Latest / Trudge Report / Ep. 110 - The Way Of The Jedi: How Meditation Helps Us Reach New Spiritual Heights

Transcript

Ep. 110 - The Way Of The Jedi: How Meditation Helps Us Reach New Spiritual Heights · Trudge Report

0:05
SPEAKER_02: Ladies and gentlemen, good evening and welcome to another episode of Trudge Report.
0:10
SPEAKER_02: This is a recovery-based podcast.
0:12
SPEAKER_02: My name is Sean, and I am your host, joined by my good friends and fellow Trudgers.
0:16
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0:21
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0:25
SPEAKER_02: But as always, please be sure to download on your listening platforms.
0:29
SPEAKER_02: Remember to like and subscribe on all social media outlets with the handle at Trudge Report Pod.
0:35
SPEAKER_02: We are brought to you by Stella Mix Podcast Management and our wonderful producer and editor, Miss Janine Stella.
0:42
SPEAKER_02: Gentlemen, good evening.
0:43
SPEAKER_02: Happy uh happy selection Sunday.
0:45
SPEAKER_02: Uh, those who know, know.
0:47
SPEAKER_02: Those who don't, don't worry about it.
0:49
SPEAKER_02: Um, Greg, how are you?
0:51
SPEAKER_02: We'll start in the upper, the great upper Midwest.
0:54
SPEAKER_02: What's going on, buddy?
0:55
SPEAKER_02: Indeed.
0:55
SPEAKER_02: I am well.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for asking.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's been a good week.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh finalized some uh got my my plane tickets booked for a uh work conference slash uh little getaway for Lauren and I coming up in uh the beginning of May to Marco Island down there in Florida.
1:15
SPEAKER_00: So very Florida, very excited about that.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: I don't get to go on work trips very often, and this was uh this was a nice one.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: So uh yeah, they're putting us up in a resort for a conference for a few days, and then her and I are um gonna do a little jet set.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: And we're from there from Fort Myers, we're gonna head to uh Dallas and uh we're gonna catch the big D, huh?
1:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're gonna head to the Big D up there in Texas, boy.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: Big D.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: Uh visit with uh her friend and go see Dave Matthews man in Texas.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: So uh yeah, it should be a fun first week of May.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: And uh not too much else, man.
1:50
SPEAKER_00: Had a had a chill weekend.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: Uh we went and saw this movie tonight, uh this afternoon, uh, and it was uh centered around a spooky podcast, and it was actually like a very, very good movie.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: Like a like a it's like a low budget horror movie, but they did very, very well with it.
2:10
SPEAKER_00: Like the whole thing basically takes place in this chick's house, and there's like three actors in the whole movie, but it was really good.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: It was called Undertone, very scary, and uh yeah, podcast.
2:21
SPEAKER_02: The podcast was scary, or it's the podcast.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: Oh, the movie on the movie, like no, no.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: So the the podcast, they they run like a spooky stories, her and her friend run like a spooky stories podcast, and then like they receive this uh email with all these attachments, and so they're like they're basing their episode of the podcast on that, and then weird and wild and crazy stuff starts to happen.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: But one thing I'll say is like uh where they didn't have the budget for a lot of like big set piece scenes, they used the sound and the audio of a podcast to like really like uh like drive up the tension and the scares.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: It was it was actually very, very well done.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: Um so yeah, if you if you're a horror fan, uh go check out Undertone.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: It was how do you watch it?
3:08
SPEAKER_00: Uh in the cinema with your it's in theaters, yeah.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember what that is, Corey?
3:16
SPEAKER_00: The movie theater.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: I was just in one.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, theater.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: So better than Scream 7.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm hearing.
3:21
SPEAKER_04: So well, fucking pretty much anything could be.
3:25
SPEAKER_04: Oh my god.
3:27
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, and other than that, man, we're just uh we're we're enjoying life, loving life.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: Good.
3:32
SPEAKER_00: Excellent.
3:33
SPEAKER_02: How's the weather?
3:34
SPEAKER_02: Is it cold still?
3:35
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's dude, it's weird.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: We had some crazy wind storms the other day, like wind uh wind gusts of up to 90 miles an hour here on Friday.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, crazy, crazy stuff.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: Uh some some uh you know seeing I don't think a lot of people like there wasn't like a lot of like high death toll or anything like that, but a lot of property damage.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: Thankfully, we escaped that.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, it's been weird.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: It's been like cold.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: It was like 30 degrees this morning, then like 70 this afternoon.
4:06
SPEAKER_00: So it's it's kind of all over the place.
4:08
SPEAKER_02: It's supposed to snow on Tuesday, so it's it's all over the it's amazing in Florida right now.
4:13
SPEAKER_02: Like it's getting hot again, you know.
4:15
SPEAKER_02: It's been the upper upper 80s, mid upper eighties.
4:19
SPEAKER_02: I think I even saw low 90s the other day, but like how quickly Greg, I I did my first uh lawn cutting of the season, and I I've been doing it for the past couple years myself, but in the in the the quote colder months, and I use for those never watching this air quotes because it never gets that cold here, although we did get some chilly weeks here.
4:38
SPEAKER_02: But in the colder months, I don't have to mow my lawn, like but like literally once every like six weeks.
4:44
SPEAKER_02: Like that's how slow the grass grows.
4:47
SPEAKER_02: And immediately when the weather turns and we start getting even just a little bit of rain, just a little bit, it's like two days later, I gotta cut my grass.
4:59
SPEAKER_02: It just grew it, it's amazing how fast it grows.
5:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's wild.
5:02
SPEAKER_02: So had my first uh grass cutting session yesterday of the of the warm months, so that'll continue for a while, but it's hot here.
5:10
SPEAKER_02: We love it.
5:11
SPEAKER_02: Corey, hey buddy.
5:14
SPEAKER_02: How are you?
5:15
SPEAKER_03: Love you, dude.
5:16
SPEAKER_03: Good.
5:17
SPEAKER_03: Uh oh my god.
5:19
SPEAKER_03: It's doing it again.
5:21
SPEAKER_03: It's the NWO entrance, dude.
5:22
SPEAKER_03: That's what it is.
5:25
SPEAKER_03: It's Jezebel.
5:26
SPEAKER_04: Damn it, not again.
5:28
SPEAKER_04: Shout out to Liz Harper.
5:31
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I just mowed too.
5:32
SPEAKER_04: I mowed yesterday.
5:33
SPEAKER_04: I hate it, dude.
5:34
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you motorboating son of a bitch, aren't you?
5:38
SPEAKER_04: I'll I'll hang up, Sean.
5:41
SPEAKER_04: Um, hey, thanks for the week off last week.
5:43
SPEAKER_04: I got some laundry done.
5:45
SPEAKER_04: Thanks for granting me that.
5:46
SPEAKER_02: Hey, but the question is, did you fold the laundry properly, Corey?
5:51
SPEAKER_04: I'll hear about it eventually if I didn't, so probably not.
5:56
SPEAKER_04: Um, all's okay over here.
6:01
SPEAKER_04: Um just dude, I don't even want to go into this, but it just came to mind.
6:07
SPEAKER_04: But uh bro, management is for the birds and managing people sucks.
6:12
SPEAKER_04: I just I hate it, dude.
6:13
SPEAKER_04: Like if if it wasn't it literally just I don't know, like I obviously most people get into management for like financial purposes, I'm sure.
6:21
SPEAKER_04: But some people like get off on fucking being in management and like I'm not one.
6:26
SPEAKER_04: I would I don't want I I'd rather be managed to be honest, but here we are.
6:32
SPEAKER_04: That's how it's it's had its challenges, but um it's just people, it's always personnel, dude.
6:39
SPEAKER_04: People and their bullshit personalities.
6:41
SPEAKER_04: Yep, you know.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: Managing people is is one of the hardest uh careers you get like you know, it just because you do you have to when everything's going wrong or or some things are going wrong, you have to go in and put on like the happy face, the company man face while also still trying to relate with those people at the same time, you know.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: And then you know, when you when you have people that unfortunately like are just there for a check and really don't give a shit about the job, that makes your job that much harder.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it is, it's it's very, very tough.
7:19
SPEAKER_04: I don't yeah, like, and that's why like I I honestly would go into specifics if I could even know where to start, but I just I don't but uh no I agree.
7:28
SPEAKER_04: I I should probably take a course, dude.
7:31
SPEAKER_04: There's something I should do something because uh it's the one thing I'm I'm I'm just not great at.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: But I don't know about your specific situation.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: One thing, one thing I I do always try to do, having uh managed a lot of different in a lot of different career fields I've I've been in management in and like one thing I always really f like strive for and focus for is like to let the people working under me know that that I will never ask them to do something that I'm not willing to do myself.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: And I think that that helps because the whole goal is you you really want to people to want to work for you, you know, and and not have to be like, oh, I gotta come work for this dickhead again today, you know.
8:14
SPEAKER_04: I feel like I'm really good at not like pushing boundaries and stuff like that when it but I'm dealing with a whole lot I can put it, I can put it like this.
8:24
SPEAKER_04: I'm dealing with a whole lot of uh that's not my job.
8:28
SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
8:29
SPEAKER_04: And like I and I'm and I the rock in the hard place is somewhere between well it is now and yeah, I get it.
8:40
SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
8:40
SPEAKER_04: Like I get that you haven't been asked to do this yet, but now it's part of your job.
8:46
SPEAKER_04: And that it's kind of difficult to lay on some people that are already working very hard.
8:50
SPEAKER_04: Like it's not about working hard, but and then it's also about like, hey, um I don't know, like I don't want to like I don't want to come off as like their parent.
9:00
SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
9:01
SPEAKER_04: Like, whereas to my kids, I'd be like, hey, you're not gonna speak to me like that.
9:05
SPEAKER_04: And like nobody's like disrespected me, like, but but like you know, the attitude of that's not my job pisses me off.
9:13
SPEAKER_04: So I get disrespected by it, if that makes sense, which is probably that's and that's why I don't react.
9:20
SPEAKER_04: Because I'll probably react poorly if I do in the moment, but you know what I mean?
9:25
SPEAKER_04: That kind of shit.
9:26
SPEAKER_02: You've also only been doing it for like a few weeks now, man.
9:28
SPEAKER_02: Like, give yourself a little time to like really lay step into it.
9:32
SPEAKER_02: I I I manage for a long time the food and beverage industry, and I can tell you that we always had to take classes and seminars and trainings about leadership and management.
9:43
SPEAKER_02: And guess what?
9:44
SPEAKER_02: They all suck, they're all stupid, like corporate-based training stuff.
9:49
SPEAKER_02: I learned on the job by making mistakes.
9:52
SPEAKER_02: I learned from my boss, who was like, I took over his position when he got bumped up, you know what I mean?
10:00
SPEAKER_02: And he was my like third in command.
10:03
SPEAKER_02: He was my boss.
10:03
SPEAKER_02: We had him and two others above him.
10:06
SPEAKER_02: So I got to know him in that role first, and then like they eliminated the middle person and bumped him up to food and beverage manager, and I was the dining room supervisor.
10:17
SPEAKER_02: I learned from him.
10:18
SPEAKER_02: I learned on the job, I learned on the go, I learned by making mistakes, um, not by like sitting at a computer or listening to trainings or like these like stupid corporate policies and stuff.
10:30
SPEAKER_02: But the one big thing I learned from him that I always took with me was I guess two things was one, like even if I don't think I'm coming off like an asshole, if somebody's perceiving me being rude or asshole, whatever, then obviously there's something you know, I have to be careful of that because like Greg, you know, in the in the service industry, it's fast paced, it's go, go, go.
10:51
SPEAKER_02: I don't have time to be like, oh, please, thank you so much for bringing water to table four, even though I know it wasn't yours.
10:58
SPEAKER_02: Such a good job.
10:59
SPEAKER_02: It's like, hey, water to table four.
11:02
SPEAKER_02: I need it now.
11:02
SPEAKER_02: Go.
11:03
SPEAKER_02: It's like bam, and it's it's just the way the industry is that.
11:06
SPEAKER_02: And um, if I do have to critique someone or criticize or give feedback, always end that on a positive note.
11:16
SPEAKER_02: If I gotta lay into them a little bit, you lay into them off the top, and I finish with something positive.
11:21
SPEAKER_02: That's like one of the biggest things I've ever learned, you know what I mean?
11:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: So and and it, you know, obviously privately is is best for that praise in public, discipline in private, you know.
11:32
SPEAKER_02: Right.
11:32
SPEAKER_02: Right.
11:32
SPEAKER_02: That was yeah, not doing it in front of other people, yeah.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think the big thing, dude, is is like Sean says, kind of like what I did last week, but uh but no like you gotta you you're if you're coming into this thing, which you are, and whether or not you you could be overqualified for the job that you have right now, but just based off the fact of you're coming into a company where people have already worked there for X amount of time, so it's almost it sucks because you do like I've been in this position where like you have to prove yourself to your subordinates first.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: And I don't even like calling people subordinates, team members, whatever you want to call them, you know what I'm saying?
12:16
SPEAKER_00: Um and and that sucks, you know.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: But that that's why I kind of strive for that whole thing of like, hey, I'm I'll never hey if if the bathroom needs cleaned and nobody's around to clean it, I'll clean the freaking bathroom.
12:29
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
12:30
SPEAKER_00: Like whatever needs to be done just to make everybody's work life easier, you know.
12:37
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
12:37
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so it's uh it's gonna be a process.
12:41
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you'll be alright, man.
12:42
SPEAKER_04: Give it some time.
12:43
SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
12:44
SPEAKER_04: I'm I'm blessed and grateful though, because dude, I was I was at a uh I was at a detox well uh treatment center of sorts on Wednesday and I just uh you know how you just talk and things come out of your mouth and stuff, and and I said uh something to the effect of how I've gotten promoted to management in most of my jobs that I've been in sobriety, and I was like anything but management material before that and uh which you know from the outside looking at like that's like an obvious statement, because like okay, well you're a heroin addict, of course you weren't management material, but like no, but I was also like flawed out the ass with terrible qualities, you know, that would never get me promoted into anything.
13:29
SPEAKER_04: And like through sobriety I learned how to be somewhat decent, apparently.
13:32
SPEAKER_04: Whereas and I think it's a little bit of just blessed, because I manage people that are probably more qualified than me, you know what I mean?
13:40
SPEAKER_04: Technically, on paper and stuff, you know.
13:43
SPEAKER_04: I mean, we're talking to a felon that doesn't have a college degree yet, that works in accounting and a little bit of finance.
13:51
SPEAKER_04: Like I feel blessed in that regard.
13:53
SPEAKER_04: Anyway, let me say one more thing before I shut up.
13:56
SPEAKER_04: Just so I don't forget, um Wednesday, this will air Thursday.
14:02
SPEAKER_04: Wednesday, I just want to give a shout out to my wife, Gabby, for her 10 years of sobriety.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: Ooh, nice.
14:10
SPEAKER_04: Even though she'll never watch this.
14:12
SPEAKER_02: If she makes it to Wednesday.
14:14
SPEAKER_04: I'm working on her.
14:15
SPEAKER_04: I'm working on it, but uh so far she's looking like she might.
14:22
SPEAKER_02: Do you guys remember the time Constantine tried to get his medallion like a week early?
14:28
SPEAKER_02: And there's you guys might he we were at the um an early morning recovery group that we all used to attend pretty frequently, and I was his mentor at the time.
14:38
SPEAKER_02: I guess technically I still am.
14:40
SPEAKER_02: You know, he's in like Uzbekistan or something like that.
14:44
SPEAKER_02: He's back over.
14:45
SPEAKER_02: I saw a picture of the biggest.
14:46
SPEAKER_02: He's back, yeah.
14:46
SPEAKER_02: He's back over.
14:47
SPEAKER_02: He's gonna be there for last time.
14:49
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
14:50
SPEAKER_02: I think it's I think it's just Ukraine, but whatever.
14:52
SPEAKER_02: Um why didn't any of that's good?
14:55
SPEAKER_02: His wife went back with the small baby to get, I think, um, I don't know exactly.
15:01
SPEAKER_02: I think to get some medical and dental because she still has like coverage over there, and I think she just misses her family.
15:08
SPEAKER_02: And anyways, that's beside the point.
15:09
SPEAKER_02: But he's over there.
15:10
SPEAKER_02: He like I saw him at Wall at the Stuart Walmart, which where we see everybody the other day, and he was with David, his you know, older son, and he said he was getting ready to go over there.
15:18
SPEAKER_02: They were already there, they had been there for a few weeks.
15:20
SPEAKER_02: I guess they they don't rent that apartment anymore over here, and he's been just staying with his parents with David in there.
15:27
SPEAKER_02: He's going over there for a few months, and then they're just gonna kind of figure it out from there.
15:30
SPEAKER_02: But um yeah, he tried to get his whatever year medallion like a week early because he was going on the road.
15:39
SPEAKER_02: He's a long-haul trucker, and he didn't tell anybody or ask anybody.
15:43
SPEAKER_02: He just like got up at the end of the recovery group where they do the medallion part and the coins.
15:48
SPEAKER_02: I would take the medallion though, and started walking.
15:50
SPEAKER_02: And I like I happened to be right in his way, and I like stopped and I was like, What are you doing?
15:54
SPEAKER_02: And he's like, Uh, I'm I'm gonna be out of town.
15:57
SPEAKER_02: I was like, You don't get one early, dude.
15:59
SPEAKER_02: Like, you don't get to do that, you know.
16:00
SPEAKER_02: And he was super embarrassed, but I but I mean it's true.
16:03
SPEAKER_02: You can't you can't you can't do that, dude.
16:05
SPEAKER_02: You can't do the early call.
16:07
SPEAKER_02: What if he gets drunk or hit by a bus or something?
16:09
SPEAKER_04: He is currently at an airport.
16:11
SPEAKER_04: So, Sean, I know you don't know anything about Snapchat, probably.
16:15
SPEAKER_04: There's a Snap map, and if you have your location on, people can see where you're at if you're active.
16:20
SPEAKER_04: He is he is dangerously close to Iran.
16:23
SPEAKER_04: I'm just want to put that out there.
16:24
SPEAKER_04: I told you.
16:25
SPEAKER_04: Would you ever go there?
16:26
SPEAKER_04: Why would you go there right now?
16:27
SPEAKER_04: It's crazy.
16:28
SPEAKER_04: But yeah, that's wild.
16:29
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
16:30
SPEAKER_02: Shout out to shout out to our our Russian Ukrainian friend.
16:35
SPEAKER_02: Anyways, um, what else?
16:37
SPEAKER_02: Anything else we want to talk about?
16:38
SPEAKER_02: Anything that we got any anything going on tonight?
16:41
SPEAKER_02: Danny's traveling.
16:42
SPEAKER_02: Danny P safe travels.
16:43
SPEAKER_02: He was at the uh the curb stomping of the Yukon Huskies last night by uh whooped.
16:50
SPEAKER_02: Does that mean they're done?
16:51
SPEAKER_02: St.
16:51
SPEAKER_02: John's.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: No.
16:52
SPEAKER_02: No, it college same thing in like college football, Corey.
16:55
SPEAKER_02: They do conference tournaments.
16:58
SPEAKER_02: So like the ACC, the SEC has their conference, the Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, and you have a conference champion from those, and now they're going into the NCAA March Madness tournament.
17:10
SPEAKER_02: Selection Sunday was tonight.
17:11
SPEAKER_02: I haven't even looked yet.
17:12
SPEAKER_04: So the the Huskies have a shot, is what you're saying.
17:15
SPEAKER_02: Oh, there's still there's still gonna be like a probably what a two-seed now?
17:18
SPEAKER_02: They're gonna come off the one line for sure, Greg, right?
17:20
SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
17:21
SPEAKER_02: But but they'll be like a two or three seed.
17:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they'll still.
17:24
SPEAKER_04: I thought it was a one-and-done type deal.
17:25
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
17:26
SPEAKER_02: No, but it's a big deal.
17:27
SPEAKER_02: St.
17:27
SPEAKER_02: John's has won the conference two years in a row.
17:29
SPEAKER_02: Like it's a it's a big deal.
17:31
SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah, so safe travels to Danny.
17:35
SPEAKER_02: Uh, tonight, guys, this is one of my favorite episodes we do.
17:38
SPEAKER_02: We've done this, I think, at least one other time.
17:41
SPEAKER_02: I know for a fact, one other time.
17:42
SPEAKER_02: I think we've kind of danced around it twice, but tonight is all about prayer and meditation.
17:48
SPEAKER_02: It's all about prayer and meditation.
17:50
SPEAKER_02: It's all about spending that that quiet one-on-one time with our creators, with our gods.
17:55
SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, we're gonna kind of go over what that looks like for each of us and and some different formats that you know, we either we've tried or we've heard, and just uh a whole bunch of things.
18:05
SPEAKER_02: But this is really a um, this is a very, very integral part of the recovery process that I think I can speak for all of us when like most of us didn't do this early on in sobriety.
18:19
SPEAKER_02: It's one of those things that we're told to do, but it like kind of takes some time um and and and then even more time to really make it like a personal uh routine for us.
18:30
SPEAKER_02: But I want to talk about prayer meditation, and I'd like to start um by what does conscious contact mean?
18:41
SPEAKER_02: Right?
18:42
SPEAKER_02: If I say, Corey, conscious contact, what does that mean to you?
18:47
SPEAKER_02: What is that, what kind of emotions does that evoke?
18:50
SPEAKER_02: You and I have talked about this many times over the years, right?
18:52
SPEAKER_02: There's there's a dip, what do we say?
18:54
SPEAKER_02: There's a difference between living in the grace of God and living in conscious contact with our higher powers with God.
19:01
SPEAKER_02: So I want to kick it to you first, Corey.
19:03
SPEAKER_02: What does conscious contact mean?
19:04
SPEAKER_02: Um talk about that a little bit, please.
19:07
SPEAKER_04: I feel like this is a question that I'm not gonna ar articulate well as far as the answer, but so I'll I'll keep it brief, but um it reminds me of a a part in our literature that says that we may not be inspired at all times.
19:23
SPEAKER_04: Um but I think uh with practice and discipline in prayer meditation, I tend to be inspired.
19:32
SPEAKER_04: Um I guess for lack of a better way to put it, like by God more often.
19:39
SPEAKER_04: I uh even at ten years sober, I can have some like terrible ideas um when I'm not when I don't have a consistent prayer meditation life.
19:54
SPEAKER_04: Um and terrible ideas is as small as reacting to something that I shouldn't react to, or maybe it's a bigger decision that I kinda go the other way on, uh you know, whatever it may be.
20:11
SPEAKER_04: It's literally everything in between.
20:13
SPEAKER_04: Um I tend to get along a little better when I'm actively seeking a relationship with my creator, is what you were saying.
20:23
SPEAKER_04: And um I've heard a lot of people talk about like we've all heard this stuff about how like it's you know, we're seeking a relationship with God and like like in any relationship, um you know, you're probably like even in friendships, like I usually talk to you guys more than once a week, you know what I mean?
20:43
SPEAKER_04: Um so it it's something that I have to put effort into and kind of keep the phone lines open with God, you know what I mean?
20:51
SPEAKER_04: Um if that makes that makes sense.
20:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
20:54
SPEAKER_04: Um and then I breathe fresh air, Sean.
21:00
SPEAKER_04: That's what conscious contact is, breathing fresh air.
21:03
SPEAKER_02: That's a great analogy.
21:05
SPEAKER_02: It really is.
21:07
SPEAKER_02: Greg, what about you?
21:08
SPEAKER_02: Conscious contact.
21:08
SPEAKER_02: What does that what does that mean to you?
21:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, our um our relationship with our higher power cannot be a passive one.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: It cannot be reactionary.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: Um we have to put it in, you know.
21:24
SPEAKER_00: We have to put in the work and we have to um, like Corey said, we we have to be the ones to pick up the phone.
21:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
21:31
SPEAKER_00: Um if we're waiting all the time for God to pick up the phone, uh, then that basically amounts to foxhole prayers, right?
21:39
SPEAKER_00: Um I'll I'll steal I'll steal one from the uh from old pastor Brian at church today, but um he was he said so and I'm I'll botch the quote for sure, but just because there is the presence of God, God is not obligated to perform miracles.
21:59
SPEAKER_00: Right.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Um we have to put ourselves in the room.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: We have to be the ones to ask for the help, the daily guidance.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: Whatever we need to to have our cup filled, we have to be the ones to seek that out, right?
22:19
SPEAKER_00: And not just expect it to fall in our laps.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that's what conscious contact is for me, is is when I am not the one picking up the phone.
22:29
SPEAKER_00: Um I find that uh things um definitely start to get a little a little wonky, a little crazy.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: I'm a little bit more irritable, I'm a little bit shorter with those people around me.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: Things don't seem to work as fluidly as they normally do.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: Um, but when I am, uh my life is good.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: And I d and even even if I do have uh complaints per se, they feel you know, it's it's like Corey was talking about, yeah, I could I could sit here and complain all day about my job, but then to turn around and sit here and recognize how blessed I am to have it, you know, and how you know if that's not God working in our lives, I don't know what is, because if we can sit here and and recognize like just from just from a job point of view and a job perspective, hey, there's people that I manage that are probably more qualified than I am for this position, but that's how that's God working in my life, right?
23:25
SPEAKER_00: There's a reason why I'm here in this moment.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I have to believe that that's um in part due to a conscious contact with my creator.
23:37
SPEAKER_02: I think conscious contact is walking around daily, not that it's like always inspired by this, but knowing, even well, I guess maybe that's it.
23:48
SPEAKER_02: Even in the rough times, even when the day is not going good, still knowing in our heart of hearts that God is real, that God is with us, that God is in charge, that everything is gonna be okay, or what we like to say is it already is okay.
24:04
SPEAKER_02: I just haven't realized it yet, right?
24:06
SPEAKER_02: Or that fundamentally all is well, like just having that notion and that feeling day in and day out doesn't mean that I'm like walking on air, like the most spiritual being all the time, um, never making a mistake.
24:20
SPEAKER_02: It just means that, you know, again, even in the tougher days, and when I have made a mistake, knowing that um that God is still in charge, that the captain is on the bridge, so to speak.
24:31
SPEAKER_02: You know, uh Corey, we've talked about this over the years, like something happens in our day and it's like a sign.
24:38
SPEAKER_02: And like, oh my God, that was God, you know, whatever.
24:41
SPEAKER_02: And, you know, you said to me once years ago, you said that, you go, oh, this happened and that happened, and that must have been God, right?
24:47
SPEAKER_02: And then you were like, in the same breath, you were trying to convince yourself that it wasn't God.
24:52
SPEAKER_02: You're like, well, maybe it wasn't, maybe it was just this.
24:54
SPEAKER_02: And you remember what I said to you?
24:55
SPEAKER_02: I was like, it's God if you want it to be God, dude.
24:58
SPEAKER_02: Like, if you choose to see God in the little things, the big things, and everything in between, then that's what it'll be, right?
25:05
SPEAKER_02: But if you if you want to try to come up with an excuse of why it's not, then then you can do that too.
25:10
SPEAKER_02: And it's really, it really just comes down to that choice.
25:13
SPEAKER_02: So knowing that that everything is already all right, that God is in charge and that God's got our back, as long as we continue to do a few simple things, I think is is kind of the simplest version of of uh conscious contact I can have.
25:27
SPEAKER_02: So then that brings me to this.
25:28
SPEAKER_02: I I want to talk about there are many different forms of meditation, right?
25:34
SPEAKER_02: We we've got guided meditation, we've got, you know, uh instrumental music meditation, we've got silent meditation, you have uh Christian-based ones, you have more spirit of the universe-based ones, um, you know, uh music.
25:50
SPEAKER_02: I mean, there's all kinds of stuff, white noise, you know, rain sounds, whatever it is.
25:54
SPEAKER_02: There's so many different kinds.
25:56
SPEAKER_02: Let's talk about each of our current routines and maybe some past routines, or kind of I guess how they've evolved over the years, different things we've tried, what we liked more, what we didn't like, and like kind of how it is today.
26:12
SPEAKER_02: So I'll circle back to Greg.
26:13
SPEAKER_02: What was your beginning stages of meditation, meditative life like?
26:18
SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, and and it was you that introduced me to it.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: It's like because yeah, in in the beginning, it's very difficult to turn your mind off, or not even turn your mind off, but like you know, my mind's racing a million miles a minute in in the in the early months of my sobriety, and so the guided meditations were absolutely what worked for me.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: I love the honest dudes, I love their little, you know, whatever they British or Australian accents that they have.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: Um you know, and and YouTube's chock full of them, Spotify's chock full of them, you know.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: Um, and you can get uh whatever you want on there, you you pick your poison as far as that's concerned.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: But those are absolutely excellent for anyone who is having a difficult time getting into it, a difficult time, um, because you know, I I I had a difficulty maybe um stopping racing thoughts or whatnot, but when I am instructed exactly what to do, when I am instructed how to slow down and breathe properly, and that it's like by the end of it, I'm I'm like almost damn near asleep, and not like in a bad way, like it was boring me, but I'm so calm, yeah.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: You know, and I'm so just I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders that I can carry on about my day um on a good track.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that was and for a long time, that's that's just what I did, you know.
27:50
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then it and it started to evolve from there.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: I started different things.
27:55
SPEAKER_00: Um, our good friend Bill and uh and and you guys know uh our other good friend Luke, um, both were big into Wim Hof for a little while and like the the the Wim Hof breathing.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: It it wasn't necessarily for me, but I gave it a shot and and it was cool.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: Like um, you know, but after a little while I was like, ah, this this really isn't it.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: Um and now what I do, um, I we talked about it uh you know a couple weeks ago, but like I I get up very, very early in the morning.
28:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, I hit the gym and then I go to work.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: So when I do get up, I I try very carefully, um, as as large as I am to tiptoe around the house so that I'm not waking up the other members of the house.
28:39
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not really um gonna do necessarily a meditation right here when I wake up.
28:45
SPEAKER_00: Um so what I'll do is I'll I'll get in the car and a lot of the times I'll drive to the gym and then I'll just chill in the parking lot for 10-15 minutes, and that's when I'll put it on.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: I'll either, and I do.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: I like sometimes it's just instrumental, sometimes just like classical music will get me there, you know, or or something like uh, you know, a violin, a nice violin or something like that.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: I really like that.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: I'll still do guided meditations, I will still do um there's some cool um Buddhist stuff on YouTube that's very, very cool if you can get into it.
29:18
SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, there's there's just a lot of stuff, and then there are sometimes I find, especially when stuff is weighing heavy, especially when, like you were talking about, going through a rough patch, a rough couple of days, or whatever the case may be, sometimes silence, you know, sometimes a prayer a prayer for the day, right?
29:40
SPEAKER_00: God, I need your help.
29:41
SPEAKER_00: God, this is what you know, help help me be what you would have me be today, but this is a specific situation that I need your help on, and then just maintaining silence.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: Maintaining silence, working on my breathing, and letting the answer come to me.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: Um works very well.
29:58
SPEAKER_04: What about you, Corey?
30:01
SPEAKER_04: There's there's like there's so much to say on this on this topic.
30:05
SPEAKER_04: Um and real quick, I I want to add in just going back to the conscious contact thing for a moment, what I didn't say about when we are inspired.
30:17
SPEAKER_04: I can at least speak for myself, dude.
30:18
SPEAKER_04: The negative self-talk I give myself in my head is outrageous sometimes.
30:24
SPEAKER_04: Outrageous.
30:25
SPEAKER_04: Like, and it burns up energy, dude.
30:28
SPEAKER_04: It's exhausting to like think about how bad you suck at things constantly, right?
30:35
SPEAKER_04: And rare meditation keeps that shit at bay.
30:37
SPEAKER_04: I'm not even lying, you know what I mean?
30:39
SPEAKER_04: I mean you guys know, but it's almost like magic.
30:43
SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
30:44
SPEAKER_04: Like that's the best way I can put it.
30:46
SPEAKER_04: Um because it then it it you still have moments, of course, but like man, I can tell myself I suck I suck at things I know I'm great at.
30:56
SPEAKER_04: Which like I don't know.
30:58
SPEAKER_04: It's just it's crazy.
31:00
SPEAKER_04: Um anyway.
31:04
SPEAKER_04: As far as like dude, I fr from whenever I was introduced which I was really same thing, Sean, I was really you really introduced me to it for the most part.
31:13
SPEAKER_04: My mentor beforehand, like kinda glazed over meditation kinda, and um it was kinda probably a disservice for him and I, you know.
31:25
SPEAKER_04: Um I mean he he definitely I don't know.
31:28
SPEAKER_04: He just didn't uh he didn't emphasize it much, is what I'll say.
31:32
SPEAKER_04: Um but I I do remember one of the like one of the first times I talked to you, Sean, and um I I brought a problem to you, I believe, and I can't remember how I phrased it exactly, but something wasn't going well in my life, and the first thing you said was, Well, what's your meditation life look like?
31:51
SPEAKER_04: And I was like, Oh yeah, not happening at all.
31:53
SPEAKER_04: And um you said, Well start there, and you know, so on and so forth.
31:58
SPEAKER_04: But so it really hasn't I gotta be like it hasn't evolved much from what it was back then.
32:04
SPEAKER_04: Um maybe that's because I like fall off of it so often that I just get back to the stuff I know, which is quite literally usually a reading and typically it's out of the Emmett Fox book that we've talked about many times on this podcast.
32:22
SPEAKER_04: Followed by um you know, about ten minutes of a guided meditation off of YouTube or something like that.
32:28
SPEAKER_04: I I do kind of bounce around between one of I mean one of my favorite things is just like piano instrumentals because I think the piano is such a lovely instrument and yeah, I think that can just be very soothing.
32:42
SPEAKER_04: Um you know, as far like I used to say, like like Greg said it too.
32:47
SPEAKER_04: I think we all say, like, oh I can't I can't sit still for that long, or I can't um you know, I can't turn my mind off or whatever.
32:55
SPEAKER_04: And uh eventually you like kind of realize like then don't turn your mind off.
33:01
SPEAKER_04: Like it's not about like turning your mind off necessarily.
33:03
SPEAKER_04: In fact, most guided meditations will tell you to acknowledge the thoughts you're having.
33:08
SPEAKER_02: And think about this if we had the power to turn our own minds off, we would we would be way more powerful than we are.
33:15
SPEAKER_02: We probably could keep ourselves from drinking and getting high, and keep ourselves from doing many other things which we are not powerful enough to do.
33:24
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and some days some days I'm very present in my meditation and I don't have as many distractions.
33:31
SPEAKER_04: One of the last ones I did, I was not there at all.
33:34
SPEAKER_04: And I just kind of made myself sit there for 10 minutes and just get through it, because ultimately it's in the discipline of doing the meditation that benefits.
33:45
SPEAKER_04: Um but yeah, dude, I mean one of my favorite mornings, uh Sean threw on some John Denver instrumentals.
33:52
SPEAKER_04: That was cool.
33:54
SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
33:55
SPEAKER_04: Like it's very, very simple, you know.
33:57
SPEAKER_04: I I've heard a lot of people talk about how like they get their meditation at the gym or whatever, and that's all well and good, and I can't even speak on any of that, but I I do I do believe that it it should be a carved out few minutes of your morning um somewhere.
34:12
SPEAKER_04: I will also say this too, I want to mention this because I it might be saving my ass um today is that I used to have a a notion in my head that it was like if you didn't meditate within the first like half hour of your day, like screwed the pooch.
34:32
SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
34:32
SPEAKER_04: Like we we had a friend named Brian that used to talk about how every day you wake up with untreated alcoholism and there's basically a gun to your head and then you say a prayer and you know the hammer gets uncocked and then you meditate and then the gun gets lowered and that kind of thing.
34:50
SPEAKER_04: Which is which I agree with to to a large extent.
34:54
SPEAKER_04: Um but I'll also say like it doesn't we don't have to be so hard on ourselves either, I don't think.
35:01
SPEAKER_04: Um we have some literature that says on awakening we think about the 24 hours ahead or whatever.
35:07
SPEAKER_04: Um I used to take on awakening very literally and it just like I'll get down on myself if I don't adhere to something like that.
35:16
SPEAKER_04: And yeah, somewhere along the way, Sean, I was actually telling your wife this a few weeks ago.
35:21
SPEAKER_04: Somewhere along the way, I was talking about that to you, and you were like, I mean, Catherine does it later, like just get it done.
35:29
SPEAKER_04: And it's quite literally, and like I had a trainer once that told me, like, hey, I don't give a shit when you do your cardio, just make sure it happens, you know?
35:37
SPEAKER_04: That kind of stuff.
35:38
SPEAKER_04: So I agree with that entirely today.
35:40
SPEAKER_04: I do make sure that it's in the morning.
35:43
SPEAKER_04: Uh I also do a nightly inventory.
35:47
SPEAKER_04: Sorry, it's interesting.
35:50
SPEAKER_04: Um I also do a nightly inventory, but I do make sure that uh it's relatively soon after I drop the kids off from school.
35:57
SPEAKER_04: That's what works for me.
35:59
SPEAKER_04: And that's it.
36:02
SPEAKER_02: I uh I'm with you on that.
36:05
SPEAKER_02: I was told to meditate early on, didn't think people were serious.
36:10
SPEAKER_02: Same thing like getting on my knees to pray.
36:12
SPEAKER_02: I didn't think it was a serious thing.
36:14
SPEAKER_02: I didn't, I just didn't know.
36:15
SPEAKER_02: Uh I went to a meditation meeting on Sunday nights early on in my recovery because the guy that owned my half or managed my halfway house wouldn't let me go to the young people's recovery group where there were pretty girls and people my age that I thought were having fun and I wasn't able to go.
36:38
SPEAKER_02: And I am so grateful for that now, and I have been for many, many years because I got to be around some awesome, awesome old timers, some awesome people that legitimate like everything you guys just talked about that you told me I taught you or said to you or mentioned to you, I learned from these guys, right?
36:57
SPEAKER_02: I learned the whole like don't try to calm, don't try to stop your mind from wandering.
37:01
SPEAKER_02: You're not that powerful.
37:03
SPEAKER_02: If your mind's wandering, let it wander in any direction it wants.
37:06
SPEAKER_02: Um, that'll that'll subside over time.
37:09
SPEAKER_02: They were right.
37:10
SPEAKER_02: They told me that it wasn't the it wasn't the benefits of what I was going to get out of meditation, or it wasn't the the results of what I was gonna get out of meditation that was the benefit.
37:21
SPEAKER_02: The benefit was the of the discipline and just practicing it on a daily basis, right?
37:26
SPEAKER_02: Having that discipline to do it on a daily basis and and and is what you know pleases my God more than actual like levitation or floating around, which you know I still haven't levitated.
37:38
SPEAKER_02: I hope to one day.
37:39
SPEAKER_04: That's such bullshit.
37:40
SPEAKER_04: I've seen it.
37:41
SPEAKER_02: I've hoped to one day.
37:42
SPEAKER_02: Greg, you said it though, that whole like falling asleep, but in the best possible way.
37:47
SPEAKER_02: The best way I can describe it, when I'm really tuned in and I have a great meditation session, that moment when I'm in when you're in bed and you can you're not fully asleep, but like you can feel your body and yourself starting to fall asleep.
38:02
SPEAKER_02: You're like in that in-between phase, how good that feels.
38:05
SPEAKER_02: I get that not every day when I meditate, but pretty like a good amount of time, and it is the most wonderful feeling in the world because I am at that heart rate's good, everything's good.
38:17
SPEAKER_02: Um I started mine hasn't evolved too much either, Corey, to be honest with you.
38:23
SPEAKER_02: And that's mostly because like life is busy as shit, and I don't have an hour in the morning to do this stuff.
38:30
SPEAKER_02: You know, I don't have a full hour.
38:32
SPEAKER_02: I love there's some weekends and some days where I do have like 20 to 30 minutes, but some days it's it's 10, 15 minutes, 20 minutes tops, and that's that's how most days are.
38:43
SPEAKER_02: But um I will say that I started regularly meditating, either just before I think just before my one year of sobriety.
38:52
SPEAKER_02: I really started to to make it a point to do it every day, and I haven't, obviously, over the years, but I I would say like, and it's been a lot of years now, I've been more on the side of doing it and practicing some sort of meditation in the morning way more often than not for many, many years.
39:11
SPEAKER_02: And I've gone months, months with making sure I meditate every single day and not missing a day.
39:18
SPEAKER_02: And then there's some days that happen and stuff happens and vacations or just wake up late here and there.
39:23
SPEAKER_02: But like I've gone, you know, I've put months together where I haven't missed a day.
39:28
SPEAKER_02: And today, um, I've done all of them.
39:31
SPEAKER_02: We talked about it, the guided, the instrumental, still have those John Denver instrumentals on my YouTube favorites, like still listen to them sometimes.
39:38
SPEAKER_02: I have a bunch of stuff.
39:39
SPEAKER_02: I've gotten into some, I've found myself into some wild, wild territory with meditations.
39:44
SPEAKER_02: And like currently, I'm I do an Emmett Fox reading.
39:48
SPEAKER_02: I still read Emmett Fox every single day.
39:50
SPEAKER_02: I sometimes I read the Daily Reflections, um, another book sometimes as well, but I do Emmett Fox every single day.
39:57
SPEAKER_02: And right now, guys, I have been listening to the Gospel of Matthew on audio tape as my meditations.
40:05
SPEAKER_02: Um, and and most of what Emmett Fox writes is based on the book of Matthew, the Gospel of Matthew.
40:11
SPEAKER_02: I it was in one of his meditations the other day, like read Matthew chapter 21, whatever it was, and it was like really long, and I was lazy and I didn't want to read it, so I just put it on.
40:21
SPEAKER_02: I have this app that I just I can hit, I can either read it or just hit the volume button and it and there's this very, very calming male voice uh that sounds like he's from King Arthur or the Round Table comes on and narrates the Bible for me.
40:36
SPEAKER_02: And it's been wonderful because the gospel is mostly about what Jesus taught and his teachings and the parables he used and you know, all that stuff.
40:45
SPEAKER_02: So I lay flat on my floor.
40:47
SPEAKER_02: I have a blanket and a small pillow.
40:50
SPEAKER_02: I lay flat on my back, either on in my room or in the kids' rooms, depending on who's home and whatnot.
40:56
SPEAKER_02: And yeah, I do it after I take the kids to school, Corey.
40:58
SPEAKER_02: That's the when my house is the quietest, and it's a wonderful thing.
41:01
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I do it after I take the kids to school and before I wake the baby up um in the morning, and it's it's fantastic.
41:08
SPEAKER_02: It's fantastic.
41:08
SPEAKER_02: So and I have some other stuff I do when it's cold out, sometimes on the weekends when I have more times and I have my sage and I do some stuff like that.
41:16
SPEAKER_02: Um, but it's a wonderful thing, and it is such a huge part of my life, and I take it so seriously, appropriately seriously, you know what I mean?
41:28
SPEAKER_02: Because we shouldn't take ourselves or any of this too seriously.
41:32
SPEAKER_02: But I have to remember that I'm doing these things because my life depends on it.
41:36
SPEAKER_02: And um, so that leads me into the next thing.
41:41
SPEAKER_02: Um, if someone says, we we kind of talked about it already, the whole, oh, I don't know how to meditate, or I can't shut my brain down, or why bother, or I can't sit still?
41:53
SPEAKER_02: What would what would we say to that person early?
41:56
SPEAKER_02: Usually that's a person early in recovery, although we do find some people that have been sober many years that don't meditate.
42:02
SPEAKER_02: What would we say, Corey?
42:03
SPEAKER_02: I'll go to you first.
42:04
SPEAKER_02: What would you say to that person?
42:07
SPEAKER_02: You're mentoring them, they're new, you're you're you're giving them this idea of prayer meditation.
42:12
SPEAKER_02: What would you say to that person if they said something like that?
42:15
SPEAKER_02: Like what would you tell them?
42:16
SPEAKER_04: I'd say there's the door, bucko.
42:20
SPEAKER_00: Ooh, the bucko.
42:21
SPEAKER_04: I love pulling out the bucko.
42:23
SPEAKER_04: Pull that one out right there.
42:25
SPEAKER_04: Um no, we said it.
42:27
SPEAKER_04: Uh I think guided meditations are the easiest thing in the world to do.
42:32
SPEAKER_04: You know, try to try to do what they say or don't.
42:35
SPEAKER_04: Sometimes like it's like don't be too hard on yourself.
42:38
SPEAKER_04: Also, start small.
42:41
SPEAKER_04: If if 10 minutes is actually too much, if you can't stand it, start at five, start at two.
42:49
SPEAKER_04: You know, there's five-minute meditations, there absolutely is, you know.
42:52
SPEAKER_04: Five minute little breathers, you know.
42:53
SPEAKER_04: Um and I mean most of the stuff comes back to your breath anyway.
42:58
SPEAKER_04: Like, I swear, like nine at least 99% of meditations I've listened to start or end or somewhere in there is focusing on your breath, whether it's breathing a certain way or just literally focusing on focusing on your natural breath.
43:13
SPEAKER_04: So do that for 60 seconds.
43:17
SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
43:18
SPEAKER_04: Like something.
43:18
SPEAKER_04: Just start small.
43:19
SPEAKER_04: I think it's yeah, that's the easiest thing to do.
43:22
SPEAKER_02: Tell tell them here's the big thing tell the new person that it's okay, that almost all of us felt like that, and you're no different, and it's okay, and you too can learn to meditate.
43:33
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, right.
43:33
SPEAKER_04: Like I said, I'm at like 10 minutes at 10 years sober, dude.
43:36
SPEAKER_04: Like, I don't do 20.
43:38
SPEAKER_04: Like, maybe I should try, but I don't.
43:40
SPEAKER_04: So yeah.
43:41
SPEAKER_02: Greg, what about you?
43:42
SPEAKER_02: What would you tell that person?
43:43
SPEAKER_02: Any tips or tricks?
43:45
SPEAKER_00: Well, I would I would tell them kind of almost verbatim what Corey just said.
43:49
SPEAKER_00: The only thing I would say to do is hey, when I signed up, uh, when when I uh volunteered to to be this person's mentor, I should have had a conversation.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: with him before this that says you know dude i i'm gonna walk this road with you shoulder to shoulder so i'm gonna do it with them right and that that's the big thing like we'll we'll sit down we'll go we'll find a dark room somewhere it doesn't have to be a dark room we'll go sit outside on a on on the grass you know and and and uh touch grass uh like you know uh so so many of us say but uh you know but we we'll do it together and and we can sit here and talk about um afterwards what did you get out of that was that helpful to you what what were you um still dealing with your mind racing were you having trouble getting centered and then maybe we got to switch it up from there but yeah the the guided stuff is really the the for me anyways it was the easiest way to get into it and you know when I came in here like prayer and meditation were the furthest things from my brain so it's like I needed somebody to teach me how to do that and when that somebody did they did it with me you know um for for you know a good good long chunk of time so absolutely you know we we lead and we lead by example um does and I'm gonna answer this first but does our meditation routines differ let's say on a Tuesday morning as opposed to a Sunday morning or a a Wednesday to a Saturday and and I'll say like sometimes mine do and and and it's not a bad thing.
45:27
SPEAKER_02: For instance today Sundays my my wife doesn't work the kids are home obviously so like during the week if my wife's working and after I take the kids to school there's no one here but me and the baby he's still sleeping so I'll just do it in our bedroom.
45:43
SPEAKER_02: On the days that I take the kids to school and my wife is here she's still sleeping so I'll do it on the kids in Sophia and Grace's bedroom floor I like to lay out in the um I like I said I like to just lay out on the floor.
45:56
SPEAKER_02: On Sundays like for today she's home she's sleeping the kids are here they're usually awake but like they want to go I'm not gonna like kick them out of their own room.
46:05
SPEAKER_02: So I will do it that's when I have my my my front porch sessions you know and I have I did get a nice new screened in front porch I screened in our front porch not too long ago.
46:15
SPEAKER_02: So like um it's just it's lovely.
46:17
SPEAKER_02: It's it's it's still slightly cool out right now you know it's not that bad in the morning the sun's not fully up you know it's just kind of quiet and um so it does look a little different sometimes you know it does and and uh that's sometimes I'll throw on a speaker tape or I'll I'll do a little different in terms of meditation but I always do Miami Fox.
46:37
SPEAKER_02: So does it look different certain days of the week or certain you know just whatever it is.
46:44
SPEAKER_00: Craig go to you first does it look different certain days yeah yeah absolutely um you know like I said the the weekdays are usually they're they're early morning sessions and they a lot of times take place in my car uh you know but yeah during the weekends when when everybody's home and you know uh we got whatever we got going on the TV in the morning and coffee's being made and the kid needs needs his breakfast he needs his bagel and his hot chocolate you know what I'm saying like yeah that's so um a lot of the time yes when it is nice outside I like to go out on the back porch I like to or the back patio you know I got one of those like zero gravity chairs dude I love that freaking thing man and yeah if the sun's beating down it's it's there's no better time you know be be out there in nature you know that's the perfect soaking up around what's that that's the perfect dad chair I know the zero gravity chair I had I gotta get a new one I have it's so amazing dude oh yeah dude um but yeah yeah it differs it differs uh I think uh the again the point is that the action right the action right that's the most important you know we we can we can sit here and and analyze it um till we're blue in the face but are we doing it uh you know some sometimes is it only three minutes long yeah sometimes is it 10 15 20 sure you know um it just it it all it's situationally based I think so yeah yeah I'm looking up zero gravity chairs Corey what about you is it differed certain days of the week is there is there a difference in there and is that okay right is that okay yeah and we touched on it a little bit but yeah I think the most important thing is that we like I said dude I can negative self-talk myself real bad I just said self a lot but uh and and I can get negative about that too like oh my my meditation doesn't look the exact same every day like I'm not being consistent it's just gotta happen that's that's my criteria today is that it happens which doesn't always get met but um it's just gotta happen.
48:54
SPEAKER_04: But yeah um it does if my wife is up and awake when I get home from taking the kids to school sometimes I go hey I'm gonna go take 10 minutes outside but sometimes I sit down and talk to her and it doesn't happen like right away or whatever.
49:11
SPEAKER_04: Um so yeah really just I just I just let it happen man.
49:16
SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
49:17
SPEAKER_04: Like again I I thought I even had a a daily route I had ChatGPT write me up a uh daily routine.
49:25
SPEAKER_04: I gave the I gave it all sorts of criteria and it basically told me in order to get everything now my life has changed since but in order to get everything done I'd have to get up at like 545 in the morning and then immediately start meditating which is a bad idea for me.
49:44
SPEAKER_04: Do you guys agree with this by the way?
49:46
SPEAKER_04: I talked a little bit earlier about like on awakening right that never worked out well for me anyway because other like different from what you guys were talking about about like almost being asleep I will fall back asleep.
49:59
SPEAKER_04: So like it's honestly best for me to get up and do a little bit before meditating because then yeah I don't do mine right I said it already I don't do mine right away.
50:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah but I I also think if we're like specifically a lot of the on awakening is like consider our plans for the day before we begin we ask God to direct our thinking I don't know if it's actually if the telling us yeah go lay down for 10 more minutes and meditate on awakening I think it's just like getting that mind frame in tune with God not thinking about ourselves.
50:30
SPEAKER_04: Yeah it just doesn't say you know we consider our plans for today and then we take our kids to school and then come back.
50:38
SPEAKER_04: So I got that confused but but yeah no I agree.
50:43
SPEAKER_02: But yeah it I mean it's like I said like my trainer once said just do your cardio whenever just get it done that's how I live yeah I'll try to um was there a point that it stopped feeling like a chore and started feeling like a necessity for us and I know for me it was like I said early on in sobriety like I didn't know if they were serious when they were telling me to do this.
51:09
SPEAKER_02: I didn't really understand there was a point probably in year two or three of my sobriety so not super soon where I I I like got it and I was like oh like this is like if I want to ultimately stay alive right because if I if I I slack on this spiritual mode of living I can very easily get drunk again.
51:33
SPEAKER_02: But mine was at like two, three years of sobriety when I realized what a necessity like it's it's non-negotiable you know it has been for many years.
51:40
SPEAKER_02: Greg was it was there a point that you remember in your recovery that it was like that that it became from being a chore to being a necessity or something you had to do?
51:49
SPEAKER_00: Well and then the thing is I don't think it it didn't start out as a chore it started out as a this like a me being so just head spinning like I had to be told these are the things you need to be doing right and so and then I think it started to become a chore uh for lack of a better term when life started to get good again right and then it's like oh man like do I really okay well I missed a day you know whatever it's you know I'm I'm I'm still doing okay you know life's good yada yada yah and and sometimes we can coast on that for a while and I think that's where the necessity comes in for me anyways when I do start to feel like it it's like a chore and I coast on it for a little while and I don't you know put my whole heart and my whole mind and my whole spirit into all of this then things start to get haywire and things start to get rough and sometimes it can happen quickly you know and and where it's not like oh my God I'm gonna run out and uh drink or I'm gonna run out and get high you know but it's it's like you know the how we've already talked about like I start getting real short with people I'm I'm not as good at at my job I'm not as good at my home life my breakfast table uh is is not a a place place of anymore it's a mess.
53:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah so um and then the necessity part comes in and then it's like oh yeah you idiot yeah get back on like what are you doing like why are you messing around with this you know your life goes better when you do it you know you're a more valuable person to the people around you you know um and and and all everything that comes along with that so yeah it it definitely but I would say kind of similar to you it is you know probably about a uh two years in or something like that I would say where again I started coasting on it and then it was like oh yeah dude like you really need this in your life to to straighten you out because this is um this is my North Star right this is this is it for me so I I gotta be honest too like and this is kind of I feel kind of weird saying this but it's the truth is meditation was cool to me like it if and I there was part ego there with like I loved when people would ask if I meditated or what's my meditative routine because I not only did I love sharing it in the hopes of helping someone but I I this is gonna sound really stupid but I thought it made me sound cool and I don't I don't mean that in like a oh I'm so cool like cool cat but like it is kind of a a a a neat thing a cool thing when you like talk to someone and and I've always been very proud of the fact that I practice it um maybe that's more of a better way to say it but I you know when when because you hear I mean how many times do we hear like oh well I pray all the time but I don't meditate or like I haven't meditated in months or whatever the case may be and our our literature and our our recovery material is very clear on how it is.
54:53
SPEAKER_02: So like part of me it felt really good to say that I do and to explain that I do and to talk about it to other people.
55:01
SPEAKER_02: Corey what do you feel what do you how do you like does that make sense?
55:05
SPEAKER_04: Yeah and you know what dude a lot of a lot of our design for living like there's components of it that's for lack of a better way to put it to separate the men from the boys.
55:21
SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
55:24
SPEAKER_04: When because dude it is I don't man I mean you guys know it's so easy to show up to our recovery groups and talk a very good talk because you know some shit and uh there there's a lot of them out there.
55:38
SPEAKER_04: I've been one I mean like it's um you know what I mean probably all have to a degree right but um but it's important not to be that guy it's important to be walking more than you're talking I think um and this is one of those things dude this is one of meditation is one of those things that requires some effort on our part right um it's and it's one of those things that I I would venture to say people are not doing again my myself included often but like people are not doing but they're you know still showing up and maybe they're even helping a lot of guys and stuff maybe you know what I mean maybe they're volunteering to do all the service in the world maybe they're doing a ton of good things but it's like it really is in this way of life I think it's the behind the scenes stuff that gets you the furthest spiritually you know and it eventually shows and eventually shows yeah what what you're doing so um yes I agree what what was your what was the original question?
56:42
SPEAKER_02: It did when did it go from feeling like a chore to being like something we we must do we have to do or better way to put it a working part of the mind a working part of our life just two comments on that one like it becomes not a chore very quickly these days and again I have a lot of experience getting out of it and getting back into it.
57:00
SPEAKER_04: Yeah um I can I can definitely tell you guys that it becomes not a chore faster than going to the gym becomes not a chore.
57:10
SPEAKER_04: In my experience three weeks at the gym then it starts feeling okay again but those three weeks sucks.
57:17
SPEAKER_04: This happens a little faster.
57:19
SPEAKER_04: Yeah um and meditation never really sucks just sometimes it's difficult to get back into the grind of it.
57:25
SPEAKER_04: But like you said like I like what I dude I like what Greg said about it being our North Star that's that was I was thinking like of a way to put it and that's probably the way to put it um the only thing I could come up with is like it centers us.
57:38
SPEAKER_02: You know it centers centers us every day we go out from that position we handle things we do things and we can always retreat back to that moment you know yeah so yeah I like that absolutely I think the bottom line is do it people if you're in recovery even if you're not in recovery and you happen to have you know be listening to this podcast do it it it is one of those things that it it will never ever ever hurt you it can only help and kind of the whole like you know there's no there's no salary cap on how good this thing can get or double down on your spiritual life when things are good double down when they're bad if your life's already pretty good and you feel like you got a good grip on things and things are flowing in a good direction and you're not meditating well congratulations first off but it can only get even better.
58:34
SPEAKER_02: So like who doesn't want it to get even better if you tell me that hey if you do this this will get even better like like we're foolish to say no to that.
58:44
SPEAKER_02: So that's the underpinning thing is just do it.
58:46
SPEAKER_02: Nike is a multi-billion dollar corporation off that simple slogan and it applies to meditation just do it.
58:54
SPEAKER_02: So or die.
58:56
SPEAKER_02: Next week we talk about prayer and I purposely I purposely on accident we kind of only talked about meditation tonight.
59:06
SPEAKER_02: And I think that's actually an okay thing and a good thing because we can really delve in because there's some really cool things about just prayer but keep in mind and I'll repeat this next week this part of our literature says prayer and meditation not prayer or meditation.
59:20
SPEAKER_02: So they have to go together.
59:21
SPEAKER_02: So we'll talk more about that next week thank you guys for everything you shared tonight for being vulnerable as always.
59:28
SPEAKER_02: Shout out to Danny P hope he's traveling safely um shout out to our listeners please like follow and share on all socials at Trudge Report Pod.
59:38
SPEAKER_02: Email us trudgereportpod at yahoo.com send in your mailbag request for questions topics or comments to any of these handles remember we are all here if anyone wants to talk about recovery and our experiences or if you're struggling with some form of addiction thank you again to Janine and Stellamix Podcast Management.
59:56
SPEAKER_02: Good night God bless and may you trudge the road of happy destiny see you next week