Ashley McBryde is sharing some of her most important life lessons, ones she is embracing herself, amid her sobriety. In a video shared on social media, McBryde gives advice to someone else about the power of being unique
“Recognizing that you’re different is your strength. Don’t let it be a crutch or a weakness,” McBryde offers as part of a talk during CMA Fest. “Don’t do it out of defiance. A bird can fly, but birds don’t take flying lessons, because the flight is in the bird. Fish can swim, but they don’t take swimming lessons, because the swim is in the fish. So as long as you are doing what is in you, success is not a goal, it is default.
“So being different is what you are,” she continues. “It’s not all of who you are. .. Use it as a shield, and know when to put that down. And just the way you walk into a room, realizing, recognizing that I’m different, and that doesn’t mean less than. I’m different, and that does not mean better. That should give you a nice solid place to stand.”
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Ashley McBryde Celebrates Four Years of Sobriety
McBryde just celebrated her fourth anniversary of being sober.
“Congratulations, me! 1,461 days of fighting for myself, showing up, doing the work and doing it scared most of the time,” McBryde writes on social media. “For me, staying sober includes boxing, lifting and other ways of celebrating this body that carries me across the stage I live for. It includes being picky and intentional about who I spend energy on and with. And so much more.
“For you it may be totally different,” she adds. “Maybe you work a program, maybe you paint, maybe you do something totally ‘out-there’ to some people. Your path is yours. No one else needs to understand it. Whatever keeps you, YOU. You need you. Struggle forward. Do it scared.”
McBryde went to rehab, coming out and immediately heading back out on tour, opening for Dierks Bentley. It was her first time performing sober, an idea that both frightened and exhilarated her.
“It was the most terrifying, coolest experience. I wish I could go back and experience it again, because I was so shocked with the ease of everything I was doing,” she recounts on the Country Roads podcast. “My breath, I’m supported. My legs, moving across this stage just fine. My hands, not shaky. Who knew that would be handy? It was scary and amazing to go, ‘Look what you did. You went from embarrassing yourself to stealing the night, and you’ve only been without it for 30 days. Who knows what this is going to be like in 60 days?’”
Photo Credit: CMA / John Russell