Pratidana Wellness Coaching

09/05/2025

If you are in Ann Arbor, Michigan, living alcohol free, please say hello! 👋🏽

The hardest part about living alcohol free, is living in an alcohol obsessed society and culture. Even family friendly events are pushing alcohol.

As an introvert and someone who hasn’t built much of a social life at (almost) 47, I’m looking to create an alcohol free community.

Some ideas:

✅ Take a stroll through the Arb
✅ Take a cooking class a Sur Le Tab
✅ Sourdough bread making class @ Zingerman’s
✅ Take dance lessons
✅ Yoga class
✅ Run hill sprints at Vets Park
✅ Coffee at Dozer
✅ Enter Warrior Dash or Race together

If you are in Ann Arbor, send me a DM. Let’s create an Alcohol Free Community! ✨

09/03/2025

08/31/2025

As long as we’re numbing, avoiding, checking out, or skipping over the parts of life that need our attention—we’re putting a ceiling on our potential.

I wish healing and growth were as easy as wiping a glass door clean.

But it’s not.
Removing alcohol is just the starting point.

For me, going alcohol-free wasn’t about having a “problem.”
Honestly, I love tequila…
But it doesn’t love me back.
It doesn’t make me feel better like it promises.

The real reason I quit alcohol is about attuning to the parts of me that ache to make this life more meaningful. The same parts that wanted the ache to go away need me to stay awake, to problem solve, to take action and to “eat that frog” ... don’t shy away from life, Melanie.

They need me awake.
Not numbing.
Not checked out.
Not making excuses.

If the oak tree is already in the acorn, imagine what’s already inside you. You gotta make that oak tree grow! 🌳

I know I can’t be the only one who feels this way.
Let me know if it hits home.

✨✌🏽

#

08/30/2025

“Alcohol takes the edge off…”

I believed that for until recently.
Even when I heard alcohol was toxic to my body, and nervous system,
there was still a part of me that clung to the belief:

“I need it to cope.”
“I don’t drink recklessly.”
“I deserve something to take the edge off.”

That’s cognitive dissonance.
And I tried everything to eliminate it:

✖️ Restricting (just drink less)
✖️ Justifying (I’m under a lot of stress)
✖️ Rationalizing (I don’t have a real problem)
✖️ Denying (It’s not that bad)

But those strategies never brought peace. To find true congruence, I had to turn toward the parts of me that believed alcohol was the answer,
And listen.
Not shame them.
Not silence them.

When I did that, and listened for what they wanted for me, it is clear that Alcohol isn’t what they actually want for me.

They want relief, connection, calm, joy, safety.

Now that I stay conscious without numbing myself, shutting off parts of myself, I can try to give them that… in ways that don’t cost me my clarity, my health, or my spirit.

If this resonates, let me know in the comments with a ❤️‍🩹 emoji.

08/28/2025

Is anyone else on the sober curious hamster wheel?
On again, off again, on again, off again… repeat…

Am I right? Did I miss anything?

1️⃣ She says “I’ll just have 1,” that leads to more and wakes up with a banger headache the next morning.

2️⃣ She tried to go without alcohol and declares: “It’s tequila or an antidepressant.”

3️⃣ She mixes tequila with greens powder & club soda. Calls it “Dissonance in a Glass.”

4️⃣ She highlights brain studies on alcohol’s toxicity… then drinks on Friday anyway.

5️⃣ She tells everyone she’s “taking a break,” but is quietly counting days like a hostage situation.

6️⃣ She learns about nervous system regulation in yoga class, only to go home and pour a glass of poison.

7️⃣ She Listens to Recovery / Sober podcasts but fast forwards through the “alcohol is toxic to humans” part.

8️⃣ She chooses organic hard kombucha, as if “organic poison” is somehow better.

I have said or done them all!! How about you?

If you are ready to get serious about alcohol living, it’s time to get off the sober curious hamster wheel. Join my free group on FB. Link in my bio.

08/24/2025

My current “5:00 Somewhere Elixir” Part III

08/24/2025

My current “5:00 Somewhere Elixir” Part II

08/24/2025

This is my current “5:00 Somewhere Elixir.”

08/21/2025

I am known for being little neurotic about healthy food. I’ve been a mostly plant based for 33+ years. I work out. I practice yoga. I eat clean. But somehow… alcohol got a pass. 🤔

I never wanted to admit that alcohol is a toxin, because admitting that meant I’d have to give up my “relief valve” and socializing. And that was scary for a long time.

But, once I started treating alcohol like the harmful neurotoxin that it is, something shifted.

It didn’t feel like restriction; it felt like alignment.

Now I’m finally living in integrity with the life I say I want. A life unencumbered by something in the way of growing into my full potential.

If you’re ready to see alcohol for what it really is, come explore alcohol-free living in a judgment-free space. FB Community Link in my bio.

https://www.facebook.com/share/g/19AV1QWyt2/?mibextid=wwXIfrrh

📍An Arbor, Michigan
💫 Free to all who are interested in living alcohol free.

12/13/2023