If you were to ask me which part of sobriety I love the most, I’d tell you it’s the absolute, delicious, blissful freedom.

Freedom from counting drinks. Freedom from giving myself ‘those lectures’ about not making an idiot of myself this time. Freedom from saying stupid things I regret. Freedom from believing I can only connect with people when I have a drink in my hand. Freedom from searching for late-night cabs in the freezing cold, or worrying about how to get home. Freedom from the morning-after cocktail of tiredness, nausea, anxiety and paranoia.

I’m not saying it was always easy. For the first few months especially, whenever I let myself get hungry, tired, or overworked – my inner 3-year-old threw a tantrum, demanding wine, wine, WINE!

But I am saying it gets so much easier. And that the freedom makes it SO incredibly worth it.
  
You might remember Bianca MacLachlan from her beautiful guest story in The Vault.  Well, in this interview, she’s back on her 18-month soberversary – happier and healthier than ever – to share with us what she’s learnt on this incredible journey.

Like so many of us, Bianca once had a ton of interests, but not the time or capacity to enjoy them.  Between drinking with friends, and feeling hungover, alcohol seemed to take up every minute of the day.  But as she began her studies to become a Health Coach, she couldn’t ignore her intuition any longer.

“I just started to have this voice in the back of my head that said: You will never become successful in this field of work, if you don’t stop drinking.“

Bianca has since channeled her life lessons into a passion for helping others. Hers is a story of self-discovery, uncovering who she really is, and finding her true purpose.  Join us as we talk personal development, friendship evolution, and the unique challenges of sobriety in a small mining town…

“Because drinking, it just holds you in this vicious cycle. Because you’re drinking two, three, however many days per week. Then you’re hungover, then you go to work, then you come home, then you drink some more, then you’re hungover…. And it’s so hard to evolve or grow or develop yourself personally, when that’s all that you’re doing.

So the second you can remove that out of your life, suddenly you’re like: oh my God, there’s this whole world, and this whole life, and there’s so much I can do!…  It’s this overwhelming freedom. There’s nothing holding me back anymore.“

Bianca MacLachlan is a certified holistic health coach, personal trainer, devoted yoga teacher and avid blogger. She mentors women who are feeling the call to change their unhealthy lifestyle by moving them out of the darkness and into the bright light of their own true vitality.

Find Bianca at Vitality Health Coaching :: Instagram :: Twitter

 
Bianca’s story started out like so many of ours. Drinking was just a bit of fun – just a bit of Dutch Courage to get us through our awkward years. But what happens when we find ourselves in our 30s, still using alcohol as a way to connect with people? What does that do for our self esteem?

“Because I really didn’t have much confidence, and I’ll be totally honest with you – I just wanted to be liked. And I wasn’t really sure if who I was, deep down, was enough to make people like me. So I had to create some kind of boozey alter-ego instead.

Oh, and I loved being her. She was blissful, conscious ignorance! I could drink, have fun, laugh, dance, get rowdy, and I didn’t have to think about anything that was really going on in my life…”

Bianca MacLachlan has since channeled her life lessons into a beautiful passion for helping others. Hers is a magical story of self-discovery, uncovering who she really is, and finding her true purpose in this life.

“My relationship with my husband has grown deeper, and together we’re planning future goals that I would never have dreamed of before. I can see this path in front of me and there it is – my dreams turning into reality.

It’s really hard to pick the best thing about sobriety, because there are so many good things. But here are my top three…”

Bianca MacLachlan is a certified holistic health coach, personal trainer, devoted yoga teacher-in-training and avid blogger. She mentors women who are feeling the call to change their unhealthy lifestyle by moving them out of the darkness and into the bright light of their own true vitality.  

Find Bianca at Vitality Health Coaching :: Facebook :: Instagram :: Twitter