Welcome to The (Not) Drinking Diary Series, today I’m chatting to Samantha Moyo, speaker, social entrepreneur and founder of Morning Gloryville.
Samantha Moyo is a social entrepreneur who specialises in community building, innovation and culture change. She designs future focused campaigns with positive social impacts and is the founding alchemist of Morning Gloryville.
Read on for her not drinking diary …
Name: Samantha Moyo
Age: 31
Location: London, UK
… I am best known for founding Morning Gloryville, the sober experience that pioneered the sober dance movement. My friends know me for being a wild ideas generator who goes through phases of intense obsessions around people, planet, playfulness, politics, and purpose driven missions. Best to stop here because you can’t put a girlboss into a box!
My drinking story started at the age of seven in Zimbabwe. I found an opened untouched bottle of red wine and took it to the garden where I drank it with my cousin pretending to be the adults….I was found several hours later passed out unconscious and rushed to hospital….on recovery a few days later the danger of alcohol was explained to me by my father (who loved drinking) so I stopped until thirteen years old.
Drinking was so cool in the 90s and as kids me and my friends at the time lived for rebellion, acting like young adults and being wild and free meant drinking, smoking, swearing. Then university came and I upgraded the amount of intake and discovered that cocaine meant I could drink more. I won’t go into it but by my mid-20s I realised that me and everyone I knew only socialised and partied with copious amounts of naughty stuff.
What I wasn’t sharing in my party world was the underworld of depression, emptiness and come downs that were occuring in the times in between. It was like alcohol and drugs had become my medicine and my poison. When I tried to stop it was impossible because it was everywhere. So me and my friend started dreaming up a world where you could go out and express yourself in wild, colourful ways…a world where no-one judges you, a world where strangers walk past you and hug you, a world where we have amazing parties happening with great music and people minus the things that we found intoxicating. And thus we created Morning Gloryville. Our mission was to make sober cool and to show people and ourslevs that we could party without drinking.
MGV helped me realise that the reason I loved partying so much was for connection, community, music, consciousness expansion and laughter. I stopped smoking and drinking for 2/3years and these days I’ll occasionally have a glass of champagne to celebrate overcoming the addiction and on my best friend’s birthday once a year, we have a few shots of tequila…I am still on a mission to create alcohol free experiences because it saddens me that society was brainwashed to believe that confidence and coolness comes from drinking and smoking. I’m so proud to see the sober movement growing all over the world since we launched MGV in 2013. And even more proud to see the stats on the kids today being more conscious in their socialising and wellbeing.
Drinking too much and having too many comedowns led me to think differently. It’s a sad truth that deep suffering leads us to profound (simple) realisations.
Good. Solid. CLEAN. Bitch don’t got a hold on me no more! I encourage people who drink often to take time out and see how you feel. In the years I stopped drinking fully, I grew in confidence, clarity and wellness. I respect its existence and for me I remember that without it taking me to the depths of despair I’d never have started Morning Gloryville, which then taught me so many things.
Personally, I don’t like to drink often because it’s just not my thing. In 2017 I drank about 4 times – they were great but I love a cuddle party, ecstatic dance or cacao ceremony.
The big challenge is staying up past midnight at festivals! I always have to go to bed early and leave everyone out because I won’t be on anything. Another challenge is that sometimes people assume so many things about you when you’re a sober lifestyle promoter. People are often shocked when they get to know the real me beyond the alcohol-free events. “We are all mad here!”
– Your perception of life is based on what you put into your body
– You can change any habits that are weighing you down in life
– Idon’t need any stimulants other than myself to have a fucking awesome time!
– Smooth, glowing skin
– Deeper love for humanity, nature and everything YES!!!
– Clarity, sense of connectedness to the flow of life
– Happiness
Meditation, prayer, singing, dancing, talking about my anxieties and darker side with friends, therapy, morning mantras, crystals, reiki, massages, hugs, Mama, family, friends.
Since I’ve stopped running Morning Gloryville, I’m on a sabbatical from mornings. I’ve woken up at 3/4am one too many times so I’m enjoying lie ins. Once I do get going, music on, tea, meditation/chanting/prayer!
On the first day of my period I paint my forehead with my period blood to honour that time of the month and everything feminine in the world.
Swimming and nature.
The biggest thing I’m learning at the moment is about financial planning and the importance of it. I never really did this before and now I’m learning something I never thought I’d understand in great detail. It’s really empowering when you don’t think you’re good at something and realise that you actually can be! I guess it’s like stopping drinking, you don’t know if you can do it until you’re actually doing it and then you’re like omg, I’ve been sober for 2 years. Yesssss!
Sexual Healing. Learning a lot about tantra and connecting with my body and pussy in ways I hadn’t before. Did you know that the pussy has over 3000 nerve endings making it one for the most powerful sources of information exchange in the female body? I now ask my pussy for guidance and improving this relationship has upgraded me.
I highly recommend the people and places below:
Burgs – Art of Meditation (silent retreats)
Mama Xanadu – Food, Remedies, Healing
Urban Avatars – Fitness training
Change in Nature – Nature retreats
42 Acres Shoreditch – Conscious co-working space
15. And finally, thinking differently about your relationship with alcohol can be challenging and isolating, is there any advice you turned to or do you have any words of wisdom for people reading this?
It takes a village to raise a child. If you feel isolated an d want to talk to someone who’s gone through the process there are now so many sober communities to join: Morning Gloryville, The Numinous, We Are One, Chakra Shake Up, One Year No Beer, Club Soda, Daybreaker, Go Sober, Dry January. Talk to people and find a new tribe who support the direction you want to go into. And don’t hesitate to message me on Instagram: @moyo_samantha and me or one of our team will point you in the right direction.
Changing drinking habits takes time and practice so the most important thing is to be kind to yourself. We stop drinking to tap into wellness, joy and kindness. So tune into a softness above all else.
If you enjoyed this interview, there are plenty more! Check out:
Alcohol Free interview with Annie Grace, Author of This Naked Mind
Alcohol Free interview with Mandy, Co-Host Love Sober Podcast
Not Drinking Diary with Rosamund Dean, Author of Mindful Drinking
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