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Hello darling heart and welcome to the Drink Less Live Better podcast. This is the podcast that helps you to see that drinking
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less doesn't need to be stressful, lonely, or boring. I'm your host, Sarah Williamson, and I decided to have a year alcohol
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free as a little life experiment and haven't looked back. With my experience and training, I now help other women with their
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alcohol free or drink less adventures. I'm here to tell you that you can relax, connect, and have fun without alcohol in your
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life. Join me here each week to find out how. If you listened to episode 7 you'd have heard me talk about the acronym H. O.
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T. Which stands for hungry, angry, lonely, tired and how it helped to stop me reach for a drink at 7 pm. Today, I'd like to
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tell you a story about how I came to the realization that I was sabotaging all my good well-being activities. Through my late
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thirties and into my early forties, I was coming more aware of the mind body soul connection. I was working full time, had
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2 children, a husband, a dog and all the other things a lot of people had in their lives, but I was feeling overwhelmed and
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having a wind down drink at the end of the day was one of the ways I chose to shut off emotionally. To try to handle my overwhelm,
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I've been getting more and more interested in personal growth. I was experimenting with life enhancing practices like meditation
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and mindfulness. I'd become more committed to getting some exercise each week, either running, going to an exercise class,
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or yoga, and I'd also taken more of an interest in my nutrition, taking good quality supplements, making green smoothies each
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day, and eating really well. I decided to increase positivity in my life in as many different ways as I could. I stopped watching
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or listening to the endlessly negative news. I curated my social media feeds to show me only fabulous businesses and people.
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I chose uplifting podcasts and audiobooks to listen to and hang hung out in real life with people who were radiators of warmth
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and love. All of this was amazing for my physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. I was starting to feel like a grown
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up, but there was one thing that didn't feel right. I was adding stuff in and adding stuff in, getting up early in the morning
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to meditate, to journal, to be grateful. I was making time to exercise. I was choosing healthy menu plans, and all of this
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adding things into my life was great, but I needed to take something out, and I didn't want to admit to it. What's the point
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of meditating if you've got a bit of a hangover and can't concentrate properly? What's the point of running if you're over
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consuming empty calories in your drinks? What's the point in taking fancy supplements when you're drinking a toxic substance?
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Why would I keep doing all these good things and not stop the one really damaging thing? At around the time all of this was
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going around in my head, I had a breakthrough thought, and it was this. I am a human being, not a human doing. I wanted to
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stop feeling overwhelmed, so I started to cut commitments that didn't feel good. I only said yes to things that felt like
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a hell yes. I considered the needs of myself and my family before others. I prioritized the exercise, the nutrition, and I
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took the time to be very still and very much a human being. I bought myself a necklace with a b on it to remind myself every
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day that I am concentrating on being a human being and that overwhelm is not my friend. I no longer needed alcohol in my life.
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I didn't need to escape from anything anymore. I recognized that, and from that point onwards, I could start to do something
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about drinking less. I must make a special mention here of Kelly from project we, who has inspired this recording. Joining
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her membership was one of the ways in which I was able to get my overwhelm under control. Thank you, darling heart. And thank
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you for listening to this episode. Please listen in again next time. You can sign up to my 5 day drink less experiment and
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find out about working with me one to 1 at drink less live better dot com. It would make me happier than a Buddhist monk if
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you would please subscribe, 5 star review, and comment on my podcast on whatever platform you listen. Imagine it like the
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tasting notes on the finest wine I am never going to drink. Thank you, and PS. I believe in you.