The Deliberate Exchange - Navigating Stress, Sobriety & Self-Trust — One Deliberate Step at a Time

Chelsea Powell
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The Deliberate Exchange is a podcast for women ready to lead themselves through stress, sobriety, and self-trust — one deliberate step at a time.Hosted by Chelsea — a stress and confidence coach, breathwork facilitator, and Interim Director of She Walks Canada — each episode offers mindset tools, emotional regulation practices, and real conversations that help you reclaim your power and presence.Whether you're sober, sober-curious, or simply seeking deeper self-leadership, you'll find insights on stress relief, nervous system healing, and the mind-body connection. Expect solo episodes, some guest interviews, and practical guidance to help you stop performing and start becoming who you really are.This is for women who want to feel calm, clear, and confident — and know their growth isn’t an accident... it’s a choice.

  1. 2D AGO

    Why Change Is Harder Than Intention EP 62

    Drinking, stress, and the nervous system’s role in the stop/start cycle... On January 1, 2019, I told myself I was done drinking. By January 4, I said fuck it and drank. In this episode, I share the truth about the year my drinking quietly became a problem I couldn’t ignore, not through a dramatic rock bottom, but through a slow erosion of self-trust, safety, and standards. I talk honestly about drinking every night, blackouts, and making decisions I wouldn’t make sober. About grief, stress, and why willpower alone kept me stuck in a stop/start cycle for years. And about the moment I realized alcohol wasn’t the real craving, relief was. This conversation isn’t just about drinking. It’s about why change is so hard to sustain, even when we want it bad. I explore: Why the stop/start cycle is so common, especially for womenHow stress and the nervous system shape our capacity for changeWhy we default to comfort and familiarity, even when it hurtsWhy “just don’t drink” fails without regulation and supportWhat actually changed when I quit drinking in January 2020, and why it finally heldOur nervous systems are wired for survival, not success. So real change doesn’t come from trying harder, it comes from feeling safe enough to stay. If you’re navigating change of any kind, drinking, boundaries, relationships, work, or rest, this episode is an invitation to understand yourself with more compassion and less blame. If you’re ready to start your journey, here’s where you can begin: The Complete Guide to Quitting Drinking (Free) If you’re navigating a stop/start cycle, I created a free guide to help you understand why quitting can feel hard and what actually supports lasting change. It offers a nervous-system lens on stress, relief, and cravings, without labels or pressure. Steady: ($27) — 7 days of nervous system practices to help you get quick wins and feel grounded fast. The Personal Power Map ($75)— a personalized breakdown of your stress patterns, hidden strengths, and next power move, complete with a video report from me so you can feel my coaching style and energy. And if you’re craving high-touch, transformational support, I also offer 1:1 mentorship. Explore everything at thedeliberateone.com. Connect with me on Instagram @thedeliberateone. If this episode supported you and you’d like to say thank you, buy me a coffee ...

    14 min

  2. 12/28/2025

    So You Want to Quit Drinking? Why It’s a Cycle (Not a Switch) & What to Expect in the First Year EP 61

    So you want to quit drinking ... or maybe you’re still thinking about it. In this episode, we explore why quitting drinking isn’t a single decision, but a change cycle and how understanding that cycle can remove shame, normalize stop–start patterns, and make lasting change possible. We begin by breaking down the stages most people move through before quitting drinking, including making rules around alcohol, negotiating, taking breaks, and why willpower alone often fails. I share my own journey ... years of stop/start cycles between 2015 and 2019, a short quit in 2019, and why quitting for good in 2020 finally stuck when I added breathwork and nervous system healing. From there, we walk through what actually happens after you stop drinking ... physically, emotionally, mentally, socially, and energetically, across: • the first 30 days • the 3-month mark (and why it often feels harder than the beginning) • 6 months • one year and beyond We talk honestly about anxiety after quitting drinking, emotional overwhelm, identity shifts, changing relationships, energy returning, and what truly supports your nervous system when alcohol is no longer your coping mechanism. This episode is for women who are sober, sober-curious, or stuck in contemplation  and want a compassionate, body-based approach instead of shame, rules, or white-knuckling. Because quitting drinking isn’t about discipline.  It’s about capacity. If you’re ready to start your journey, here’s where you can begin: The Complete Guide to Quitting Drinking (Free) If you’re navigating a stop/start cycle, I created a free guide to help you understand why quitting can feel hard and what actually supports lasting change. It offers a nervous-system lens on stress, relief, and cravings, without labels or pressure. Steady: ($27) — 7 days of nervous system practices to help you get quick wins and feel grounded fast. The Personal Power Map ($75)— a personalized breakdown of your stress patterns, hidden strengths, and next power move, complete with a video report from me so you can feel my coaching style and energy. And if you’re craving high-touch, transformational support, I also offer 1:1 mentorship. Explore everything at thedeliberateone.com. Connect with me on Instagram @thedeliberateone. If this episode supported you and you’d like to say thank you, buy me a coffee ...

    16 min

  3. 12/21/2025

    You Don’t Need Another Lesson. You Need to Breathe. A 6-Minute Nervous System Reset Before Christmas EP 60

    Three days before Christmas, you don’t need another podcast episode with lessons, takeaways, or mindset shifts. You need breath. This 6-minute guided breathwork episode is a gentle nervous system reset designed to help you release tension, slow your breathing, and come back into your body during one of the most emotionally charged times of the year. Whether you’re feeling overwhelmed, emotionally raw, overstimulated, or navigating the holidays without alcohol, this short practice offers simple, supportive breathwork you can listen to while walking, resting, or sitting quietly. No fixing. No forcing. No pressure to feel any certain way. Just breath. Just regulation. Just presence. If Christmas feels heavy… if your nervous system feels fried… if you’re learning how to stay with yourself instead of numbing or pushing through… this episode is here for you. Press play. Breathe. Let your body soften. PS-If this six minutes helped you feel even a little more steady, and you want to say thank you, there’s a “buy me a coffee” link in the show notes. No pressure at all. Just there if it feels right. If you’re ready to start your journey, here’s where you can begin: The Complete Guide to Quitting Drinking (Free) If you’re navigating a stop/start cycle, I created a free guide to help you understand why quitting can feel hard and what actually supports lasting change. It offers a nervous-system lens on stress, relief, and cravings, without labels or pressure. Steady: ($27) — 7 days of nervous system practices to help you get quick wins and feel grounded fast. The Personal Power Map ($75)— a personalized breakdown of your stress patterns, hidden strengths, and next power move, complete with a video report from me so you can feel my coaching style and energy. And if you’re craving high-touch, transformational support, I also offer 1:1 mentorship. Explore everything at thedeliberateone.com. Connect with me on Instagram @thedeliberateone. If this episode supported you and you’d like to say thank you, buy me a coffee ...

    6 min

  4. 12/14/2025

    I Underestimated the Power of My Sobriety: The 100 Women Project EP 59

    For years, sobriety has been part of my life, but I underestimated the power it had not only in my own healing, but in my work, my leadership, and the women I was meant to serve. In this episode, I share why I’m finally naming sobriety as a core pillar of my work, how stigma and assumptions kept me from fully leading with this story, and why I created the 100 Women Project, a mission to support 100 women in building alcohol-free, nervous-system-rooted lives they genuinely love. This conversation is for high-functioning women who don’t resonate with rock-bottom narratives, but know their relationship with alcohol isn’t neutral anymore. For women stuck in stop-start cycles, feeling scattered, overwhelmed, or quietly disconnected from themselves. I talk about why word of mouth is so hard in sobriety, how shame keeps women silent, and how real change often begins when one woman speaks the truth another hasn’t been able to say yet. If you’ve ever wondered whether alcohol is costing you more than you realized…  If you’re craving steadiness, clarity, and self-trust… This episode is for you. If you’re ready to start your journey, here’s where you can begin: The Complete Guide to Quitting Drinking (Free) If you’re navigating a stop/start cycle, I created a free guide to help you understand why quitting can feel hard and what actually supports lasting change. It offers a nervous-system lens on stress, relief, and cravings, without labels or pressure. Steady: ($27) — 7 days of nervous system practices to help you get quick wins and feel grounded fast. The Personal Power Map ($75)— a personalized breakdown of your stress patterns, hidden strengths, and next power move, complete with a video report from me so you can feel my coaching style and energy. And if you’re craving high-touch, transformational support, I also offer 1:1 mentorship. Explore everything at thedeliberateone.com. Connect with me on Instagram @thedeliberateone. If this episode supported you and you’d like to say thank you, buy me a coffee ...

    13 min

  5. 12/07/2025

    If You’re the Strong One Holding It Together: 3 Shifts to Make December Feel Lighter EP58

    If you find yourself unraveling every December, overwhelmed, overstimulated, resentful, exhausted, or suddenly questioning your entire life, this episode will land. I break down the reason high-functioning, high-capacity women hit their emotional and energetic limit at the end of the year… and it has nothing to do with discipline, motivation, or time management. It’s about the nervous system. It’s about survival mode. It’s about the pressure you’ve been carrying for eleven straight months. It’s about the identity of “the strong one” that no one checks in on. And December, with all its demands and expectations, simply reveals what your body has been trying to communicate all year long. In this episode, you’ll hear: Why December exposes the truth of your stress loadHow performance mode quietly becomes your defaultThe emotional and physiological cost of “holding it together”Why sobriety (or wanting sobriety) intensifies December overwhelmThe moment your body says, “I can’t keep doing this”What your December crash is actually inviting you intoToward the end, I share a few gentle, practical shifts you can bring into your days — small changes that help your system feel safer, softer, and more spacious as you close out the year. If you want 2026 to feel different, calmer, steadier, more rooted, this episode will give you the clarity and compassion you’ve been missing. Mentioned in this episode: The SheWalks communitySteady - Micro-Regulation ToolkitThe Deliberate Way: Freedom From AlcoholYou don’t have to finish the year on empty. Your capacity isn’t gone, it just needs restoration. If you’re ready to start your journey, here’s where you can begin: The Complete Guide to Quitting Drinking (Free) If you’re navigating a stop/start cycle, I created a free guide to help you understand why quitting can feel hard and what actually supports lasting change. It offers a nervous-system lens on stress, relief, and cravings, without labels or pressure. Steady: ($27) — 7 days of nervous system practices to help you get quick wins and feel grounded fast. The Personal Power Map ($75)— a personalized breakdown of your stress patterns, hidden strengths, and next power move, complete with a video report from me so you can feel my coaching style and energy. And if you’re craving high-touch, transformational support, I also offer 1:1 mentorship. Explore everything at thedeliberateone.com. Connect with me on Instagram @thedeliberateone. If this episode supported you and you’d like to say thank you, buy me a coffee ...

    14 min

  6. 11/30/2025

    Why Drinking Culture Keeps Women Burnt Out, Stressed, and Stuck EP 57

    In this episode, I’m breaking down the hidden ways drinking culture keeps women overwhelmed, exhausted, and disconnected from themselves, even if they “don’t drink that much.” After seeing a reel glamorizing wine and mocking Dry January, I knew this conversation couldn’t wait. So I bumped this episode to the front of the line and hit publish. We’re diving into: how alcohol is marketed to women as self-carewhy stress-drinking feels normal (but quietly drains you)what “healthy relationship with alcohol” really meansthe truth behind Canada’s updated alcohol guidelineswhy high-achieving women use wine to cope with burnoutthe nervous system patterns that make drinking feel like reliefhow cultural messaging keeps women stuck in survival modeand what actually creates long-term, sustainable changeThis isn’t about shame.  It’s about awareness, autonomy, and understanding that nothing is wrong with you, there’s a lot wrong with the messages you’re being fed. If you’ve ever wondered why you’re tired all the time, why your sleep is off, why your stress feels unmanageable, or why you can’t seem to “cut back” even when you want to… this episode will give you the clarity you’ve been craving.  This is the episode every sober-curious, overwhelmed, high-capacity woman needs to hear. other episodes mentioned: - Why We Keep Choosing What Hurts - listen here  -When Speaking Your Truth Makes You 'Too Much' - Listen here If you’re ready to start your journey, here’s where you can begin: The Complete Guide to Quitting Drinking (Free) If you’re navigating a stop/start cycle, I created a free guide to help you understand why quitting can feel hard and what actually supports lasting change. It offers a nervous-system lens on stress, relief, and cravings, without labels or pressure. Steady: ($27) — 7 days of nervous system practices to help you get quick wins and feel grounded fast. The Personal Power Map ($75)— a personalized breakdown of your stress patterns, hidden strengths, and next power move, complete with a video report from me so you can feel my coaching style and energy. And if you’re craving high-touch, transformational support, I also offer 1:1 mentorship. Explore everything at thedeliberateone.com. Connect with me on Instagram @thedeliberateone. If this episode supported you and you’d like to say thank you, buy me a coffee ...

    11 min

  7. 11/23/2025

    Healing the Father Wound: Masculine Templates, Breathwork, and the Legacy of My Stepdad EP 56

    This episode is a love letter, and a reckoning, with the man who meant the world to me. As the six-year anniversary of my stepdad’s passing approaches, I find myself reflecting on who he knew me as (a stressed, drinking woman working in construction) versus who I’ve become today, sober, grounded, breath-led, and doing work I never could’ve imagined back then. In this episode, I share: What I wonder he’d think of my sobriety and the life I’ve builtHow grief resurfaces in unexpected ways, especially when you think, “He’d be perfect for this… oh right, he’s gone”The complicated family dynamics that kept me from calling him “Dad,” even though he earned it in every senseThe masculine templates he gave me, and how I’ve repaired and expanded them through somatic and energetic workThe regret I still hold about how I treated him when I was youngHow I still feel him in my breathwork journeys, in reiki sessions, and even physically, in the literal concrete of the home we builtHow watching him die cracked me open, softened me, and ultimately became part of the catalyst for leaving alcohol behind (listen to the episode here)What grief taught me about emotional capacity and why feeling it is the only way throughThis episode is for anyone navigating grief, father wounds, sobriety, identity shifts, or the messy realities of blended families. It's for anyone who’s ever lost someone who shaped them and had to learn how to carry the relationship forward in new ways. And it’s for Tom, a quiet king among men, whose legacy lives in my character, in my choices, and in the woman I am today. If you’re ready to start your journey, here’s where you can begin: The Complete Guide to Quitting Drinking (Free) If you’re navigating a stop/start cycle, I created a free guide to help you understand why quitting can feel hard and what actually supports lasting change. It offers a nervous-system lens on stress, relief, and cravings, without labels or pressure. Steady: ($27) — 7 days of nervous system practices to help you get quick wins and feel grounded fast. The Personal Power Map ($75)— a personalized breakdown of your stress patterns, hidden strengths, and next power move, complete with a video report from me so you can feel my coaching style and energy. And if you’re craving high-touch, transformational support, I also offer 1:1 mentorship. Explore everything at thedeliberateone.com. Connect with me on Instagram @thedeliberateone. If this episode supported you and you’d like to say thank you, buy me a coffee ...

    20 min

  8. 11/16/2025

    Why We Keep Choosing What Hurts (Even When We Know Better) EP 55

    You know those moments when you catch yourself doing the exact thing you swore you wouldn’t do again — and you know better — but you still do it? In this episode, I share the surprisingly relatable story of my too-hot showers (yes, really) and how they revealed one a big truth about self-sabotage, stress, and the nervous system. We’ll unpack why smart, self-aware women keep choosing what hurts — even when the logic is there, the desire to change is there, and the evidence is clear. You’ll learn: What’s really driving those “I know better but I still do it” momentsWhy your nervous system craves familiarity more than it craves feeling goodHow fight/flight/freeze responses hijack your choicesThe identity layer that keeps you looping in old patternsAnd how to start repatterning your system so that peace actually feels safeIf you’ve ever wondered, “Why do I keep doing this?” — this episode will make everything click. 🎧 Listen, reflect, and start choosing what supports you instead of what burns. If you’re ready to start your journey, here’s where you can begin: The Complete Guide to Quitting Drinking (Free) If you’re navigating a stop/start cycle, I created a free guide to help you understand why quitting can feel hard and what actually supports lasting change. It offers a nervous-system lens on stress, relief, and cravings, without labels or pressure. Steady: ($27) — 7 days of nervous system practices to help you get quick wins and feel grounded fast. The Personal Power Map ($75)— a personalized breakdown of your stress patterns, hidden strengths, and next power move, complete with a video report from me so you can feel my coaching style and energy. And if you’re craving high-touch, transformational support, I also offer 1:1 mentorship. Explore everything at thedeliberateone.com. Connect with me on Instagram @thedeliberateone. If this episode supported you and you’d like to say thank you, buy me a coffee ...

    13 min
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About

The Deliberate Exchange is a podcast for women ready to lead themselves through stress, sobriety, and self-trust — one deliberate step at a time.Hosted by Chelsea — a stress and confidence coach, breathwork facilitator, and Interim Director of She Walks Canada — each episode offers mindset tools, emotional regulation practices, and real conversations that help you reclaim your power and presence.Whether you're sober, sober-curious, or simply seeking deeper self-leadership, you'll find insights on stress relief, nervous system healing, and the mind-body connection. Expect solo episodes, some guest interviews, and practical guidance to help you stop performing and start becoming who you really are.This is for women who want to feel calm, clear, and confident — and know their growth isn’t an accident... it’s a choice.

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