matter how hard you try you cannot seem to get ahead, that it is a constant battle of one thing after another, and you just feel like giving up? Well babe, you are NOT alone!

To say I live an alcohol-free life would be a lie. I am surrounded by alcohol almost every day and have been for most of my sobriety. It wasn't until recently that it dawned on me that I wasn't living an alcohol-free life as I had been proclaiming, but rather I was living a life free from alcohol!