64. Significant dates
Have you got a date you can look back on and know that was a turning point for you? Even if nothing good happened immediately?
What were you learning and getting ready for?
Listen in to this episode to find out when Sarah was really ready to change (not that she actually did anything about it for a while)!
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Transcript
Hello, darling heart, and welcome to the drink less, live better podcast.
-:This is the podcast that helps you to see that drinking less doesn't need to be stressful, lonely, or boring.
-:I'm your host, Sarah Williamson, and I decided to have a year alcohol free as a little life experiment and haven't looked back.
-:With my experience and training, I now help other women with their alcohol free or drink less adventures.
-:You can find out more about me and sign up to my 5 day drink less challenge at drink less live better.com.
-:I'm here to tell you that you can relax, connect, and have fun without alcohol in your life.
-:Join me here each week to find out how.
-:Do you follow me on Instagram at drink less, live better?
-:If you do, you might have seen a post a couple of weeks ago showing a picture of 2 travel cards to London.
-:One was dated June 2017, and one was dated June 2022, almost exactly 5 years apart.
-:Why do I keep travel cards from 5 years ago is the first question I'm going to answer.
-:That night out was a normal day and night in London for me.
-:I used to work in the West End, I had the job of my dreams, worked with lovely people, and was living my best life, working
-:hard, playing hard, as the saying goes.
-:And since I stopped working in London, I always made sure I regularly went back for an exhibition or theatre trip and drinks and dinner with a friend.
-:Well, the June 2017 visit was similar to any other around that time in my life.
-:I had a lovely day out and then met Chris for cocktails followed by dinner.
-:We were trying to remember specifics of the date recently, who else was with us, which bar we went to, where we went to eat,
-:whether we had any pictures on our phones, but no. No recollection.
-:What I can tell you for sure was that I'd had too much to drink before dinner, I'd have carried on drinking wine with dinner.
-:I may well have thrown up partway through the evening.
-:Chris would have walked me back to the station and put me on the last train home.
-:He'd have called me a station before mine to wake me up or remind me to get off, and then he'd have called me again to make sure I got home okay.
-:Anyhoo, the next day, I had a hang Well, no surprise there, and it was pretty hideous, probably about an 8.5 out of 10 on
-:the hangover scale or towards one of the inner circles of hell in Dante's Inferno.
-:I do remember I had a standout thought on that day in 2017, something's going to change.
-:I didn't say my usual, never again, because I'd already said that 11,000,000,000 t times before, and I'd never meant it.
-:But Something's Got to Change was a thought, a feeling, accompanied by a deep knowing.
-:That was June 2017, and I'm here to tell you that I carried on drinking and having nights out like that for another 18 months
-:before I was able to spend a year getting a grip on what that change might look like.
-:By the time we went out in June 2019, I was able to drink without getting plastered.
-:I was able to have a day and night out in London and have one glass of wine, a lovely dinner, get the train home safely, and feel okay the next day.
-:By winter 2019, I had stopped drinking.
-:So from June 2019 to June 2022 and 5 years passing since June 2017, I have spent 2.5 years without a drink and the previous two 0.5 years preparing for it.
-:When Chris and I were out a few weeks ago, we hung out at a gallery, went for a lovely walk, had dinner and drinks, alcohol
-:free, in a brilliant little restaurant we found by accident.
-:We talked a lot about what changed the last five years has brought.
-:When I think about the next 5 years, I get a bit emotional because I had no idea 5 years ago that I'd be where I am now, and
-:I had no idea how much better I'd be feeling. It hasn't all been okay.
-:There have been two diagnoses of lifelong critical conditions in my immediate family, deaths and other losses. But on balance, it's been better.
-:These last two and a half years have been better.
-:Hey, I've got a really good idea.
-:We could drink less and live better.
-:If you'd like to join me on a retreat next year, February 2023, the details are now available in the show notes.
-:You can click there and find out more. Thank you for listening this week.
-:Please come back again next week, and PS, I believe in you.
