Alex McRobert, The Ultimate Sober Yoga Girl, on Transcending The Party Life and Manifesting a Life of Meaning and Purpose

Jane (00:02.286)
Alex, hello, Amanda and I are so excited to get to talk with you today.

Amanda Cable (00:07.896)
Yes, we are so excited.

Alex McRobert (00:07.917)
Thank you so much for

Jane (00:10.798)
Yes, yes. So Alex, we go back a couple of years. You've been an integral part of my journey in living an alcohol -free lifestyle and incorporating yoga into that. And Amanda, I think you as well. So this is just a full circle moment getting to have you on our show. And you've just published a book, which is amazing. I have it here with me and I cannot wait to dive in and read it.

But maybe to start out, just tell our listeners a little bit about who you are, where you are in the world, and what you're doing.

Alex McRobert (00:47.481)
Yeah, absolutely. I am basically I do international yoga teaching and sober coaching and I have been living in Bali for three years. I've been doing this work. So I'm five and a half years sober and I would say my work really got started about a year into my sobriety about a month into my sobriety. I started to like focus into it, but it was really in 2020 when the work that I was doing kind of

blossomed. yeah, do. So here in Bali, I do retreats and yoga teacher trainings. I not only organize my own retreats, but I will collaborate with other retreat facilitators and teach yoga on their retreats. And then I have my international yoga retreats in India and the UAE and Mexico. And I also do online programs as well, which is so both Amanda and Jane were in my online programs. So it's one of the ways we were.

Jane (01:45.464)
Yes. Yes, and that's how Amanda and I actually met. Yes. Yes, we met through our Canadian yoga teacher who lives in Bali and learned that we both live in the Dallas area. it was, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Amanda Cable (01:45.835)
Yes!

Alex McRobert (01:46.871)
Connected.

Amanda Cable (01:50.678)
Yep, it is. Yeah.

Alex McRobert (01:50.923)
Is that really? Wow. So cool. That's amazing.

Alex McRobert (02:03.213)
That's so cool. I did not realize that.

Amanda Cable (02:03.352)
Yeah.

Amanda Cable (02:07.49)
Yeah, that's neat. And I think I started following you Alex before Megan Wilcox's first retreat in Bali. And so I was just following you and then Megan had her retreat and I really wanted to go to Bali so bad. And you had a drawing where if anybody liked and shared something that you posted that they would be put into this drawing and could win a spot on a yoga retreat. And so I ended up winning that drawing.

And so I was supposed to go to Bali, but I hadn't had the COVID vaccine and it was during COVID. And so I was not allowed to go on the retreat, not because of you, but because of like international policy. Yeah.

Jane (02:49.156)
The Bollines, yeah.

Alex McRobert (02:51.513)
completely forgot about that. That was in 2022. That was a long time ago. Yeah, so we go way back all of us.

Amanda Cable (02:55.7)
Yeah, we do kind of.

Jane (02:59.024)
Yes, and I met you on Megan's first retreat in 2022. I know. Yes, the universe. So. go ahead, Amanda.

Alex McRobert (03:04.757)
That is so wild. Yeah. The universe.

Amanda Cable (03:10.476)
It really is a crazy thing.

And then because I couldn't go to Bali, you gave me a yoga teacher training that I started with you and Jane was on that training. And then, so we met there and then we met up at a sober in Dallas yoga in the park event. And we've been buddies ever since.

Jane (03:33.882)
I know, the rest is history.

Alex McRobert (03:36.633)
It's amazing. It's amazing how like, when you look back, it's like, obviously that was all meant to happen exactly as it was so that you guys could connect and then start this podcast and, you know, build your friendship.

Amanda Cable (03:36.812)
Mm

Jane (03:47.886)
Yes, but in the moment you have no idea.

Amanda Cable (03:48.258)
Yeah, I think about that. Yeah. You know, I think in addiction or with, especially with drinking, you know, we're seeking connection with people and we do get connection when we're drinking, but then when we quit drinking, we really get that deep connection that we were searching for all along.

Jane (04:09.134)
the authentic connection.

Alex McRobert (04:12.729)
Totally.

Jane (04:14.424)
Yeah. So Alex, you have a very unique path. So you're originally from Canada and you moved to Kuwait after university. I'm curious, when you moved to Kuwait, did you have any idea that you were going to live abroad long -term? what was your mindset when you first made that decision?

Alex McRobert (04:39.129)
That is such a great question. the scenario of how I ended up moving to Kuwait is, so I did a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Education in Canada. The program I was in was called Concurrent Education, which meant you did these two degrees simultaneously, which if I was not in that program, I probably would have never done the VED because midway through my Bachelor of Arts was when I discovered yoga.

And I was like, this is just what I want to do with my life. I want to teach. I want to stay in this small town. Because I grew up in Toronto, but I went to this. It was kind of like a city, but to me it was a small town called Kingston. And I started working at this yoga studio. I was so embedded in their culture. was running the reception. I started as a cleaner, and then I was running the reception. And then I started teaching yoga. And I just loved it. And I said to my parents, I'm just going to work here for the rest of my life. And they were thrilled about that.

Amanda Cable (05:31.686)
No.

Alex McRobert (05:35.641)
And at the same time, my school was really pushing us to go abroad and teach. And the reason why was because in Canada, it was very competitive to get teaching jobs in education because the output of teachers was too great. And it's actually a pretty great package in Canada. Like you get paid pretty well. It's unionized.

You can have a good retirement. And so there's a lot of teachers who, even if they're stressed or they're having a hard job, they end up staying in the career for a long time. And so I even have friends that I graduated with who, and that was almost 10 years ago, and some of them still don't even have permanent jobs now in Toronto. Yeah, so they were really pushing us to go overseas.

Amanda Cable (06:16.6)
That is so crazy.

Alex McRobert (06:22.967)
When I kind of had this realization, like my parents were like, okay, well, if you want to teach yoga, you have to support yourself fully financially. And I was like, I started to like, you know, look at apartments and do the math. And I was like, I don't think this is going to happen. And so I just kind of went on the online recruitment world and, lot of my friends had jobs already. It was pretty late in the game for international teaching. Like they recruit pretty far in advance. And so I started in like end of March. So there weren't a lot of.

great opportunities left and I ended up being recruited for this school in Kuwait. I had no idea where Kuwait was. I had never heard of it before this. Like I was born in 1992 and so the last real news about Kuwait was the Kuwait Iraq war, which was in 1991. So I wasn't even alive like when that happened. And so, but I really liked the person that interviewed me for the job. And I also

Jane (07:10.66)
Yes.

Alex McRobert (07:19.831)
ended up having a bunch of mutual friends at the job because my mentor teacher at the time was like, my God, all my friends are there because he had worked in Egypt. That's important too. He had worked in Egypt. So he just really kind of exposed me to this idea of the Middle East. And yeah, so I went and it was a two year contract and I never ever thought I would, I would stay for like literally the rest of my life. But in the Middle East, first of all, I fell in love with it. Even though

Jane (07:43.928)
You

Alex McRobert (07:49.953)
I, when you read the book, you'll see like, faced a lot of difficulties in my first two years, but largely, and I want to emphasize this, it's not because of the country, it's because of the workplace that I was in. think that's really important because, and that was a big part of me writing this book. And one of the reasons it took so long was because I really want to put something out there that, that reflects well on the middle East while also show, like showcasing my story. And I, I hope I did that well, but, yeah.

Jane (08:17.338)
Yeah, finding that balance.

Alex McRobert (08:20.247)
So yeah, I had such a hard time and, but I also fell in love with the culture of the Middle East like so deeply. And I ended up moving to a different country in the Middle East, which was way better for me. I moved to Abu Dhabi and again, probably largely based on the workplace because the school gave us like a beautiful apartment, know, I had an ocean view apartments, like I, and they were incredible, incredible people that like really took care of me. And

So yeah, I was there for four years and the only reason I left was because I started my yoga business and then that, you know, I had fallen in love with Bali, which I can tell that story after too. I had visited Bali and fallen in love with it. And then when I started my business, I kind of realized this is probably not going to work for me to stay in Abu Dhabi because the cost of living is so expensive and you know, I would be much better off in like a place like Bali. And so that was what ended up making me break up with the Middle East, but I still feel

Jane (08:56.174)
Yeah.

Alex McRobert (09:14.583)
really tied to that region. feel like it's my home because of what I went through there, you know?

Jane (09:19.512)
Yeah, well, and you still lead retreats there and visit pretty frequently,

Alex McRobert (09:23.479)
Mm hmm. Yeah, I go back every six months. I'm actually still a resident of Dubai, by the way. And so I go back every six months to keep. Yeah, I could not like go in my residency. So I go back often. I have a lot of friends there. Not only like I have friends from when I worked in the UAE, but then I also have friends in the region, you know, from whatever when I worked in Kuwait or and so I really I feel way more connected to

Jane (09:30.778)
Are you really?

Alex McRobert (09:52.909)
the people there than I do from the people in Canada that I grew up with. Like lot of them I've lost touch with.

Jane (10:00.279)
I mean, I wonder what your 22, 23 year old self would think if she could see you today.

Alex McRobert (10:07.915)
I know. I know. This was what this is

Jane (10:11.908)
I mean, she'd be like, my gosh, look at that. Look at what I am capable of.

Alex McRobert (10:18.967)
Yeah, I am. doing exactly what I dreamed of. And when you read the book, you'll see there's things that happened that. So one of the things that happened in Kuwait that was really traumatic for me is that I got married and I got married due to a lot of the circumstances around life there. Like we had to be married to be living together legally. Now we could do it in my apartment at the time and it was fine, but we had issues where he lived and I was moving. And so.

We didn't know if our new apartment would let us live together. So we're like, let's just get married. anyway, that did not end well, obviously. And for many years, there was like lot of like sadness and guilt and grief and like tension between the two of us. And when I came to publish the book, which he's in a lot of the book, I sent it to him to read. And like, that's when I found out that he's also five years sober and he also wrote a book. Yeah.

Jane (11:14.137)
Wow.

Amanda Cable (11:16.098)
That is so cool.

Alex McRobert (11:18.105)
Yeah, and so I believe, and now we're connected again on Instagram, and so when I look back on this, I'm like, yes, this series of events absolutely had to happen for both of us to get sober, and we were brought into each other's lives for us to hit that rock bottom. And I think a lot of it, when it was happening when I was 23, I couldn't see the point of all of it. And now that I'm here, I'm like, well, this makes sense. So, yeah.

Jane (11:44.62)
Yes. Well, and it's like Elizabeth Kubler -Ross has this theory of grief where there's the five stages and really it's more like a cycle that you go in and out of. And then recently David Kessler, who worked alongside her, came up with this sixth stage of grief, which is meaning making. And that to me sounds like meaning making. You were able to see the meaning of that journey and why that had to happen in order to...

experience what you experienced to give back to the world and yourself and create this life that you have now. And apparently he did too.

Alex McRobert (12:21.549)
Yeah, this just gave me shivers, because so much of my book was meaning making. So much of it was meaning making of what had happened to me.

Jane (12:30.66)
Yeah, yeah, it's like the bow of your grief package. You tie the bow on and it all makes sense. And there's healing in that.

Amanda Cable (12:45.838)
It makes so much sense, Jane, when you think about all of the women that go alcohol free and then a lot of them wanting to become recovery coaches. That's because they need to make meaning of what they've been through, to show that there is power in their pain.

Jane (13:03.63)
I think so. And there's this just innate desire to help people see what's possible. You know what it's like to not believe that freedom and peace and joy are possible on the other side of alcohol. And then once you experience that, you want to shout it to the world and help other people get there.

Alex McRobert (13:06.297)
we'll be.

Amanda Cable (13:29.464)
So Alex, I have not read your book yet, but I'm going to order it tonight. Is the book a memoir? Like is it your life story?

Alex McRobert (13:37.481)
So yes it is, but I will add that, so the back cover describes it as a memoir and what a lot of people have commented on Amazon, on their Amazon reviews, which is true, is that it's really not just a memoir because I also teach a lot of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras in the book. And this was not really my intention when I first wrote the book. was, it mostly came out. So I've been working for the last year with a teacher in Mumbai.

doing the sutras. I also teach the sutras in my own course, but I hired a teacher in Mumbai who I work with. basically as the book was progressing in its final stages, I started to have all these light bulb moments of like, my God, this is that concept from philosophy or that's that concept. so there's, and there ends up being, there's a big chapter at the back that's probably about 50 pages that teaches all of these yoga philosophy concepts. And so a lot of people have said like, it's inaccurately described as a memoir because I'm

basically teaching philosophy through my story. And so I would add that as well. But yeah, the book begins at what felt like the ending of my life, which is when my ex left. And it kind of traces the steps back and then traces the steps forward. And it was the best thing I've ever done for myself. Like I could not highly recommend it any.

anymore to anyone else, like whether what you write just stays on your computer or whether it actually goes forward. Like it's gone through so many stages of healing for me from the initial writing to then working with editors and having to talk about it. And now it's at this point of connection where people are reading things in my book and messaging me, whether it's actually people from my life or people that I don't know that are like this.

you know, touch me so much or I connect with this part. even now I'm going through like, I posted about this on Instagram, but I've been going through so many emotions and I didn't realize like, I said, I still had some symptoms of like complex trauma and they were surfacing and I was able to identify that. And so it's been going through like so many ups and downs, but I think now I'm just at a place of like, I'm coming over it and it's just like a place of gratitude for, for what people are sharing with me about the book.

Jane (15:57.2)
I mean, that's such a, that's gotta be such a surreal feeling. And it makes sense that you're stirring up all this trauma and sharing it with the world. That's such a powerful thing to do, to be that vulnerable, but also in that vulnerability, you open yourself to yourself up to receiving that gift of healing by touching other people's lives and having them reach out to you and express gratitude. That takes a lot of courage.

Alex McRobert (16:28.771)
Thank you.

Amanda Cable (16:28.992)
Absolutely, I was just thinking like, you know, the saying secrets keep us sick and not that any of the things in the book were secrets, but sometimes we'll tell someone something, say I'll share with my therapist something traumatic that happened or something that I wouldn't necessarily tell anyone else. But by putting it in a book and sharing it with the world, it's like definitely not a secret anymore. It's like you're telling everybody knows. And so I think that's really healing for sure.

Alex McRobert (16:57.623)
Yeah, and it feels weird sometimes actually when I will like get on calls with people or, you know, I walked by the pool and like my neighbor was reading my book and I was like, my God, you do nothing about my life up until this point and now like you literally know everything. It's so parts of it are weird, but then parts of it, like, so yesterday I was speaking to a former colleague at my school in Kuwait and we were talking about, you know, she had a similar experience to me and I said to her,

Jane (17:06.819)
You

Alex McRobert (17:27.179)
So I basically said, you know, my school in Abu Dhabi, I am so grateful for them. I feel like they just wrapped me in like a big hug and they didn't let me go until I was okay. And I wrote that out and then I was like, my God, I need to send a message to those people, you know, who did that because they probably don't know the impact they had on my life because at the time I wasn't really talking about it, but you know, I ended up.

leaving my job and like basically running away and like they knew that because when they hired me I was like you can't contact my old boss like you can't and they didn't like they just hired me even though I was in that situation and there were so many times when I was reacting in traumatic ways many of them are not mentioned in the books it's just like too much to mention like you know but I was I was having a trauma response to mistakes I had made like for example I was late to school on the day of a school inspection and I

I literally thought they were going to fire me and was sobbing. And my boss came in and was like, you're an outstanding teacher. Humans make mistakes. And it was pivotal moments like this where I was able to start to see myself as a good person because for so long, I saw myself as a bad person. then I got sober two years later. The school gave me free counseling. And I feel like they just supported me so much. even when I

I tried to quit in 2020 and the same boss said to me, Alex, how much money are you making teaching yoga? And I said like 200 bucks. And he's like, don't quit, like stay here. You can build your business as long as you want, but like you need money and you need a salary and just build your business. You have my permission. And then when you're making as much as you're making here, then leave. And it's like all of these moments where I feel like they just took me as like this little mess of a girl and like.

Amanda Cable (18:55.704)
Thank

Alex McRobert (19:19.255)
And I don't think they really knew what I was going through. mean, some of them might have known, but I don't think they knew the full extent. so I went on, I mean, two of my bosses probably know because I have them on Facebook, but I went on LinkedIn and found like the head of the whole school and I messaged him all of this yesterday. And I was like, I just want to let you know, like you had a huge impact on my life. And I'm so grateful. And it's like all of these connections that I'm making that are just another layer of healing.

many years later.

Jane (19:51.501)
Yes, that may not have occurred to you to do until you get this on paper and you're like, wow, that was huge. I mean, they loved you unconditionally and letting them know like that that mattered. meant something to you.

Alex McRobert (20:02.201)
Totally.

Amanda Cable (20:07.736)
Yeah, that's really special.

Alex McRobert (20:08.365)
they were, that makes me tear up. Cause they really did. And I think it's very rare to find that in like a workplace, you know? And they really wanted, yeah. And they really wanted the best for us. Like there was a, there was a culture in my school in, that I worked in, in Kuwait of like, anyone who left was called a runner, you know, which I didn't even realize was like,

Jane (20:17.602)
especially as a foreigner, you know, you're a foreigner and that's scary.

Alex McRobert (20:37.133)
basically a course of control kind of thing until I wrote the book and people have been people have been reading it and saying that's course of control. And I was like, to me, it was just kind of a joke in the book. Like I it runs through the whole book, this runner thing of like, don't want to be a runner, you don't want to be a runner. And I remember getting to Abu Dhabi and I like never heard that word in the workplace. And if people left, they were like, respect it. You know, it's like their life changed. So they had to leave. And I think about little things like that of just creating a culture of like, respect for people and understanding like that.

Jane (20:39.864)
Yeah.

Alex McRobert (21:07.085)
you know, quitting is a normal part of life, like changing direction if something isn't right for you. And it's like little things like that that I'm just really becoming aware of right now of like, that was not okay, that this was happening, you know, in this workplace and that's okay, because now I know.

Jane (21:19.216)
Yeah.

Jane (21:25.752)
Right, like there's no acknowledgement of human dignity and self -determination. It's if you break this unspoken rule, then you are labeled as this shameful thing.

Alex McRobert (21:36.365)
Totally, totally.

Amanda Cable (21:42.712)
That's crazy. Alex, so I kind of going to a totally different subject, but there are so many women I know that go on yoga retreats in Bali and when they get there, they decide they want to move there. So can you tell us like a little bit about like what your life is like? What do you, is your daily life look like normally?

Jane (21:43.011)
Okay.

Jane (21:56.174)
Hahaha!

Alex McRobert (22:01.625)
Absolutely. So I want to share one thing about how I ended up in Bali because I realized I haven't even talked about that because I'm really in the Kuwait years. But basically, I was supposed to come to Bali in 2017 for my honeymoon. And then I was going to do my advanced teacher training. And then at the start of the book, me and my partner break up literally the night of the honeymoon and the trip gets canceled. But then I couldn't get the yoga teacher training refunded. So this is why I ended up coming to Bali a few months later. And when I landed in Bali,

It was like, like I had been in this state of major depression for the time leading up to Bali. And I was, it was almost like I was seeing the world in like black and white. And then I landed in Bali and I started to see the world in color again. And there, there's so many sensory experiences that come alive here. Like the, you know, I mean, you can see behind me, the greenery and the nature is just incredible. The people are so spiritual.

And I think that's a big part of it is that we, a lot of us who have been through an experience of like mental health recovery, it's probably about meaning making actually, coming back to meaning making. Like this is a place where meaning making is practiced. And even in the smallest things, like there's ceremonies pretty much every, I would say every few days there's a ceremony, but these are very different events to the Balinese people. Like it's not just.

Jane (23:20.6)
us.

Alex McRobert (23:30.201)
they're having a ceremony because there's always a reason. And I remember I was with my friend Kadek one day and he was telling me, today's the ceremony for metal's birthday. I'm like, what are you talking about? And he goes, well, metal is such an important part of our life. Our knives are made of metal, our scooters are made of metal, this computer is made of metal. And so we have a day to celebrate that. it's things like this that I feel like in the West we really miss about life. And

I think when you come here as someone who has lacked meaning for so long and then you land in the world of like so much meaning, it's just profound. And so I know you're absolutely right. Almost every, every retreat, there's people that want to move here. I have a woman who's coming for my advanced YTT in a month and she actually was on Megan Wilcox retreat in April, came back for my 200 hour in July and is now coming back again because she's not.

Jane (24:07.554)
Yes.

Jane (24:23.902)
my gosh.

Amanda Cable (24:24.226)
That's amazing.

Alex McRobert (24:25.497)
She is 100 % gonna move here, like I'm sure of it. She just needs to like get her toe over the edge. But there's a lot of people like that who just, it changes them.

Jane (24:35.108)
Yes, and someone from my retreat in April then came back in July for your YTT.

Alex McRobert (24:39.779)
Four times. Yeah, Jen, I was just thinking of her. She's come to Bali four times in like two years. Yeah.

Jane (24:45.216)
my gosh.

Amanda Cable (24:48.481)
incredible.

Jane (24:49.806)
Yeah, there's just a sense of peace there, you know, where people are truly living in the present moment and there's so much gratitude and acceptance for what is.

Alex McRobert (25:03.026)
And I feel very, I feel a feeling of safety here. Like I feel like if I get into situations where, and there has been times where like, for example, my business was not doing well and I could not pay my rent on time. And the Balinese family that I was living with was just like, it's fine. It's fine. Like stay here until you can pay, you know? And it's like, in what world would this be like normal, you know? And it

Jane (25:26.648)
Yeah, you get an eviction notice and you'd be out of there.

Alex McRobert (25:30.553)
Totally, totally. And so I feel here that there's this just this sense of like spirit and trust and love that makes it a really, a really grounding place to be.

Jane (25:40.408)
Yeah, and I think it's the collectivist culture, this recognition that we are all one and what I do for you, I'm doing for myself, you know? Like, it's just this like expansive love for others and self and we're all the same, which is hard to explain. You can't really explain it in words, but when you experience it, it's just amazing.

Alex McRobert (25:59.481)
Totally. Yeah.

Alex McRobert (26:05.175)
Yeah, it's so true.

Amanda Cable (26:08.494)
should be a requirement for all American children. They have to go spend like three months in Bali. And because seriously, like the American kids have probably not nearly enough gratitude for things. I was just thinking when you were talking about medal and celebrating medal, I'm like, son would not be celebrating medal. He'd be like, just give me the effing spoon. You know what I mean?

Jane (26:33.775)
Hahaha

Alex McRobert (26:33.997)
Ha ha ha ha.

Jane (26:37.537)
Well, like they wouldn't even conceive that there was a time that metal didn't exist or that metal wasn't used to create utensils and weapons and technology and everything that we use on a regular basis.

Amanda Cable (26:42.798)
Mm

Alex McRobert (26:52.121)
so true. And I also think it's so fascinating to watch the way Balinese kids are raised. And I don't speak Balinese, so I don't get to interact with them that much. So it's mostly just like what I see. like, you know, what I see, and I've talked about this before, because this was something that I faced in Kuwait, which I don't talk about in the book. But there was one incident where like, I got into an accident and there was like a kid driving a car, basically, that's like the short of it. I won't go too much into detail.

But when I tell that story, there's been people who have pointed out to me like children drive vehicles in Bali. And I'm like, yeah, but to me, that's different because when I see kids driving a vehicle, it's like they're doing it to be responsible. So someone else in their family doesn't have to do it. know, like they're driving themselves to school or they're driving to like work on the farm. And so you'll encounter kids that are like driving motorbikes around their village and they might be like barefoot with like a machete in their hands because they're doing some farm work and they're just treated like an adult, you know, of like

you can be responsible because you're going to do the right thing. And I see that all the time. Like I don't really see Balinese kids causing harm or like intentionally, you know, doing anything. Whereas, you know, I know in North America, like I would not trust a kid with a machete and like a vehicle, you know, and it just feels like it's the culture here of like, they're,

Jane (28:03.332)
No way.

Alex McRobert (28:09.219)
they grow into like really responsible and caring probably because of all their spiritual practices, like really responsible and caring individuals at a really young age. And that's amazing to see, especially since I worked with young kids for a long time and I feel like I almost wasn't giving them autonomy. I was like trying to like be like, in a straight line, like don't move, blah, blah, blah. And I was just holding them back from growing into that whole person, which I see now with these kids is possible at that age.

Jane (28:31.203)
Yeah.

Jane (28:39.738)
Well, it makes me think of, was walking down the main street where the art market is in Ubud, and there was this woman, and she had her child with her, and she was probably around a year old, and the baby was just sitting there on the sidewalk, and she could crawl.

but, and she was probably 10 feet from the street where all the cars and the motorbikes were, but she knew, somehow she knew not to go near there. And the woman was like probably 10 feet away from her child. And in America it would be like, my gosh, get that kid right now. There it was just normal. And it's the same with the dogs in Bali. Like no dog is on a leash. There's not a single dog on a leash, but they.

Amanda Cable (29:11.726)
Absolutely. Yeah.

Jane (29:21.904)
They know not to go in the street. They don't get hit. They just kind of walk around like people do. My dog would be dead in 30 minutes in Bali.

Alex McRobert (29:27.476)
the dog.

And the dog one is such an example because for the longest time I couldn't come to terms with this and I would be like, whose dog is this? Whose dog is this? Why aren't you on a leash? And I was trying to explain it to someone and in the explanation I had this profound connection of like, my God, dogs are just treated like other animals. You know how all animals run freely? Dogs get to run freely. You hear? And then I all of a sudden was like, my gosh.

Jane (29:39.01)
Yes.

Jane (29:49.41)
Yes.

Amanda Cable (29:52.749)
Yes.

Alex McRobert (29:58.955)
It could be normal for a dog maybe to not have a name here, whereas in our world it's like every dog and cat has a name, you know? And you don't realize these things until you really reflect.

Jane (30:05.75)
Yes!

Jane (30:10.926)
Yes, and if you give the dog the opportunity, the dog will learn how to keep itself safe and not run into the street. It learns how to survive and so it knows, I don't go into the street. apparently these dogs learn this as puppies, you know?

Alex McRobert (30:25.741)
Totally, totally.

Jane (30:28.676)
Yeah, yeah, it's just the miraculousness of Balinese culture. Everyone has to experience it.

Amanda Cable (30:36.322)
Yeah, for sure. One thing I noticed since I've been back or after I got back from Bali was you don't really see any Balinese people in America. And I think that's because they are, they love where they are. And most Americans would really love to go and live somewhere else and kind of crave a different lifestyle than what we have. And so I just have thought that that was fascinating that hardly any Balinese people

leave their families and come to America or anywhere else probably.

Alex McRobert (31:09.069)
You know, that's so true because in, when I was living in the Middle East, there were people from all over the world that I met all the time, like people from India, people from Ghana, people from, you know, America, Canada, UK, like there were so many of us that had come to live overseas. And I don't think I ever met an Indonesian in...

in the Middle East at all. think the one time I've ever met an Indonesian at like who was working abroad was in the Maldives. And I was like, what are doing here? Like, you know, the Maldives is a pretty beautiful place to choose. But yeah, but it's

Jane (31:37.74)
Yeah, it's pretty beautiful. Was it a Balinese Indonesian or was it, or were they from somewhere else? Okay.

Amanda Cable (31:41.4)
Yeah.

Alex McRobert (31:45.145)
I think she was, I think she was Balinese. Yeah, I think it was a Bali themed spa. I think that's what it was. And so maybe she was brought on for like her specialties. Yeah.

Jane (31:53.348)
they recruited her and yeah.

Amanda Cable (31:55.692)
Yeah, that makes sense.

Alex McRobert (31:58.05)
Yeah.

Jane (31:59.64)
Well, tell us, we haven't gotten to talk much about your sober story. I wonder if you could briefly tell us just a little bit about how that unfolded for you.

Alex McRobert (32:09.891)
Yeah, when you said that, was like, that's so funny because I feel like I tell my sober story on every podcast and I hadn't even noticed that I hadn't told it. But yeah, so I got sober in Abu Dhabi and I got sober a year and a half after, it was two years after everything happened with like leaving my, getting married and then leaving my husband and leaving Kuwait and moving here. And to me, I...

Jane (32:16.208)
Yes.

Alex McRobert (32:39.937)
I think it was like, I think in my head at the time, I thought that I had gone on an extreme journey of like, cause I had lived in a dry country, right? alcohol is completely illegal. And so I was living there and doing all these crazy things to get alcohol, like making it and you know, going on dates with people that could take me to embassies where I could drink it and blah, blah, flying out to drink. so then when I moved to Abu Dhabi where alcohol is legal, I think in my head it was like, okay, I'm making up for like,

Jane (32:49.424)
Mm

Alex McRobert (33:10.071)
these years in the prohibition, which is just ridiculous because I was drinking the entire time that I was there. So I don't know like what made it different. But in Abu Dhabi, the lifestyle was very party focused. Like you could do these brunches and these ladies nights and blah, blah, blah. And so I think I used that as an excuse to really just kind of get.

Jane (33:18.183)
you

Alex McRobert (33:34.915)
deep into partying. so towards the end, when I got sober, would say I was drinking every night. Like if I took a night off, it was probably because I was feeling hungover or tired, which was rare. So I was drinking wine and beer every night. And I would go to brunches probably every weekend, at least once, if not twice a weekend. And that was like the all you can drink kind of experience, which would escalate. It would be like a day drinking event that would escalate into like...

the evening and the night. And they also had these ladies nights where women could drink for free. basically around the city of Abu Dhabi, women could drink for free basically every night because they were trying to get more women into the bars because there were so many more men, like ex -pat men. So I went to a ladies night probably once a week in my time leading up to getting sober. And I hit a bottom, which

Jane (34:10.617)
Wow.

Jane (34:21.433)
Yeah.

Alex McRobert (34:32.739)
which actually that same boss that I was talking about was experienced. I went into his office crying. I was completely maxed out of credit cards and in debt, you know, and I went to his office crying saying like the school wasn't paying me enough money, which was like kind of true. Like these jobs don't really pay that much, but definitely my cards were maxed out from all this partying. You know, like it was not like, yeah, like I solved it pretty well after I got sober.

Jane (34:48.637)
you

Jane (34:53.737)
Yeah, you could have budgeted a little bit more responsibly.

Alex McRobert (35:01.581)
But I think that was a pinnacle point for me when my cards were totally maxed out and I realized like I need to make changes and because I can't live like this anymore. And I knew that it was the alcohol. I knew that it was the partying. I knew that it was that. And so I ended up I was Googling a lot of like how to quit drinking. And I ended up finding a program that I came across that I was part of for my first year or so getting sober online and

I, again, like moving abroad, I never planned to be sober long -term. I was, I signed up for a month -long program. You know, maybe two weeks into it, I realized I need to do this longer. So I, you know, upgraded to 90 days and then it was maybe at 60 days when I was like, I want to be sober for the rest of my life. And the miracles have just unfolded from there, you know? Like now I'm here in Bali teaching yoga full -time, which was a dream for many years.

Jane (35:40.804)
Yeah.

Jane (36:01.232)
What happened at that 60 day mark where you realized that this might be something you could do long term?

Alex McRobert (36:08.985)
That's a great question. think it was just, I honestly think it was just, well, okay, it was my life in general getting better, yes. But when I really think about it, it was probably meeting my psychic, Dan. And I speak a lot about him because he really did change my life. And I met him around 30 days sober. And how...

Jane (36:19.588)
Yeah.

Jane (36:32.878)
I feel like I know Dan. I've heard about him so much. Just taking classes from you and when we've hung out in Bali and is he in the book too? Good.

Alex McRobert (36:36.298)
Yeah.

Alex McRobert (36:42.819)
He's in the book. Yeah, he's one of the people. There's a few people that have their real name in the book and Dan is one of them. And he, so I actually had an assistant teacher in Abu Dhabi who from the moment I met her was like, you should meet my psychic Dan, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, so anti all this stuff. Like I was anti, you know, fortune telling. And I just didn't believe in it. And then when I got sober, I was like so desperate that I was like,

Amanda Cable (36:44.118)
Yes.

Alex McRobert (37:11.929)
Okay, I'll just be open to anything, you know, and so she was like, you'd my psychic and I was like, okay, whatever, I'll just go do it. And I drove to him, he was in Dubai, so it was about probably an hour drive from Abu Dhabi. And I pulled up at the house he was at. And I went in and he said, okay, close your eyes, count down from 10 to one, or 21 to one, open them. And he goes, you're never supposed to be a teacher, you're supposed to be a healer.

Jane (37:14.212)
Yeah.

Alex McRobert (37:41.365)
And I just sobbed and it was an hour long session where he basically told me I was going to do all these things I dreamed about. And I share that because what he did for me was he put everything as like an absolute reality. This is going to happen. You are going to manifest these dreams. Whereas

Before, I just didn't believe in my potential. And I think that's really important because you don't need to necessarily, like I do encourage people to see my psychic and you can actually book sessions with him on my website, but you don't need to see a psychic to do this. You can also do it yourself. And it's just pivoting your perception from this isn't possible to this is absolutely possible and absolutely happening. And when you make that pivot, your whole life is gonna change because you're gonna move through the world with confidence and with faith. And that's what he did for me.

Jane (38:29.679)
Yeah.

Jane (38:35.118)
Yeah, it's just a matter of time. It's not if it happens, it's when it happens.

Alex McRobert (38:40.285)
And I think once I that happened, I probably realized whether it was conscious or not, that none of that would happen if I went back to partying, you know, like even let's talk about the book for a second. Like I actually started writing this book in 2017 and I stopped writing it because of how much I was drinking, you know, and as soon as I got sober, it was just like, boom, like it just came out of me. And so that's an example of something that if you're drinking, you're not if you're drinking, you're not going to achieve big dreams that you're

Jane (38:48.762)
Yeah.

Alex McRobert (39:09.101)
you're dreaming of.

Jane (39:10.2)
No, you're not going to follow through. And also you are recovering from this idea that you're a bad person. And when you think you're a bad person, you don't do things like write books about your life and share them with the world.

Alex McRobert (39:22.157)
Totally.

Amanda Cable (39:24.974)
When you first went to see Dan, is it Dan?

Amanda Cable (39:30.904)
Did he know anything about your life? did he know your story? Or did you go to him like with a blank slate and he just started like speaking into your or affirming your future basically?

Alex McRobert (39:44.547)
So he, I told him nothing. And at that time I had no public social media because I was a school teacher. So everything was like private and secret. My name could not even be really searched on Google. And in my Instagram, like nothing was publicly there. he, there were things that he knew, but he didn't know exactly. Like he said, you know, you've lived in another country before it starts with a Q. And that was Kuwait, obviously. And then

He said I was gonna teach yoga retreats in South America, which honestly could still be possible. And I think about it a lot because, but for a long time I kind of thought like, he's just seeing Bali, know, when he sings at Mary seeing Bali. But as I go through this transition period right now, I'm really thinking like, it's possible. Maybe I will be in Bali for the rest of my life, but it's also possible that Bali was like.

home of this really important chapter, you know, where I processed all of this and like put it out into the world. And but yeah, Dan, Dan has never said to me that I'm to come to Bali. was something that I really was like, that is definitely going to happen. And I think that's important, too, because he will have these predictions, he'll have these ideas, but it's ultimately like what you know in your own tuition that you also combine and add to that. He also knew that I had married

a South American, like a Spanish speaking guy. And I think he said, have a thing for like South American guys. he knows, so I've gone back for many sessions with him. I went back for one session with him about a few months later, which I talk about in my book too. And I showed him a picture of a guy that I was dating. And Dan said to me, Dan was like, he's cheating on you. And I didn't believe Dan because I was like, no.

He's my soulmate and Dan was right like a year later. I found out that this guy was in other relationships Yeah, so Dan for me has become this this lifeline of who I go to as I get stronger and stronger on my intuition I need him less but it is really helpful to have him around to to just reach out to and connect

Jane (41:41.166)
Wow.

Jane (41:57.284)
Yeah, almost like a mentor or a guide or a coach even.

Amanda Cable (41:58.029)
Amazing.

Alex McRobert (42:01.433)
Totally. Totally.

Jane (42:06.362)
Bye.

Amanda Cable (42:06.476)
I love that Alex. I feel like I'm gonna contact Dana.

Jane (42:11.258)
know, I'm like, Dan, what's next for me?

Amanda Cable (42:13.358)
Help the sister out. Okay, awesome.

Jane (42:19.83)
Yes, we'll put it in our show notes for any listeners who need a dance session. Yes. Well, Alex, I know you have something in the next few minutes. to wrap up, just tell us a little bit about where people can find you, how they can get your book and that sort of thing.

Alex McRobert (42:41.785)
Absolutely. So I, my book is called Sober Yoga Girl and that can be found on Amazon. We have Kindle and we have hard copy versions and I am on Instagram. Alex McRobbs is my Instagram and my community is called The Mindful Life Practice. So if you head to the Mindful Life Practice website, you can see everything. We have, I have a podcast, I have a magazine and great community things happening. So, so definitely head there and check all of that out.

Jane (43:09.966)
Yes, I love the mindful life practice.

Amanda Cable (43:13.378)
Yes, me too. And I'm so excited to read your book, Alex. Thanks for coming on the podcast today.

Alex McRobert (43:18.297)
Thank you so much for having me.

Jane (43:18.532)
Yes, thank you so much. We might need to have a part two after we read the book so we can process through some things.

Amanda Cable (43:23.734)
Mm -hmm. Yeah, absolutely.

Alex McRobert (43:25.141)
Absolutely, I would love that. I'd love it.

Jane (43:27.372)
Okay, awesome.