October 3, 2025 • 20 mins
What if the most radical form of freedom is simply waking up clear—and staying that way? Corey opens up about life on both sides of the bottle and what changed when he traded chaos for consistency: mornings that don’t start in shame, a mind that doesn’t spin stories, and relationships built on truth instead of excuses. It’s a candid walk through the quiet wins that stack into a different life: reliability, emotional balance, and the kind of peace you can feel in your chest.
We dig into how trust is earned back one action at a time and why predictability—once dismissed as boring—turns out to be a gift. Corey breaks down the physical reset of sobriety, from real sleep to steady energy, and how that stability unlocks self-worth that isn’t tied to performance. We talk amends as responsibility, not a shortcut to forgiveness, and how consistency rewires identity. There’s purpose here too: service to newcomers, reaching back with a steady hand, and rediscovering creativity that addiction numbed. Financial stability shows up as part of the change—paying bills, saving a bit, planning ahead—because peace also lives in the practical.
By the end, gratitude has a new shape: not denial of pain, but a clear-eyed reframing that turns survival into living. If you’re curious about the real benefits of recovery—clarity, honesty, purpose, emotional regulation, financial stability, creativity, and peace of mind—this conversation offers a map grounded in experience, not clichés. Listen, reflect, and share it with someone who needs to hear that freedom doesn’t have to be loud to last. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: what’s one quiet change that’s changed everything for you?
https://www.audible.com/pd/9-Simple-Steps-to-Sell-More-ht-Audiobook/B0D4SJYD4Q?source_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share_location=library_overflow
https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Steps-Sell-More-Stereotypes-ebook/dp/B0BRNSFYG6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1OSB7HX6FQMHS&keywords=corey+berrier&qid=1674232549&sprefix=%2Caps%2C93&sr=8-1
https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreysalescoach/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
CoreyBerrier (00:00):
Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast.
I'm your host, Corey Berrier.
And today, folks, we're goingto be talking about the benefits
of recovery.
And it's a little bit about mystory and how the gifts of
sobriety have, well, they'rejust a gift.
That's all there is to it.
And I never thought I'd saythis, but you know, but recovery
(00:25):
has given me more than alcoholever did.
Uh when I was drinking, Ithought the bottle gave me
courage, gave me connection,fun, even sometimes relief.
But what it really gave me waschaos and emptiness and regret.
(00:45):
And recovery's giving me mylife back.
You know, it's not just thebasics, but a version of life
that I didn't know was reallypossible.
And today um I'm going to takeyou through the benefits of
recovery from my own experience.
This is not theory and notcliches.
It's just the reality of whatI've discovered since I've put
(01:10):
the bottle down.
So when I was in my addiction,my mornings would always start
behind.
I woke up groggy, scattered,and quite ashamed, really, of
what I had done the nightbefore.
And then in recovery, you know,I wake up with a clear mind.
And that may sound small, butwaking up without a hangover,
(01:33):
being able to think straight,remember conversations, plan my
day, that's clarity, and clarityis power.
So let me ask you, when's thelast time that you woke up fully
present and not running fromlast night and not medicating
(01:53):
this morning with some sort of apill or something to get you
through the day?
Well, that's a gift of recoveryhands you every single day.
You know, my drinking kept mylife very unpredictable.
You know, I never knew wherethe night would take me or how
(02:15):
the morning would, you know,greet me, if you will.
You know, recovery gave mefreedom from that chaos.
I began to trust myself again.
People started trusting meagain.
My days became more steady, ifyou will.
(02:36):
Uh, and there's, you know, ithere's the surprising part.
Predictability became a gift.
I used to call it boring, andnow I call it peace.
You know, I spent years lyingto myself, uh, to the people I
love, to anyone who asked toomany questions.
(02:56):
I became a professionalmanipulator.
And recoveries forced me to behonest.
And when I finally told thetruth and, you know, about you
know how I was and what I'ddone, it was it was terrifying,
but it was also freeing, waymore freeing than I imagined.
(03:18):
But here's the kicker when Istarted to be honest with
others, I didn't just regaintheir trust, I regained my own
self-respect.
You know, I could look in themirror again, which was hard to
do when I was drinking, youknow, and my body paid the price
(03:41):
for years when I was drinking,the exhaustion, the shakes.
Oh my god, the shakes.
Unbelievable.
It's the worst feel in theworld.
The aches, the pains, you know,I didn't want to admit any of
that.
But in recovery, your bodystarts to heal.
Uh, you start to sleep better,your energy comes back.
(04:04):
You don't need as muchcaffeine.
And for me, I don't need anysugar.
Um, but when I was firstgetting sober, I definitely
depended on that sugar.
I could move again, I couldlaugh again, I could breathe
again.
And I realized that healthisn't just the absence of
(04:25):
feeling hung over.
It's it's really, you know,having your health is about
having energy in your life, youknow, being able to actually
live.
And one of the hardest thingsabout recovery wasn't putting
the drink down, it was facingthe people that I had hurt.
I mean, I'd broken trust somany times that even when I said
(04:49):
I'm done drinking, nobodybelieved that.
And I don't blame them.
You know, recovery taught methat trust isn't something you
demand back, it's something thatyou earn back.
And let me tell you, it takesyou don't earn it back as
quickly as you lost it.
I can tell you that.
But you do that by showing upsober, by doing what you say
(05:11):
you're gonna do, and by beingthe same person today as you
were yesterday.
And little by little, peoplestarted believing in me again,
not because of my words, butbecause of my consistency, you
know, in addiction.
My relationships were were wereshallow.
(05:33):
They they were built ondrinking together and partying
together and lying together, andI didn't really even know what
true connection felt like.
But recovery gave me theability to actually connect with
other people, look people inthe eye, listen, be present
(05:54):
without feeling like I gottahave a buzz.
And it's pretty amazing when Istopped, you know, hiding behind
alcohol.
I found out people actuallylike me for me, that which was
pretty mind-blowing.
And honestly, you know, thatkind of healed a part of me that
(06:16):
that I didn't even know neededto be healed.
And if I'm honest, in mydrinking days, you couldn't
count on me.
If I said I'd show up, Ididn't.
If I promised I'd be there, I'ddisappear.
I mean, my word didn't meanjack shit.
But in you know, in recovery,reliability became one of my
(06:37):
greatest gifts.
Being the person people cancall on, being dependable,
showing up on time, followingthrough, something I've never
been great at.
And it may sound simple, butwhen you've been unreliable for
years, becoming reliable is likebuilding a whole new identity.
And it does feel pretty good.
You know, recovery's given methe ability to face my past, to
(07:04):
own what I had done and make itright where I could.
You know, making amends isn'tabout saying I'm sorry and
expecting forgiveness, it'sabout taking responsibility.
And sometimes that's withwords, and sometimes that's with
action.
But it was about cleaning up myside of the street, cleaning up
(07:25):
the wreckage of the past thatI'd left behind.
And you know what?
Some people forgave me, somedidn't, but I forgive myself
because I finally tried, andthat's where the real healing in
relationships began.
For years, dude, for years Ifelt worthless.
(07:49):
Like no matter what I did, Iwasn't enough.
And alcohol gave me thattemporary escape.
Probably a lot like you ifyou're still drinking.
I'm you know, it made me feel10 feet tall and bulletproof for
a few hours.
But when that buzz wore off, Iwas right back to feeling small
(08:10):
again.
And in recovery, I discoveredself-worth wasn't tied to
performance or to what peoplethought about me.
It wasn't based on how well Icould fake it or how much I
could achieve.
I started to realize I havevalue just because I exist.
(08:32):
And when that truth started tosink in, it became one of the
most powerful benefits ofrecovery.
You know, when I was drinking,my emotions ran the show.
Anger, fear, shame.
They controlled me.
I thought drinking gave me abalance, but really it just
buried every one of those thingsuntil they exploded.
(08:57):
And recovery's giving me adifferent kind of balance.
You know, I still feel anger, Istill have fear, I still have
sadness, but you know, I don'tget to drown those things out
now.
And I don't get drowned out bythose things.
You know, I can just sit withit, name it, and I can respond
(09:22):
instead of just react.
That emotional balance is oneof the quiet gifts of sobriety,
and honestly, it's what makeslong-term recovery sustainable.
I drank to avoid the pain, thepain from my childhood, the pain
from mistakes, the pain fromfear of the future.
(09:44):
You know, that bottle was myescape.
But recovery taught me to sitwith the pain, to let myself
feel it instead of running fromit.
And what I found is that paindoesn't last forever.
Feelings don't kill you.
Avoiding feelings certainlykills you.
(10:06):
Now, when the when the painshows up, I don't panic.
I breathe, I feel it, I let itpass.
And that lesson alone haschanged my entire life.
You know, I thought thatalcohol was the only way to feel
joy, laughing at the bar,celebrating with a drink,
(10:31):
loosening up at a party, butthose highs always came with
lows.
Every time.
You know, I remember the firsttime I laughed sober, I mean
like really laughed, likebelly-aching laughter.
And I realized like this iswhat joy really feels like.
(10:53):
And recovery gave me joy thatdoesn't come with a hangover,
joy that isn't followed byshame, joy that's real, clean,
and it lasts.
I remember when I was drinking,my only purpose was getting
through the day and figuring outwhere that next drink was
(11:15):
coming from, which was basicallysurvival mode.
I wasn't living.
And in recovery, I startedasking deeper questions like why
am I here?
You know, what am I supposed tobe doing?
What's my life for?
What who do I want to bebecome?
Because it was all watered downbefore.
And I found a sense of purposethat wasn't about me anymore.
(11:37):
It was about, and well, itwasn't about escaping the pain,
it was about creating meaning,about serving others, about
leaving something better thanhow I found it.
And that wasn't the casebefore.
You know, recovery didn't justkeep me alive, it gave me a
reason to live.
(11:59):
You know, my bank account usedto bleed from alcohol, bar tabs,
late bills, money spentcovering up mistakes.
I'd burned through cash withouta thought.
And sobriety's taught meresponsibility.
You know, I started paying mybills on time, checking the
mail, saving money, makingplans, and with that came
(12:22):
stability.
I never realized how muchfreedom there is in having
financial peace, not because I'mrich by any stretch, but
because I no longer I'm nolonger broke and I'm no longer
broken.
I can provide, I can plan, Ican finally dream again.
(12:43):
You know, one of the biggestthings or one of the biggest
gifts, I should say, in recoveryis I have learned to stop
thinking about only, you know,only thinking about myself.
I used to be the center of myuniverse, and some days I still
(13:03):
am for periods of time, but uhthose times have gotten fewer
and far between.
You know, everything was aboutwhat I wanted or what I needed
or how I felt, and recoverieskind of flipped that, and it
showed me that life is biggerthan me.
You know, helping someone else,especially someone who's still
(13:24):
struggling, became or has becomethe fuel that's that keeps me
going.
Because every time I reach backto help, I'm reminded of how
far I've come, and I get to passon that gift the same way it
was passed to me.
You know, alcohol numbedeverything, not just the pain,
(13:48):
but the passion as well.
My creativity dried dried up.
My I had no spark left.
But in recovery, that spark hascome back, and and I can, you
know, I've started creatingagain, writing and doing this
podcast and dreaming andbuilding, and sobriety gave me
(14:09):
access to passions I thoughtwere gone forever.
And I realized alcohol didn'tjust steal my past, it also
tried to steal my future.
But recovery gave me that back.
You know, one of the biggestgifts in recovery's given me
(14:32):
wasn't flashy at all.
It was peace of mind.
And in a, you know, when I wasin addiction, my my head was
loud.
Those voices inside of my headwas really loud.
Constant chatter, worry,regret, lies that I had to keep
track of.
Every day was mental gymnasticsjust to survive.
(14:56):
Now it's pretty quiet.
I can breathe.
I don't need to spin stories orkeep up appearances.
Peace of mind doesn't meanlife's perfect, it means I can
live without you know a storminside of my brain.
And that peace is is priceless.
(15:20):
You know, my choices didn'tjust affect me, they affected
everybody around me.
And in addiction, I was justpassing down chaos, pain, and
dysfunction, just like had beenhanded down to me.
But in recovery, I get to handdown something different:
healing, stability, presence,which feels unbelievable.
(15:46):
You know, and that's not somekind of measure of some grand
achievement, but it's a dailyexample I get to set for other
people.
You know, it's how my friendsget to experience me now
compared to before.
And recovery, you know, allowsme to leave behind healing
(16:08):
instead of hurt.
An addiction, I was stuck inwhy me?
Victim mentality.
Why is life so hard?
Why can't I catch a break?
Why does everything happen tome?
But recovery shifted myperspective, and now I wake up
grateful, grateful for anotherday, grateful for a clear head,
(16:30):
grateful for people who stillbelieve in me.
You know, gratitude doesn'terase the struggle, but it does
reframe it.
It turns survival into living,it turns pain into perspective.
Gratitude makes sobriety notjust manageable, but but
beautiful.
(16:51):
No rules, no limits, noaccountability.
But that wasn't freedom.
That was really slavery, to behonest with you.
I was chained to the bottle,chained to my impulses, chained
(17:14):
to my pain.
And in recovery, I learned whatfreedom is.
Freedom is not needing thatdrink.
Freedom is being able to showup as myself.
Freedom's living without shame,without the chains, and without
pretending and having masks andall the shit that I talk about
(17:34):
on here.
I mean, that's what the gift ofrecovery has given me.
Real freedom.
And it's the kind of freedomthat lasts, the kind that I want
for anyone who is stillstruggling with addiction.
It's a nightmare.
(17:54):
And I feel for people when theycome in to the rooms and
they're, you know, they'rehanging on by a thread because
I've been there.
And I can talk to them all daylong.
If they're not ready, thattalking doesn't really do
anything.
But you never know when you'regonna say just that exact right
(18:17):
thing for that person to go, ohyeah, that makes sense.
So you do have to, you know, II make an effort to try to talk
to the newcomer every chance Iget.
Because you just never know ifyou may be that person that
God's using for that individualthat's coming in.
(18:38):
And sometimes you just have toreach out your hand and shake
their hand and introduceyourself and make some feel
better.
And that's a good feeling.
And I don't do it for accoladesby any stretch, but I do it
because somebody did it for me.
So I listen, I appreciate youguys listening.
We'll see you guys next Friday.
Please subscribe to thepodcast.
(18:58):
Please leave us a review, andwe'll see you next Friday.
Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast.
I'm your host, Corey Berrier.
And today, folks, we're goingto be talking about the benefits
of recovery.
And it's a little bit about mystory and how the gifts of
sobriety have, well, they'rejust a gift.
That's all there is to it.
And I never thought I'd saythis, but you know, but recovery
(00:25):
has given me more than alcoholever did.
Uh when I was drinking, Ithought the bottle gave me
courage, gave me connection,fun, even sometimes relief.
But what it really gave me waschaos and emptiness and regret.
(00:45):
And recovery's giving me mylife back.
You know, it's not just thebasics, but a version of life
that I didn't know was reallypossible.
And today um I'm going to takeyou through the benefits of
recovery from my own experience.
This is not theory and notcliches.
It's just the reality of whatI've discovered since I've put
(01:10):
the bottle down.
So when I was in my addiction,my mornings would always start
behind.
I woke up groggy, scattered,and quite ashamed, really, of
what I had done the nightbefore.
And then in recovery, you know,I wake up with a clear mind.
And that may sound small, butwaking up without a hangover,
(01:33):
being able to think straight,remember conversations, plan my
day, that's clarity, and clarityis power.
So let me ask you, when's thelast time that you woke up fully
present and not running fromlast night and not medicating
(01:53):
this morning with some sort of apill or something to get you
through the day?
Well, that's a gift of recoveryhands you every single day.
You know, my drinking kept mylife very unpredictable.
You know, I never knew wherethe night would take me or how
(02:15):
the morning would, you know,greet me, if you will.
You know, recovery gave mefreedom from that chaos.
I began to trust myself again.
People started trusting meagain.
My days became more steady, ifyou will.
(02:36):
Uh, and there's, you know, ithere's the surprising part.
Predictability became a gift.
I used to call it boring, andnow I call it peace.
You know, I spent years lyingto myself, uh, to the people I
love, to anyone who asked toomany questions.
(02:56):
I became a professionalmanipulator.
And recoveries forced me to behonest.
And when I finally told thetruth and, you know, about you
know how I was and what I'ddone, it was it was terrifying,
but it was also freeing, waymore freeing than I imagined.
(03:18):
But here's the kicker when Istarted to be honest with
others, I didn't just regaintheir trust, I regained my own
self-respect.
You know, I could look in themirror again, which was hard to
do when I was drinking, youknow, and my body paid the price
(03:41):
for years when I was drinking,the exhaustion, the shakes.
Oh my god, the shakes.
Unbelievable.
It's the worst feel in theworld.
The aches, the pains, you know,I didn't want to admit any of
that.
But in recovery, your bodystarts to heal.
Uh, you start to sleep better,your energy comes back.
(04:04):
You don't need as muchcaffeine.
And for me, I don't need anysugar.
Um, but when I was firstgetting sober, I definitely
depended on that sugar.
I could move again, I couldlaugh again, I could breathe
again.
And I realized that healthisn't just the absence of
(04:25):
feeling hung over.
It's it's really, you know,having your health is about
having energy in your life, youknow, being able to actually
live.
And one of the hardest thingsabout recovery wasn't putting
the drink down, it was facingthe people that I had hurt.
I mean, I'd broken trust somany times that even when I said
(04:49):
I'm done drinking, nobodybelieved that.
And I don't blame them.
You know, recovery taught methat trust isn't something you
demand back, it's something thatyou earn back.
And let me tell you, it takesyou don't earn it back as
quickly as you lost it.
I can tell you that.
But you do that by showing upsober, by doing what you say
(05:11):
you're gonna do, and by beingthe same person today as you
were yesterday.
And little by little, peoplestarted believing in me again,
not because of my words, butbecause of my consistency, you
know, in addiction.
My relationships were were wereshallow.
(05:33):
They they were built ondrinking together and partying
together and lying together, andI didn't really even know what
true connection felt like.
But recovery gave me theability to actually connect with
other people, look people inthe eye, listen, be present
(05:54):
without feeling like I gottahave a buzz.
And it's pretty amazing when Istopped, you know, hiding behind
alcohol.
I found out people actuallylike me for me, that which was
pretty mind-blowing.
And honestly, you know, thatkind of healed a part of me that
(06:16):
that I didn't even know neededto be healed.
And if I'm honest, in mydrinking days, you couldn't
count on me.
If I said I'd show up, Ididn't.
If I promised I'd be there, I'ddisappear.
I mean, my word didn't meanjack shit.
But in you know, in recovery,reliability became one of my
(06:37):
greatest gifts.
Being the person people cancall on, being dependable,
showing up on time, followingthrough, something I've never
been great at.
And it may sound simple, butwhen you've been unreliable for
years, becoming reliable is likebuilding a whole new identity.
And it does feel pretty good.
You know, recovery's given methe ability to face my past, to
(07:04):
own what I had done and make itright where I could.
You know, making amends isn'tabout saying I'm sorry and
expecting forgiveness, it'sabout taking responsibility.
And sometimes that's withwords, and sometimes that's with
action.
But it was about cleaning up myside of the street, cleaning up
(07:25):
the wreckage of the past thatI'd left behind.
And you know what?
Some people forgave me, somedidn't, but I forgive myself
because I finally tried, andthat's where the real healing in
relationships began.
For years, dude, for years Ifelt worthless.
(07:49):
Like no matter what I did, Iwasn't enough.
And alcohol gave me thattemporary escape.
Probably a lot like you ifyou're still drinking.
I'm you know, it made me feel10 feet tall and bulletproof for
a few hours.
But when that buzz wore off, Iwas right back to feeling small
(08:10):
again.
And in recovery, I discoveredself-worth wasn't tied to
performance or to what peoplethought about me.
It wasn't based on how well Icould fake it or how much I
could achieve.
I started to realize I havevalue just because I exist.
(08:32):
And when that truth started tosink in, it became one of the
most powerful benefits ofrecovery.
You know, when I was drinking,my emotions ran the show.
Anger, fear, shame.
They controlled me.
I thought drinking gave me abalance, but really it just
buried every one of those thingsuntil they exploded.
(08:57):
And recovery's giving me adifferent kind of balance.
You know, I still feel anger, Istill have fear, I still have
sadness, but you know, I don'tget to drown those things out
now.
And I don't get drowned out bythose things.
You know, I can just sit withit, name it, and I can respond
(09:22):
instead of just react.
That emotional balance is oneof the quiet gifts of sobriety,
and honestly, it's what makeslong-term recovery sustainable.
I drank to avoid the pain, thepain from my childhood, the pain
from mistakes, the pain fromfear of the future.
(09:44):
You know, that bottle was myescape.
But recovery taught me to sitwith the pain, to let myself
feel it instead of running fromit.
And what I found is that paindoesn't last forever.
Feelings don't kill you.
Avoiding feelings certainlykills you.
(10:06):
Now, when the when the painshows up, I don't panic.
I breathe, I feel it, I let itpass.
And that lesson alone haschanged my entire life.
You know, I thought thatalcohol was the only way to feel
joy, laughing at the bar,celebrating with a drink,
(10:31):
loosening up at a party, butthose highs always came with
lows.
Every time.
You know, I remember the firsttime I laughed sober, I mean
like really laughed, likebelly-aching laughter.
And I realized like this iswhat joy really feels like.
(10:53):
And recovery gave me joy thatdoesn't come with a hangover,
joy that isn't followed byshame, joy that's real, clean,
and it lasts.
I remember when I was drinking,my only purpose was getting
through the day and figuring outwhere that next drink was
(11:15):
coming from, which was basicallysurvival mode.
I wasn't living.
And in recovery, I startedasking deeper questions like why
am I here?
You know, what am I supposed tobe doing?
What's my life for?
What who do I want to bebecome?
Because it was all watered downbefore.
And I found a sense of purposethat wasn't about me anymore.
(11:37):
It was about, and well, itwasn't about escaping the pain,
it was about creating meaning,about serving others, about
leaving something better thanhow I found it.
And that wasn't the casebefore.
You know, recovery didn't justkeep me alive, it gave me a
reason to live.
(11:59):
You know, my bank account usedto bleed from alcohol, bar tabs,
late bills, money spentcovering up mistakes.
I'd burned through cash withouta thought.
And sobriety's taught meresponsibility.
You know, I started paying mybills on time, checking the
mail, saving money, makingplans, and with that came
(12:22):
stability.
I never realized how muchfreedom there is in having
financial peace, not because I'mrich by any stretch, but
because I no longer I'm nolonger broke and I'm no longer
broken.
I can provide, I can plan, Ican finally dream again.
(12:43):
You know, one of the biggestthings or one of the biggest
gifts, I should say, in recoveryis I have learned to stop
thinking about only, you know,only thinking about myself.
I used to be the center of myuniverse, and some days I still
(13:03):
am for periods of time, but uhthose times have gotten fewer
and far between.
You know, everything was aboutwhat I wanted or what I needed
or how I felt, and recoverieskind of flipped that, and it
showed me that life is biggerthan me.
You know, helping someone else,especially someone who's still
(13:24):
struggling, became or has becomethe fuel that's that keeps me
going.
Because every time I reach backto help, I'm reminded of how
far I've come, and I get to passon that gift the same way it
was passed to me.
You know, alcohol numbedeverything, not just the pain,
(13:48):
but the passion as well.
My creativity dried dried up.
My I had no spark left.
But in recovery, that spark hascome back, and and I can, you
know, I've started creatingagain, writing and doing this
podcast and dreaming andbuilding, and sobriety gave me
(14:09):
access to passions I thoughtwere gone forever.
And I realized alcohol didn'tjust steal my past, it also
tried to steal my future.
But recovery gave me that back.
You know, one of the biggestgifts in recovery's given me
(14:32):
wasn't flashy at all.
It was peace of mind.
And in a, you know, when I wasin addiction, my my head was
loud.
Those voices inside of my headwas really loud.
Constant chatter, worry,regret, lies that I had to keep
track of.
Every day was mental gymnasticsjust to survive.
(14:56):
Now it's pretty quiet.
I can breathe.
I don't need to spin stories orkeep up appearances.
Peace of mind doesn't meanlife's perfect, it means I can
live without you know a storminside of my brain.
And that peace is is priceless.
(15:20):
You know, my choices didn'tjust affect me, they affected
everybody around me.
And in addiction, I was justpassing down chaos, pain, and
dysfunction, just like had beenhanded down to me.
But in recovery, I get to handdown something different:
healing, stability, presence,which feels unbelievable.
(15:46):
You know, and that's not somekind of measure of some grand
achievement, but it's a dailyexample I get to set for other
people.
You know, it's how my friendsget to experience me now
compared to before.
And recovery, you know, allowsme to leave behind healing
(16:08):
instead of hurt.
An addiction, I was stuck inwhy me?
Victim mentality.
Why is life so hard?
Why can't I catch a break?
Why does everything happen tome?
But recovery shifted myperspective, and now I wake up
grateful, grateful for anotherday, grateful for a clear head,
(16:30):
grateful for people who stillbelieve in me.
You know, gratitude doesn'terase the struggle, but it does
reframe it.
It turns survival into living,it turns pain into perspective.
Gratitude makes sobriety notjust manageable, but but
beautiful.
(16:51):
No rules, no limits, noaccountability.
But that wasn't freedom.
That was really slavery, to behonest with you.
I was chained to the bottle,chained to my impulses, chained
(17:14):
to my pain.
And in recovery, I learned whatfreedom is.
Freedom is not needing thatdrink.
Freedom is being able to showup as myself.
Freedom's living without shame,without the chains, and without
pretending and having masks andall the shit that I talk about
(17:34):
on here.
I mean, that's what the gift ofrecovery has given me.
Real freedom.
And it's the kind of freedomthat lasts, the kind that I want
for anyone who is stillstruggling with addiction.
It's a nightmare.
(17:54):
And I feel for people when theycome in to the rooms and
they're, you know, they'rehanging on by a thread because
I've been there.
And I can talk to them all daylong.
If they're not ready, thattalking doesn't really do
anything.
But you never know when you'regonna say just that exact right
(18:17):
thing for that person to go, ohyeah, that makes sense.
So you do have to, you know, II make an effort to try to talk
to the newcomer every chance Iget.
Because you just never know ifyou may be that person that
God's using for that individualthat's coming in.
(18:38):
And sometimes you just have toreach out your hand and shake
their hand and introduceyourself and make some feel
better.
And that's a good feeling.
And I don't do it for accoladesby any stretch, but I do it
because somebody did it for me.
So I listen, I appreciate youguys listening.
We'll see you guys next Friday.
Please subscribe to thepodcast.
(18:58):
Please leave us a review, andwe'll see you next Friday.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.