Our guest today, Gil, is one spiritual gangster! He shares about his difficult experiences of handling the recent death of his best friend due to addiction, preparing to go to prison CLEAN, and rebuilding broken relationships with family. Gil shares about how he’s been working a program while on pretrial for years and now has to take a pause from every wonderful thing that he’s built in his recovery due to consequences of addiction. We discuss how many of us have also been on the other side- powerlessly watching loved ones struggle and sometimes die from their own addictions. Life doesn’t always unfold the way we want, but there is hope; all the hard work of recovery is not for nothing, and there’s nothing more powerful than listening and watching another person in recovery walk through it with gratitude, purpose, and a focus on helping others. Utilizing what’s been taught to us through working a recovery program- seeking out a grateful perspective, using communication skills even when it’s painful or awkward, getting outside of our own heads by being of service to others, having faith in something beyond our own abilities, and staying the course no matter what happens- these things aren’t easy but when we practice them, it can make a world of difference.

Tool References: Loss (Toolkit 3), Editing the Story (Toolkit 3), Transformation (Toolkit 1)