From Alcohol to Saving the Planet.

 

Where do I start....I know, from my first realisation that alcohol was not my friend...

 

I believe my Mum noticed my behaviour around alcohol well before I did when I was approx, 22 and downing from a bottle of vodka before I ran for the taxi to the club.......

 

Here I am 16 years later, very aware of my issues around alcohol and always looking for a way to stop.

 

Working full time and having a son to run around doesn’t stop me, although it does mean I wont drink and drive the next day for work or when I have to run my boy around, but lets face it that still leaves me at least 3/4 days where I can, as we call it “hang one on!”.

 

My worst memory is drinking in the evening, falling asleep, waking up on the sofa at 2am and carrying on drinking.... Boy is that a horrid feeling. Then pretending everything is ok as I wave my boy off to school on the bus and I look at my laptop blankly wondering how on earth I am going to get through that days workload, then hey ho, 4pm comes, I feel less yuck and its Friday so I start again until Sunday. Stop Sunday as I have to drive on Monday....... Soul, liver, family destroying cycle of destruction.

 

I became aware of an environmental issue that made me stand up and look at the world in a very different way. How many of us as humans do not care for our planet, how a lot of us take everything for granted and that one day everything will sort itself out. Clearly it does not work like that and “Hot House” climate change is very much at the forefront of the news at the moment.

 

We as a family sail, only coastal around the UK with plans of crossing the channel and the wildlife at sea is amazing. Watching Blue Planet and seeing the devastation plastic is having in our oceans I felt I had to do something...anything.

 

And so my research began, I began sourcing everything I could plastic free. Toothbrush, bathroom products, fruit and veg and I can even get my fish etc from the deli using my own pots. I managed to reduce a household of three’s waste every two weeks from at least 4 refuse sacks to half a refuse sack fortnightly! I was rather pleased with myself. Then I decided I wanted to help others do the same and decided to set up a business selling everything I have sourced for myself that is plastic free and selling to others. Wowser, how did I ever have time to drink??

 

My passion has driven my focus on to something other than, that bottle or two and a half of wine.  I am now constantly striving to find something else I can use and share with others that will help our planet reduce its plastic footprint.

 

I now sell through facebook, on a website and attend various fayres, spreading the plastic free love which takes up way more of my headspace than anything has done before.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m slipping up, but far less often than before. My advice for anyone who is trying to cut back, stop or take a break....find a passion, whatever that maybe, it will help keep the wine witch well away from your thoughts of drowning in alcohol and feeling quite honestly, anxious, demotivated and guilty!

 

Now I can sit up and watch a film with my boy, drive him wherever, whenever, I can take him to the park and my day job is not suffering anywhere near as bad as it did when I was drinking so often!

 

This blog was written by the lovely Angela Blackman, I asked her to tell her story, as passion and motivation is something I talk about a lot in the Women Who Dont Drink  group and in my coaching programmes.  Having something in your life that fulfills you, gives you purpose, can help focus on the new and ditch the old booze.

 

If you need help finding your passion, give me a shout.  More about coaching here https://www.ichange21.com/p/coaching-options

 

Check out Angela's new passion here https://www.plasticfreedevon.com/