Sober Living Stories
Welcome to the "Sober Living Stories" podcast, a platform built on the power of personal stories. Each Tuesday, Jessica Stipanovic, your host, shines a spotlight on individuals who have undergone remarkable life transformations to inspire hope in listeners worldwide.
Each guest shares their story giving examples of bold beginnings disguised as endings and life lessons that teach how the darkest moments often hold the key to unlocking the brightest light.
This podcast inspires positive life changes. Whether you're sober curious, living an alcohol-free lifestyle, have overcome a challenge and lived to tell about it, or support someone who wants to shed a habit in light of a new one, our episodes promise to leave you feeling understood, hopeful, and motivated to create meaningful transformations in your life.
Join us for powerful new episodes every Tuesday where the most difficult life experiences serve to uplift and inspire. Regardless of your background or belief system, the "Sober Living Stories" podcast is your ultimate destination for uplifting narratives where hope shines from the most unexpected places.
In addition to featuring our weekly guests, each month on the "Sober Living Stories" podcast, we have the privilege of sitting down with a new author, delving into their story and the wisdom they've shared in their book.
Here's the exciting part: their book becomes the giveaway for that month.
Tune in every Tuesday for brand-new episodes and your chance to win the gift of a transformed life.
Sober Living Stories
Healing Through Health Habits: Claire George's Journey of Resilience
Can growing up in an alcoholic household shape your future for the better?
Claire George's extraordinary journey answers that question with a resounding yes. Join us on this heartfelt episode of Sober Living Stories, where Claire, a health habits coach holding two master's degrees, shares her personal story.
From her early years in rural England, influenced by a strong-willed mother and an alcoholic father, to her passion for helping others transform their lives, Claire offers a deeply personal narrative that highlights the importance of living life through your heart.
Claire opens up about the complexities of her childhood, detailing how her father's alcoholism deeply affected her family dynamics and personal development. You'll hear how she and her siblings each found their ways to cope with the chaos, and how these early experiences steered her toward a career in health and habit coaching. This episode offers a broader look at the impacts of alcoholism, providing valuable insights for anyone struggling within a family system.
But Claire's story doesn’t end there. She also shares about falling sick with with Lyme disease and emphasizes the healing power of exploring the world, volunteering, tennis and connecting with nature, offering actionable tips for fostering holistic health.
Her story is a must-listen for anyone seeking inspiration and practical advice on overcoming adversity. Tune in and be inspired by Claire's unwavering spirit.
To connect with Claire George:
www.theHealthHabitsCoach.com
email:Clare@TheHealthHabitsCoach.com
Facebook
Clare George (@thehealthhabitscoach) • Instagram photos and videos
LinkedIn
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Your story matters.
Welcome to the Sober Living Stories podcast. This podcast is dedicated to sharing stories of sobriety. We shine a spotlight on individuals who have faced the challenges of alcoholism and addiction and are today living out their best lives sober. Each guest has experienced incredible transformation and are here to share their story with you. I'm Jessica Stepanovic, your host. Join me each week as guests from all walks of life share their stories to inspire and provide hope to those who need it most. Hi and welcome to another episode of the Sober Living Stories podcast. My guest today is Claire George. Claire holds not one, but two master's degrees and helps individuals not only change their habits, their behavior, but then intentionally change their life. She is also the host of the Health Habits Coach podcast and she's here today to share her personal story. Claire, we connected on an online platform where we resonated with one another on your upbringing and how it shaped you into who you are today. So please just jump in and go as far back as you'd like, and we're happy to hear your personal story today.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you and first, thanks so much. It's really lovely to be here. It's an amazing podcast that you have created and um. Giving people an opportunity to both share their stories and hear other stories is such a huge part of of our lives, um, but also our health journeys and healing from um aspects of a health journey that have been a struggle and hard. So, thank you so much. It's a real pleasure to be here with everyone and, yeah, I think, to begin with, I think I'll separate out from the health habits coach identity, because that's a very different sort of world almost to the one I think we're really trying to explore today, which is around my own personal story and and life and upbringing.
Speaker 2:Uh, my father, uh, you know, was an alcoholic and um, but to go, I think, to really to kind of give a sense of the the scene, to set the scene, as it were, I really need to kind of explain that my mum was quite a, a formidable woman. She was only five foot four, but she was the daughter of a farmer and he wanted a son, but he didn't have a son to take over, so she ended up, by the time she was 16, she was a butcher and running a butcher shop. By the time she was 17, she was buying a diamond. This is in rural England. And by the time she was 18, she was buying a diamond this is in rural England. And by the time she was 18, she was driving her soft top little car off off to Rome. So this is my mom. She meets um, a local chap who's my father, my um, birth, you know blood, father and um, and they have, you know she, she's pregnant twice, but second I'm a, so she'd got three children by the time she was sort of you know, 24. And and then she met someone, another, another local, local man, and fell in love and and in that forthright way, just because at the time that was a very unusual thing to do in the very early seventies. And so she, she, so she, she, yeah, she, she ended her marriage and um, and they moved in together and and then this is my, my stepfather, who, but I was then what happened was there was two. He had two daughters, my mom, the three children, myself and my two siblings, and the five of us were within 23 months of age, and the five of us because of mental health issues for my, my stepfather at the time, for for his um, his, his wife, uh, and the mother of his two children had, um, yeah, real, real, challenging. So what ended up happening was we became this blended family, which was again unusual, and five children.
Speaker 2:There wasn't those, I don't know, we were in England. There wasn't the those I don't know, we were in England. There wasn't the Brady Bunch, I don't know if that was there then, but it was kind of like that and it was like we were this big gang and we, you know, in the 70s they used to dress you all the same, so you'd expect it with a twin to be dressed like your twin, but I was literally dressed like the other, because it was five, four girls and one boy, and the four girls would be dressed identical, even my, my brother, would be dressed in the same colors shorts. So it was really, but anyway, and um, and we became this blended family and then, when I was five, uh, my, my stepfather, in essence, um, mike Foy, who, you know, my my name became Claire Foy, I changed my name, we became fully, formally adopted and he was very social, you know, and that's where it was at that stage. It was, you know, but it was. He was more social and more of a. You know, drink was more of a part of our life than for a typical family, I would say, and.
Speaker 2:But I my memories are sort of here and there, but you know, but by the time I was seven or eight, I really had a sense and an awareness that my father drank in a way that most didn't and that it wasn't seen as a good thing, and that's all I can really say about that. I don't, I don't, I don't. There wasn't heavy judgment. It was the 70s, it was the era of love and acceptance. Um, it really was. And then everyone was having a good time, but there was definitely far more alcohol than most people would think was healthy and um, but then by the time we were sort of 9, 10, it had really progressed and become a situation where, yeah, he was, just I never saw him and I didn't really see my mom because she was working, earning the money to pay the bills, uh, and there was five kids. And, and I didn't really see my mom because she was always working earning the money to pay the bills, and there was five kids, oh, I didn't mention that when I was five years old, so they'd only been together 18 months, two years. There was a love child, my half-sister, kate. So there was six of us, five girls, one boy. I'm a twin. I've got my other half, you know, half sister, my sister.
Speaker 2:We grew up really truly as sisters, brothers. We didn't think or let alone talk in those terms um, and and yeah, so we, we, I had three, I was like one of a triplet in a very small village school. Uh, it just felt my, my sisters, my, my family were just all around me. There's just a pack, a crew, and um, but yeah, it did start to when it really started to shift was around when I was around 10, 11, and that's when it shifted. And I think, fundamentally it shifted because my mom, by this point, um, she was just, you know, really struggling, I think, um, to keep everything going and all the the extra work and responsibilities that were on her, uh, and and so lots of aspects of relationship breakdown kind of came into our family dynamics in lots of ways, and I think this was definitely the trigger. That was my father's alcoholic kind of behaviors and then the consequences of those, but I, but, but there was a lot of different things going on. So it was. It was.
Speaker 2:It was really messy and hard, but at the same time it was a really simple life because we never went anywhere, partly because I don't think people particularly wanted to invite a family with six kids. Honestly, you know, six young kids Like it's a, it's a crowd, it's a, it's a, it's an event. It's an event. Yeah, we didn't. We, compared to most people, we're living in a village in Shropshire in England, so so my childhood was, was really, I was really into animals and nature and we were farming families. So that was easy, and so that's where I definitely sought my solace and I definitely, you know, have very vivid memories of talking about our dad's drinking patterns and habits and and that you know, by the time I was nine, ten, but by the time we were ten, eleven, we were taking bottles, they'd have parties, they'd have big parties.
Speaker 2:My parents and myself and my siblings we thought it was hilarious to take a load of booze, hide it under our beds and then, literally we knew that they'd always lie in on a Sunday morning, and so we'd just go and invite our friends after Sunday school when we were 10, to come and meet us down there. It was called the Rockhole. It was like a little field spot and yeah, so we were then encouraging our 10-year-old friends to drink, and so obviously I look back on things like that and have a real sense of responsibility. And you know it's not shame, I don't on things like that and have a real sense of responsibility and, um, you know it's not shame, I don't have shame on that, but I definitely feel like, wow, I really wasn't a good influence and and then and that wasn't a good influence on me and then the ripple effect and the ways in which one person's actions altered and you know, the health and the well-being for so many yeah, yes, yeah, so you can.
Speaker 1:You can see that. So, yeah, that's an interesting point, that, um, you don't have shame in it because it was not your doing, but it was just your modeling. So when you had said that it shifted, when you were 10, what was a characteristic or things that happened within your house that you knew your father's drinking shifted? Was it just his absence that alerted you to and you having? Did you have to take care of yourselves, or?
Speaker 2:We always had to take care of ourselves. By the time I was seven, eight, I was washing my own laundry, doing my own cooking, getting myself up after school. It was only a couple of minutes walk, so it was quite easy. But stuff like that that's the mid-seventies, that was not normal. It wasn't normal to have a mum that worked all hours, six days a week, and then on her off time was in the pub with your dad having a drink, and then when you had the one or two weeks holiday a year, it was spent in pubs sitting with your pack of the crisps and your little bottle of coke and um playing cards or dominoes. And just I just got to know hundreds and hundreds of pubs. Um, in my childhood and that's the only memory I have, a completely only memory I have of my father and my mother it was okay yeah, articulate, it was a very strange, it's just.
Speaker 2:It's one of those things that I often think of when people say, oh, what's it like to have like a famous parent, and that's what I. When people used to say, oh well, I don't know, they're just my mom and um, and I used to say, oh well, I don't know, they're just my mom, and I used to think that I really resonated with that. I just used to think this is not normal, it's not typical, it's not what I want, there's nothing I can do. So it was very disempowering. But in terms of going to your question about what shifts, there wasn't big arguments. I think I can only really remember two or three arguments.
Speaker 2:My dad was. He was a really sweet guy, he was Irish, he was fun, loving, he was sociable, he was and I am saying was because unfortunately he did pass away from alcohol, from his addiction in my late twenties, so another sort of 20 years, but spent a long time, spent 10, 15 years in that sort of sad movie-like. But at this phase, when I'm 10 years old, it wasn't like that, it wasn't particularly functional, and so I think that's what I'm talking about when I'm talking about a shift. He wasn't even attempting to try and work in the business. He was literally just at the pub. He'd sort of get up, he'd have bottles of booze in the bedroom. You know that that kind of level of alcohol and and and drunkenness. Um, he had a couple of, a couple of incidents, like I was probably I was definitely at junior school, so around 10. And he crashed his car and I remember him being so, so worried that he was going to get caught and that they find out that he got the alcohol in his blood.
Speaker 2:I remember things like that. I remember him falling over and getting a black eye and there were certain things like this that had gone beyond. It was no longer under management, it was no longer functioning, and that's what sort of shifted. But it was a few years later, it was not until they did a trial.
Speaker 2:Separation, when I was about 13 and I think this is the thing to kind of point out is is that there's there's living with someone, with and and then and then, once everyone knows, and once it's gone into that that space where it's not even functioning but it carried on, and I think that was the. That was the only part that was damaging, um, in terms of to us as children. I think I can only obviously speak for my own personal feelings, but based on my siblings comments, I think it's fair to say that that up until we were 10 or 11, we just thought, oh, it's not ideal, but you know, it's how he is. And then, and then, obviously, maturity, getting older, being able to understand a bit more, yeah, and seeing how ill he was, it's just horrible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think listeners can relate. Not that you know we have people on who are. I've only had one or two other guests who talked about it from the perspective that you're speaking about it, not you suffering from the disease of alcoholism or addiction, but somebody that you love, and you know your father being um, or your stepfather, correct, yeah, um, yeah, and you had used the word ill, and a lot of people don't look at alcoholism as an illness, although it is. It's a disease and so but I I think it's important to note. Like you know, as 10, you said well, this is the way it is, but then, as you mature, you start to think how did that affect relationships in high school? How did you do in high school?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we all once we started going through puberty and and that's when the relationship between, you know, my father and my mother broke down really fully, and so they were living in the same house and that's when, I think, for us all five of us within 23 months, we were all going through puberty at the same time, and five girls. So, yeah, it was intense, and everybody reacted very strongly, I think is fair to say, and differently. So I was the. I'm going to run away and rule the world. Not rule the world. Actually explore the world, I think is a fair thing to say. But I was going to be an explorer and I was going to get away by by, by being independent and by being self-sufficient, and that was definitely the identity I forged as a coping mechanism. I'd say my um.
Speaker 2:I had another sibling who forged the identity of um, of you know, sort of men and and and sort of sex and underage and and had, you know, so was pregnant by the time she was 16, and then second pregnancy at 17, and we were very middle-class family. So this was um. That was almost one of the most embarrassing things and that is, things like that actually they're really bizarre because, like, we've never been apparently needed to be embarrassed about our dad and his drinking, or my mom and her drinking. She wasn't exactly a non-drinker, but we apparently needed to be embarrassed about our dad and his drinking, or my mom and her drinking. She wasn't exactly a non-drinker, but we're meant to be embarrassed because our sister is pregnant at 16. So it's things like that, that really kind of.
Speaker 2:And then by the time I was really into my sport, but I was a real tomboy. So I really developed late in the sense of high school. I was really quiet, I wasn't massively studious, I was more into my animals and sport. Um, but I was. It's this identity of I'm gonna get away, I'm gonna, I'm just gonna get through this and then when I get to being an adult, I'm gonna explore the world, I'm going, that's, that was that was in my heart and and so I did do geography, geology, biology in high school, like college level. So I was obviously trying to put in place some of that stuff.
Speaker 2:But yeah, it was really strange because my mom has her own set of issues not related to alcohol Well, I don't know, not as strongly related to alcohol, but but mental health and as a result, he took the approach of divide and conquer, I think, between us siblings, and so there was a lot of times where we were set against each other. So it was. It became really, really just heartbreaking, heartbreaking. I am like one of my other sisters, anorexia nervosa, and nervosa, you know, was given 24 hours to live. Um, did you know two very extended, I don't know, five months in a in a hospital. So yeah, the impacts were, but none of it was spoken about as being related and I think that's what created a challenge and a block in healing, in trying to heal.
Speaker 1:Sure, sure, and you talked about you know your siblings having you know their different identities, but did you also, in a sense, before you had the division of your siblings as far as within the household, did you all comfort and have some sort of support with one another as you grew up in your home?
Speaker 2:Sort of not really. We were all. Just my mum's mantra was survival of the fittest. She was a butcher, she was a farmer's daughter who raised, you know, just post-war. She had a very masculine energy. I'd say she has, I should say, because my mom's still very much with us and she, she still is very masculine energy and and uh, yeah, no, she, you know. So I I don't, I don't think so.
Speaker 2:I think, um, I don't think there was much of that. It was just a very lonely, lonely childhood, emotionally very, very lonely. Never a think there was much of that. It was just a very lonely, lonely childhood, emotionally Very, very lonely. Never a hug, there was never a you're loved like never, like not occasionally, or something. And then for me myself there was abuse and there was, and also for other siblings, and it was just hard and horrible. And you know, and I did get to go and, um, I did do, I did end up doing a degree in psychology, probably because I wanted to try and make sense of it all, um, but then, as soon as I'd finished my degree, I, I, um, I got on. I got on a plane, a one-way ticket to Beijing in 1994 on my own. You, you did and you left. Yeah, and that was not a normal thing.
Speaker 2:That was not what. That was not a normal thing to do, but I got to start living my dreams. I got to start doing those things that I'd been imagining, and I had a map of the world when I was like nine and it was the only thing in our whole bedroom besides beds and a couple of chest drawers.
Speaker 1:So how did that look? So what did you do after high school?
Speaker 2:So, um, so yeah, so I went and I did a degree. I, I, I was very I. I was a serial monogamist. I didn't trust men. I didn't trust myself, I didn't. I was drinking quite a bit socially, but not not. I've always been quite liking a bit of control, I think.
Speaker 2:So I had already left home twice when. The first time was when I was 14, 13, 14. I then left home again at 16 to live with a then boyfriend, which again was just really strange because I was hanging out with very middle-class people and it was just really odd, um, and so, yeah, it was just, the whole thing was very messy and and really truly, you know it I can't put it into a sentence to describe it, but it was a phase, it was a season, it we all came the other side of it, we all survived, but the other side of it we were left very fragmented. That my parents had divorced when I was about 18. Um, they did what they. They did divorce and um, and were financially separated and all that. So that became some closure for their marriage in that side of things.
Speaker 2:But then my mum moved into a, you know, divisive kind of approach and so our dad wasn't really supported. He was on his own. Each of us were on our own. That's how I describe it. So, unfortunately, no, there were. There was obviously opportunities with so many siblings to support, but I can't say that. I can only speak for myself.
Speaker 1:But I don't think anyone particularly support you can see how, when one parent has alcoholism, how it has such a ripple effect on the entire family and in creating your identities and who you are. And and so you chose to explore. You had that map in your room and you were kind of devising like a plan early on and to go, and it sounds like you did that because you've been to many places, haven't you In your adult life?
Speaker 2:Atacama to the Gobi Deserts, like I've, I've really, and then I really got into volunteering. I think I, I think my response to that childhood was to my childhood was was one of you know, compassion and heart and um, very sensitive, very, very sensitive.
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Speaker 2:So on the one hand, I'm very open, and that's the thing it makes me think of mclemore. You know, um the artist, and he talks about this in one of the lyrics of one of his songs about how, because I was really open, like you'd be like, oh yeah, come do this and I'll do this for you. And that's how I am as a person. So people make assumptions was actually. What they don't necessarily know is that I'm keeping the real parts of me very, very hidden, very hidden, because I am not going to give my heart, because I don't want it to get broken, I don't want it to get hurt. So that's what I think was the real thing, that, but all of half a century of my life.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, you know you, you went on to get two master's degrees, which you know not everyone does, and so you academically went really far and you know to what I think it's interesting is you have the health habits coach podcast and, and today you help. And today you help individuals with creating habits that allow them to get back into their life and succeed. And so I think it's interesting because when you were talking about when you were 10, you actually used the word habits. You noticed some different habits shifting in your home and within your parents and stuff. So it's like from an early age you had that awareness of habits and how people are acting, and you've taken that and created it into something that is now helping others. So could you talk a little bit about how you got into the career you got into today, coming from your your education and such?
Speaker 2:I think you've woven together elements there beautifully, jessica, I think. I think that's exactly how it was. It's like I've got this huge heart that I want to share, but just not too deeply, you know, like it's. It's yeah, it's. It's always a bit complex these things, but yeah, I just um, I got that. That inner explorer, pioneer, I'd got all this. It is a real confidence. I know that I can survive. I know that I got this, I've got this.
Speaker 2:And so when I got slammed with a tick bite in 2011, I mean, yes, I had done my psychology degree, my first, which, I will add, was really unusual. I was the only person in my whole school that was going to do and it was like what's that? You know, your friends, like we have to remember the times that in which I was doing the things that I was doing was really unusual and people would say you're so brave to go off to China on your own. I'd be like, oh, is it? I've just survived that and I don't mean to joke too lightly. I'm sure you regret that, that it's very, very big and heart and serious topic. But yeah, definitely, problems are opportunities and what I learned was you know what? It's opened up my eyes and it's given me the push to go, go seek and go do, and I definitely have always been a detailed oriented person. I um my only ever. I promise you this like my only ever um Christmas gift, because my mom just used to write us checks, um, but my only ever Christmas gift was um from my one of my aunts, where it wasn't money, was a book of why, and it was this big encyclopedia of why, because she was like all you ever do is say why, why, but why why?
Speaker 2:So it made it makes complete sense that then, 10 years later, I'm doing a. You know, it made total sense that I then went and traveled the world. I wanted to do all these very ordinary people with a lot less than myself doing extraordinary things, and it was so uplifting, it was so freeing to be in other cultures, to experience other ways of thinking. It's just the most brilliant thing for anybody who has and that's one of the biggest bits of advice I could give is just go go, place yourself with other people, other places, you know, because it's so, so healing and it was for me. And so then I wanted to give back, you know, this heart, and so I did my first master's in social program development, um, all about design.
Speaker 2:But then I went and got a tick bite and I got another, another crash on on life, um, as, as does happen, and uh, back in 2011, I was in New York city and uh, and yeah, and, and so, um, well, not the tick bite that was up, um, but I don't just move there. So it completely that was my life autoimmune for about three years. And to bring it all forward, so this is why. And then I got fit again and I fell in love with tennis and I love tennis like, oh my gosh, like a 14 year old loves their favorite pop star. I just absolutely immersed in love with tennis. I just absolutely immersed in love with tennis.
Speaker 2:And that love, that heart in that subject lifted my health, my fitness and my habits around that Recovery from Lyme. All this knowledge, all this professional experience, personal experience, I brought it all together. And then, yeah, I did a master's. The pandemic hit and I was like, ok, let's do one more master's, because I like to be thorough, I like to really feel like I've got the skillset to help the people I'm trying to help. So I did my master's in health psychology a couple of years ago and since then I've coached. I was just totting it up. I've actually coached more than 5,000 people personally, wow.
Speaker 1:That's a lot of people. That is a lot. I did not know that. That's incredible.
Speaker 2:It's brilliant that that's my story. That's the story, and it isn't just to do with, obviously, one person, my father. It's to do with the whole stuff and everything that we do, and there's a lot more hardship and suffering ahead for me, because there is for all of us and there's a lot more triumphs and discovery and just, you know, just brilliant moments. You know, and I know. To go back to McLemore again, I just think, yeah, like these, you know, maybe right now, these are the good old days and I love that, that ethos that you know. We think that the good old days and I love that, that ethos that you know, we, we think that the good old days are behind us, that we've lived them, and that's what I think. As a woman in my 50s, I'm like, no, they're not, like I've just there's so much more, there's so so much more that that lies ahead.
Speaker 2:I think that's what I bring in my coaching groups, whether I'm online, whether I'm in person. Um, you know, I've literally helped thousands of people prevent type 2 diabetes and, you know, get their blood glucose, their cholesterol, you know so. So sometimes it's very physical like that, but I've also coached a thousand people with complex medical health, where I map their landscapes, I really get into the nitty gritty of their story and the story of their trauma. That, then, is all part of their health experience and that's health psychology. It's behavior change to enable you to improve your quality of life, because health isn't just about the measurables, it is about how we feel and it's about you know, and yeah, so that's basically what I do now, so the day to day, day in, day out, and I love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great. And yeah, that's great. And I love, I love how you said that you fell in love with after you had gotten sick. I love how you said when you started to get fit again, you fell in love with tennis and it lifted, like it just kind of, you know, you doing that sport that you love just kind of boosted you back up and made me think of you know how many listeners are, just you know, getting themselves back together and what can they fall in love with that they can pour into so that it can kind of spill over into their other parts of their life and get that positivity back and that health back. You know, and it doesn't necessarily, and that was a sport, it was a side sport that you did and you used your time at and it really trickled over into making you regain your health and again, I think that's really great.
Speaker 2:Oh, I think so. I think that I don't know. There's a couple. I found out only at the holiday, just a few months ago, so I'd already gone through this and spoken about tennis in that exact way, and then I found out that, on that human design, I did a bit of that with someone and they told me I've got the oh gosh, now I'm going to go and forget it's.
Speaker 2:It's a really strange name, but it's like my four chambers of the heart, my four, the cross, the incarnation cross, that's it of human design, and all four of mine is the heart, and what that means is that if you, if you, if you really work on your heart, like your love, your heart, then you really get to experience love in anything, in a leaf, in a, in a sport, in, in food, in like, and then you start to realize, actually, this is available to me right now, no matter what is going on the rest of my world.
Speaker 2:It's not to make light of it, it's really not. Um, I have tremendous challenges and some of the biggest I've had to face as a human being in the last 12 months that have come into my life. So I'm not trying to. I need to mention that, because I don't like to be disingenuous like, oh you know, everything's fine now. Life isn't like that in my view. It's hard, but if you can develop your heart and develop your love, then you always feel alive and you feel connected. And that is really what I think health and well-being is, that's what keeps us rising, you know, sort of thing.
Speaker 1:When you talked about volunteering. And you know, with alcoholism you know, although it's a disease, they talk about it being like it's rooted in selfishness that's all that there is when you're drinking. That's the only thing that you can think about, so all else falls away. Be it. You know other people's needs children, jobs, unfortunately but it's a truth of the disease. But it's a truth of the disease and you know, one of the best aspects and best components of recovery is the ability to be of service to people again, to be a part of society, to be that friend that you couldn't be then because it was clouded in the disease, to be a parent, to be a better sister. And you and that altruistic nature that you had as a result of your upbringing, is like in complete opposition of what took place there. And I think that when you talk about your heart, I know for me in the seven years that I had struggled, no matter how terrible I felt or how dark that part of my life was.
Speaker 1:I always volunteered, from homeless shelters to convents, to rocking babies who were addicted to chemotherapy wards. I was constantly, and for me, I always wanted to and I think I was trying to stay on the other side of the line. You know to be of service so that I wouldn't have to be served, and but it really helped me and it, it, it made me hold a line and you know, I think that's a really good piece of advice. Not you know that we're trying to give too much. Is that of advice? Not, you know that we're trying to give too much. Is that wow, when you can get outside of yourself and pour into other people in even the smallest way? It just helps me. You know, and I feel like you've taken your whole career I mean 5,000 people that you've coached and helped. You've taken that part of your personality and really grew it out in your professional life.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I love what you're saying about volunteering. I've done it every year since I was 16, and not in this. I'm doing this and telling people, or for the tax write-off or whatever, just part of just the same way that you take a holiday. It's just part of life, of just the same way that you take a holiday, just, it's just part of life. And I think that volunteering gives us and I think the reason I've done that is not because I'm massive. Well, I am quite altruistic, I try to be. I think, but, um, but I don't know, it's like that.
Speaker 2:Jennifer on Friends, jennifer Anderson on Friends, and she said you know, can anyone ever really truly be altruistic? Surely there's something in it for them and I really believe that. About volunteering, I think I get so much more out volunteering than the, than the project or whoever gets from me. It's a just. It just involves you and connects you, and the word you said was connection and the other big tip I'd give. So I'd actually say volunteering, uh, and I love that. It's action-based. So then we get outside of our thoughts. We get our physical body, which is where trauma is stored, into action, which is absolutely brilliant for behavior change and for the mind and for the body, the spirit.
Speaker 2:I also really love nature. So so my two biggest health habits that are just free as a bird and so there, so there to help, because volunteering doesn't mean I don't know some big organized thing, it just means I don't know, helping your neighbor with their bins every Monday, or something, thinking about someone ahead of you or ahead of your thing in your moment. And then nature. There's just nothing like it. As I've mentioned my childhood with animals and nature, there's nothing like nature. It's so restoring and we're going to, it's all going to be coming out. It's that, you know, we're going to get more encouragement from the bigger voices. Still a drop in the ocean compared to some of those health and wellbeing platforms that still are pushing, I don't know, pharmaceuticals and medical doctors when actually I think social, social problems need social solution. So, yeah, I definitely would recommend those two habits.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Excellent. I really, I really appreciate you sharing parts of your personal story with listeners so that they can gain a different perspective and really just meet the mission of this podcast, which is taking a very hard situation and making something really incredible out of it, which you've absolutely done. So can you share with listeners to tie this up where they can connect with you throughout the week? And where they can connect with you throughout the week and where they can find your podcast and website?
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, sure. Well, thank you so much. This has gone quick and I was a little nervous I guess I don't know if that's the word, but just oh yeah, so it's been really easy and comforting, I think, is the word that just came into my mind to speak. So thank you for that, jessica, and for doing all that you do In terms of my work as the Health Habits Coach.
Speaker 2:The name follows so Claire, george and the Health Habits Coach whether that's on the usual main social places you'll find me, but my podcast is the health habits coach podcast and uh, and yeah, I have twice weekly, so I have a monday quick habit uh coaching and that's actual kind of action-based habits and coaching across a holistic health um, because I am health psychology girl, and then and then, and then every Thursday I have a guest expert, which Jessica was so kind and generous to come and we had a great conversation and so if you haven't already, then maybe you want to check that one out. It's um, a few weeks ago, um, so check out for, uh, for the episode between Jessica and myself. Yeah, but from a health habits perspective, the consequences of, you know, social drinking.
Speaker 1:The unintended consequences of social drinking. Yes, yes, we did that. It was a wonderful conversation. Change your habits and change your behaviors and change your life. Thank you so much for being here today, Claire.
Speaker 2:No, thank you, it was an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Thank you for tuning into the Sober Living Stories podcast. If you have been inspired, consider subscribing and sharing with anyone who could use hope in their lives. Remember to stay tuned for more inspiring stories in the episodes to come. To view our featured author of the month or to become a guest yourself, visit wwwjessicastepanoviccom.