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You've stopped drinking. So why do you still feel stuck?

Getting sober can change your life. But what happens when the alcohol is gone and you're still struggling with anxiety, self-doubt, loneliness, or a lack of purpose?

In this episode of Sobriety… Now What?, host Stuart Cline sits down with Jason Dobbie, former executive chef and founder of Stress-Free Sobriety, to explore what it takes to move beyond simply not drinking and start building a life you're excited to live.

Jason shares his journey from high-pressure kitchens, alcohol-fueled blackouts, and panic attacks to discovering meditation, mindfulness, and a deeper sense of purpose. Along the way, he learned that sobriety wasn't the end of his journey. It was the beginning of discovering who he wanted to become.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why getting sober doesn't automatically make you happy or fulfilled.
• How meditation and mindfulness can help you manage stress, anxiety, and emotional triggers.
• Why changing your identity in recovery can feel frightening and lonely.
• How to rediscover your passions and find purpose after alcohol.
• What to do when self-doubt makes you want to give up.
• Why a relapse or slip doesn't erase the progress you've made.
• How supportive relationships and community can help you build a meaningful life in sobriety.

Stuart and Jason also explore spirituality, trusting your inner compass, and learning to let go of the person you used to be while embracing who you're becoming.

One of the most powerful reminders from this conversation: A setback doesn't erase your growth. What you learn from it can help you move forward.

Whether you're newly sober, several years into recovery, or simply questioning what comes next in your life, this conversation offers encouragement and practical ideas for finding direction, building confidence, and rediscovering joy.

Connect with Jason Dobbie

Learn more about his free Stress-Free Sobriety community and connect with Jason on Instagram: @jason.doby

Connect with Stuart Cline

Visit sobrietynowwhat.com for more episodes and resources.

Explore Live Unclouded: liveunclouded.com

Sobriety is more than what you leave behind. It's also about the life you choose to create.

This podcast is for education and inspiration and is not a substitute for professional treatment or therapy.

Invitation to consider at least one helpful piece of information to help them thrive in their sobriety and to share with podcast with others and to follow and email questions.

Support the show

🚩 Your Next Step Starts Here

Thank you for listening to Sobriety… Now What? My hope is that each conversation offers encouragement, practical tools, and a reminder that you don't have to navigate life's challenges alone.

🚩 Ready to Stop Living on Autopilot?

Whether you're navigating sobriety, feeling stuck, or wondering what's next, take a few minutes to reflect on where you are and where you want to go.

Explore my FREE Unclouded Decision App, designed to help you begin making more intentional choices.

👉 START YOUR FREE EXPERIENCE

https://start.liveunclouded.com

🌱 Ready for Your Next Chapter?

Looking for more guidance as you navigate sobriety, life transitions, or personal growth?

Explore Live Unclouded for programs, workshops, and resources designed to help you reconnect with yourself, find direction, and begin living by design.

👉 EXPLORE LIVE UNCLOUDED

🌐 Connect & Explore

About Stuart Cline: stuartcline.com

Counseling Services: nmcounseling.com

...

DId this podcast help you. Please let me and others know to support the show. Thank you.

In this shorter episode, host Stuart Cline shares a recovered conversation with Nick Jonsson, #1 international bestselling author of Executive Loneliness: The 5 Pathways to Overcoming Isolation, Stress, Anxiety & Depression in the Modern Business World.

Nick (joining from Thailand while Stuart was in New Mexico) decided to write the book in 2019 after losing a friend to suicide, about a year into his own recovery. Technical issues limited the full interview, but the eight minutes we salvaged are packed with practical insight. Nick walks through his five pathways:

• Taking stock (honest self-assessment)
• Asking for help
• Getting healthy
• Nurturing healthy relationships
• Finding your purpose

He also touches on burnout, the cost of strained relationships (citing research that poor close relationships can be as harmful as smoking), how purpose often emerges once the basics are in place, and how he rediscovered his own sense of purpose by looking back at what he loved as a child.

Whether you’re in recovery, leading under pressure, or simply feeling the weight of isolation and modern stress, this conversation offers a clear, grounded framework you can start using right away.

Connect with Nick Jonsson

Website: https://www.nickjonsson.com/

Book a free connection call (speaking, coaching, or collaboration): https://www.nickjonsson.com/contact-me

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-jonsson/

Nick also hosts The Limitless Podcast.

About the show

Sobriety… Now What? (soon becoming Live Unclouded) helps people who are sober—or building a life worth staying sober for—navigate purpose, relationships, stress, and meaning.

If this episode was useful, share it with someone who might need it or leave a quick review.

Note: This is a shorter salvaged episode due to connectivity challenges during the original recording.

Invitation to consider at least one helpful piece of information to help them thrive in their sobriety and to share with podcast with others and to follow and email questions.

Support the show

HI! If you would like to find out more things I offer, check out the links below. I am transitioning the title from Sobriety...Now What? to Live Unclouded, after the book title, I am publishing September 1st.

🌐 Website: www.Liveunclouded.com

🌱 Stuart Cline: www.Stuartcline.com

🧠 Counseling Services: www.nmcounseling.com

📧 Email: Liveunclouded@gmail.com

Have a topic you’d like me to cover?
Send me an email—I’d love to hear what would be most helpful for you.

If this episode helped you:
Follow the podcast, leave a review, and share it with a friend

Disclaimer
This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health care. Listening to this podcast does not establish a therapeutic relationship. If you are in need of support, please reach out to a qualified healthcare provider.

DId this podcast help you. Please let me and others know to support the show. Thank you.

How do you stay sober when life falls apart?

Joseph Ganci has been in recovery for nearly 30 years. Along the way, he has faced divorce, financial loss, and the devastating death of his daughter—without returning to alcohol.

In this episode of Sobriety, Now What?, Joe shares what helped him keep moving forward through grief, loss, and some of the hardest moments of his life. We talk about AA, service, asking for help, letting go of how life “should” be, and the role spirituality and faith can play in recovery.

Joe also explains why “even high bottoms have trapdoors,” shares the questions he asks people he sponsors, and tells the remarkable AA story of a roll of nickels and a phone call that helped change recovery history.

Whether AA or faith is part of your recovery or not, there are lessons here about connection, grief, service, resilience, and staying sober when life doesn’t go according to plan.

At the end, I share three simple tools from Joe’s story that you can put into practice today.

In this episode:
• Staying sober through grief and major loss
• Why having a “high bottom” doesn’t mean alcohol isn’t a problem
• Service and connection as recovery tools
• Allowing yourself to grieve and cry
• Letting go of “should” statements
• Spirituality, faith, and finding your own path
• Three practical tools you can use today

Content note: This episode includes discussion of suicide and the death of a child. If you are struggling or in crisis in the U.S., call or text 988.

To reach joseph checkout his website: Rumradio.com

Invitation to consider at least one helpful piece of information to help them thrive in their sobriety and to share with podcast with others and to follow and email questions.

Support the show

HI! If you would like to find out more things I offer, check out the links below. I am transitioning the title from Sobriety...Now What? to Live Unclouded, after the book title, I am publishing September 1st.

🌐 Website: www.Liveunclouded.com

🌱 Stuart Cline: www.Stuartcline.com

🧠 Counseling Services: www.nmcounseling.com

📧 Email: Liveunclouded@gmail.com

Have a topic you’d like me to cover?
Send me an email—I’d love to hear what would be most helpful for you.

If this episode helped you:
Follow the podcast, leave a review, and share it with a friend

Disclaimer
This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health care. Listening to this podcast does not establish a therapeutic relationship. If you are in need of support, please reach out to a qualified healthcare provider.

DId this podcast help you. Please let me and others know to support the show. Thank you.

What if one of the most powerful tools for feeling better, reconnecting with others, and strengthening your recovery was something as simple as kindness?

In this audience-favorite episode, I sit down with Francesca Donlan—journalist, educator, kindness teacher, and my sister—to explore what kindness actually looks like in everyday life.

Francesca created and taught a college course on the science and practice of kindness, and in this conversation, we talk about what she learned from her students—and from putting kindness into practice herself.

We explore why kindness is more than simply being “nice,” why it can be surprisingly difficult to receive a compliment, and how small intentional actions can change the way we experience ourselves and the people around us.

We also talk about:

• Why kindness begins with how you treat yourself
• How small acts can create a ripple effect
• Using kindness and gratitude as healthy coping skills
• Getting outside of your own head by helping someone else
• Learning to notice the good that is already happening around you
• Why receiving kindness can sometimes be as important as giving it
• Simple ways to practice kindness when you're struggling
• How kindness can help rebuild connection in recovery

Francesca shares stories from her kindness classes, including the $10 Kindness Challenge, unexpected acts of generosity, and the student who learned that sometimes the kindness we go out to give comes back to us in ways we never expected.

One of my favorite ideas from this conversation is also one of the simplest:

Kindness isn't just something we think about. It's something we do.

You don't have to change the world today. Smile at someone. Give a genuine compliment. Write down three things you're grateful for. Do something thoughtful for yourself.

Then see what happens.

A question to carry with you today:

How can I be kind today—to myself, to others, and to the world?

This episode originally appeared earlier in the podcast and remains one of our most-listened-to conversations, so I'm bringing it back for listeners who may have missed it the first time.

Live free, evolve fully, and live unclouded. And be kind to yourself.

Invitation to consider at least one helpful piece of information to help them thrive in their sobriety and to share with podcast with others and to follow and email questions.

Support the show

HI! If you would like to find out more things I offer, check out the links below. I am transitioning the title from Sobriety...Now What? to Live Unclouded, after the book title, I am publishing September 1st.

🌐 Website: www.Liveunclouded.com

🌱 Stuart Cline: www.Stuartcline.com

🧠 Counseling Services: www.nmcounseling.com

📧 Email: Liveunclouded@gmail.com

Have a topic you’d like me to cover?
Send me an email—I’d love to hear what would be most helpful for you.

If this episode helped you:
Follow the podcast, leave a review, and share it with a friend

Disclaimer
This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health care. Listening to this podcast does not establish a therapeutic relationship. If you are in need of support, please reach out to a qualified healthcare provider.

DId this podcast help you. Please let me and others know to support the show. Thank you.

Alcohol does not always call you back through an obvious craving. Sometimes its siren song sounds like self-doubt, regret, loneliness, shame, and the belief that no one understands what you are going through.

In Episode 44 of Sobriety: Now What?, Stuart Cline uses the story of Odysseus and the sirens to explore how negative thinking and isolation can quietly pull people toward relapse. One painful thought may seem small, but repeatedly feeding those thoughts can create an emotional hole that becomes increasingly difficult to climb out of.

In this episode, you will learn how to:

• Recognize alcohol’s “siren song” before following it
• Notice a negative thought without treating it as the truth
• Use the HALTS check-in: Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired, or Stressed
• Interrupt isolation by reaching out and borrowing someone else’s hope
• End the day by recognizing your wins instead of replaying your mistakes
• Replace winning or losing with winning or learning

You do not have to believe every story your mind tells you. You can put down the shovel, reconnect with support, and make one choice that moves you toward the life you want.

Learn more at StuartCline.com or LiveUnclouded.com.

If you are experiencing emotional distress or thoughts of suicide in the United States, call or text 988 for immediate support.

Invitation to consider at least one helpful piece of information to help them thrive in their sobriety and to share with podcast with others and to follow and email questions.

Support the show

HI! If you would like to find out more things I offer, check out the links below. I am transitioning the title from Sobriety...Now What? to Live Unclouded, after the book title, I am publishing September 1st.

🌐 Website: www.Liveunclouded.com

🌱 Stuart Cline: www.Stuartcline.com

🧠 Counseling Services: www.nmcounseling.com

📧 Email: Liveunclouded@gmail.com

Have a topic you’d like me to cover?
Send me an email—I’d love to hear what would be most helpful for you.

If this episode helped you:
Follow the podcast, leave a review, and share it with a friend

Disclaimer
This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health care. Listening to this podcast does not establish a therapeutic relationship. If you are in need of support, please reach out to a qualified healthcare provider.

DId this podcast help you. Please let me and others know to support the show. Thank you.

Winston Churchill and the Black Dog: What Bricklaying Can Teach Us About a Racing Mind

Winston Churchill helped lead Britain through World War II. He also battled dark moods he called his "black dog." When those moods showed up, he didn't just wait them out. He painted. He wrote. And strangely enough, he laid bricks, one at a time, until he joined an actual bricklayers union.

In this episode, we use Churchill's story to talk about something a lot of people in recovery know well: rumination. That loop where your mind keeps circling the same question. Why did I do that? What if this happens? What does that person think of me? Alcohol may have quieted that noise for a while, but once it's gone, the thoughts are still there, and you need a new way to respond.

We'll talk about the difference between reflection and rumination, why trying to force a thought away often makes it louder, and a simple practice for redirecting your attention when your mind won't let go. Plus, a quick update on where things stand with the first Live Unclouded book.

What's your brick? By the end of this episode, you'll have a plan for finding out.

Invitation to consider at least one helpful piece of information to help them thrive in their sobriety and to share with podcast with others and to follow and email questions.

Support the show

HI! If you would like to find out more things I offer, check out the links below. I am transitioning the title from Sobriety...Now What? to Live Unclouded, after the book title, I am publishing September 1st.

🌐 Website: www.Liveunclouded.com

🌱 Stuart Cline: www.Stuartcline.com

🧠 Counseling Services: www.nmcounseling.com

📧 Email: Liveunclouded@gmail.com

Have a topic you’d like me to cover?
Send me an email—I’d love to hear what would be most helpful for you.

If this episode helped you:
Follow the podcast, leave a review, and share it with a friend

Disclaimer
This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health care. Listening to this podcast does not establish a therapeutic relationship. If you are in need of support, please reach out to a qualified healthcare provider.

DId this podcast help you. Please let me and others know to support the show. Thank you.

Something is shifting.

After 18 months and listeners in 81 countries, Sobriety… Now What? is becoming Live Unclouded — and this episode is where that transition begins.

But before the rebrand announcement, Stuart shares something personal: a season of burnout so complete he had nothing left to give. No job. No relationship. Sleeping on family members' couches. A back injury that left his leg atrophying. Days when he genuinely believed everyone would be better off without him.

What pulled him back wasn't a dramatic breakthrough. It was small choices, one conversation at a time.

That experience, combined with 25 years of sitting with people in recovery, quietly shaped what Stuart is now calling the Unclouded Life Philosophy — three ideas that change everything about how you see where you are right now:

• You are not lost. You are disconnected.
• The path ahead still belongs to you.
• You are not finished becoming.

This episode also includes the story of a man in his seventies who entered treatment to get his grandchildren back — and discovered something about his marriage that broke his heart open in the best possible way.

If you've been feeling stuck, questioning your direction, or wondering whether it's too late — this one is for you.

🎙️ Visit liveunclouded.com to get on the list for the book dropping September 1st — and grab the first 60 pages free when you sign up.

Invitation to consider at least one helpful piece of information to help them thrive in their sobriety and to share with podcast with others and to follow and email questions.

Support the show

HI! If you would like to find out more things I offer, check out the links below. I am transitioning the title from Sobriety...Now What? to Live Unclouded, after the book title, I am publishing September 1st.

🌐 Website: www.Liveunclouded.com

🌱 Stuart Cline: www.Stuartcline.com

🧠 Counseling Services: www.nmcounseling.com

📧 Email: Liveunclouded@gmail.com

Have a topic you’d like me to cover?
Send me an email—I’d love to hear what would be most helpful for you.

If this episode helped you:
Follow the podcast, leave a review, and share it with a friend

Disclaimer
This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health care. Listening to this podcast does not establish a therapeutic relationship. If you are in need of support, please reach out to a qualified healthcare provider.

DId this podcast help you. Please let me and others know to support the show. Thank you.

Most people think a liver transplant is the finish line.

But for many transplant recipients, it's actually the beginning of a completely new journey.

In this follow-up conversation, Tia Bean returns to Sobriety Now What? to share what life has really been like nearly three years after receiving a life-saving liver transplant.

From unexpected fatigue and medication side effects to navigating relationships, rebuilding confidence, and learning how to dream again, Tia offers an honest and inspiring look at recovery beyond the hospital. She also shares valuable insights for family members, friends, and anyone facing a transplant journey of their own.

In this episode, we discuss:

• What recovery really looks like 1–3 years after transplant
• The hidden challenges of fatigue and brain fog
• Medication side effects and long-term health concerns
• Why family and friends often misunderstand life after transplant
• The "Spoon Theory" and managing limited energy
• Returning to work, college, and rebuilding a future
• The emotional and spiritual impact of surviving a life-threatening illness
• Advice for people waiting for or considering a transplant
• How loved ones can provide meaningful support

Tia's message is simple but powerful:

Don't give up. There is life on the other side.

Whether you are recovering from a transplant, supporting someone who is, or simply looking for a story of resilience and hope, this conversation will leave you encouraged.

Thanks for listening to Sobriety Now What? Live freely, evolve fully, and thrive.

Invitation to consider at least one helpful piece of information to help them thrive in their sobriety and to share with podcast with others and to follow and email questions.

Support the show

HI! If you would like to find out more things I offer, check out the links below. I am transitioning the title from Sobriety...Now What? to Live Unclouded, after the book title, I am publishing September 1st.

🌐 Website: www.Liveunclouded.com

🌱 Stuart Cline: www.Stuartcline.com

🧠 Counseling Services: www.nmcounseling.com

📧 Email: Liveunclouded@gmail.com

Have a topic you’d like me to cover?
Send me an email—I’d love to hear what would be most helpful for you.

If this episode helped you:
Follow the podcast, leave a review, and share it with a friend

Disclaimer
This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health care. Listening to this podcast does not establish a therapeutic relationship. If you are in need of support, please reach out to a qualified healthcare provider.