If this week feels harder than usual, read this

Hi Friend,

This is your Sunday Weekly Thoughts newsletter coming in on Tuesday evening. 

If this week has felt like a lot — the cravings louder, the triggers sharper, the urge to “treat yourself” sneaking back in — you are not imagining it, and you are absolutely not alone. Read on. 

🌞 Following up from the Soak Up Summer Workshop

Thank you to everyone who joined us for Soak Up Summer! The energy in that room was exactly what this season needs — honest, hopeful, and full of people choosing themselves. We talked about building a summer that feels good without the booze: the backyard nights, the patios, the long weekends, soul-filled mornings, and all of it, fully present.

If you didn't register and missed it but want to watch, just reply to this email, and I'll get you the link to the replay. For those that registered and/or attended, the Summer Playbook and replay are already in your inbox.

🎉 And the winner of the free coaching call is…

Drumroll, please—congratulations to Ammie! 

Thank you to everyone who joined LIVE. This community keeps growing because of you.

🌊 What we’re all feeling this week

On this week’s 1x1 calls, a theme keeps surfacing: nearly everyone is craving, triggered, or just a little off—and so many of us are blaming ourselves for it. Here’s the reframe: it’s not a willpower problem. It’s a transition.

We’re moving into a new season. Longer days, more social invitations, weddings and cookouts and vacations, and the cultural script that says summer = drinking. Seasonal change shifts our routines, our sleep, our light exposure, and our cues—and our brains respond by reaching for the old comfort. When you understand the craving is a response to change rather than a personal failing, you can meet it with curiosity instead of shame.

🧠 This week’s tool: the reframe (a little confession)

Can I be honest with you? In the days before the Soak Up Summer workshop, I was nervous. My perfectionist brain went into overdrive—running worst-case scenarios, picking apart every detail, whispering that it wouldn’t be good enough, that I wouldn’t be good enough. If you’ve ever felt that loop, you know exactly how loud it gets.

So I used the tool I want to give you this week: a mindset reframe. In the research it’s called cognitive reframing (or cognitive restructuring), and it’s one of the most studied, most effective tools in cognitive behavioral therapy. Here’s why it works: your brain has a built-in negativity bias and well-worn patterns, and under pressure it defaults to the oldest story it knows—"this isn’t good” or “you’re not good.” That thought feels like the truth. It isn’t. It’s just a pattern. And patterns can be rewritten.

Here’s the reframe I chose:

Instead of “I have to perform perfectly,” I told myself, "I get to connect with real people who want what I want.” Instead of "What if it’s not good enough?" I remembered, "This is my dream come true—I am literally living it right now.” I didn’t wait to feel different before I showed up. I chose the truer thought first, and the feeling followed.

Your turn. Notice the pattern of thought this week—the one that says this craving means you’re failing or this hard season means you’re not good. Name it (“that’s my pattern talking”), then choose a truer thought to stand on instead. The mindset reframe is everything. Both of our brains will keep offering the old story; we just don’t have to believe it.

If you could use some 1x1 coaching support around this issue, schedule your complimentary call HERE.

📅 Come connect with us this week

You don’t have to do any of this alone—that's the whole point of the Insider calls. This is where we catch the old patterns out loud, reframe them together, and walk away standing on a truer story than we came in with. If this week has felt hard, that’s exactly the week to show up.

This week’s calls:

Wednesday June 24th 7 pm CST

Host Chelsie, Topic: Personal Growth and Goals

Thursday June 25th 2 pm CST

with Host Heather, Topic: Let's Catch Up

You can still catch the replays from last week with Connection Call with Deb Masner and special guest Scot Maitland from The Elevated Bear with a presentation on 4 pillars of a great beverage: Physics, Engineering, Perfumery, & Hospitality

🍷 On my radar: a new alcohol-free wine from Patricia Heaton

My newest Instagram follow is actress Patricia Heaton — and if you didn’t know, she’s been alcohol-free for years and is open about how much better her energy, sleep, and skin are because of it. (Preaching to the choir over here.)

She’s just co-launched SOLUBRAE, a sophisticated non-alcoholic wine handcrafted from California-grown grapes, made “for the social but sober set.” It’s available nationwide at around $29.99 a bottle, with bundle discounts if you want to stock up before summer gatherings. I love seeing more elegant, grown-up options on the shelf — proof that ditching the drink doesn’t mean ditching the ritual or the fun.

Whatever this week brings, remember: the thought that says “this isn’t good” or “you’re not good” is a pattern, not the truth. Reframe it, and come connect with us on a call.

XO!

Heather 

P.S. If you read just one thing today, let it be this: don’t believe the old story alone; get out of your head and join us on the INSIDE HERE.