I’m starting a podcast, and to be completely honest, the closer I get to the actual launch date I have in mind, the more hesitant I start to become about the whole damned thing.
I am a person who loves things in theory. I like to contemplate the beauty and complexity of things that are hard to grip onto. I like to write and in doing so have plenty of time to shape my thoughts and situate my stance on various topics.
If you have been following my blog for a while, it will be no surprise to you to be reminded that I am a 12 stepper. I first started my journey in OA the day after thanksgiving in 2012, and haven’t looked back since. I credit OA to essentially saving my life, figuratively if not also literally. It is since that first day when I walked through the doors that I unknowingly began to be brought back to life, spiritually resuscitated in a way, and I credit the principles and work of the 12 steps as what eventually led to me falling in love with my Catholic faith, its truths and its wisdom.
Really stepping into my Catholic Faith is then what led me to become interested in the mindset work of Metanoia Catholic, where I received an enormous amount of help and healing that counseling just wasn’t doing for me. I was so impacted that I decided to become trained as a coach myself. It fascinated me to learn how our minds work and how we can reorganize and rework our brain to improve our quality of life. I also learned a ton about what I am responsible for in terms of my emotions and where my personal responsibilities ended in regards to others as well.
What I couldn’t help noticing was how clearly the principles of Catholicism, Psychology and the The Steps were all woven into the structure of catholic mindset coaching. The tenants of all three disciplines coincided into this incredible tapestry of wisdom, practical recommendations and messaging so that the more I learned about and grew in one area, the more I also learned about and grew in another. It was so beautiful.
What made this ever so clear to me was over the course of this last year, going through the Big Book and 12&12s with a sponsee, each of us sharing, page by page, day by day, on what stuck out to us. I was able to see in such detail where the cross-overs lay. Often there is a difference in language, but the message and philosophies are the same.
So, I decided to start a podcast about that. To revel in the beauty of the overlap amongst Catholicism, Coaching, and the 12 Steps, and I’m calling it the Grateful Blessed Mess Podcast…surprise, surprise.
It just seemed too obvious to me NOT to do, but I’m starting to get awfully nervous about releasing it. Daily podcasts have become a serious staple in my life and general formation. I have fallen head over heels for many and grew in my faith and understanding of the 12 steps and psychology from many more, and so this one will also be a daily podcast. A short one! Five to ten minute shares (because I know I don’t have time to listen to anything longer than that on a daily basis) with the hope that it becomes a daily staple in other people’s lives. People who are struggling to stay committed to their 12 step work. People who, like me, may benefit from mindset coaching in order to grow in their own abstinence or sobriety, and with the ultimate goal of achieving EMOTIONAL SOBRIETY. There is no 12 step group for “Emotionals Anonymous”. I think emotional instability has been the backdrop for many (if not all) of us in the rooms.
I hope the word gets out. I hope people find it. I hope I am able to work with people who want to find that emotional sobriety through mindset coaching, and I hope that if nothing else, it becomes a source of comfort and a daily reminder for people to keep going in their efforts toward interior freedom.
There will be a Facebook group, called Grateful Blessed Mess for people to comment on the share from the day or simply put down their own thoughts about the quotation for the day. I use daily readers from 12 step literature as a launching point and share similarly to how I would at a 12 step meeting, so it may have a familiar feel to those who are already in the steps.
A lot of my heart is in this work, but even if my hopes for the podcast don’t come true, I know that none of the effort is wasted because I got to grow in my own understanding and depth of my 12 step work as a result, and that is a massive point of gratitude for me.
So there it is. It is set to launch on January 1st of 2023. A new start to a new year. I hope people listen. I hope people share it. I hope people get involved in the Facebook group to give it more life and depth, but I’ll leave that to you guys. Pray for me. I pray for you!…And with that I pass. 😉
Grateful and Blessed and Sometimes a Mess 