Greeting from Hawaii!
My husband and I are here celebrating our 41st wedding anniversary. I am also celebrating my 8 years AF TODAY!
In today’s podcast episode I share eight things I have learned in my eight years. Most of them will not be a surprise – I think we all recognize that a lot changes when we choose to remove alcohol from our day to day.
One thing that delights me is the hidden gems along the way. For example, I have always had a complicated relationship with ‘friendship’. I have carried a story of being the outsider most of my life. I started to work on this story in the last few years and I started to question where it came from, why I believed it, and if it was even true. And, with a new possibility, a new thought, I have begun to rewrite that story from the past. The delightful surprise is that I now have so many new friends and I have started to connect my new friends with one another! I never ‘saw’ myself as a connector, I always saw myself as a loner. How did I miss this delightful part of me? When alcohol was in the way, I allowed those old wounds to create bitter feelings. Is there a delightful part of you that is being masked by alcohol?
Another example is the continued freedom I feel. The freedom of living in liberation vs. fixation. I have shared before but to me, this is one of the best gifts I have received in these eight years. I am not tied to the past and to alcohol – I don’t live my life saddled with a disease, I don’t keep one eye on my ‘addiction’, I am simply someone who ‘used’ to drink. This freedom helps me realize I can let go of so many other things in my life. The magic of changing exploring my thoughts and then allowing that it might just be a story has created a lot of space in my life. In this space – there is so much possibility. What will show up when you create space?
I do find new delights that are part of the ‘trickle down’ effect of not drinking:
- Trusting my intuition has helped me taking more risks
- Seeing things without the veil of shame and guilt has allowed me to speak up for myself
- Setting boundaries, with myself and others, is a skill I am honing
- Connection – I am delighted to be finding so many new friends
- Vitality – this AF life is the best elixir! I think of aging in a whole new way, as a learning journey and one meant to be enjoyed
If you are excited about the possibility of finding your own freedom, check out “Stop Drinking In Your 50’s and Beyond” to start today.
