Martha Wright, Founder and Sobriety Coach at Clear Power Coaching, and Co-Founder, Caveau Selections (Oregon, USA)

Years in the Industry
 Early in my career, I worked on fundraisers with Emeril Lagasse, and then as marketing and business development director for Food Network chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger. My husband and I founded Scott Paul Wines in Oregon, in 1999 and began importing wines as Caveau Selections in 2006. So for 20 years, I wore those typical hats of the small-family winery – sales rep, bookkeeper, tasting room staff, harvest crew, event host, etc.
 
My Biggest Challenge to Wellness 
Born and raised in New Orleans, and then 25+ years in food & wine, I was 51-years old before I ever took the time to really examine my relationship with alcohol. By the time I did, I was already in a place where I felt a Groundhog Day loop of overdrinking or mindless drinking followed by middle of the night worry and beating up on myself. I stayed stuck in that pattern because I didn’t see a different way modeled. The cultural norm is that you’re a normal drinker or you have a problem.
 
I was looking for external permission or doctor’s orders to question what I should have felt free to question. Finally I decided it didn’t matter what an online quiz could tell me or whether or not everyone around me was drinking the same as I was. I decided the only question I needed to ask was “how do I feel?” I just wish I’d asked sooner. And the honest answer was that I felt some cognitive issues, sleep problems and just generally didn’t feel that alcohol and menopause were going to play nice together.
 
How I Keep It Together To Stay Well
I did Annie Grace's science-backed self-guided 30-day alcohol break last year and felt so much reclaimed confidence and motivation that I jumped into a sobriety/mindful drinking coaching certification program.
 
Now that I’m helping clients find or reconnect with their thriving selves, I get to consider all types of exercise, mindfulness studies, joy-cultivation work as job-related research and training. It’s just a mind shift. Instead of I have to work out, it’s I get to work out or I get to take a mindfulness break.
 
Reducing the feeling of needing to take the edge off after a long day – that work begins with a morning routine and breaks throughout the day. And scheduling my week is key. I’m new to this but I’m doing better than I used to. So now I drink. Or not. I mostly don’t.
 
I’m also incredibly bullish about the burgeoning non-alcoholic beverage market. I order and taste-test products from all over, including some awesome ones produced here in Portland, Oregon. I don’t feel that I’ve lost my drinking privilege or that I’m exiting the wine world. I feel like I get to be part of a conversation about how to make it a better drinking culture with more robust options and ways of making it inviting for a more diverse audience.
 

You can connect with Martha on Instagram @clearpowercoaching Facebook @clearpowercoaching and her website https://www.clearpowercoaching.com/