In this rendition of The Way Out I’m absolutely thrilled to bring you what turned out to be a conversation that was at once extremely resonant and outright entertaining with Amanda White. Amanda is a licensed therapist, author of the new book Not Drinking Tonight – A Guide to Creating a Sober Life You Love, and person in long term recovery since 2015. Perhaps one of the most enlightening aspects of Amanda’s recovery is the immutable truth that our last bottom doesn’t have to be our lowest or worst bottom, that we don’t have to hit a proverbial rock bottom, and then ultimately our bottom is when we stop digging. Equally as instructive is the undeniable value of adding therapy to our program of recovery, especially if we have experienced trauma, adverse childhood experiences, or have a mental health issue. Finally, as you’ll soon hear, much of the work Amanda does professionally and writes about in her new book is centered on the truth that we are not stuck with our default thought and behavior reaction patterns for eternity, that indeed we can change and choose to mindfully respond instead of reacting to our counterproductive auto-thoughts. Often referred to as emotional sobriety in 12-Step recovery and an aspect of recovery we work hard to highlight and demystify, this next level recovery allows us to recognize these counterproductive auto-thoughts, pause, and then make a choice to act in a way that’s consistent with the people we truly want to be – and that my brothers and sisters is more than half the battle and what it looks like to get out of our own way so we can authentically connect to ourselves and then others in a meaningful way. Amanda shares with us her journey to and through recovery to this point with disarming humor, clear insight, and with the unique perspective of a licensed therapist who’s herself in recovery so listen up. Contact Amanda: https://amandaewhite.com/ More about Not Drinking Tonight: A Guide to Creating a Sober Life You Love: https://amandaewhite.com/book Recovery literature (Quit-Lit) recommendation - Daring Greatly by Brene Brown: https://brenebrown.com/book/daring-greatly/ Best piece of Recovery advice - Willingness without action is fantasy. We can be willing to be willing! Song that symbolizes Recovery: Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield https://youtu.be/b7k0a5hYnSI 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 - 2022 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/

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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