Latest / Sorgatron Media Master Feed / Fishing Without Bait 403: Lessons from the Brink
Transcript
- ah welcome to an original podcast of Fishing Without Bait the lifetime without definitive expectations where we help people explode into their lives we're looking for people who want to create their lives rather than find themselves the only admission price is the honesty open mindedness and willingness to try and if you have a few pixie dust sprinkles of those you're on your way welcome aboard let the adventure begin yet again well Mike back in the studio back at it again it's good it's good to be back with it's good to see you I know you've had a tumultuous couple of months here it's good to see you in person not in a hospital and doing the show again yeah yeah well it's uh it's quite interesting uh what's happened the last few months Mike dealing with uh some and I'm not being morbid or I'm not asking for sympathy here three fairly close brushes with death the last one was a was a song knocking Knocking on Heaven's Door that was that was interesting and then dealing with a pneumonia and then dealing with sepsis which is a game changer but you know what I was never afraid at all had no fear at all and you know as a behavioral health therapist I often ask people about their fear of death because it comes up so often they have a they have a tremendous fear of death they don't know what's on the other side and they're they're afraid to leave this realm you have anybody like that in your life I think you're looking at somebody like that I mean I've had my own kind of anxieties a little bit like generally I'm pretty okay but every once in a while the mind starts wandering and and you start thinking about it and going you know and have some anxiety about it right um but no absolutely and and and and the way I kind of envision it uh as much like I think anything in life is I feel like I feel like it's gonna be in my mind it's like a roller coaster you don't know what's on the other side of that hill and that anxiety of climbing that first hill is the toughest part but once you go you you go and you're not even thinking about the hill you climbed that's correct most people in some elderly people that I visited nursing homes live a lifetime of regret absolutely regretting that what they did do and regretting what they didn't okay and wishing that they could have made amends to somebody or talk to them one more time um however uh I think I've enough people know my sobriety date now I've been clean and sober over 25 years so in that time I work through these 12 steps of behavioral change I developed every relationship and continue to add with a higher power of my own choice the universe energy whatever whatever you want to call it so it gives you a grounding place it gives you a center then we go to making a inventory we do our resentments our fears in our sex inventory and we admit all of our defects in our faults to this higher power and we try to give them away we have to do that a number of times so then what we do is we make a list of all persons we had harmed and becoming immense make amends to them all okay and the whole idea here is to have no resentments no resentments left no no no bad feelings at all no judgements you deal with what's right in front of you you accept people and this is the big part of it for give them all so if you've cleaned up your side of the street you're prepared okay and you've talked to the people you needed to talk to you you've gotten rid of your resentments you've forgiven people even if you have to do it every day so I'm not suggesting that I'm looking forward to uh the next adventure however uh I'm not volunteering but uh I'm okay I think that's it that's been a big shift for me as well because um you know I you know I I I kind of I kind of lament that the only the only time that I think to talk to a higher power is when I'm getting on a plane about to take off uh so I'm not like I'm not like you know as uh uh concerned as I used to be getting on a plane cause you know when I started back in like 2016 on all these trips like I had some anxiety right well that's natural yeah absolutely so so there's a lot of you know there's a lot of stuff that goes on the back of my head is like well if uh if if um if I'm taken today uh you know I had a good run you know it goes through my head a lot these days and I really believe that especially after last several years I've had a lot of great experiences made a lot of great friends met a lot of great people I and I hope made a positive impact in some some some way well you're making memories and what people remember about you is is your qualities your true strength your talents and abilities wouldn't it be nice when you've crossed into the next world of people remember you as a really nice guy and a man of integrity told the truth yeah that's what people want to remember you by absolutely you know what do people remember Abraham Lincoln for being an honest Abe being a man of integrity yep that's what that's what they remember him by you know a couple things just to bring up briefly I mean I've talked to Billy about the podcast my story little priest you know once told me the creator from his terms god talks to everybody very few people listen very few people listen yep so I remember one time a number of years ago when I had had a tremendous disappointment I had someone in my life really let me down before this venture was supposed to start which we had all wrapped up and one of the key players in it the night before it was to start called me and told me that they backed out and they went with someone else hmm I was angry of course I was resentful and I one day in the afternoon a I was doing therapy but I was not in a good space to do it so I'm a Quaker but I was a little further away from the meeting house down on Ellsworth Avenue here in Pittsburgh so I went to the mosque which was close and I sat in there and I remember this old man come up to me and he said you look troubled brother and I said yes I am and he said give your real emotional cause these are significant moments in my life and he he said give your troubles to Allah he has broad shoulders and big hands and then he hugged me and excuse me about this but then that resentment vanished cause I let it go it was no longer that important to me and we talked before Mike on this program about what's important and I'd like everybody out there to find out what's important to them and this isn't all about me but this is just this is just facts but it is this is the next this is the next point of your story that is gonna inform cause this is you know this is you know your experiences cause not everybody has has let has dealt with this right excuse me um not everybody has has has gone has no nobody's walked the path that you have right and and you're relaying your experiences to hopefully help somebody through uh uh what they're going through and then this is important Jim on Christmas Day I received a message from a former patient that had told me that they were two and a half years clean and they thank me for being kind and compassionate to people in addiction and after that I realized I still got work to do I was pulled back those number of times for a reason yep there's something left to do you're not done yet however I cannot attack life like a hammer anymore so I have to call my shots and do and do the next right thing so you know here we are approaching the New Year and we've talked before how resolutions set you up for failure and disappointment and we've been reviewing some of the old podcast talking about that as well and as people are listening to this I think they're probably already hopefully ever their New Year's resolution set and they've just celebrated hello 2024 so as part of um being a contributor patron of uh Fishing Without Pay I have a number of uh power points that I did and when I was with Sinclair to show and my groups and one of them is on resolutions versus intentions so as part of the benefits of being a patriot and going a little bit deeper into our world that would that's a that's a plus that's a bonus bonus feature for everyone is that is that your resolution is more content for the patron it's my intention your intention yes absolutely absolutely not a resolution intention you have no idea how much I use intention uh with things I never say I'm going to do something like my intention that this is what it was what is gonna happen when I deal with patients I asked him to incorporate the words I choose into their life it's my intention or when they wrong somebody just tell them that wasn't my intention to cause you harm or make you feel bad my deepest regrets and then you don't do it again uh huh uh huh so it's all about you know the Abracadabra deal all the things we've talked about I create what I speak I speak what I create and so we change our patterns of life you know and understand that a little deeper dive into 12 step philosophy is that we own nothing it is shared with us we're shared this world and it can be taken away too so what's important is to participate in the moment observe label and describe and participate in what you're doing be fully immersed in experience rather than we've talked about time traveling 150 times but however most people are time travelers please don't time travel in the New Year be right here and be right now be in 2024 with your friends and family every day it's like in the 12 step world we talk about you don't have to stay clean and sober for a week or forever all you have to do is stay clean and sober right now and that's a choice so what happens was when you begin to develop self concept and self esteem you develop choices and you empower yourself most people don't feel empowered which is why the reason that most people fear death because they haven't empowered themselves participate in a moment and it all goes back to the most fundamental emotion that you and I've talked about countless times and that's fear most people do fear to die Mike most people fear to go on an interview hahaha but against again it's getting over that hump it's getting over that first hill on the roller coaster once you're there once you're through the door you're not even thinking about that path that got you there it's identifying the fear what are you afraid of let's check the facts what do I know for sure what does anyone know about to be on the next world crossing over whatever you wanna call it so the point is is to keep doing the next right thing right now to know the difference between right and wrong to have a moral compass that be a person that people know are dependable and always tell the truth always tell the truth and treat people with courtesy and respect I found it in the hospitals that if you treat people with courtesy and respect you generally get the same so I spent a lot of time in the hospital talking about tattoos because the nurses would come in the doctors would come in especially this hand ink and what you know what the most common question I was asked did hurt yes and I said yes it did very much so I'm sure you continue to be a favorite I got to see that when you were in the couple months ago got to see a star amongst the nurses and doctors yeah well it's the handling that sets it apart a lot of people have tattoos very rarely do you see somebody with hand absolutely so live your life put your own imprint on I put my own imprint on my life not only by my words and actions but deeds of these tattoos all of them mean something and we hope that in this New Year that we gain some more listeners and help people gain a deeper understanding of their own life and and encourage you if you haven't gained a lot out of the show when we do have the patron we know not everybody has the means of course those that do thank you so much that do um but you know just sharing the show sharing it with a friend share an episode that really kind of uh hit home for you and and and saying hey maybe this will help you wrap your head around what's going on in your life you know this helped me with something I could we know we are out there we know that we know I know Jim's gotten the messages I know this helps how much has helped me just being a part of this over the last several I think I said when you walked in the door well we have over 400 episodes there's something for someone absolutely and it's been really fun to go through the archives over the last month that you've been unfortunately away but there's been it's just like wow we're not out of content and and maybe people haven't heard the version of the message from like you know episode 3 70 you know 200 when we're here at 4 o 4 0 something you know so you know we might be a we might be a a small podcast in terms of audience however we're not small on experience absolutely and experience translates into wisdom so we go along life and we we pick up wisdom we pick up positives and that's a lot like we talk about and it's been my pleasure to be associated with you for over the last 10 years we've I think we've we have something here I think that's a kind of a hidden gem so hopefully we can expose it to people not for our greater glory Mike not for ours not me and you's because fame all we wanna do is we wanna make an impact on people's lives that's what we're supposed to do we're supposed to carry the message and that's what we try to do with this podcast so if you have any comments or suggestions if you'd like to share your recovery story please contact us we've had some awfully interesting um tragic cases that turned out well because we want when we talk about recovery we want to talk about the solution we want to talk about what they did about it and all these people who've been our recovery podcast share that with you and if you choose to you can pick up on some of that and incorporate it in your own life so as at the end of every podcast we offer a free prescription that you can cash with me anytime fruits nuts and vegetables unplug your television and take up fishing and for a truly mindful experience we suggested you fish without bait do a kindness for another do a kindness for yourself forgive another and forgive ourselves if we're all not the creator's children none of us are Namaste my friends until we meet again it's good are we done recording yep okay