Is it time for you to deal with your stuff? Those negative feelings, emotions and memories that you suppressed, stuffed in a box and put in the attic! It may have felt like life became easier when you did that because you didn't have to face that stuff everyday. But those boxes of stuff in the attic of your mind may be the very things stand between you and the life you want to be living. It's time to clean out your attic!

Are you actively working on your healing? Or are you just focused on getting clean and sober? What if the thing that kept you in addiction was the pain of your wound? What if your hurt was controlling your behavior more than your drug of choice? These questions and more on tiday's episode.

The Japanese term "Shoshin" means a beginner's mindset. Too often I meet guys struggling in recovery who have closed their mind to new ideas. It's like they are the experts, even though they keep relapsing! If we can set aside our old assumptions and ideas we , like a beginner, can pick up a new nugget or wisdom every day. Shunryu Suzuki said, "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few."

How do you hold that conversation with someone struggling in addiction or recovery? How do you build that relationship when you see the same person every week at outreach or in a support group? The foundation is learning how to offer help and hope. We all have something to offer help in the moment to someone in need. And we all can be carriers of hope to someone who is caught in hopelessness. In this episode we look at the NEED method to holding those conversations.

This is a group episode with our guys in recovery from Australia, South Africa and the US. Their insight, wisdom and experience is awesome as they react to Deepak Chopra's quote "Be happy for no reason, like a child. If you are happy for a reason, you're in trouble, because the reason can be taken from you." So how do we share our journey to find that childlike happiness with people just starting the journey of recovery?

When I'm working in rehabs I often hear questions like "How do I know I'm really making it in recovery?" "How do I know I'm ready to reintegrate into society, a job, family?" My answer is, "Have you found greatness in recovery?" In this episode we look at what greatness in recovery is, what signposts should I see along the journey of greatness and how do I get started? We close today's episode with a quote from Bob Marley "The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively."

I close every podcast episode with these words. What do they mean to me? How can living these words be your way to develop your support system in recovery? How do we look for people, places and things that are safe and that keep us resilient in recovery? Get out your journal and take notes as you listen.

This is part two on Fear of the Unknown. In this part we look at how fear of the unknown paralyzes us, makes us freeze up, or become stagnant. And the result is we stay stuck, often blaming others as we miss opportunities for growth because of fear. I want to encourage all of the listeners to pick one of the quotes you identify with or that resonates with you and discuss it witha friend or in group.