John joins the show, tonight, calling in from the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania!

(**apologies for the audio dropping out a few times during the interview - the mountain wifi gets a bit spotty haha)

John is happily married and the proud father of 2 sons (ages 5 and 1).
He is a pro trumpet player and a full-time SAH dad.

A big part of John's trauma and patterns come from the fact his mother passed away when he was 8 years old. As a result, John spent a great deal of his life keeping emotions buried inside him - which is where alcohol comes in...

John's story with alcohol started off harmless enough - every other day, only after a "good day", etc etc
Darkness started to creep in as John found his life out of sync with his own vision for himself and his life.
He was making decisions but was having a hard time accepting them.

Topics include:
- Irish/German bloodline
- father was a binge drinker in John's early years
- rough childhood due to his mother passing,
- using music as an outlet
- picking up the trumpet in middle school,
- finding that he was imitating the 'musician lifestyle' of drinking,

"Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself."
- George Bernard Shaw

- looking more forward to getting smashed than performing
- more about "the hang" than the music
- a long-distance relationship with his wife-to-be,
- taking a dream music gig that was 4+ hrs away from home
- having a hard time accepting the decisions that were made
- composing & recording a concept album for his son
- denial...

Recipe for recovery:
-In Feb 2017 John & wife 1st son came into the world.
-John heard a quote on a podcast about why one of his heroes stopped drinking after his son was born: "I didn't want to be a loser father".
- Physical activity helped John get the buried emotions out of his system, to confront and address them (BJJ, swimming, running)

John's sober date is Oct 23rd, 2019.
His life has changed 180 degrees for the positive!

This is truly an amazing story of recovery and redemption.

👀 https://www.instagram.com/johnmaurer/