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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 have a year alcohol free
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as a little life experiment and haven't looked back. With my experience and training, I now help other women with their alcohol
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free or drink less adventures. I'm here to tell you that you can relax, connect and have fun without alcohol in your life.
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Join me here each week to find out how. Today, I'd like to tell you a story about gifting alcohol. I was that person who gifted
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alcohol all of the time, to a friend when I went round for dinner, to a sports coach for helping my son, to a teacher for
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seeing through another school year, to a colleague for a birthday, to a family member at a party or anniversary, to a hang
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on a second, this list could be very long and will be repetitive. I gifted alcohol to most people for most reasons and I never
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thought anything of it. I never thought anything of it because it's an entirely socially acceptable gift. It's normal, it's
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thoughtful, it's nice. Oh, but is it? You see, I've changed my mind about alcohol. For all the many many years I drank, I
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gifted the gift I'd have been most delighted to receive myself, a bottle of wine or a bottle of fizz. Every time I bought
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a bottle for a friend, I made sure I was choosing something I knew I'd seen them drink previously or that I was fairly sure
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they'd like, but when I was choosing for someone who helped my kids or was an acquaintance rather than a friend, I just guessed
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at what they might like, but never considered for a second the fact that they might not drink. No one ever handed me back
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a present and said, no, thank you. And why would they? We are taught to accept a gift and be grateful, aren't we? I bought
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all this booze for other people because in my drinking years it was what I would have wanted as a gift, and it's easy and
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thoughtless. Now I try to put a bit more energy into gift giving. I try to learn a bit more about the person if I don't know
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them that well. I try to buy gifts that will be really well received. I happen to be someone who doesn't particularly love
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things, items, stuff that needs a home in my house. I happen to love dispensable As a side note, alcohol, brilliantly fitted
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into the dispensable carrot category, drink it and then recycle the bottle. Now, I love to receive and give fresh flowers
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or small plants for the garden, book or audio vouchers, lovely hand or body lotions, delicious chocolates, homemade goodies,
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or nice notebooks. A bit more thoughtful thoughtful and some effort required, but I feel so much better about not buying all
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that wine now that I'm not drinking it. I was recently given 2 bottles of Fizz as a thank you gift for something I did for
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a colleague, which I gratefully accepted. I didn't want to appear rude, and I've added it to a box in my shed with a number
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of other bottles people have given me over the last 18 months or so. They sit there because they are lost in no man's land.
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I won't drink them. I'm unlikely to gift them on. I guess a guest might want a glass in the future. I don't know. They could
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be headed for the kitchen drain at some point. I feel no sorrow about that idea. They are just poisonous clutter taking up
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shed space really. When I first went alcohol free I had no problem at all pouring loads of half bottles of spirits down the
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sink. I watched it drain away thinking how glad I was that my body wasn't consuming those calories or toxins. Why would I
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gift anyone else a hangover when I don't want one myself? This is my gift, my act of kindness to my friends and family. No
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more alcohol as presents. Thank you for listening to this episode. Please listen in again next time. You can sign up to my
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5 day drink less experiment and find out about working with me one to 1 at drink less live better dot com. It would make me
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happier than a Buddhist monk if you would please subscribe, 5 star review, and comment on my podcast on whatever platform
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you listen. Imagine it like the tasting notes on the finest wine I am never going to drink. Thank you, And, PS, I believe in you.
