Greetings fabulous heroes!
Wow, what a month! One of the main learnings for me was just how small life becomes when you find yourself drinking more than you want to. When the first question you ask yourself when considering going to any kind of event is will alcohol be readily available? And more importantly, do you want to go if it isn’t? Whether is it going to the local village fair, going to watch your favourite team play in whichever sport you still have some vague interest in or whether it’s an opportunity to get out of your comfort zone and fly to a different part of the world, let’s face it, how can it be remotely fun if there’s no drinking going on?! Having spent many years in the drinking cycle of work, wine, sleep (well in a fashion), repeat, I feel I have now well and truly answered those questions for myself, and the bottom line is, alcohol actually brings nothing to the party; I have just been conditioned to think it does.
The beginning of September started with a trip to Denver, Colorado to meet up with five other This Naked Mind Coaches and the founder of the company, Annie Grace. If I got paid a penny for every time I asked myself ‘How is this my life right now?’ I would have returned a very rich woman!
To explain a little about the journey as to how I ended up being in Colorado with a group of fabulous, empowering entrepreneurial coaches 8,700 feet up a mountain, it all started with me making one decision: to stop drinking alcohol. Who knew that one decision could have such a profound impact on my life and allow so much possibility to become my reality? But that is the simple truth of it. I could dress it up in all sorts of other guises, but that one decision has changed my life forever. There is no unknowing what I now know and that feels powerful.
My plan is to continue this life of being alcohol-free, but should I ever find myself thinking drinking is a good idea and even acting on that thought, it no longer fills me full of fear as I now know the truth about alcohol. So, rather than beat myself up for ‘falling off the wagon’, I will see it for what it is, a ‘blip in the system’, ‘a pothole in the road’ which I can chose to learn from and move on from by showing myself grace and compassion and simply apply what I know to be true:
‘We cannot shame ourselves into change, we can only love ourselves into evolution’
Anyway, I digress as my brain often seems to do!
So, a little about Colorado, Denver in case you’ve never been. My God, the air is so beautifully clean (but then we were 8,700 feet above sea level). I had the privilege of staying with a fellow coach in Morrisson’s, Colorado for a couple of days and we took a trip out to the infamous Red Rock Amphitheatre where anyone who is anyone has played a gig, from John Denver to the Beatles to Jimmy Hendrix to Johnny Cash to U2 to Bruce Springsteen to Grateful Dead to Bob Dylan to Stevie Wonder to Mumford and Sons to Sting to Brandi Carlisle to Shawn Mendes – you get the picture! What an incredible feeling to stand amid so much musical history and really feel the ambience and vibe of such acoustic brilliance dictated also by the beauty of the natural rock formation. I absolutely plan to return to see a gig in the not-too-distant future and this is made all the easier once again by my decision to ditch the booze. Apart from anything else, I now have more money to pay for such trips!
On day three, we traversed the mountain roads to the Airbnb we had hired for our 3-day mastermind event with Annie Grace and this did not disappoint! The hobbit style dome on the side of a mountain must be seen to be believed. The views were breathtaking and just perfect for starting the day sitting outside to take part in a Cacao ceremony or some deep inner breathwork. It even had a little sauna you could sit in with a window so you could look out into the starry night and my favourite bit, which did send me into uncontrollable giggles, was the little ladle to scoop the water out of the bucket and on to the coals! It just proper tickled me and I seriously felt like a child again without a care in the world and everything being so simple. It also reinforced another thing I know to be true: it really is the little things!
The final part of my Denver trip was to brave staying in a hostel by myself in downtown Denver. At first, I thought about changing my flight and coming home early to avoid being this far out of my comfort zone, but those thoughts thankfully passed when I had a ‘word with myself’ and chose to embrace curiosity to see what could happen. I discovered Denver has an amazing bookstore at Union Street Station called the ‘Tattered Cover’ where I got lost in the world of literature for a while and left with a new book called ‘Buy yourself the f**ging lilies’ - a book that guides you to conquer your self-doubt and instead become a ‘ninja of self-love’.
Whilst in Denver, I obviously had to buy a ticket to go see a baseball game at the infamous Rockies stadium. Let’s just say being a vegetarian, non-drinker, I don’t think I quite got the excitement that those around me seemed to get but hey ho, attending a baseball game is now crossed off my to-do list!
Whilst staying in a 4-bed dorm at 11th Avenue Hostel, I met a 27-year-old woman from Chicago. She told me she had also decided to stop drinking herself three years ago at the tender age of 24 as it no longer provided any benefit for her, which I just found inspiring. Not only does it show that regardless of age and experience, it is possible to make the choice to let go of the need for alcohol to play a part in your life, but it is also testament to the fact that you don’t need to be at ‘rock bottom’ to choose a more healthy and present way to live. It is okay for it to just be a choice – no drama required! This conversation really stuck with me and I’m so grateful to me for pushing myself out of my comfort zone, otherwise it simply would never have happened.
Until the next time I leave you with this reply I found to the challenge ‘How to say you no longer drink without saying you no longer drink’ because I hope it will bring a smile to your face like it did to mine!
‘The cashier at my local store, has filed a missing person’s report!’
Sammie xox