Latest / Wanzology / The Healing Two-Step
Transcript
- The Healing Two-Step Man! Oh man-oh man-oh man!!! Man oh-man! Oh man!! Oh man!! How you doing? Welcome to another episode of WANZOLOGY!!! I am your host, The Wanz welcoming you to another Wednesday and if it's not Wednesday when you're listening to this, well, it's either gonna be Wednesday or it was Wednesday. You just either haven't gotten there yet or you missed it. It has nothing to do with me. So, how's your year going so far? Hmm. Almost finished the first month of 2026 right here and I'm happy to say that I am healing. Healing. What am I healing from? Eh, you'd have to find another episode to figure that out, but I just wanted to let you know, I figured out that there is a two step process for me that facilitates healing. Now, when I say healing, I mean if I do these two things, I feel better inside and out instead of inside or out. Big difference!!!! What's the first thing? Well, glad you asked. The first healing step is basically really easy, is simple. The first step to healing is be nice to yourself, treat yourself, do things that you like to do. Eat things that you like to eat, go places you like to go, preferably by yourself. Why? Well, because if you are going somewhere and doing something that you like, the odds are pretty good you're gonna feel good about it and you won't be thinking about the other stuff. Yes, it's distraction. I realize that, but you know, we're intelligent people, just not always that smart as a person. Feelings change. Remember the last time you were hungry, you felt like you really needed to eat, or you were thirsty and really needed some liquid refreshment? Remember? Remember that time that you waited a long time before you ate and it felt like it was never gonna happen. Two minutes after you started eating, you didn't feel like that anymore, and that feeling stopped. Well, if you're in a state of healing like I am, you have to recognize and then remember that when you do things you like to do, you feel a certain way and that certain way is better than how you used to feel, you feel me? The idea of doing nice things for yourself, treating yourself with TLC, treating yourself to happy things, very beneficial. Very, very, very beneficial because you can change that. You can change the way that you feel, just like if you were hungry or thirsty or tired, you can change a feeling, but you can't, well, I can't say you can't. I would say that it wouldn't be advised to stay in that feeling. For me, it's like standing out in the rain without a jacket or an umbrella or a hat. Who does that? And I don't mean like your warm tropical rain, I mean your cold, drippy, drippy, depressing rain! Just standing there getting soaked, feeling horrible. Who does that and why? I'd rather be wrapped up in a blanket in front of a nice, cozy fire. In the dark, watching the light flicker against the walls and how it changes and at those kind of moments, I remind myself, “I get to do this. I don't have to. I get to.”, I get to do these things that make me happy. For me, it's really easy. If I want to get happy, find some music. Either on my phone or the best for me is live music. All week I look for live music to go see, because I really like going to see live music and I always come out feeling different than when I went in. I know what to do. If I'm feeling crappy, I'll think, “You know, I remember Saturday nights, sometimes mom would make baked beans with hot dogs in it and just pour it over rice, and it was the best thing ever!” So I make it because I'm worth it, because I like it. No other reason. If I'm feeling down in the mouth about something, I really, really try to do something I like. For me, that's been the best medicine for changing how I feel. So the second thing is a little bit more, I don't know how to put it. It's just a little, it's very simple step, very and it summed up in something that I heard in one of my recovery meetings a while ago, “There's a reason that the windshield is bigger than the rear-view mirror. There is a reason the windshield is bigger than the rear-view mirror.”. Have you ever noticed that the things that you see in the windshield coming at you. They tend to get bigger as they get closer and in the rear-view mirror, it's just the opposite. The farther you get away from whatever it is, the smaller it gets. Well, some introspection has taught me. That's what happens in life. There are situations that I went through in 2002. You know what? They don't affect me like they did when I was going through'em. There are experiences I went through in elementary school. Not very pleasant ones either, but when I recall them, they're way back there and they're kind of small. Here's the weird part for me, they still feel the same. I still feel. I can recall how I felt, but what I do realize is that it's way, way back there, not where I'm at, and it's definitely not where I'm going. Healing takes time. Time takes time. I don't think I'd be as successful at navigating my future without having some kind of handle on or understanding of my past, and if you're driving a car, you can't just drive looking out the windshield, you have to look to the sides and rear view and blind spots. I mean, you never know where anything is gonna come at you from, so you gotta be ready. Well, if you can do it when you're driving, why can't you do it in your life? Why can't you do it in your day to day, which is always broken into hours, which are always broken into minutes, and then seconds? At any given moment, you can take stock of or enhance your awareness of where you are and what you need or don't need, where you need to go or where you don't need to go, what you need to do or what you don't need to do. Yep. I'm pretty convinced this two-step process is the ish!! Meaning so far in my existence, it has worked every bloody time. I am not saying it's foolproof, but for me, sometimes it takes me a while to get there, but still, every single time that I do get there, I start doing something that makes me feel better, followed by reflection of when I did it before or felt like I did before, followed by more reflection, followed by what's next. What do I gotta do? What's coming? Windshield, bigger. It's getting bigger! Whatever it is, it's getting bigger! It's coming at me! Gotta do something!!! I'm not sure what it is yet, but I'm gonna do something. Gotta keep moving forward. That's step two. You just have to pay attention. Remember, pops always used to say, “Never be so broke, you can't pay attention.” So healing, everybody has to go through it and you may not be in a space where you need it right now. I'm not saying that you are. I tend to share about the things that I'm going through, under the assumption you have or will be in a similar position, you'll be going through a similar experience. My experience might be beneficial to yours. I've always thought that people need to like tell stories about themselves more often because they never know what the audience has been through. They never know how good the outcome of your story could be for them. These days, I tell the story of, you know, “I answered a phone call one night and it turned into: I'm gonna pop some tags. Only got $20 in my pocket…” and every single dream that I had ever had all my life came true in two and a half years because of that one opportunity. Now, if I would've missed that opportunity, I probably wouldn't be where I am talking about what I'm talking about. So you have to be somewhat aware of how you feel. And if you're not feeling very well, you must in some way, shape or form, be able to recall something that makes you feel happy or better or good or even okay and then go do that! When you're done with that, turn around in your head, l ook in the rear view mirror where you came from. This Wednesday, not like last Wednesday. More than likely won't be like next Wednesday eithernd that's the way the world works. That's the way the time construct that man created works. It always moves forward. Only humans go back in time with memory and not instinct. Humans, we cause ourselves so much trouble. Sometimes we can't even understand why we do it when we're doing it, while we're doing it. Weird. So to recap, hopefully you've gotten to a point in this year that you're recovering, you're healing from whatever you went through in the holiday season. That's what I'm doin, I'm healing. I've got some ways to go, but I like where I'm at right now and I got there by doing two things: one, I did more things that made me feel good, just me. I've gone to the movies by myself, I've gone out dancing by myself, I've gone to concerts by myself. I've also hung out by myself just so I could have a talk with me. And the second thing that I did, I figured out that forward is where I NEED to go, not have to NEED to. I used to say, “The past never changes, the future always can, depending on actions taken in the present.”, but you have to be aware of what your present is so that you stand a better chance of making a good decision for your future. I mean, that makes sense to me. It might not make sense to you late at night when you're hungry, you're feeling some kind of hungry and you're not quite awake and you don't have your contacts in, and you left your glasses on the nightstand. You go in, even though things are blurry in the refrigerator, “This looks good.”, “What is it?” “I don't know just unwrap it! It looks like I can eat it!!”, and then you unwrap it and when you take a bite out of it, it's all furry with mold. Ew. Good thinking probably didn't feel very good, but in another 24 hours when you think about it, it might be funny as you tell it to your bestie and they laugh, and then you feel better about going through that experience because “…lookie-there, you done made somebody else happy!” Imagine that. Do more things that make you happy and then look forward to what's coming. That's how you heal. I'll leave you with this. One of my favorite scenes in the Matrix is after Neo meets Trinity and they go outside, they get in the car they're going for a ride, they pull the car over and Switch is like, “Yeah, don't trust this guy. Hey, Coppertop, you do what we saw!! Neo's about to get out of the car and Trinity stops him and says, “You've been down there before, you know where that road leads to. Very devastatingly poignant for me a lot of times, 'cause when I look in my rear-view mirror, I can see places I've been before. If I'm walking similar steps, I change. I change so that I can have a different experience and not just rerun the same path the well-worn path. I like my percentage I'm successful more than not, but I'll never be perfect. The one thing that I will be perfect at is making the best choices that I can in any given moment, and I suggest you keep making choices and practice. Be aware of the things that make you happy and Lord knows, keep looking out the front windshield because that's where all the good stuff is coming from, ah-ight? I'm out!! Peace!!