Lauren Burnison – Pioneering the Sober Travel Movement and Adventures of a Single Mum

Lauren Burnison is the founder of We Love Lucid, the UK's first alcohol-free travel company, and a trailblazer in the sober travel movement. From couch-surfing with nomads on the Mongolian steppe to snorkelling with sharks in Oman, Lauren has spent her life seeking off-the-beaten-path adventures—and this year, she took a two-month road trip through Spain and Portugal in a micro camper with her four-year-old daughter to celebrate ten years of sobriety. In this candid conversation, Lauren shares her journey from self-destructive habits to sobriety, how travel became her school of life, and the joys and challenges of being a single parent exploring the world. She talks about starting We Love Lucid, the lessons learned while traveling solo and with her daughter, and how adventure can transform the way we see ourselves. Explicit content: We touch on drugs, drinking, and addiction. ***  New episodes of the Tough Girl Podcast drop every Tuesday at 7 AM (UK time)! Make sure to subscribe so you never miss the inspiring journeys and incredible stories of tough women pushing boundaries.  Do you want to support the Tough Girl Mission to increase the amount of female role models in the media in the world of adventure and physical challenges? Support via Patreon! Join me in making a difference by signing up here: www.patreon.com/toughgirlpodcast.  Your support makes a difference.  Thank you x *** Show notes Who is Lauren Coming from Northern Ireland Originally 41 years old Founder of We Love Lucid - The UK's First Alcohol-free Travel Company Being a single mum to a very energetic 4 year old girl  Being an aspiring writer Reflecting back on her early years  Being very creative, loving animals, and growing up in the countryside  Where her love of travel came from  Starting to learn Spanish in school and how her teacher inspired her Having a knack for learning languages  Finding a diary entry from when she was 15 years old Having an ambition to learn Spanish and French and wanting to live in Spain  Getting to visit Spain at 16 on a sports camp  Having her eyes opened and feeling invigorated while travelling on the road  Why A'Levels were such a slog and hated being told what to do  Being confident about travelling  Deciding to travel around South America  Getting into drugs and going down a self destructive path  Heading back home to go to university  Spending 6 months in Barcelona - working in a pizza restaurant and living in a tent Getting her degree Being taken further down the path and still being self destructive  Making changes at 32  Wanting to explore and see more of the world - spending time in South Africa Getting in more and more trouble  Turning 30 and heading to South Korea to work as an English Teacher  Having the best and worst moments of her life Hitting rock bottom and deciding not to drink ever since Getting in trouble, and having the fear of losing her life Partying with Chinese Dwarfs  Seeing how bad her behaviour had gotten Feeling and being alone on this part of the journey  Drinking 4 nights a week The hardest part - being faced with this situation of not knowing who she was  Who is Lauren? Having to deal with difficult emotions. Feeing so vulnerable  The night she decided to quit drinking  Creating 'We Love Lucid' and how it helped her stay connected with the sober community  Visiting the vast empty spaces in Mongolia  Growing up with horses and riding horses  Wanting to ride horses in Mongolia and how it turned in to a trip of self discovery  Trying to figure out the next steps Why life is not just good or bad - it's a mixture of everything  Heading to the South of Spain and doing a workaday experience over there How the idea for - We Love Lucid came about  Not having a positive view of sobriety  Thinking about her experiences as a sober person travelling  Starting to run the trips  Why the trips are all about connecting with sober people  Cycling from Beer to Soberton…. Why not all projects turn out how you want them to  Not wanting to be a quitter Getting to 70 miles….. Why it was a bit of a failure, but also a valuable lesson at the same time  Riding up the East Coast of Korea on a bike to North Korea The goodness of people  How travel and adventure changed after having her daughter Feeling as though her world has been shrinking How it affected her mentally - with not being able to travel  The realities of being a single mum in Scotland How her life seems so normal Starting to go away with her daughter  Being on a road trip in Portugal for 1/2 months  Trying to escape the winter in the UK Needing to stay in the UK and going with that  Starting to accept the reality  Wanting to start her blog - "Adventures of a single, sober mum"  Being able to afford a micro camper  Why trips are a condensed school of life  The beauty and joy of the quiet moments Walking with 12 women on the Santiago de Compostela  Mandy Manners - Sober Coach  She Recovers Foundation  How to connect with Lauren The stigma around being a single parent  Wanting to feel more empowered Final words of advice for other women Change is possible  Being inspired by Terence McKenna  Try something hard, push yourself out of your comfort zone.    Social Media Website: www.welovelucid.com - The UK's First Alcohol-free Travel Company  Instagram: @welovelucid  Substack: adventuresofasobersinglemum.substack.com