In this episode of "Breakfast of Choices", I sit down with longtime friend and tattoo artist George "Boogy" Dungan to discuss our personal journeys with addiction and recovery. Listeners will gain insight as Boogy candidly recounts growing up in Oklahoma and how experimenting with drinking and drugs in his youth ultimately led to over 20 years of struggles. Multiple DUI'S. and so many losses. He shares raw stories from rock bottom moments like nearly dying from a mix of alcohol and opioids. George also opens up about how owning a tattoo shop fueled his addictions yet provided artistic fulfillment. I contribute my own experiences overcoming alcoholism and the impact it had on relationships. We hope our vulnerable conversation provides hope that recovery is possible through continued growth, spirituality, choosing healthy influences, and making better choices. Boogy emphasizes the importance of finding purpose through sobriety and offers words of encouragement for others still battling addiction. Overall, our discussion aims to start meaningful dialog about the realities of substance abuse and mental wellness through a lens of understanding and community support.
From Rock Bottom to Rock Solid.
We all have them...every single day, we wake up, we have the chance to make new choices.
We have the power to make our own daily, "Breakfast of Choices"
Resources and ways to connect:
Facebook: Jo Summers
Instagram: @Summersjol
Facebook Support: Chance For Change Women’s circle
National suicide prevention and crisis, hotline number 988
National domestic violence hotline:
800–799–7233
National hotline for substance abuse, and addiction:
844–289–0879
National mental health hotline:
866–903–3787
National child health and child abuse hotline:
800–422–4454
CoDa.org
12. Step recovery program for codependency.
In this episode of "Breakfast of Choices", I sit down with longtime friend and tattoo artist George "Boogy" Dungan to discuss our personal journeys with addiction and recovery. Listeners will gain insight as Boogy candidly recounts growing up in Oklahoma and how experimenting with drinking and drugs in his youth ultimately led to over 20 years of struggles. Multiple DUI'S. and so many losses. He shares raw stories from rock bottom moments like nearly dying from a mix of alcohol and opioids. George also opens up about how owning a tattoo shop fueled his addictions yet provided artistic fulfillment. I contribute my own experiences overcoming alcoholism and the impact it had on relationships. We hope our vulnerable conversation provides hope that recovery is possible through continued growth, spirituality, choosing healthy influences, and making better choices. Boogy emphasizes the importance of finding purpose through sobriety and offers words of encouragement for others still battling addiction. Overall, our discussion aims to start meaningful dialog about the realities of substance abuse and mental wellness through a lens of understanding and community support.
From Rock Bottom to Rock Solid.
We all have them...every single day, we wake up, we have the chance to make new choices.
We have the power to make our own daily, "Breakfast of Choices"
Resources and ways to connect:
Facebook: Jo Summers
Instagram: @Summersjol
Facebook Support: Chance For Change Women’s circle
National suicide prevention and crisis, hotline number 988
National domestic violence hotline:
800–799–7233
National hotline for substance abuse, and addiction:
844–289–0879
National mental health hotline:
866–903–3787
National child health and child abuse hotline:
800–422–4454
CoDa.org
12. Step recovery program for codependency.
Welcome to Breakfast of Choices, the weekly podcast that shares life stories of transformation. Each episode holds space for people to tell their true, raw and unedited story of overcoming intense adversity from addiction and incarceration, mental illness, physical and emotional abuse, domestic violence, toxic families, codependency and more. Trauma comes in so many forms. I'm your host, jo Summers, and also someone who hit my lowest point before realizing that I could wake up every day and make a better choice, even if it was a small one. So let's dive into this week's story together to learn from and find hope through someone's journey from rock bottom to rock solid, because I really do believe you have a new chance every day to wake up and make a change, to create your own. Breakfast of Choices. Welcome to Breakfast of Choices real-life stories of transformation from rock bottom to rock solid. I'm your host, Jo Summers.
Speaker 1:My guest today is not only a phenomenal tattoo artist, but also my good friend, someone I have so much love for and I am so proud of George.
Speaker 2:Boogie Dungan. My first time meeting Boogie was back in 2009. It was actually our first tattoo appointment. Since then, there has been countless hours of tattoo appointments and, more importantly, countless hours of friendship. We definitely got to know each other on a different level. Through the years, there has been a lot of ups and downs dealing with alcoholism, a lot of heartache, divorces, loss of family, loss of money, loss of time in jail and prison, with 11 DUIs over the years, and even loss of his own tattoo shop. But all of this 20 plus years of struggle has now turned into a beautiful story of recovery, strength and resilience. Boogie now has over five years of sobriety. I am so proud of you. I'm excited to have you with me today. Thank you so much for doing this. You already know how excited I am. I've been telling you for days. It really means a lot. I'm going to let you tell your story and how it all began.
Speaker 3:I'm excited and it's really the first time I've got to kind of talk about just recovery and the five years that it's been, and just when I went to jail and started this prison sentence. You know that was really not the start but you know, let's back it up.
Speaker 2:Back it up. Yeah, I know, when I met you, you were sober. At that moment, in that little patch right there. You were sober.
Speaker 3:So I went in and out of these programs. I really wasn't taking it seriously and that's what, really, over a 20-year span of this, getting DUIs led me to getting incarcerated. And you know that incarceration, even when you know being incarcerated, it I still hadn't gotten the clue. You know, on what I needed to be doing from the time before. You know, like when I grew up, like that's where drinking, you know it was kind of a thing that you know everybody kind of did. You know everybody still does really.
Speaker 3:You know, starting from the age of like 10, 11, 12, even growing up in McAllister, you know, with my mother, you know I had a regular you know young kid outdoors kind of thing. You know I played in the dirt, I played on my bike, I swam in the local pool. You know I played in the dirt, I played on my bike, I swam in the local pool. You know it was when I, you know I always had these ideas of living in oklahoma city. You know I came up visiting my dad. That's where my parents were split. You know, I can't, I can't remember a time with them actually being together, so that's where, like, it's not really a big deal to me like them together. So it's not like I have any of that kind of like. Oh, you know, living with one and the other, the splitting up part, like I'd always live with my mom, and then at 12 I wanted to live with my dad.
Speaker 3:You know, my dad was cool, he's a cool guy, you know, and I think, just taking in a teenager. You know he didn't know what he was doing. You know what I'm saying, which you know. Well, yeah, bless his heart, he, he got you know me and I, you know, I was rambunctious, I was curious, I was, uh, you, I wanted to go and do and see everything, you know.
Speaker 3:Of course that led me to skating and I had, you know, older friends and, you know, being impressionable.
Speaker 3:I, you know, started smoking cigarettes and you know, drinking, you know, lightly, with friends on the weekends, you know, and that's where, really, you know, from 12 to you know, well, 17, you know, 18 was where I, I drank to have fun. After about 17, 18, I realized this all came to me later but, you know, I'd had, I had a daughter, my daughter at 17, you know, I had a daughter, my daughter at 17,. You know, and I had to realize, like my drinking to stop, like these thoughts, and you know the anguish of just not having my daughter, you know, and a family, and whatever I had imagined beforehand, you know, because we had split up, had imagined beforehand, you know, because we had split up, my little world came crashing down, you know. So I started drinking, you know, and that was the difference really, in drinking to have fun and socially and moderately, you know yeah getting an uber, having a designated driver, things like this I didn't have in my mind, I didn't think of.
Speaker 3:I just wanted to have my car realized what I was doing to myself younger, you know. But you know I just kept going. I kept, you know, trying to think that me personally, like I could actually be a person that drinks. You know, I did a lot of other things and it never really took control of me, you tell, alcohol and the constant blacking out and getting in trouble and I, you know, was definitely a letdown to lots of people, you know.
Speaker 2:and you stopped drinking for social reasons and started drinking for masking reasons, trying to cover up the feelings and all of that. So that's when I think it becomes a little bit different and everything kind of changes, when it's not for fun anymore. This is real life shit now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I didn't get that epiphany until later, you know, after, you know, now, when I'm in my sobriety, it's came back to me and I say God, you know, has shown me, you know, the things that I did that led me to the places and the situations that I was in and then experienced and then came out of. I mean, I owe it to a spiritual guide. You know, whatever anyone else wants to call Jesus, you know. Allah or Christ or any really creator Like. My biggest thing in that is like I'm a painter, you know, and a tattoo artist, you know, first off. But painting, you know, you see something and you don't know who, who painted it. But you can touch it, you can see it, you can, you can.
Speaker 3:You know something is created there and that's how I look at myself, you know. I see myself, I touch my skin. I know that I'm created, you know, and that's really where self-analysis, that self-reflection, plays a huge part. I was not doing that before the 20 years that I was kind of stuck in this trap of going in and out of court, having a lawyer paying them every month, going to court every month or every two months and having the attorney push it back and doing that whole push and back game.
Speaker 3:You know that shoot anybody that's had some run-ins with the police. You know. You know that they push it back and they push it back and they try to get the da to kind of forget about it. Or you got to show something that you're doing. You know your court classes and I had, was in that and I did the dance with the court but I wasn't paying attention really to what I was doing, to myself, my fam, the people around me. I had had a breathalyzer in my vehicle. My wife had to have a breathalyzer in her vehicle even though she didn't she didn't like drink like that heavily.
Speaker 3:and I know my kids you know I'm saying my youngest or my oldest daughter I know she really seen a lot of that you know, and I didn't see the drinking in like in front of her, but definitely the outcome know the angry and the fighting back and forth and not getting to see dad, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's the chaos, chaos.
Speaker 3:You're tortured, my soul. You know, when you hear your daughter like, no, daddy, don't leave, you know those things really take effect on a young heart. They're like does it know everything is still learning. You know, I was only 16, 17, so yeah in between 17 to 20.
Speaker 3:You know, I had a young daughter still trying to finish high school which I dropped, dropped out, and then I did go back and finish the next year, so I did graduate high school, you know, and all this like I kept a job you know I worked and I tattooed and started tattooing, like at a younger age when, you know, in Oklahoma you couldn't tattoo, there was no legalization of you know looking out of the house, and then eventually, when the rules had been changed, I got licensed and in a shop and but then that almost led me into even more. You know that was that becoming a rock star tattoo artist, you know, In the lifestyle you're in it. So you know I'm hardcore. I want to do something to the fullest. So you know I asked when.
Speaker 3:I'll win. Yeah, I was there really probably about 2005 and then up to about 2008. I worked at lots of a couple couple different shops and really grew as an artist. But my thinking grew too, and my addiction to opiates, you know, because of a crazy thing, jackass thing that I did at 19, trying to jump off a building into a tree, you know, and totally almost paralyzing myself, I got on the word tabs and that was another eight years of eating pills and drinking and then, that's where, you know, really, this madman came about. You like, when you mix drugs and alcohol, it's a whole different effect. It's like smoking a joint while you're drinking, you know.
Speaker 2:But then time is in, yeah, but for my man Working on the bottle that says don't mix with alcohol, kind of that.
Speaker 3:See, I wasn't paying, I wasn't reading anything back. No me neither.
Speaker 2:Yeah, see, I wasn't paying, I wasn't reading anything back.
Speaker 3:No, me neither. Yeah, you know, I'm reading everything, I'm reading the facts of everything. Now, that's what's really great and I love and accept the being aware and being awake. You know, eyes open, Like you can really tell a person if they are in recovery and they're actually working it. And they really want a better life you know, their eyes start glowing more, their hair is present. You know, I feel like I want to live. You know where before I was in the self-destruction mode.
Speaker 3:I felt you know, self-destruction is an easy thing to get into. You know, it doesn't have to be drugs or alcohol. Even it could be foods, it can be.
Speaker 2:I know.
Speaker 3:Really don't.
Speaker 2:You know I had my up and down bouts. It wasn't all just done after I got out. You know what I mean. It was up and down and up and down and all the crazy and all the chaos and it took a long time to kind of clear your mind.
Speaker 3:How long do you think it took you in general, like when you realized it to when your life felt comfortable, like you knew you were in control of it?
Speaker 2:It is tough because I think you get to the point where you think you're in control, you think you're good, and then you start you know what? I'm just get to the point where you think you're in control, you think you're good, and then you start you know what, I'm just going to go out a little bit, I'm a party, and then you go, okay, shit, I'm not in control anymore. And so that's a hard one for an addict, because I think you would like to think you're in control Not that we really ever are, I think it's. I think you have to be really careful and even me today have to be very careful who I'm around, what I'm doing, where my energy, where I'm focusing.
Speaker 3:Because those foundations or systems that you've built your sobriety or your strength in those are really what I found, that I had to find. You know people, places and things you got to worry about and on the other side, if you change those people, places and things, well then that's your comfort zone. Now you actually have some good people, you have some good places to go and you have some good things to do. You know which? I really didn't know that nav hobbies. I just went out, I shot pool at bars and played darts and drank.
Speaker 2:You know, it's like my sport was drinking yeah, yeah, I mean major leaguer yeah, you were like the goat, that's for sure, that's no doubt oh, you're the goat you are the goat, um, you know, the last time, the last time that you went. I don't know exactly how many times you've been in and out of jail. It's been a few since I've known you, but the last time I went to jail was february 14th, on valentine's day 2019.
Speaker 3:I had been prison earlier in 2018, right, and my dick had me so like I thought that was where. That's where we're. Yeah, no thinking I had myself in control and getting out of the halfway house. After being in prison for eight months, from 2018 april to about october 2018 I had been incarcerated and then then I went to the halfway house and then spent some time there working at the tattoo shop but then going back at night to the halfway house Right, and from the halfway house I got out on ankle monitor in.
Speaker 3:January 2019. So within January 2019 to February 14th 2019, that's how long it took for me to get some freedom with an ankle monitor, have the ability to drive and go to the liquor store and start to really like drink at night at home and just get started. That's a little progression, really showed me. I did not have it and for me personally, I am a person that cannot drink alcohol. You know, some people really need to realize that if your life is in shambles and you keep going through the same insane stuff year and year out, then you're an alcoholic. You know what I'm saying and if you believe it or not, it's fine. You know I'm saying I personally, to see a better family and a better me, had to realize that I'm an alcoholic and if that's the only thing in this life that I don't get to do, I'm okay with it. You know I'm saying I've convinced myself on. It's like an allergic reaction, like I break in.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's not funny, and it happens quick too, it's it's a pretty quick progression. So it's like hey, I'm just going to party for a second, and oops, okay, here we are. You know what I mean, and so you, you figured that out finally, and it, and it just took a. We are. You know what I mean, and so you, you figured that out finally, and it, and it just took a while.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean, but but you figured it out, so you fall down six times, you get back up seven, that's okay, you know, that's great you know, keeping going, keep doing good is really like what I've found in this you know world to be the strengthening point that I got to ride on is I've really never been a quitter and I, you know, keep going. I have to Like there's some calling inside that as long as you keep going, there will be something at the end of this. You know, and I believe that.
Speaker 2:I do too. It's easy to give up. It's easy to give up when you're in that cycle because it's hard, it's chaotic and it's crazy and it's hard and the day to day that you put yourself through is ridiculous. But when you get out of that cycle and realize it's not worth giving up, that's kind of when you can change it. You know, and I've seen that in you so I know that's, you know for, like I really see now just being that light.
Speaker 3:You know, I don't even have to do something sometimes and I get messages from people that say you know, I've been following you, man, and I really enjoy, like seeing your growth and seeing you know you do good in your life and not really like that.
Speaker 3:People that don't even me, that just follow me or maybe they, they uh, followed me because somebody, like one of their friends, got a tattoo or something. You know, even people that I tattooed for many, many years have been reaching out like that and really like even going to this last convention, ink Nation you know that was really cool seeing these and some of my mentors come by and really show like right, like respect for me, yeah, yeah, tell me how good and just really having a better life, even like this life at 40 years old.
Speaker 3:I don't know if I've actually lived this life before you know, popular life where you know, nothing was wrong and happiness was flowing, you know, but I was drinking and drugging and like that wasn't really an opening, wide-eyed like view of my life. You know, this life is different and it might be a little slower and a little calmer and a little more comfortable. And I do sit home a lot and I've made my environment comfortable. But I like coming home because I've made my little you know getaway cave, you know, art supplies and uh uh work yard equipment, you know it's great.
Speaker 2:I think we learn to live in chaos and that comfortable and that slower paces is what we probably used to call boring. Right, be like oh man, it's so boring. It's not anymore the older that you get. It's freaking peaceful. It's peaceful and it's you need it. You have to have it. It's it's freaking peaceful. It's peaceful and you need it. You have to have it. Yeah, you have to have it.
Speaker 3:I don't look for money these days I mean I do to pay bills and life but I look for peace. Me too, God, me too I look for memories and these are the things I did before I. Just I don't think I valued them as much as I should have, you know, and I really look back at the people that I affected. Then, you know, and I still have a lot of good connections, because when I wasn't drinking and drugging, like I really valued people and I really had connections with people and like I truly heartedly don't ever like dislike a person, you know what I'm saying always trying and good in people, you know and then trying to show what's mean.
Speaker 3:You know, before I don't I, I, you know, I wanted people to fear me, or I wanted to be a tough guy, or, you know, I wanted to, uh, have this big image of being a badass tattoo artist, you know and like it takes a lot to say that book.
Speaker 3:That takes a lot to say that and trying to look in a different perspective these days, you know, and led me like I can be confident and I can be sure of my tattoos, or like you know, like that. But really the humble side of me is what I've always kind of tried to stick with and that's what I know. You know, that's what keeps keeps me learning, what keeps me like growing, that's what keeps me knowing I'm fast and I'm.
Speaker 3:You know what I'm saying. I'm good, but I'm not the best. There's always going to be some youngster that, like, comes up. That is just killing the game, you know, and I'm totally good with that. I want, want that, I want those people around me, you know. That's why I keep an apprentice and so I can have that younger energy.
Speaker 2:We used to talk about that not that long ago.
Speaker 3:Talk about, you know, having that energy around you, having that good environment, having that place of growth and not being around a place of I don't want to say chaos, but just not in your best interest at the time, right, right. And that's where, like I think, sometimes we put ourselves in those places. Yeah, you know, and they're good at the time, you know. And then, like seasons, you know they change, yeah, you know, and you have to be ready for when your season changes.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know you might not want it and it's just like some of the changes you know, fall and winter Like we have to accept that and we have to grow it. Like if we look at that as a negative, negative thing, then everything else is going to be negative. You know like yeah, yeah, your whole world in your season and like you have to take advantage of every single thing that is offered there. You know physically and mentally, you know in a this will now like when I'm in a predicament or I have a problem. You know I stop.
Speaker 3:I've learned to just stop immediately and see what I'm missing in being like aggravated or angry and change it and instantly I see something that I can put like goodness and gratitude and thankfulness in you know, yeah, this problem isn't even a problem anymore, it's actually yeah, I was about to blow it up and then I stumped it out, you know, and those things that did not have back in the day I would have blew up, you know, and then I would reap the repercussion or I would reap the.
Speaker 3:You know what happened. And then Vince felt sorry and then I probably would have drank because Right.
Speaker 2:Right, the cycle, just the endless cycle. Yeah, the endless cycle. You've been able to stop that. The endless cycle, yeah, the endless cycle. You've been able to stop that and really kind of hit it. It's mindset you changed. You grew up Right, changed your mindset and realize, yeah, I became, okay, sorry.
Speaker 3:More on my and my ability side, because I value being able to be a responsible person, like if someone I didn't know that and I helped and, you know, was there for people, but to actually say that, hey, that guy's a responsible person, you call on him, he's there, he can be there. Something happened Like, yeah, yes, that's what I want to be and that's what I treasure about a person. And I've met from yes, that's what I want to be and that's what I treasure about a person. Yeah, and I've met from you know a couple of people. You know my father, lise. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:You, many people, even my son's mother, yeah, yeah, my son's mother's mother, edith, right, like he just just seeing the work ethic and the ability to stay happy and stay with it, you know that's what was really cool. And I get to see that now, like all things, that before I used to think about all the bad stuff. You know that would come to my head and that's. You know, you get over and you you work through that stuff. You have to, you have to. You can't put any of that stuff away. But then, after you deal with it, then all this good stuff that did happen at the same time. You know, comes back and you're oh no, that's what. And it's so refreshing to get those your appreciation level.
Speaker 2:Your appreciation level for just the little things is, you know, becomes so much more when you're not living in that cycle. Seriously, yeah, I, I love my, my house and my peace and my snacks at home and my you know what I mean being able to do zoom meetings with no pants because nobody can see you. It's great, all right, yeah, that's great. So well. I have seen you change tremendously through the years. There was times when I had to wait to get a tattoo because you were gone for a while. I'd be like, damn, he's gone, I gotta wait, I gotta get this finished. You know, I hung in there though book. I hung in there and you know now I can hung in there and now I can.
Speaker 3:That's where I think I might have to address man. There's people out there that you know what I'm saying were waiting or that I owed, or whatever. I would like to make some of that stuff better. You know, if able to to make some of that stuff better, you know if able to.
Speaker 2:You have made it better because people are getting to watch you be better and, whether you realize that or not, that is what you know. Watching you is good or you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:Like there's always like self-evaluation, each day I do, but then you know each week and month and year, but constantly. You know, making amends is a big step for people in recovery, absolutely, and I you know we're still, I'm still working on that you know, yeah, yeah, I definitely am. Yeah, it's probably a lifelong thing really, you know yeah, well I'm not saying making up, but making a man. I'm sure the people that really are close and that you know that you trying to be a better person, you know, yeah, yeah yeah, like I ain't joking, I ain't joking, I ain't joking, man, this is like I'm trying to win it.
Speaker 3:You know I'm trying to make a life even you know however long I get to live like, make a life that at least, like now, people can look at and be like yeah, that wasn't a piece of shit, you know it, you know?
Speaker 2:oh, definitely not. I've always told you years ago. I've always told you you have it, you've got it, you just got to want it. But you've always had it.
Speaker 3:I always knew that person has to apply themselves. If they don't want nothing, then then you know you ain't gonna get nowhere and that's that's what you want. You know inside your mind. You personally feel like you're not doing enough. That's you. You know what I'm saying and I can strengthen that because that's just the type of person I am.
Speaker 3:It's hard for me to sit still. It's hard for me to sit around and not do anything. But then finding this new me, I do sit around and I do enjoy the time of just be. That gives my creative mind the ability to think about new designs or think about new specials or some kind of new promotion or something in my business or something with my kids about camping or just sending them messages in the middle of the day, things like that, and even my parents, just keeping the relationships that you have really a strength. I've seen this thing where this lady she was talking about. You know she was almost 100 years old and they asked her what kept her lively, what kept her young, and she said I had friends, a couple of three to five friends that I communicated with weekly. We shared thoughts huggedged.
Speaker 3:We shared food, you know, weekly. You know she didn't eat over 80. You know what I'm saying. She never stuffed herself and she gave thanks, you know, she appreciated all the little small things. You know, that's really.
Speaker 2:So connection, the opposite of addiction, is connection right and that that kind of proves that right there. Right it's just. It really is about connection and I know I'm one that probably hangs on too much to friendships or people that I shouldn't or don't need to. But for me that's just how I cope. You know what I mean. Connection, don't need to, but for me that's just how I cope. You know what I mean. Um connection, that's just how I get through life, um being able to have connection to keep me grounded.
Speaker 3:So I'm finding the connections good strength, strong connection, spiritual connection. Sometimes you know, like we don't look into the spirit and I know it even sounds like hocus pocus sometimes not to me, not to me I'm not and you know people don't realize that as a religious thing.
Speaker 3:like, if you take the religion you I know it's going deep like politics or something but taking the religion and the doctrines and the denominations out of just the spiritual environment, you'll find that there's a plane that's opened up a lot more. It's opened up a lot more. And to find the source, find the creator, you know you have to have faith. You do that means it's going off faith.
Speaker 3:You know it's something you can't see, but I hope that you know someone finds strength in that you know, that's what I found the strength, and then it's like prove it. You know, and it's like all of my life. You know, I think differently, I walk differently, I even look the same but different you know attitude yeah, yeah, where you really see a person that wants change you In this world. It ain't going to give it to you. You have to literally fight for it daily.
Speaker 2:You have to want it for yourself. You have to want it for yourself. You have to want to change for yourself.
Speaker 3:You could have kids and family and all this stuff, but if you can't make yourself right and you're self-comfortable and at peace, then no one else around you is going to get to share any of that.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, you have to be your best self to offer your best self. You really do, you do, and I know you stayed by yourself for a while and you really worked on yourself, so I think that's what it took you. Do you know, by yourself for a while and you really worked on yourself, so I think that's what it took you. You know what I mean. I think it took you to be with yourself and love yourself and grow with yourself and all those things. Is, you know, as that sounds, it's really the truth I know and all.
Speaker 3:Then you know, like that's what, those are the things you have to get comfortable with, like the heart, the heart, the stomach, like not upset but turning, because it's like unnatural to you but it's normal, you know, and it's a good bit. You know you gotta just push forward and like accept the things.
Speaker 2:Like I know, as a person, didn't accept the good things, yeah that's true self-sabotage and feeling whether you feel like you don't deserve it, or you feel like, whatever it is, it's too hard to keep it going. Whatever it may be, it's not good for your spirit no, no, and that, well, all that you know.
Speaker 3:I'm saying that's where you gotta find. You gotta look and you gotta dig deep in there and really see the heart of the matter, because your stomach is your first brain, right? So you go off your gut, right? You know, if your stomach's irritated about it's all connected, that's for sure, right, you don't need to be dealing with that situation. You know, like that's what I go off now my instinct, my intuition, like those things I really take to the head these days. You know I really do. Yeah, intuition.
Speaker 2:You know I really do. Yeah, intuition, and that's always been something. Thankfully that I've always had that, because that kept me out of probably a lot of things that saved my life over the years. You know, it was intuition, thank goodness, and I always felt like whether it was God, creator, spirit, whatever, watching over me, because there was definitely times in my life I shouldn't have made it, you know, shouldn't have been here so several times that made it through. I learned to believe in that, like a long time ago, never shared it, never really talked too much about it because it's so woo-woo, you know, you know.
Speaker 3:It's wild, though, that the spirit not talked about like it is.
Speaker 2:I agree I have a good circle and a pretty good core group of people that they feel, you know, feel the same, and that's been a big like change for me in this last year. This getting around like a good group of women I I've really never done that or had that. It's always been. You know, I grew up with brothers, grew up with boys, grew up with motorcycles and men and all those things and there hasn't been the best group of women ever and just finding those connections has been crazy different for me this year, kind of opened up a whole new side. That's great, yeah.
Speaker 3:A couple of close people who talk to you know things in this mind and it's just letting to let the world kind of sort it out. You know what I'm saying. Put it into the spirit realm and you let it there and leave it there. You know, sometimes it's work themselves out because we're mentally putting it into this ether net. Right, if you have control of that or if you have any type of power in that, you're finding the good, you're pushing out the good, you're vibrating, it's coming back. You're talking to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, your energy is vibrating out. You're putting out good energy, so you're receiving're vibrating back. You're talking, yeah, yeah, your energy, your energy is vibrating out. You know you're. You're putting out good energy, so you're receiving good energy back there, you're coming around you, you all are vibing.
Speaker 3:yeah, that's what this vibe. Our vibrations meet in a supernatural, physical world. You know what, saying Like that's the hard part your biofield you have a six feet Right Biofield around you that interacts with the world, even if you don't tell them. You know what I'm saying. Yeah, it is a different matter.
Speaker 2:You know you can feel the shift when someone walks in the room or when you walk in a room and you can feel the energy shift. You know what you can feel. Well, you can feel the shift when someone walks in the room or when you walk in a room and you can feel the energy shift. You know what I mean. It's like whoa, wait, well, I need to not be here, or this isn't my spot, this isn't my place. Some people don't acknowledge oh, that's huge, that's so huge. That energy, that shift of just you can feel it immediately and it's always been able to tell me you don't need to be here, this isn't the spot for you right now, get out. And I'm thankful for that, very, very grateful for that.
Speaker 3:That's the moments I look at now and I know they're bad, but it's given me strength. Today it's good. The situations that I had to endure, you know, being around the certain people now gives me an outlet to where now I can talk to anyone and everyone about what I'm trying to. You know, show and show and share to people Just a very different way of looking at certain things in this life that we're all a part of, but no one's telling it to us in the right way.
Speaker 3:They're all examples of what we should do. You know, if they're living those ways, good shit, you know what I'm saying. But if they're just settling things and then you know they're not living it and you can eventually find out a phony. You know what I'm saying. Like it's sad, but you know, in a drug addict's phony they normally don't make it.
Speaker 3:You know you know, because they could be walking good. And then, if you're not grounded and you don't have those roots, you're firm into the ground and grounding yourself with knowledge. Your triggers places things like that where you don't need to be Like. You get caught up quickly.
Speaker 2:Very quickly and that's about changing your playground. You know places and things, people, places and things. Change it quick.
Speaker 3:Definitely If people are trying to get sober and they're still hanging out with most of the same people or doing kind of the same routines. You got to change it, man. It really is a thing in me to where I got tired of going to court. I got tired of feeling like shit. I got tired of saying I'm sorry. I got tired of being the disappointment like in everyone's mouths. You know, yeah, I had a tattoo shop. Had highest of highs owning a tattoo shop, building it and not being able to be responsible and run it.
Speaker 3:You know yeah, I remember um, you know, those are things I look back at and they could haunt me, but I look at it as things that I went through that led me to this point. Yeah, and I have that knowledge, you know, on how those strengths that the rock bottom showed me, you know was rough.
Speaker 2:It hurts down there. It hurts. They aren't kidding when they call it rock bottom.
Speaker 3:It's not good and yeah, Some people's rock bottom is low yeah for sure, yeah, and you know through that, you know, and that's where I think people have a hard time thinking or understanding if there is a creator or if there is something that is in control of this. You know it's like why do these happen?
Speaker 2:I don't know we have free will we have free choice, and that's why that's why will we have free choice? And that's why that's why you know I talk a lot about choices. Yeah, we have the ability to make choices and it's on us to make the right choices. And even though we make all the same, you know all the right choices every single day, bad stuff still happens, but a whole lot less bad stuff happens when you are in the right mindset and making good choices. I mean that's just fact, you know.
Speaker 2:So I mean, I've seen you go through the ups and downs and I've seen you change a lot through the years and I've seen you the last few years and you're definitely you're the same person, but you're a different person and you can see it in your face, can see it in your eyes, you can see how you carry yourself, you can see how you talk, you can feel it and it's different this time.
Speaker 2:It is different, the energy is different and I have appreciated the hell out of that, really, and I got some really cool tattoos and I didn't have to wait and you're just there, right and so ready. You're not, yeah, ready, ready there at your appointments, ready to go. Just your mindset and and what, and your routine that you have now. You draw in the morning and you get ready for your appointments and you're just, you're just, you know just your overall mindset and your overall growth has just been crazy and it's, it's beautiful really to see that. Well, tell everybody where they can find you. I know your shop is twisted mind tattoos in oklahoma city right 23rd and villara is.
Speaker 3:And also find me on Facebook at George Boogie D Dungan or Instagram and TikTok at Boogie Tattoos OKC, and hopefully I'll have a website up here.
Speaker 2:Yes, I can't wait to see that. I'm excited for you on that. And you did my tattoo for me Breakfast of Choices and at the time when we were doing it. I don't wait to see that. I'm excited for you on that. And you did my tattoo for me Breakfast of Choices and at the time when we were doing it, I don't know how excited you were about it, but I was super excited about it because it really truly means a lot to me and I know I'm the only one that it means really a lot to, but I see it every day. You know what I mean and it reminds me. It's about choices. I know I got two. Now right.
Speaker 3:You know, about choices.
Speaker 2:I know I got two now, right, you know, for a long time I had a ton of tattoos and hit them all and now I'm fine. You know, in the last year is really the first time I've really started telling my own story, because I had shame and guilt and all the things, of a lot of the things that I have done and been through. And I'm older than you and I've just started telling my true story and I was all about people being real and authentic through and I'm older than you and I've just started telling my true story and I was all about people being real and authentic. And here I am not putting my own shit out there because of, you know, just jobs and careers I had.
Speaker 2:I had to be careful. I'm in people's homes, I'm doing sales, all of those things and that's how I make my money and you can't really lead with. Hey, I've been to prison. Yeah, definitely been a vulnerable place for me and that's not really my strong suit, that's for sure, being vulnerable but it's been really healing and that's why I really want to do this and I'm just happy for the people that I know that have had so much healing to do this with me it's a great thing and I think that more people really can benefit from telling their stories and opening up just a little bit and really you know we have as individuals.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think good thing in this world right now like it needs everyone to come together and see the differences and see the similarities that we have.
Speaker 2:We're all human beings we are all together, we're all one yeah, the shade of this tannish brown.
Speaker 3:If you go from one spectrum to the other it's just a shade difference, you know we are all the same being absolutely you know. And if we could come together about things and just understand other people's points of view yeah, with no ours, that's cool. But understanding another, you don't have to live by it, but just understanding one's point of view is very good and I really think that doing the reality. You know you have that kind of uplifting spirit.
Speaker 2:You've always been positive and you've always been a responsible person.
Speaker 3:So you know I always. But you know I know you a long time and you know good mother, you know like you're taking care of her mother. You know what I'm saying. Like that's some notable stuff that needs to be put out there. You know, and still having a job. You know, I really think this is cool and I appreciate you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks, bud. I appreciate you and I really do, and I'm glad. I'm glad you did this with me. I know you were a little iffy at the beginning, but I'm glad that you did, cause I think it's's been awesome. I think it's been good for you too, and that's really my hope is for it to be good for everybody me, you and everybody hearing it.
Speaker 3:So I really do appreciate it these are those things I really see as a as a way of getting a message out there you know, and if there was an opportunity to do this again or with somebody else you know, I'm so good for it because, man, it's so much information that just I feel needs to be out there, kind of on the subject.
Speaker 2:Yeah, people need to see change as possible.
Speaker 3:Yeah, being led, though, just to express these things which you're doing, so, so good, thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, appreciate you. Thanks, brooke. I will continue to express and be vulnerable as much as I can. You know I've only shared a very, very tip of the iceberg in my own trailer. I haven't shared really very much. It'll come out over time, I know that, but I'm okay with that. I really want to just get everybody. I want to get positivity out there and hope and encouragement and light and love. And we are all connected, you know, and we're all in this together and I think it's just time we start talking about it. You know, it's not, it's not everybody else's addiction, it's everybody. We're in this together.
Speaker 3:So All right, wow, and going back and forth with people and continuing it. It's such a great.
Speaker 2:Thanks, we'll continue it. I'm going to keep on doing it. I appreciate it. I appreciate you. Thanks for doing this.
Speaker 1:I am so grateful that you joined me for this week's episode of Breakfast of Choices. If you're enjoying this podcast, please subscribe, give it five stars and share it to help others find hope and encouragement. The opposite of addiction is connection, and we are all in this together. Telling your transformational story can also be an incredible form of healing, so if you would like to share it, I would love to hear it. You can also follow me on social media. I'm your host, Jo Summers, and I can't wait to bring you another story next week. Stay with me for more Transformational Thursdays.