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