023: Clarity of Mind
By Stopping Who We Think We Have To Be, We Experience Who We Are
✨Weekly Insight
There are days when it just smacks you in the face. Life is really damn good.
Of course, there will be times I completely forget this and be in a foul mood, but there’s absolutely no doubt in my mind, no question, sobriety has given me more than I could ever dream of.
You feel it. You know it. If I knew what I know now when I was drinking, I would have chucked those bottles so hard I probably would have dislocated my shoulder.
If you don’t believe me, here’s something you can do:
Go into ChatGPT and give it this prompt: “List 100 reasons why sobriety is fucking incredible.”
If you need 101 reasons to stop, consider this your wake-up call:
You only get this one life.
🎙️Clear Conversations: Creative Minds in Sobriety
Episode 22 with Paulina Pinsky October 16th at 12p EST.
My guest this week is Paulina Pinsky — the woman who refused to wait ten years to write about sobriety, so she’s documenting the beautiful disaster of early recovery in real time.
We’ll dig into sobriety and creativity: what happens when you can’t blame the blank page on a hangover anymore, how your most authentic work shows up when you stop numbing yourself, and why getting brutally honest might be the most creative thing you ever do.
Paulina got sober December 22, 2021, and immediately noticed a gap in recovery lit — nobody was capturing the crying-so-hard-you-throw-up-in-your-mouth first year. So she created newly sober, a newsletter that’s raw, lowercase, and refreshingly free of saint-like wisdom. She’s also a writing coach who helps women unearth their voice (turns out getting quiet is scary as hell), a co-author of a teen guide to consent, and a former figure skater based in LA.
Her newsletter newly sober welcomes everyone — sober, curious, or still showing up hungover. She writes about addiction, codependence, and what it’s like to discover who you are when you’re not blacked out dressed as Honey Boo Boo at a rugby party.
This conversation is going to be honest, funny, and probably make you feel something. Can’t wait to sit down with her.
🌟 More From This Week
📷 Behind the Creative
This past weekend, I spent three days in Morehead City at the NC Seafood Festival with Aramark Collegiate Hospitality from UNC Wilmington, capturing over ten live cooking demos through both photo and video. It was a full, creative weekend — the kind of project that reminds me why I love what I do. Being sober allows me to show up completely — present, energized, and genuinely connected with the people I’m working alongside. The clarity it brings doesn’t just elevate the quality of my work; it deepens the way I experience it.
P.S. You can view past newsletter editions here.
Ready To Go Deeper?
🎯 There’s a pattern around your alcohol use that may be negatively impacting your creative potential.
Below is a free 5-minute quiz that reveals exactly how it’s affecting your specific creative expression—and how alcohol might be maintaining it.
🧐 You may already know alcohol could be impacting your creative potential.
It’s a new month and new spots are available for my free breakthrough session offering!
Each step forward is an act of becoming the person you want to be.
Thank you for being here.
Josh
I agree so much with this! I was pondering this the other day. If I knew then what I know now, I would have done the same, and chuck those bottles as far as possible. Quitting drinking has given me so much that I never imagine possible. My heart is so happy for you that you are helping those to believe in themselves enough to take that leap. Life becomes so much more colorful when the alcohol haze go away.