The Podcast Becomes a Pause-Cast (Trigger Warning SA)

I have decided to hit pause on Sober Yoga Girl Podcast.  In this episode, I explain why.

Thank you for your support of Sober Yoga Girl Podcast over the last five years.

There are 250 episodes which will stay live for you to go back and listen to anytime. And as well, I may start recording again soon...perhaps again of Sober Yoga Girl, or another show or creation.  For the next few months I want to focus on setting up my yoga space in Bali, writing my next book, and cuddling with my foster kitten Zero! 

You can stay up to date with everything I am offering at https://www.soberyogagirl.com/. If you subscribe there, I will be writing and sending a newsletter about yoga philosophy most likely every week once a week.

There are two spots left on my India retreat February 22 - March 5. Make sure you grab a spot before they go at https://www.alcoholfreeretreats.com/india .

My yoga classes in Bali and yoga teacher trainings can be found at: https://www.mindfulbali.com/

Lots of love,

Alexandra

Transcript

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Hi, friend. This is Alex McGrobs, founder of the Mindful Life Practice, and you're listening to the Sober Yoga Girl podcast. I'm a Canadian who moved across the world at age 23 and I never went back. I got sober in 2019 and I realized that there was no one talking about sobriety in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, so I started doing it. I now live in Bali, Indonesia, and full-time run my community, the Mindful Life Practice. I host online sober yoga challenges, yoga teacher trainings, and I work one-on-one with others, helping them break up with booze for good. In this podcast, I sit down with others in the sobriety and mental health space from all walks of life and hear their stories so that I can help you on your journey. You're not alone, and a sober life can be fun and fulfilling. Let me show you how. And I just wanted to pop on and say hi and let you know something that I think is funny. The podcast is becoming a pause cast. And I also want to give a gentle trigger warning that I'm gonna touch on my sexual assault in this episode. And if it isn't something that you want to listen to right now, then just skip, uh, feel free to skip this episode or just come back to it when you feel ready. So I haven't released a new episode of this podcast in a couple of months. And recently I had one of my yoga teacher training graduates come into my yoga class and we sat and had a coffee after the class. And it's hard to believe that it's been two years since he completed his 200-hour yoga teacher training. But I've been training teachers now four or five years. And so there's lots of former grads I have that are teaching yoga all around the world, which is unbelievable. And it's really special every time I get to see one of them and connect with them and see how they're doing. So he came to my class, we had coffee together, and then I invited him to come see my new yoga shala, and we meditated and then we spoke after our meditation. And during our conversation, he reminded me of a teaching that a lot of Buddhist teachers say with dirt comes the Dharma, and with Dharma comes dirt. So, what does this mean? It means that obstacles can be transformed into wisdom. But as you gain wisdom, more obstacles arise. And each time you're asked to purify, to clean, and to keep going. And this feels exactly where I am right now. I started this podcast in 2021, which means I've been running it for five years. It's been a huge, huge part of my life. And I have loved every moment of this. The guests, the connections, meeting people who listen to it. And after my assault this year, everything shifted. I had episodes recorded and ready, but I just couldn't bring myself to release them. And over time I realized that my inspiration for the show had faded. So, what even inspired me to start this show in the first place? So I started this show when I was about a year into entrepreneurship. And to be honest with you, I was in survival mode at that point. So I had been running my business for probably almost close to a year when I started the podcast. And the business never profited. And my school teacher salary was basically supporting the business entirely. And I really wanted to quit my job as a teacher, but I knew that something had to change. So starting this podcast was really about trying to reach more people. And when I started it, it became this place to share stories of resilience. I didn't really know where my focus was going to be, but it ended up becoming really very much about sobriety. And I wanted to build a community through the podcast. And all of these things worked. You know, I've published almost 250 episodes, which feels like such a milestone. I think there's been over 200,000 downloads of this show. And I have loved creating it. Some of the episodes I've recorded live with a live audience, some of them I've recorded without an audience. But after everything I've been through this year, I'm just feeling called in a new direction. So after my sexual assault, I moved through the stages of recovery. At first, I was in shock. And then I shifted into an outward adjustment. And during that phase, I found myself seeking stability. And I started clinging to relationships that weren't healthy for me. And looking back, I see that what I needed most was to heal and to reintegrate on my own. One of the biggest realizations I had in this time was about autonomy. I want to be in relationships and environments where I have the freedom to live authentically, to make my own choices, to speak my own words, and to create a life that reflects who I truly am. And I noticed that I was losing pieces of this autonomy and it became a breakthrough moment. And I realized that I had to choose my own self-care and recovery, even if it meant walking away from commitments or relationships. And this awareness has rippled out into all areas of my life. And I'm realizing that for the last five years, I tolerated too much. I was saying yes when I shouldn't have, when I should have said no. I was taking opportunities that drained me. I was aligning with people and situations that didn't reflect my values. And in this moment right now, I feel calm and clear and empowered. And this is what post-traumatic growth looks like for me. And in past relationships, I can see now how I sometimes tolerated things that in hindsight were red flags. And I think I was aware of them at the moment when they happened, but I tolerated them. And I gave up pieces of myself in the process. And I recognize that while other people's actions may have caused harm, I also played a big part because I stayed in situations for months, for years that weren't aligned. And that realization has been difficult, but it's been freeing because it helps me see where I want to go from here. And another big shift has been in my work. So I have been traveling. So I started this online business. I was running it purely online for like the first couple of years, then COVID ended, and I started hosting a lot of international retreats and trainings. And it meant that there was a lot of instability in my life because I was teaching at resorts here in Bali. I was moving around from like venue to venue. I also was teaching all over the world in different countries, doing events. And this comes with a lot of logistical responsibilities, managing accommodation, facilities, finances, and group dynamics. And the reality is that my business is not profiting enough to have like a massive team on this. So I'm mostly dealing with this stuff on my own. And this left me very, very drained. And I realized now that these are just not the areas that I want my energy to go to anymore. And in the last few months, I created a simple rooftop yoga shala on my home in Bali. It's tiny, it's intimate, it's peaceful, it has a view of the rice fields. I started teaching classes there, and there's like no sign outside. There's not even marketing. I just put a Google Map pin and said, like, come for yoga. And people just started coming. And I realized, like, oh my God, this is like so simple. You know, I'm just teaching classes, people come, I'm connecting with them, drinking tea with them, and this is beautiful. And I'm planning to expand it slightly to host small chainings. So the the renovations are underway. And once the villa, once the yoga shala is expanded, it's gonna fit about 10 people total. And then all my programs are gonna be in this space. And there's a few different accommodations nearby to my house. First of all, there's a big hotel right next door, which is beautiful, but it's can be pricey if you're staying there for a long duration of time. There's also a really beautiful traditional Balinese cottage, which I'm gonna be booking out for my yoga, for two of my yoga teacher training guests to stay in. And that is like a more budget accommodation, but it's lovely. It has Rice Fields View and a swimming pool. And then there's also a Balinese guest house that's about five minutes walk, and that's in the village. Um, and that is the most, that's a really budget option. There's lots of other options in the neighborhood that you can choose, but these are the three that I recommend. And the really cool thing about this is that it's gonna make the trainings more affordable for my students. I think it's gonna cut the price by like a thousand bucks already, and it's also gonna be more flexible so you can stay and choose the option that suits your needs. And a big other realization has been that I don't want to live so much of my life online anymore. You know, for years I was constantly flying around to lead events and at the expense of my own health and my own financial stability. And now I just want to be grounded. I just want to have my motorbike and ride it around Bali and teach yoga in my yoga shala and have my little foster kitten and just hold space for people that come here. The simplest moments, like this morning, there was a baby here with his parents doing yoga, and he was breastfeeding during shivasana, and it just felt like the most divine moment. And I feel like these simple moments are the right work for me right now. Like I can't handle anything more complex than this. I still haven't won international retreat in India, but that feels like the max of what I can handle right now. And on that retreat, there's actually two spots left. It's almost fully booked. I am co-leading it with someone who graduated my yoga teacher training a few years ago. Her name is Jane Ballard, and she is a licensed therapist. And so she's gonna be leading all of the sharing circles. So I'm not gonna be doing that responsibility on that retreat. And if you're listening to this and you want to join, it's only for sober or sober curious women, and we would absolutely love to have you. So, this decision to pause the podcast, it is part of a bigger restructuring. Like, what do I want to focus on for the last few months of 2025? I want to focus on teaching. I want to focus on teaching my online Yoga Sutra study. I want to focus on my online community, I want to focus on getting my yoga shala going in my house, and I want to focus on writing. I've been studying Patanjali's Yoga Sutras for years, and I feel called to turn my notes and my teachings into books. And so that's really what I want to focus my time on. And Sutra 4.13 reminds us that change is the only constant and that everything in nature is always shifting. And that feels true for me now. Looking back, this podcast had its Brahma, which was its birth in 2021. It had its Vishnu, which was four years of sustaining and inspiring listeners. And this is its Shiva, its ending, its dissolution, it's making space for one. What's next? And Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, they're part of the Hindu tri Murti, beginnings, middles, and endings, right? I don't know. Maybe sober yoga girl will return in a new form. It might, or something entirely new might emerge. But for now, I'm just gonna leave all of these episodes online and you can still go back and listen. There's 250 episodes, so you can just start your way. If you're listening to this now and you're like, oh, I want to listen to episodes, just go back from the beginning and listen your way through. And I'll keep following where my dharma leads. You can subscribe to find out what I'm doing at soberyogagirl.com. This is my Substack. And if you subscribe to soberyogagirl.com, right now I'm I've actually haven't sent a pot a Substack in a few weeks, but I'm hoping to do them once a week. And you can find out what I'm doing there. And if you ever find yourself in Bali, I would love for you to come visit my rooftop yoga shala. You could join a yoga teacher training, you could just drop in for one class, you can just be part of this community. Thank you so much for listening for the last few years and for supporting me and for walking this journey with me. Hi, friend, this is Alex McGrobs, founder of the Mindful Life Practice, and you're listening to the Sober Yoga Girl podcast. I'm a Canadian who moved across the world at age 23 and I never went back. I got sober in 2019 and I realized that there was no one talking about sobriety in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, so I started doing it. I now live in Bali, Indonesia, and full-time run my community, the Mindful Life Practice. I host online sober yoga challenges, yoga teacher trainings, and I work one on one with others, helping them break up with booze for good. In this podcast, I sit down with others in the sobriety and mental health space from all walks of life and hear their stories so that I can help you on your journey. You're not alone, and a sober life can be fun and fulfilling. Let me show you how.