Stop Over-drinking with Angela

Today’s artist highlight is ……..……………..

ME! Angela Mascenik, founder of The Magic House Retreat Center, the Stop Over-drinking and Start Living Podcast, Alive AF! Membership, and many more programs that help women stop over drinking and feel more aliveness in their lives!

I took these photos 2 years ago while hiking in the Pacific Northwest in the Olympic National Park with my friends Josh and Dan. The forest is one of my absolute favorite places to be.. hence being a a certified forest therapy guide as well as a coach. I wanted a whole room in the Magic House to feel like you were in the forest so it made sense that I had these beauties framed and mounted. This is one of my favorite rooms.

Can you imagine sleeping here?

While this specific room is booked, you can come see it in the April 2027 Embody Your Senses Retreat where we will go to the only certified therapeutic forest in Portugal and I will lead a beautiful forest bathing session for the group. You don’t want to miss. We will also have my favorite local hiking guide with us to share the history of this magical place.

DM me, or email!

Another art highlight from The Magic House Retreat Center, Lisbon this art adorns the Acro-iris room aka The rainbow room. I LOVE rainbows 🌈 they are a natural beautiful miracle that have always made me feel joyous and awe.

This piece was lovingly painted by Marina Kalenova Diachkova | Portugal watercolors from a photo I took while I was here retreating myself BEFORE The Magic House was even an idea in my brain. I came to Lisbon to give myself and my friend a business retreat where we wanted to get clear on what we wanted to create in 2026. And oh boy did we ever.. as I was leaving that week… the idea came to me…. What if I created my own retreat space HERE in the best neighborhood in Lisbon near the best yoga studio and the best park and the best restaurants and with the best host ;). So that little rainbow packs a magical punch. And she continues to inspire whoever gets to view her in The Rainbow Room. A shared room with 2 full size beds and luxurious Portuguese local linens, slippers and robes.

This is the room that has the last spot available for the April 2027 Embody Your Senses retreat! Who’s coming??

Link in bio or message me!!

Today’s art highlight is from Mirzoyan a traveling artist from Estonia. I was drawn into her pieces because they captured Lisbon so perfectly, the airplanes in the sky, the street art, the dog in a purse, the coffee kiosks.. and it’s a little funky and just@like Lisbon. These adorn a sweet little nook in the living room. You can easily curl up with a lovely cup of tea with local Portuguese honey and a cozy blanket and get lost in the story of them.

Who wants to come have tea with me here? 1 spot left for the April 2027 Embody Your Senses Retreat, grab it while you can. Prices going up as soon as she’s gone…

Art highlight day 3 The Magic House Retreat Center, Lisbon
This beautiful trio is a gorgeous watercolor by the immensely talented Marina Kalenova Diachkova | Portugal watercolors . I started following artists in Portugal long before The Magic House was even an idea. But as soon as it was, I started thinking about art. She shared a video with the first piece, the sail boat with the word BELIEVE on the side of the boat. I knew I had to have it. So I met her at the Sunday Arte na Praça / Lisboa market and bought that one then 2 others to complete the series. I knew that it would make the Ocean room feel like you were seaside. And it does!

This room is also available to have as a private room! It’s a sanctuary for peace for sure!

Marina ended up doing many more pieces for me.. and I can’t wait to share them later!

Also - 1 spot remains for the April 2027 Embody Your Senses retreat! Snag that bad boy up and come see for yourself!!! Link in bio!

Today in Jardim de Estrela some flowers were in full bloom. Some were still unfurling.

The ones still opening looked fragile. Light green against the dark green of the mature plants. Still becoming what they were meant to be.

That stage needs protection. Water, sunlight, not too much wind.

If you’re unfurling right now, becoming who you are without alcohol, you need the same thing.

Boundaries. Rest. Sunlight. Fewer rooms full of people who only knew the old you.

What are you doing TODAY to protect the version of you that’s still forming?

This is a beautiful state. The flower knows what to do, witnesses see the unfurling and stop in awe. You are becoming a beautiful version of yourself in the unfurling.. slow down and watch it and appreciate it because you won’t be here forever!

The 2nd art highlight The Magic House Retreat Center, Lisbon are the custom Azulejos (Portuguese tiles).
Atelier and I worked hand in hand creating these beautiful tiles for each bedroom and main sign for The Magic House, with the custom logo that Vivid Thistle Studio | BRANDING | STRATEGY | WEBSITES created for my brand.
I love co-creating with people. I love when I see my vision and what I saw in my head come to life by talented artists. It was important to me to incorporate Portuguese traditional elements in The Magic House because the place lives inside a century old building with a lot of traditional elements. I want to honor the history and invite in new possibilities at the same time.
💫
We do that with my guests too. We all have a history but we can also create something magical and new with what already exists. These azulejos do just that!

4-themed bedrooms
Mar - Ocean 🌊
Acro-iris - Rainbow 🌈
Floresta - Forest 🌳
Nascer do Sol - Sunrise 🌅

Which one do you want to sleep in?

If you want to stop over-drinking but you keep abandoning every journal, tracker, urge that hits, and morning routine you start, this episode is for you. Quitting drinking gets a lot easier when the work stops feeling like a punishment.

For twenty years, I gave alcohol the good glass, the beautiful thoughts, the longing feelings, the candle, the music, and the best hour of my day.

Then I started doing the work to stop over-drinking and I handed that an exhausted self at the end of the day, no patience left and no kind words.

And then I wondered why I kept going back to the wine. Obviously, I changed that and learned how to be with myself and accept what was happening inside of me and made that ritual something I wanted to connect with.

The problem for most of you is that you've started a practice you don't want to return to.
We come back to places that have been tended. That's true of a kitchen, and it's true of the ten minutes you spend with yourself every morning. So in this episode I'm walking you through how to make the work of quitting drinking beautiful enough that you actually want to come back to it tomorrow. Almost none of it costs money.

What we cover:

Why you keep quitting your own practice
The outside stuff, the notebook, the chair, the hour, and why that's only a small part
Slowing your breath down before you start, because you cannot arrive somewhere beautiful at a sprint
Greeting yourself when you sit down: thanks for connecting with me today
Why "thank you" builds something that "good job" never will
The tone you take with yourself on the page, and why nobody returns to a place where they get yelled at
How you end a session, and why that decides whether you come back
What I learned about tending yourself walking 173 miles on the Camino de Santiago
What to do when the emotion you're processing is genuinely hard and there's nothing pretty about it

This one is for the woman who looks completely fine on the outside, the career, the family, the house, and is quietly exhausted from the cycle of over-drinking and breaking promises to herself. Especially if you're in a season of change: retirement, an empty nest, a career shift, newly single, caring for aging parents.

You already know how to make something beautiful enough to return to every single day. You did it with wine for twenty years.

We're taking that back and pointing it at you.

Art The Magic House Retreat Center, Lisbon this week I’ll be sharing the story behind each of the magical pieces that have been hand selected or created just for The Magic House.

This beauty called A Place At The Table by K. Frances Pape was actually made in North Carolina.
Of course I wasn’t expecting to buy a giant piece of framed art this day but that’s what was supposed to happen when I walked into riverskate during the Saxapahaw holiday market. The colors instantly pulled me in and then I saw that the women were drinking tea around a table and there was no wine glasses, which is so common in art like this. Then I saw the plants and the little fish on a plate in the corner… which instantly connected me to Portugal. I knew I had to inquire about it and asked if the artist was around…
They directed me to the next room where she was ‘working behind a counter.’ I walk over and the ‘counter’ was a non-alcoholic bar and she was selling non-alcoholic drinks for gods sake! What in the magical universe is happening! I introduced myself told her about the Magic House and she shared she didn’t drink either… and that is when I knew I had to have the piece.
She made a trip over with me through oversized baggage and she has found her home looking over all the women who gather and eat and drink here at The Magic House!
Isn’t she gorgeous?

This morning’s yoga session LEELA LISBOA was finished with a beautiful statement by Anton Brandt ‘make it beautiful so you want to come back’ and my head has exploded on this idea the moment I heard it.

What does your stop over-drinking practice look like? Would you even call it a practice? What if you decided to make it beautiful so that you WANT to return to the practice of NOT over-drinking?

If I had to guess your practice to stop over-drinking is probably messy filled with judgement and shame.. Therefore not making it very inviting to revisit.

I just had to expand on this in the Stop Over-drinking and Start Living podcast.. So make sure you are subscribed to the show in your favorite pod player so you can hear it when it drops on Wednesday/Thursday.

Thanks for an amazing practice Anton, of course, I can’t wait to come back!



[photo] relaxing after walking 15 miles on the Camino- the act of making something nice so I’m instanced to come back!

Did you know that I create custom retreats at The Magic House? If you have a small group who want to experience Portugal like no other visitor, I can help. Ocean, forest, culture, food, history and of course MAGIC! I am planning my 2027 retreats so if you’ve been thinking about Portugal, I can curate an unforgettable and life changing experience for you!

DM me or shoot me an email and let’s chat!