#132: How to Keep Going When You Can't Keep Going with Natalia Violette#132: How to Keep Going When You Can't Keep Going with Natalia Violette
Sun & Moon Sober Living Podcast
Conversation with cancer survivor and writer Natalia Violette about high-stress corporate life, alcohol and pill use, a Hodgkin’s Lymphoma diagnosis, and how nature, somatic work and writing support her ongoing recovery. Themes include eco grief, identity loss, and finding reasons to keep going when everything feels too heavy.
55:00•19 Oct 2026
How Natalia Violette Keeps Going When Life Says Stop
Episode Overview
- Alcohol and prescription pills can feel "functional" in high-pressure roles, yet quietly erode health, relationships and self-respect.
- Finishing cancer treatment does not automatically bring emotional recovery; without real support, old coping habits can rush back in.
- Nature connection offers a non-judgemental relationship where grief, fear and exhaustion can be held safely, outside of human expectations.
- Grief is far broader than death alone and can include the loss of a former body, identity, imagined future and childhood safety.
- Simple creative practices like writing and poetry can help express what feels too big or complicated to say out loud, especially in early sobriety or illness recovery.
“How foolish of me to leave this party so soon when it's clear I am made of everything here.”
What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol, pills and overwork when the whole culture keeps saying, "just push through"? This conversation with cancer survivor and writer Natalia Violette offers a slow, honest look at that question. At twenty‑eight, Natalia was living a high‑stress corporate life in Australia, fuelled by alcohol, prescription pills and perfectionism, when a Hodgkin’s Lymphoma diagnosis stopped everything.
She speaks candidly about collapsing lungs, six months of chemo, the shock of losing her hair – and the strange comfort of, for the first time, feeling genuinely cared for in hospital. Yet she also shares how, after treatment, she slipped straight back into overworking and drinking because, as she puts it, "the bills don't stop" and no one hands you an aftercare plan.
You’ll hear how a dark Christmas Eve mixing whiskey and leftover painkillers led to a quiet inner message of "not yet" – a turning point that nudged her towards sobriety, gentler living, and a deep relationship with nature. Through ecosomatics, she now brings together nervous system work, trauma healing and time outside, describing how sitting in the winter sun bald from chemo felt like "feeling the sun for the first time" at age 29.
Natalia and host Mary Tilson talk about eco‑grief, identity loss after illness, and the many faces of grief beyond death – including mourning the body and life you thought you’d have.
Writing and poetry give Natalia a way to honour those feelings, especially her poem about suicide ideation and choosing to stay: "How foolish of me to leave this party so soon when it's clear I am made of everything here." If you’ve ever thought you had to completely fall apart before you’re allowed to rest, this conversation might make you pause and ask: what small step towards care could you take today?
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