Bamboozled: An Interview wtih Ken Middleton | The Way Out Podcast Episode 352

The Way Out | A Sobriety and Recovery Podcast

In this edition of The Way Out I’m delighted to bring you my interview with person in long term recovery, wellness advocate and author of the book Bamboozled: The Guide to Getting EVERYTHING You Want in Life by Giving Up Alcohol, Ken Middleton. Ken shares his journey to and through sobriety to this point with us in an exceptionally enlightening and inspiring fashion. For Ken, getting sober wasn’t born out of debilitating alcoholism leading to an ultra-low bottom of despair and hopelessness. No, Ken reckoned with his relationship with alcohol, despite not having severe internal or external consequences and essentially asked himself one big question. What would life look like if he didn’t drink? Out of that question an experiment was born, and Ken realized that though Alcohol wasn’t destroying his life in the classic crash and burn style, what ken discovered was all the things alcohol was preventing him from being and doing. Said in another way, Ken had a remarkable realization: Alcohol was limiting him and was nothing short blocking him from being the best version of himself. Ken’s story is proof positive we don’t have to be in the depths of addiction in order to benefit from abstinence, sobriety, and recovery. We can ask ourselves questions similar to what Ken asked himself, such as what could life be like if like if I didn’t drink or use for a period of time? Ken suggests 90 days, but you choose the amount of time and then do something we talk often about on this show, run the experiment, and see what happens. You may find you were more dependent on it than you thought and your drinking or use was no mere habit, or you may find that though perhaps you weren’t dependent on it, alcohol or substances were acting like a governor on an old school muscle car and keeping your potential pent up, or you may find out something all together different. The only way you’ll find out is by running that experiment yourself, and might I suggest you take it in 24-hour segments at a time saying “Self, I’m not going to drink and/or use today”. Then start engaging in a recovery and/or wellness program and begin building a meaningful life filled with purpose as you become increasingly closer to the person you feel called to be. To that end, you’ll find plenty of practical tools, insight, and inspiration in Ken’s story, which about to unfold before your very ears so listen up.

Contact Ken and learn more about Bamboozled: The Guide to Getting EVERYTHING You Want in Life by Giving Up Alcohol:

https://thebamboozledbook.com/

Recovery literature (Quit-Lit) recommendation: This Naked Mind by Annie Grace:

https://www.amazon.com/This-Naked-Mind-Discover-Happiness/dp/0525537236/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=this+naked+mind&qid=1688409401&sr=8-1

Best piece of Recovery advice:

Give yourself some grace, it's ok to not be perfect and it's OK to make mistakes in Recovery. If you fail, forgive yourself and get back on the horse.

Song that symbolizes Recovery to Ken:

Lose yourself by Eminem: https://youtu.be/_Yhyp-_hX2s

Don’t forget to check out “The Way Out Playlist” available only on Spotify. Curated by all our wonderful guests on the podcast! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6HNQyyjlFBrDbOUADgw1Sz

(c) 2015 - 2023 The Way Out Podcast | All Rights Reserved Theme Music: “all clear” (https://ketsa.uk/browse-music/) by Ketsa (https://ketsa.uk) licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd)