What is the session about?

The session covers the first three steps of the 12-step recovery program with Russell Brand, focusing on consciousness awakening and self-improvement.

Who is the host of the session?

The session is hosted by Jeff Krasnow.

What personal experiences does Russell Brand share?

Brand shares his experience with overcoming addiction through the 12-step program.

How can the 12-step program be applied?

The program can be applied to liberate from various attachments and improve personal growth beyond substance misuse.

What does Russell Brand highlight about the process?

Brand highlights admitting problems, embracing change, and finding a power greater than oneself as essential steps.

Who is the masterclass aimed at?

The masterclass is aimed at those struggling with addiction or anyone seeking personal improvement and consciousness awakening.

What platform hosts this masterclass?

The masterclass is hosted on Commune, an online course platform for wellness.

Are worksheets and additional materials provided?

Yes, worksheets and additional materials are available alongside the course.

Russell Brand REVEALS The 3 Steps To RECOVERY & OVERCOMING ADDICTION | Commune

01:12:25

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biosU3V9hnM

Zusammenfassung

TLDRThis is a free masterclass with Russell Brand, conducted by commune, focusing on the first three steps of recovery from addiction via the 12-step program. Russell Brand shares his personal journey of overcoming addiction using this program, highlighting how it assists in awakening consciousness and addressing various life challenges. The process begins with admitting one's powerlessness over addiction, embracing the possibility of change, and acknowledging a power greater than oneself. Brand explains that these steps can be applied not only to combat drug and alcohol addiction but to liberate oneself from any unhealthy attachment in life, whether it's technological dependency, negative thinking, or issues in personal relationships. Through humorous and insightful narratives, Brand emphasizes the importance of honesty, openness to change, and spiritual growth on the path to personal recovery.

Mitbringsel

📚 Understanding Russell Brand's personal recovery journey.
🧘 Emphasizing consciousness awakening and self-improvement.
📜 Applying the 12-step program beyond substance misuse.
🎯 Admitting problems is key to personal growth.
✨ Finding a higher power aids in recovery.
🔍 Worksheets and materials enhance learning and application.
💡 Encouragement towards spiritual and behavioral change.
🗣️ Russell's humorous yet profound teaching style.
🌱 Embracing change and new perspectives for life.
🕊️ Liberation from attachments fosters a healthier life.

Zeitleiste

00:00:00 - 00:05:00
The introduction sets the stage for a master class on recovery with Russell Brand, focusing on the first three steps of a 12-step program. It highlights Brand's personal recovery journey from drug and alcohol addiction using this program. This course aims to use the steps as a tool for spiritual awakening, applicable beyond substance addiction to a range of life challenges.
00:05:00 - 00:10:00
Russell Brand discusses the universal application of the 12-step program, emphasizing it as a method for spiritual awakening and addressing diverse addictions. He outlines that addiction often results from attaching to external objects seeking salvation, which causes pain. The program reframes problems as opportunities for initiation and mental transformation.
00:10:00 - 00:15:00
Brand explains that when one admits their life is unmanageable due to addiction, it becomes an opportunity for self-awareness and change. Honesty about personal dissatisfaction is crucial. The 12-step program offers a structured change protocol, applicable to varying problems from substance addiction to general discontentment, beginning with identifying specific issues for change.
00:15:00 - 00:20:00
The candid admission of having an unmanageable problem is the first step in the 12-step program. Brand suggests a straightforward acknowledgment process, moving from theoretical understanding to practical personal admission, which starts real change. This can apply to both severe substance issues and subtler behavioral habits like excessive phone use.
00:20:00 - 00:25:00
Brand discusses the transition from acknowledgment of a problem to embracing the potential for change, facilitated by a power greater than oneself. This involves challenging self-reliance and considering one's habits and perspectives critically. Step Two emphasizes hope and openness to change facilitated by support beyond one's own capabilities.
00:25:00 - 00:30:00
Acknowledging the need for change involves recognizing that past habits and thought patterns must shift. Brand suggests changes are necessary for effective recovery and that accepting a power beyond oneself aids in this transformation. This includes moving from a self-centered mindset to being open to external guidance.
00:30:00 - 00:35:00
The video emphasizes turning one's life over to a power greater than oneself, recognizing self-efforts have not worked. Step Three involves humility and readiness to accept external guidance. By relinquishing self-control, one prepares to adopt new life plans provided by the 12-step structure, essential for recovery.
00:35:00 - 00:40:00
Step Three elaborates on the necessity of surrendering personal control to foster true change. Brand highlights the importance of embracing humility rather than humiliation, accepting that one's plans might not work, and embracing new, perhaps initially uncomfortable, ideas and methods.
00:40:00 - 00:45:00
Brand addresses resistance to external help, often due to pride. He discusses humility as crucial in Step Three, helping to see that self-driven plans may be flawed. Accepting compassionate authority and being teachable allows one to accept effective change strategies.
00:45:00 - 00:50:00
Brand explains how personal limitations and pride obstruct recovery. Step Three's acceptance of higher power helps people recognize when their methods fail. He describes it not as surrender to defeat but inspired re-learning, framing it as unlocking potential beyond the ego's reach.
00:50:00 - 00:55:00
Step Three also involves reconstructing personal failures into a willingness for guidance external to oneself. Brand relates his experiences with pride and necessity for humility, allowing relearning from life’s failures. This perspective fosters openness to new plans and perspectives.
00:55:00 - 01:00:00
The necessity of freeing oneself from self-imprisonment emerges, suggesting that yielding to a higher power signifies growth beyond self-doubt and anxiety. Brand argues for optimism in surrendering to change as a means to discover inherent potential previously overshadowed by ego-driven actions.
01:00:00 - 01:05:00
Recognizing one's own inadequacies leads to openness for change guided by faith beyond personal capability. Brand emphasizes authentic personal faith in recovery without imposing dogmatic views, encouraging creation of personal belief systems aligning positively with recovery goals.
01:05:00 - 01:12:25
The course is designed to help individuals recognize internal problems and address them through structured steps that invoke both personal and spiritual growth, offering tools and support to transition from problem recognition to managing the solutions and embracing personal transformations.

Mind Map

Häufig gestellte Fragen

What is the session about?
The session covers the first three steps of the 12-step recovery program with Russell Brand, focusing on consciousness awakening and self-improvement.
Who is the host of the session?
The session is hosted by Jeff Krasnow.
What personal experiences does Russell Brand share?
Brand shares his experience with overcoming addiction through the 12-step program.
How can the 12-step program be applied?
The program can be applied to liberate from various attachments and improve personal growth beyond substance misuse.
What does Russell Brand highlight about the process?
Brand highlights admitting problems, embracing change, and finding a power greater than oneself as essential steps.
Who is the masterclass aimed at?
The masterclass is aimed at those struggling with addiction or anyone seeking personal improvement and consciousness awakening.
What platform hosts this masterclass?
The masterclass is hosted on Commune, an online course platform for wellness.
Are worksheets and additional materials provided?
Yes, worksheets and additional materials are available alongside the course.

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Untertitel

Automatisches Blättern:

00:00:00
[Music]
00:00:05
and i'm trying to define the bloody
00:00:07
nature of god in an armchair in a
00:00:09
[ __ ] cabin in a canyon
00:00:11
hello and welcome to commune a global
00:00:14
wellness community and online course
00:00:16
platform we are on a mission to inspire
00:00:20
heal pass down wisdom and bring the
00:00:22
world closer together i'm your host jeff
00:00:26
krasnow and that's noam chomsky in the
00:00:28
back and this is your free master class
00:00:31
with russell brand on the first three
00:00:34
steps to recovery
00:00:36
19 years ago russell somewhat famously
00:00:39
hit rock bottom due to his struggles
00:00:42
with drug and alcohol addiction he quite
00:00:45
reticently joined an aaa group and began
00:00:48
to apply a method known as the 12-step
00:00:52
program to address his afflictions now
00:00:55
at first russell like many others
00:00:57
side-eyed the 12 steps as overly preachy
00:01:01
and too ecumenical however he applied
00:01:04
the technology assiduously one day at a
00:01:08
time and he's been clean
00:01:10
ever since this 12-step program is a
00:01:14
simple methodology that you can apply to
00:01:17
a full range of behaviors as a means to
00:01:20
liberate yourself from these attachments
00:01:23
so to address our multifarious
00:01:26
addictions russell and commune have
00:01:27
created a program that draws from this
00:01:31
wisdom the wisdom of the 12 steps and
00:01:34
applies it broadly as a tool for
00:01:37
spiritual awakening and over the next
00:01:39
hour or so you will be immersed in the
00:01:42
first three steps of this program
00:01:44
russell is as usual captivating
00:01:47
insightful funny articulate eloquent and
00:01:50
occasionally
00:01:52
profane
00:01:58
let me give you a bit of an overview of
00:01:59
what you can anticipate and expect
00:02:01
although anticipation and expectations
00:02:03
are some of the things you're probably
00:02:04
going to have to deal with they're
00:02:05
probably the very kind of things that
00:02:06
mean you have to acquire courses like
00:02:08
this because you're living in a constant
00:02:10
state of expectation
00:02:12
12-step recovery for me is nothing less
00:02:15
than a system for altering my
00:02:16
consciousness for creating a state of
00:02:19
awakening
00:02:21
the thing that's ingenious about it is
00:02:23
it was developed and evolved to the most
00:02:25
obvious forms of addiction such as
00:02:27
alcoholism and addiction if you're a
00:02:28
crackhead a smackhead an alcoholic it's
00:02:30
a pretty obvious problem the social
00:02:32
medical criminal judicial problems that
00:02:34
you'll encounter make it clear to you
00:02:37
that your life is gone wildly awry
00:02:40
astray that you are dealing with
00:02:42
complexity conundrum and calamity near
00:02:46
consistently and constantly but whether
00:02:48
or not you're a person in recovery right
00:02:50
now working the 12 steps around
00:02:53
behaviors or drugs or alcohol or a
00:02:55
person that's curious
00:02:57
about how you could evolve a new
00:02:59
perspective this course is going to give
00:03:01
you the tools and explain the methods in
00:03:04
a manner and a language that you will
00:03:06
understand although this is like a um
00:03:09
quite colloquial chatty and casual
00:03:12
dialectic between me and you right now
00:03:15
we're dealing with nothing less than the
00:03:17
system for inducing enlightenment i
00:03:19
don't want that to sound overly
00:03:21
grandiose but i do want you to know that
00:03:24
what the 12 steps does is it takes you
00:03:27
from a state of unawareness to a state
00:03:29
of awareness a state of unconsciousness
00:03:32
to a state of consciousness
00:03:35
in my own life this is how it hit me the
00:03:37
way that the 12 steps hits most people
00:03:39
that work it i was in a rock bottom
00:03:42
state of absolute desperation a heroin
00:03:44
addict a crack addict an alcoholic every
00:03:47
aspect of my behavior was problematic it
00:03:51
was clear that i needed intervention a
00:03:54
curious thing that i'll mention at this
00:03:56
early stage of the journey that we're on
00:03:58
together is that what i was looking for
00:04:00
curiously and
00:04:02
this is not something that i'd have been
00:04:03
able to appreciate it
00:04:05
if you would have plainly told me what i
00:04:07
was looking for was an awakening a
00:04:10
spiritual connection seems like an odd
00:04:12
way to look for a spiritual awakening
00:04:13
and connection sitting around in
00:04:15
doorways doing smack hitting up the
00:04:17
martel bottle pipe hitting boozing
00:04:21
whoring seems like an odd way to look
00:04:24
for god to look for oneness
00:04:26
and indeed it is
00:04:29
but the reason the 12 steps works and
00:04:32
the reason that i believe it was
00:04:34
discovered in relation to substance
00:04:35
misuse and alcohol misuse is because
00:04:38
when we form an attachment to an object
00:04:42
whether that's a physical object or a
00:04:45
kind of
00:04:46
a neurological compound suspended in our
00:04:49
own mind
00:04:51
meaning i suppose that my relationship
00:04:53
with my work is an object my
00:04:55
relationship with my wife can become
00:04:58
an object in my mind if that
00:04:59
relationship is not
00:05:01
conscious aware and functional it has
00:05:04
the potential to cause me pain and often
00:05:06
and this is a curious thing
00:05:08
which i believe is where the
00:05:11
universality
00:05:13
of the 12 steps comes into his own is i
00:05:16
nominate external things to be salvation
00:05:21
to redeem me to make me feel better
00:05:23
about myself now that is uh that's clear
00:05:27
and obvious when we're dealing with
00:05:29
drugs and alcohol so it's no coincidence
00:05:31
that the 12 steps was devised and
00:05:33
conceived around alcohol because when a
00:05:35
person's got an attachment
00:05:37
to drugs and alcohol the consequences
00:05:39
are obvious
00:05:41
the behaviors are observable it's a
00:05:45
clear and evident problem the way that
00:05:47
this program
00:05:49
functions mechanically is that instead
00:05:51
of regarding a problem in your life as a
00:05:54
sort of a sign of deterioration or a
00:05:57
wound it becomes a point of initiation
00:06:00
and inauguration it's a kind of we make
00:06:03
a trans a mental translation rather than
00:06:06
seeing a problem as uh like a deficit or
00:06:09
a wound we see it instead as a an
00:06:12
invitation
00:06:13
how that functions for me is as soon as
00:06:15
i'm like agitated discontent irritated
00:06:19
or afraid i don't see that as like
00:06:22
something erroneous or something that's
00:06:24
gone wrong with me i see it as a signal
00:06:26
something that i need to read so
00:06:29
like
00:06:31
when you're excessively drinking or
00:06:33
you're excessively taking drugs or
00:06:35
you're looking at a lot of porn or
00:06:36
you're spending a lot of money
00:06:38
the fuel behind it is a
00:06:41
craving a yearning a desire to acquire
00:06:45
an a forging of an attachment to
00:06:48
external phenomena to ameliorate an
00:06:51
inner malady
00:06:53
like and the relationship between this
00:06:56
the identification this problem and a
00:06:57
spiritual experience is
00:07:00
like almost a total one it can be
00:07:03
difficult to see alcoholism or
00:07:07
endless spending or obsessive watching
00:07:10
as pornography as a hankering after a
00:07:13
spiritual experience but in a very
00:07:15
obvious way
00:07:16
what you're trying to do is make
00:07:18
yourself feel better
00:07:20
and that is a spiritual issue the
00:07:23
function of spirituality is to amend the
00:07:26
way that you feel is to address a kind
00:07:30
of
00:07:30
a disalignment a disjunct between your
00:07:33
inner and outer lives so
00:07:36
once you've admitted i'm not happy in my
00:07:38
marriage i'm not happy in my work or
00:07:40
whatever it is once you've admitted this
00:07:41
is a problem for me
00:07:44
that's an opportunity for an inhalation
00:07:47
and a moment of reflection i've got a
00:07:49
problem it's like a lot of people won't
00:07:52
do that have you noticed that in your
00:07:54
own life a lot of people know i'm very
00:07:55
happy i'm like i'm happy in this
00:07:56
relationship i'm happy in this job i'm
00:07:58
happy drinking i'm happy continually
00:08:00
getting in fights well
00:08:01
the 12 steps
00:08:03
as a point of initiation does require an
00:08:06
honest appraisal without that
00:08:09
obviously you can't proceed or progress
00:08:11
because
00:08:12
you're not
00:08:14
open to the possibility of change see
00:08:16
the the very simple thing is that this
00:08:18
is a
00:08:19
program of change whilst it does involve
00:08:22
some quite um
00:08:23
potentially esoteric ideas about
00:08:27
you know consciousness and dare i say it
00:08:29
god
00:08:30
it
00:08:33
is underwritten by the possibility that
00:08:37
by the optimistic possibility that your
00:08:40
situation that your life that your
00:08:42
problems can change once you've admitted
00:08:44
you've got a problem
00:08:47
there is a
00:08:48
opportunity for change so whether you
00:08:51
want to improve your understanding of
00:08:53
12-step recovery for application in
00:08:56
obvious and already identified
00:08:59
problematic areas such as drugs or
00:09:02
alcohol
00:09:03
sex addiction
00:09:04
porn addiction gambling spending
00:09:08
excessively in
00:09:09
not eating enough or
00:09:12
and this is
00:09:13
crucial
00:09:15
at just a vague sense of
00:09:17
unfulfillment a general sense of
00:09:20
disconnection or discontentment then i
00:09:23
believe that this course is going to be
00:09:26
helpful for you
00:09:35
step one
00:09:38
conventionally put
00:09:39
we admitted that we were powerless over
00:09:41
our addiction
00:09:43
and that our life had become
00:09:44
unmanageable
00:09:45
is your honest entry point into a
00:09:48
12-step program given that our remit and
00:09:51
the way that we're approaching our work
00:09:54
is that we want to be able to apply this
00:09:56
program the way that i do across every
00:09:58
aspect of our life that could be a
00:10:00
severe addiction issue you could be
00:10:02
watching this thinking i'm drinking too
00:10:05
much my drinking is ruining my life i
00:10:08
need to change it or it could be
00:10:10
something more vague and difficult to
00:10:12
identify i don't want to be in
00:10:15
relationships that make me feel bad
00:10:16
about myself i don't want to be working
00:10:19
in a job that's making me feel inferior
00:10:23
but
00:10:24
whatever it is that you're working on
00:10:26
the candid and honest admission that you
00:10:29
have a problem and that your life is
00:10:30
unmanageable as a result of that problem
00:10:33
is our entry point that honest
00:10:36
acknowledgement
00:10:37
mentally in my mind at least accompanied
00:10:40
by the sound of a record scratching off
00:10:42
a point of arrest i don't want to
00:10:45
proceed any further down this path when
00:10:47
i interpreted the 12 steps i changed it
00:10:50
from a
00:10:52
rather wordy articulate and brilliant
00:10:55
appraisal of powerlessness and
00:10:58
unmanageability to the more succinct and
00:11:01
perhaps vulgar are you [ __ ]
00:11:05
if you're watching this video if you've
00:11:07
subscribed to this if you find yourself
00:11:10
in a position where you're unhappy and
00:11:12
lost this is the step one moment the
00:11:16
moment of i'm i can't cope with this
00:11:18
anymore i don't want to continue down
00:11:20
this path anymore
00:11:23
so
00:11:24
whatever it is you're dealing with there
00:11:26
is a further requirement here and that
00:11:29
requirement is for specificity
00:11:32
i reckon that the reason that the
00:11:33
12-step program was initially formulated
00:11:36
around alcohol and then drugs was that
00:11:40
when there is a clear and obvious object
00:11:43
like alcohol and alcoholism
00:11:46
it becomes
00:11:47
it's easy to diagnose and it's easy to
00:11:51
not easy because it's like incredibly
00:11:52
complex and painful agonizing and
00:11:54
difficult and a lot of people can't ever
00:11:56
ever do it but
00:11:57
at least it is clear
00:12:00
that
00:12:01
the the
00:12:02
alcohol is the thing that needs to be
00:12:04
removed from your life
00:12:05
that that your problems are clustering
00:12:09
around
00:12:10
your misuse of drink when i think about
00:12:12
my own like my own step one around crack
00:12:16
heroin and alcohol firstly actually it
00:12:19
seemed like a bloody difficult thing to
00:12:21
accept like when people said the reason
00:12:24
that you're getting in these the reason
00:12:26
you're getting in trouble in
00:12:27
relationships the reason that you don't
00:12:29
like yourself the reason you've got low
00:12:31
self-esteem and that you're continually
00:12:33
getting in trouble the police and that
00:12:35
nothing's ever working out for you
00:12:37
because you're drinking and you're
00:12:38
taking drugs are you willing to one day
00:12:40
at a time stop drinking and taking drugs
00:12:43
for a long time the answer was no i
00:12:45
wasn't willing to see that as the
00:12:47
problem i wasn't willing to embark on a
00:12:50
journey of change
00:12:52
having done that and having seen the
00:12:55
success of it
00:12:56
i'm now willing in
00:12:58
pretty much eventually almost any
00:13:01
situation to take a 12-step journey
00:13:05
because
00:13:06
you know as soon as you've
00:13:08
removed alcohol and drugs from your life
00:13:11
if that's the problem you're dealing
00:13:12
with you are confronted with the
00:13:15
myriad
00:13:17
other problems in your life that are
00:13:21
required to change and
00:13:23
these things are no longer external
00:13:25
they're
00:13:26
internal issues
00:13:28
so what we have to do when taking the
00:13:30
step one
00:13:32
is identify what it is you want to
00:13:34
change
00:13:34
i've worked step one around drugs and
00:13:37
alcohol i've i admitted right yeah my
00:13:39
drug and alcohol problem
00:13:41
is i'm powerless over it i can't control
00:13:44
it once i start i can't stop the
00:13:46
consequences of me drinking and taking
00:13:47
drugs are creating unmanageability this
00:13:51
word unmanageability can be understood
00:13:53
as
00:13:54
like once i start drinking and taking
00:13:56
drugs i don't know where i'm going to
00:13:59
end up i don't know what the
00:14:00
consequences are going to be i don't
00:14:01
know when i'm going to be able to resume
00:14:03
control of my life again it becomes a
00:14:06
kind of hell of skeleton
00:14:09
like
00:14:10
when applying it to something
00:14:12
more insidious less obvious like i'm
00:14:15
powerless over my use of the phone and
00:14:17
my life has become unmanageable
00:14:19
it's kind of
00:14:21
look it there's no doubt that it's more
00:14:23
subtle but i'm still looking at the
00:14:26
phone when i don't want to look at the
00:14:27
phone and it's still making me feel not
00:14:29
good about myself i don't feel good at
00:14:31
myself if i'm staring at my phone
00:14:33
instead of talking to my children i
00:14:35
don't feel good about myself if i'm like
00:14:37
unconsciously and
00:14:39
um
00:14:40
sort of
00:14:42
kind of
00:14:43
somehow my volition is being usurped
00:14:47
by a bloody device that i've paid for
00:14:49
that doesn't that doesn't feel good
00:14:53
that's an another thing that's very
00:14:54
beautiful about the 12 steps is this
00:14:56
learning to recognize my own intuition
00:14:59
and my own feelings as being somehow
00:15:02
valid the point that i'm feeling unhappy
00:15:04
or dissatisfied is not something that i
00:15:06
need to suppress or ignore or get over
00:15:08
it's the beginning of letting go of
00:15:11
something it's the beginning of changing
00:15:13
something
00:15:14
i am working this program at the moment
00:15:17
around phone use i'm working it around
00:15:20
the way that i behave in professional
00:15:22
environments i'm working this program
00:15:24
around the way that i treat my wife so
00:15:26
the
00:15:27
first thing i have to do is acknowledge
00:15:29
that it's a problem and that my life is
00:15:31
unmanageable that in regard to that
00:15:33
particular issue i'm [ __ ] so at this
00:15:36
point in working the course you do have
00:15:37
to clearly identify what it is that you
00:15:40
want to change that's not to say that
00:15:41
you can't like me work it across
00:15:44
multiple issues that's what i do i'm
00:15:47
right now working it across multiple
00:15:50
issues but you do need to be specific
00:15:52
you do need to say i want to change my
00:15:55
relationship with food i want to change
00:15:57
the way i talk to my partner i want to
00:16:00
change my relationship with my sexuality
00:16:04
or my sexual behavior you do at this
00:16:05
point need to identify it it's not
00:16:07
enough to say my whole life's a mess i'm
00:16:10
generally unhappy
00:16:12
because you're not
00:16:14
that doesn't give you a sufficient
00:16:16
purchase
00:16:18
for the scaling of this problem you need
00:16:22
to identify okay what i'm dealing with
00:16:24
is this so like you know just to give
00:16:26
you an idea of the scope that it can be
00:16:29
worked in you know for me initially it
00:16:30
was cracking heroin i was willing to
00:16:32
admit that it was a problem i had no
00:16:33
choice but to admit it was a problem
00:16:34
that my life had become unmanageable and
00:16:37
now i'm working it
00:16:39
around
00:16:40
my use of technology
00:16:43
negative thinking
00:16:45
you know like it can become
00:16:47
much subtler and it
00:16:49
is equally successful
00:16:53
it's obviously harder to work an
00:16:56
abstinence program around something as
00:16:59
involuntary as negative thinking
00:17:02
but what i can do is recognize oh i'm
00:17:05
habitually engaged in negative
00:17:08
projection and anxiety
00:17:11
that's a problem i want to change it now
00:17:14
once i've done that you know then i can
00:17:16
if i choose to embark on the rest of the
00:17:18
steps i can
00:17:20
accept the possibility of change i can
00:17:22
ask for help i can
00:17:24
inventory i can then observe the
00:17:26
patterns that uh
00:17:28
recur in these situations i can see if
00:17:31
anyone else has been harmed as a result
00:17:32
i can stay aware i can recognize that a
00:17:34
component of change is going to be
00:17:36
prayer and meditation
00:17:38
a changing of my perspective through
00:17:41
spiritual practices and that the end
00:17:44
result of all of this is
00:17:46
to become of service to become of use to
00:17:49
ultimately change my perspective
00:17:51
from a kind of infatuation with
00:17:54
self-fulfillment
00:17:55
to a willingness to be of service to
00:17:58
others accompanying this course you have
00:17:59
some worksheets and materials that you
00:18:02
can use
00:18:03
along with this video i mean if looking
00:18:05
at my face on a laptop or a phone isn't
00:18:07
sufficient to deliver you to salvation i
00:18:10
begin to wonder what the hell the
00:18:11
problem is but there are also some
00:18:12
written materials i just want to talk
00:18:14
you through how they work like so
00:18:17
firstly we identify what we want to
00:18:19
change for the purposes of this exercise
00:18:21
my example is like my use of tech
00:18:24
like even i can be even more specific
00:18:26
than that looking at my phone in the
00:18:28
morning first thing when i wake up the
00:18:31
reason i'm the reason i'm using that
00:18:33
even though it sort of seems a bit minor
00:18:35
and trivial is that i'm going to operate
00:18:37
on the assumption that if you're
00:18:39
sitting there with drawing from heroin
00:18:42
or on your way to score more that for a
00:18:45
start
00:18:46
you will require additional medical
00:18:49
psychiatric and therapeutic support but
00:18:51
also somehow the more subtle the problem
00:18:55
the more the efficacy of the program is
00:18:57
demonstrated
00:18:59
so like in my case i want to change my
00:19:02
phone use i want to not look at it first
00:19:04
thing in the morning i don't want my
00:19:06
phone to be given the job of making me
00:19:08
feel better about who i am i recognize
00:19:10
that's an inappropriate function to give
00:19:13
a
00:19:14
piece of technical equipment
00:19:17
next question is what pain or fear do i
00:19:19
associate with change in this area now
00:19:21
that sort of might seem like rather
00:19:23
grand for such a trivial route of
00:19:26
inquiry but the pain and fear that i
00:19:28
associate with
00:19:29
the pain and fear that i associate with
00:19:31
like not looking at my phone first thing
00:19:32
in the morning is that i'm kind of
00:19:34
confronted with the general and vague
00:19:36
sense of anxiety that i wake up with
00:19:39
every day that i try to negate with some
00:19:42
external distraction if i look at my
00:19:44
phone maybe someone will have sent me a
00:19:45
text message telling me that i'm
00:19:47
fantastic russell you're terrific you
00:19:50
can now rest assured go back to bed turn
00:19:52
over bury your face back in the pillow
00:19:54
you're absolutely fine there's nothing
00:19:56
about you you need to water but in
00:19:58
reality i know that there'll be things
00:19:59
on my phone that annoy me work emails
00:20:02
and suddenly i'm not facing the day i'm
00:20:05
not embarking on my day thinking about
00:20:08
how can i be useful how can i help
00:20:09
others how can i be a better dad today
00:20:11
i'm sort of already bogged down in the
00:20:14
in minutiae so the pain and fear that i
00:20:17
associate with change is that if i wake
00:20:19
up in the morning and i've not got my
00:20:21
phone then i've got no excuse to not
00:20:23
meditate for example that i
00:20:26
i'm going to be confronted with this
00:20:28
sort of vast open
00:20:31
ice scapes
00:20:33
every day like i like to anchor my day
00:20:36
to something my new and quotidian
00:20:39
there's only so much horizon i can bear
00:20:41
so that's the fear that i associate with
00:20:43
change in this area
00:20:44
what pleasure am i getting out of not
00:20:46
changing the pleasure i get out of not
00:20:47
changing i guess like with all forms of
00:20:49
addiction and this is the reason that
00:20:51
addiction is a perfect metaphor for a
00:20:52
material attachment is that
00:20:56
with an addictive behavior this is like
00:20:59
this is a sort of an experiment that
00:21:00
could be run in a lab with a rat you
00:21:03
reward like i'm rewarded about one in
00:21:06
every five times that i engage in an
00:21:08
addictive behavior it was the same with
00:21:09
drugs it was the same with sex same with
00:21:11
pornography once in a while it's
00:21:13
fantastic it's terrific
00:21:15
but the rest of the time it's pretty
00:21:16
dismal and disappointing as all forms of
00:21:19
a material attachment ultimately will be
00:21:22
there is no way that i can make myself
00:21:24
feel spiritually fulfilled or even
00:21:26
comforted by looking at a phone or
00:21:29
smoking crack not long term eventually
00:21:32
it will lead me to a point of
00:21:33
disappointment and dismay because these
00:21:36
objects are not capable of addressing an
00:21:39
inner melody
00:21:40
what pleasure am i getting out of not
00:21:42
changing the pleasure i'm getting out of
00:21:43
not changing is once in a while it works
00:21:46
for me once in a while
00:21:48
someone will text me and say you've got
00:21:49
this job or you're terrific
00:21:52
it's never enough and in a way
00:21:54
the problem even with the positive
00:21:56
outcome is it
00:21:59
it engages me for longer in a behavior
00:22:02
that isn't ultimately beneficial so i'd
00:22:04
be better off to
00:22:06
like as soon as i consciously engage
00:22:08
with that behavior and i'm willing to
00:22:10
change it
00:22:11
the
00:22:12
possibility of real change of real
00:22:14
improvement begins
00:22:17
what will it cost me if this doesn't
00:22:19
change is the next question like and
00:22:21
again you know if you're dealing with
00:22:23
heroin or you're dealing with paying sex
00:22:26
workers and like when you're in a
00:22:28
marriage or you're dealing with like
00:22:30
looking furtively at porn continually
00:22:34
it's kind of more obvious to sort of
00:22:35
identify what it's going to cost you
00:22:37
it's going to cost you your self-esteem
00:22:38
is going to cost you
00:22:40
your relationship with your partner but
00:22:43
like when it's like looking at the phone
00:22:44
well you know it's less obvious but it's
00:22:46
still evident what it cost me is my
00:22:48
peace of mind it cost me my autonomy it
00:22:50
cost me
00:22:52
freedom like i'm designating an object
00:22:56
as a kind of uh
00:22:58
as a stimulant for happiness i suppose
00:23:01
that's why the addiction metaphor is a
00:23:04
good one stimulus response as a means
00:23:07
for living
00:23:08
this is the way that consumerism and
00:23:10
materialism operate this is why i think
00:23:14
addiction is rife because we are
00:23:17
continually taught that we can fulfill
00:23:20
ourselves improve ourselves advance
00:23:22
ourselves with the acquisition of an
00:23:25
external material object or through the
00:23:29
validation and approval of other people
00:23:32
that for me has the same sort of
00:23:34
paradigm shape as
00:23:37
here is some heroin i've taken the
00:23:38
heroine here is some alcohol i've taken
00:23:40
that alcohol here is pornography i've
00:23:41
used the pornography wherever you are
00:23:44
on the scale if you're using an external
00:23:47
object as a
00:23:50
tool to ameliorate in a malady you're
00:23:53
engaged in addiction any behavior that
00:23:56
you're engaged in that you want to
00:23:58
change and when you try to change it or
00:24:00
try to stop it you can't i think can
00:24:02
rightly be referred to as addiction
00:24:05
to keep it specific again what benefits
00:24:07
can i have what benefits could i expect
00:24:10
from changing my phone use again if
00:24:12
you're talking about stopping drinking
00:24:13
alcohol the benefits are obvious i'm
00:24:15
going to save money i'm going to feel
00:24:16
healthier i'm gonna lose weight i'm not
00:24:18
gonna feel that constant despair of
00:24:21
alcoholism vomiting and belching my way
00:24:23
for every day when it's something sort
00:24:25
of seemingly minor but like phone use
00:24:27
what benefits will i get well you know
00:24:29
the truth is that i have begun to change
00:24:32
that behavior for one week i stopped
00:24:34
charging my phone in my bedroom i charge
00:24:36
it downstairs i don't look at it first
00:24:38
thing in the morning
00:24:40
and what happens is
00:24:41
like i feel
00:24:43
i feel
00:24:44
in a sense it's
00:24:46
with a subtler form of behavioral change
00:24:48
like not using my phone to soothe myself
00:24:51
in the morning the benefit i feel is not
00:24:54
immediately obvious the thing that i
00:24:56
felt most immediately was a bit
00:24:58
inconvenienced and a bit put out by not
00:25:00
having my phone there but two or three
00:25:02
days in i started to feel a kind of
00:25:05
relief
00:25:06
none of us
00:25:07
feel good about how we've been envigored
00:25:10
and hypnotised by technology and having
00:25:13
for me as a person that works at 12-step
00:25:15
program
00:25:16
recognizing that i can
00:25:18
alter my behavior around something as
00:25:20
seemingly minor as that it's
00:25:23
fulfilling there's a relief in it so
00:25:26
that one of the benefits are that in the
00:25:28
morning now when i wake up i'm thinking
00:25:30
about dealing with the people i live
00:25:32
with and love not dealing with a [ __ ]
00:25:35
telephone so for our purposes today
00:25:39
what we want is a clear understanding of
00:25:41
what it is we're willing to change
00:25:44
before we fill out our worksheets which
00:25:47
you know i'll be doing in my own little
00:25:49
life you'll be doing over there in your
00:25:51
world before we embark on that
00:25:53
let's take a moment to consider
00:25:57
and to commit to what it is we want to
00:25:58
change that could be something as
00:26:00
obvious and severe as substance misuse
00:26:03
or something as subtle and seemingly
00:26:05
trivial as
00:26:07
technological attachment such as i've
00:26:09
been describing but whatever it is
00:26:12
let's
00:26:13
envisage it
00:26:15
commit to it and be very clear that the
00:26:18
reason we're working the 12 steps around
00:26:20
this particular issue
00:26:22
is we acknowledge it's a problem at this
00:26:25
point the step one juncture that's all
00:26:28
that's required of you
00:26:30
this is a problem
00:26:31
i want to change it
00:26:33
just an honest acknowledgement of that
00:26:37
so take a moment
00:26:40
wherever you are in the world not if
00:26:41
you're operating heavy machinery and
00:26:43
that's not the ideal situation to
00:26:44
conduct this course in i may say if
00:26:47
you're driving a bus or a tube train
00:26:50
or an aircraft
00:26:53
complete that
00:26:54
then undertake this course take a moment
00:26:56
to acknowledge what is it i want to
00:26:58
change i mean i might say don't step one
00:27:00
don't fly a boeing 747 while doing a
00:27:05
self-help video that's like a problem
00:27:07
you can start working on in your life
00:27:09
so take a moment to acknowledge what it
00:27:10
is you want to change to make a
00:27:12
commitment to it
00:27:14
so for me as i've said
00:27:16
i don't want to be dependent on my phone
00:27:19
for approval anymore i don't want my
00:27:22
phone to be anything other in fact than
00:27:24
the tool for communication so now
00:27:27
right from this moment on far more when
00:27:29
i filled in this worksheet
00:27:31
whenever i engage in that behavior i
00:27:33
will recognize
00:27:34
wow because you know like i may not
00:27:36
immediately change because this isn't as
00:27:39
severe and pronounced as heroin and
00:27:41
people relapse on drugs all the time but
00:27:44
once you've acknowledged it's a problem
00:27:45
once you've made that mental commitment
00:27:48
then you can never again undertake that
00:27:50
behavior with the same kind of
00:27:53
cavalier innocence it's been clocked
00:27:57
you've grasped yourself up you've
00:27:59
acknowledged this is a problem that's
00:28:01
what step one is
00:28:03
it's the first step on the 12-step
00:28:06
journey this is a problem i want to
00:28:08
change
00:28:10
[Music]
00:28:17
step two in the original form is we came
00:28:19
to believe that power greater than
00:28:21
ourselves could restore us to sanity
00:28:23
there's a lot to unpack in there really
00:28:25
firstly the idea that we are
00:28:27
acknowledging that our behavior has been
00:28:29
insane
00:28:30
secondly that there is a power greater
00:28:33
than ourselves
00:28:34
that's an
00:28:35
interesting thing to address because
00:28:38
often unconsciously while we're embedded
00:28:41
in our problem we're accepting and
00:28:44
inhabiting this kind of odd negative
00:28:46
omnipotence i'm worthless i'm a terrible
00:28:49
person my life is a mess and yet somehow
00:28:52
i'm the ultimate authority in my own
00:28:54
life unable to conceive even of a power
00:28:57
greater than myself
00:28:59
completely consumed by selfishness
00:29:02
completely consumed by self-centeredness
00:29:04
this is where the 12-step program again
00:29:07
aligns with spiritual ideas that are
00:29:11
much older
00:29:12
and
00:29:13
much more mysterious and in some senses
00:29:17
allude to a potency that's
00:29:20
here used in a very practical way a
00:29:23
power greater than ourselves the
00:29:26
acknowledgment that i am not the summit
00:29:29
of all power it's the
00:29:31
teasing of the notion that there's
00:29:34
somewhere to go that there's somewhere
00:29:36
to get to now when i
00:29:38
reinterpret the steps step two for me
00:29:41
was could you not be [ __ ] is that is
00:29:43
this all that there is are you
00:29:46
doomed cain like to wander the world
00:29:49
[ __ ] for all eternity cast out of eden
00:29:53
in your fuckness
00:29:55
but in the more uh traditional version
00:29:59
of step two
00:30:00
the evocation of a power greater than
00:30:02
yourself is a beautiful and powerful
00:30:05
thing
00:30:06
you
00:30:06
know it can be and
00:30:10
for me is the idea of god of ultimate
00:30:13
power of omnipotence of ultimate grace
00:30:17
but more practicably someone said to me
00:30:19
and it's worth acknowledging at this
00:30:21
point that everything i've got to say
00:30:23
that's of any value was once said to me
00:30:26
by someone else and the stuff that
00:30:27
sounds crazy i'm probably improvising
00:30:30
someone said to me
00:30:32
all this power has to do
00:30:35
that's greater than yourself is move you
00:30:37
from
00:30:38
drinking all the time
00:30:40
to not drinking all the time
00:30:43
can you see people that are using this
00:30:45
program to not drink all the time have
00:30:48
you met people that used to take drugs
00:30:51
every day continually and now one day at
00:30:54
a time never take drugs
00:30:56
well now 16 and a half years into work
00:30:59
in this program around substance misuse
00:31:01
i am one of those people i used to drink
00:31:03
and take drugs every single day but some
00:31:07
somehow something happened on december
00:31:09
the 13th 2002 that meant that from that
00:31:12
day onward one day at a time i didn't
00:31:15
need to drink or take drugs now i apply
00:31:18
this program in numerous areas of my
00:31:21
life
00:31:22
and every time i use it it works it's
00:31:24
kind of like brazilian jiu jitsu
00:31:26
brazilian jiu jitsu works if it's not
00:31:29
working for you you're not [ __ ] doing
00:31:31
it properly the results are in on
00:31:33
brazilian jiu jitsu it works it's the
00:31:35
same with the 12-step program if it's
00:31:37
not working you're not working it
00:31:39
properly
00:31:40
step two is about hope whether it's hope
00:31:44
that you can change substance misuse
00:31:46
hope that you can change the way that
00:31:48
you treat your partner
00:31:50
whatever it is it's inviting and
00:31:53
accepting the possibility of change that
00:31:56
there is a power that can change you
00:31:58
from a person that drinks and takes
00:31:59
drugs to a person who doesn't drink and
00:32:01
take drugs to a person who's obsessed
00:32:03
about what other people think of you and
00:32:04
don't feel good enough unless you get
00:32:05
continual approval to a person who can
00:32:07
quite happily live without that
00:32:09
and here is another key component one
00:32:12
day at a time
00:32:13
none of us can ever attack the glacial
00:32:16
edifice of forever it's too much for us
00:32:19
not to mention it's an abstract concept
00:32:21
you will never be living the whole rest
00:32:23
of your life in one particular moment
00:32:26
you will be living your life in tiny
00:32:29
bite-sized chunks unless like me you
00:32:32
occasionally try to inhabit the
00:32:34
imaginary projection of forever an
00:32:38
unbearable place to be an unlovely
00:32:42
safari to find yourself in in your own
00:32:44
mind
00:32:45
a power greater than myself has restored
00:32:48
me to sanity a power greater than myself
00:32:51
can continually take me out of my
00:32:54
madness and deposit me once again
00:32:56
in a kind of simple comfort it is
00:32:58
possible for me to not be [ __ ] i've
00:33:00
seen people that are terrible drug
00:33:02
addicts stop taking drugs i've seen
00:33:04
people that
00:33:06
are obsessed with themselves and
00:33:07
obsessed with sex any of the numerous
00:33:10
manifestation of the condition of
00:33:11
addiction or attachment or whatever you
00:33:13
want to call it can be addressed
00:33:16
by using this program
00:33:18
so step two
00:33:21
came to believe that a power greater
00:33:23
than ourselves could restore us to
00:33:25
sanity
00:33:27
there is a power great in ourselves
00:33:29
we are insane it's possible for us to
00:33:32
change it's a step that's based on hope
00:33:36
on your worksheets you'll see that the
00:33:37
first question is do i need to change in
00:33:40
a sense that's a reiteration of the step
00:33:42
one principle just to really goad you
00:33:45
over the line there just in case you've
00:33:47
already taken step one you've taken a
00:33:49
deep breath you've shut your eyes and
00:33:50
you've already gone oh [ __ ] it no i
00:33:52
don't need to change i want to plow on
00:33:54
if you recognize that you need to change
00:33:56
that you want to change that you've
00:33:58
accepted that change is necessary
00:34:02
we're now creating the conditions for
00:34:04
change to take place
00:34:06
the second question do i accept that
00:34:08
change means that i have to think and
00:34:10
act differently
00:34:11
it's quite a difficult proposal to
00:34:14
accept because i often want when i say
00:34:17
that you know often when i'm challenged
00:34:20
by something when i've acknowledged that
00:34:22
i've got a problem really what i want is
00:34:24
my outer life to confer conform to my
00:34:27
wishes i don't want to act differently i
00:34:29
don't want to think differently but this
00:34:32
program makes clear that i have a kind
00:34:35
of personal authority and autonomy and
00:34:39
that the responsibility for change lies
00:34:42
with me i will have to start doing
00:34:44
things that i haven't previously done i
00:34:47
will have to stop doing things that i've
00:34:49
previously been doing it's a difficult
00:34:52
thing to embrace
00:34:54
so when i notice myself thinking the
00:34:56
same thoughts like oh i want to look at
00:34:58
my phone straight away i want to see if
00:35:00
there's been you know an email from
00:35:02
another nation
00:35:04
verifying me
00:35:05
showering me with digital
00:35:07
self-validation
00:35:09
i have to think differently i have to go
00:35:11
no i've taken step one around looking at
00:35:13
my phone that's something i'm powerless
00:35:15
over and that made my life unmanageable
00:35:16
i don't want to do that anymore now i've
00:35:18
come to believe that power greater than
00:35:19
myself can restore me to sanity that
00:35:21
it's not necessary that i don't live in
00:35:23
a universe without options or choices
00:35:25
that this is just the standard that for
00:35:27
me every day has to be the relentless
00:35:29
march of glancing at the phone i now
00:35:31
recognize it's possible to not do that
00:35:34
so i have to think and act differently i
00:35:37
have to move from a state where i'm
00:35:38
dependent on that behavior to a state
00:35:41
where i welcome the terrifying abyss of
00:35:45
not knowing
00:35:46
you know in a sense all addiction and
00:35:48
repeated behaviors is an attempt to
00:35:50
provide a kind of regulation a sort of
00:35:54
self-evoked parentheses to hold me in
00:35:58
the horror of this world in a world that
00:36:00
doesn't provide us with enough
00:36:02
structures and systems and comforts
00:36:04
when someone said to me once well done
00:36:06
you how clever of you to become a heroin
00:36:08
addict how you found a way out you found
00:36:11
a way of dealing with your feelings in a
00:36:13
sense any of us that have got some
00:36:15
behavior that's no longer working for us
00:36:17
should be applauded for at least
00:36:18
attempting to make life manageable but
00:36:21
the problem is as we learned in step one
00:36:23
that behavior is no longer working it
00:36:26
has to be arrested it has to be
00:36:28
addressed
00:36:29
now we tentatively somewhat timidly
00:36:33
embark on a journey of hope it's pretty
00:36:36
frightening it's frightening to be a
00:36:38
drug addict and put down drugs it's
00:36:41
frightening to be a co-dependent person
00:36:43
and say no i'm going to relate to my
00:36:45
partner differently now these
00:36:48
these
00:36:49
changes mean that you are confronted by
00:36:51
the fear that you were trying to avoid
00:36:53
by indulging in that behavior in the
00:36:55
first place that's why something as
00:36:58
seemingly parochial and mundane as not
00:37:00
looking at my phone for me can be a sort
00:37:03
of
00:37:04
like slices open the intestines of my
00:37:07
self-obsession and dread of the world
00:37:09
like suddenly here i am eviscerated
00:37:12
confronted with oh my god the reason you
00:37:14
were looking your phone is because you
00:37:16
can't bear to be you the reason you're
00:37:18
masturbating is because you can't bear
00:37:20
to be you the reason you're thinking if
00:37:22
i get that rise if i get that job if i
00:37:24
make that movie oh it's because you
00:37:26
can't bear to be you and there's a
00:37:28
reason that you can't be it bear to be
00:37:29
you and that's because there is no you
00:37:32
the entire thing is a construct made up
00:37:34
of biochemical drives and memory not
00:37:36
that you're not a unique and wonderful
00:37:39
human individual as unique as your own
00:37:41
fingerprint of course you are the whole
00:37:43
point of 12-step recovery is to recover
00:37:45
the person you are intended to be that
00:37:47
assumes that there was an innate
00:37:49
teleology that you were embarking upon
00:37:52
as surely as a seed becomes a tree no
00:37:55
one would question that ordinary miracle
00:37:57
that encapsulated there within the acorn
00:38:00
is the miracle of the mighty oak none of
00:38:03
us questions that and few oak trees in
00:38:05
their adolescent sapling stage have some
00:38:08
overbearing father or negligent mother
00:38:11
barking at them that they're too fat or
00:38:13
they're not good enough or they'll never
00:38:15
be as good as their brother tree the
00:38:17
journey of recovery step two in
00:38:19
particular takes you back to a place
00:38:22
where you recognize that you were going
00:38:24
somewhere that there is a better version
00:38:26
of you this is the beauty and the
00:38:27
optimism of this program that you are
00:38:30
not worthless that your own belief that
00:38:32
you are worthless is as much as an
00:38:34
illusion that you could make yourself
00:38:35
happy with a life of endless ferraris
00:38:38
and blow jobs we know that's an illusion
00:38:40
now particularly if you're a fragile and
00:38:43
awkward driver such as myself i struggle
00:38:45
anyway even when i'm trying to stay bang
00:38:47
on that highway code a few twitches in
00:38:50
the region of the groin is the last
00:38:51
thing i need
00:38:53
straight into the crash barriers
00:38:55
so step two
00:38:58
is about hope is about positivity it's
00:39:01
the acceptance that there is a better
00:39:03
you waiting to be born
00:39:06
part of step two is having a conception
00:39:08
of a higher power that might be
00:39:10
difficult for you because your previous
00:39:11
experiences with god and religion
00:39:14
and spirituality might have been
00:39:17
negative you might have experienced so
00:39:18
much pain and trauma and suffering in
00:39:20
your life that the idea of believing in
00:39:22
god now seems sort of naive and
00:39:24
superstitious and there's been times in
00:39:26
my life that i've thought that you know
00:39:28
that religion is for sort of crazy
00:39:31
white people and
00:39:32
fragile mad frantic brown people
00:39:35
religion gets bad pr the only time you
00:39:38
encounter religion these days is someone
00:39:42
has committed some atrocity or someone's
00:39:44
not letting someone else do what they
00:39:46
want in a bedroom or a clinic you know
00:39:48
but this is not the religion or the
00:39:50
spirituality that we're dealing with
00:39:51
here this is really this is spirituality
00:39:54
as you understand it a power greater
00:39:56
than yourself as you understand it this
00:39:58
for me is not an opportunity to be glib
00:40:01
you shouldn't be like
00:40:02
nominating some ridiculous abstract
00:40:05
caricature of god or some sort of simple
00:40:09
obvious dumb deity oh well could a power
00:40:11
greater than myself just be this statue
00:40:14
no
00:40:15
it's
00:40:16
for me
00:40:17
this conception of god this invitation
00:40:19
to believe in a power greater than
00:40:21
yourself
00:40:23
it can be very um
00:40:25
humbling
00:40:26
because it's it felt to me like a return
00:40:29
to a sort of innocence
00:40:32
you know like most cynics and skeptics
00:40:36
are
00:40:37
wounded
00:40:38
it's hard to once again
00:40:41
open your heart particularly if
00:40:44
you've just let go of a behavior
00:40:48
or a substance that was holding your
00:40:50
life together and stripped of that
00:40:52
carapace you're now being invited to
00:40:56
open your mind to the possibility of a
00:40:58
power great than yourself
00:41:00
the important thing of course is it's
00:41:02
not being prescribed to you
00:41:04
it's not some austere
00:41:07
patriarchal
00:41:08
figure
00:41:09
it's not some hand-me-down deity from a
00:41:13
culture that doesn't love you
00:41:16
it's simply a personal willingness
00:41:20
to
00:41:21
accept or even inquire
00:41:24
into the idea
00:41:26
of a better version of yourself
00:41:29
of a way out
00:41:31
of a way out of the synaptic code the
00:41:33
neurological trap that you've been
00:41:36
inhabiting that's no longer working for
00:41:38
you if that's that could be something as
00:41:41
disposable as i want to change the way i
00:41:44
use the phone it could be something as
00:41:46
life-altering as i can't continue to
00:41:50
drink or take drugs whether it's
00:41:52
an overtly radical change
00:41:55
or a small change as you continue your
00:41:58
journey of self-improvement
00:42:01
step two is a necessity
00:42:03
and an understanding and an acceptance
00:42:06
of a power greater than yourself
00:42:09
is a necessary component but consider
00:42:11
the alternative but there is no power
00:42:14
greater than yourself isn't that even
00:42:16
more crazy that you've already fully
00:42:18
inhabited all possibility the sort of
00:42:21
narcissistic whiplash of that that this
00:42:25
is the only you that you could ever be
00:42:27
that's more insane than the idea that
00:42:30
there is
00:42:31
a
00:42:33
better you waiting for you to arrive
00:42:36
step two
00:42:38
like much of the 12-step program
00:42:41
is a very broad spectrum you could
00:42:44
approach it
00:42:46
with deep esotericism you could spend
00:42:48
time now contemplating the nature of god
00:42:52
the nature of being the nature of
00:42:54
consciousness the possibility of
00:42:57
migrating from one aspect of yourself to
00:43:00
another the idea that you may already be
00:43:04
a kind of shell that the pain the call
00:43:07
to arms that you felt and acknowledged
00:43:09
in step one was merely the commencement
00:43:13
of a metamorphoses for we know don't we
00:43:17
that the caterpillar don't merely sprout
00:43:19
antenna and wings in that poo pie
00:43:22
not poo pie not some fecal pastry no
00:43:26
in the cocoon
00:43:28
that the caterpillar
00:43:31
deconstitutes
00:43:32
entirely becomes as liquid that there is
00:43:36
a kind of death of the old self the
00:43:38
metamorphoses to take place
00:43:41
step two is about hope
00:43:44
just a gentle acceptance of fragile hope
00:43:49
do these worksheets complete the step
00:43:52
two worksheet and then spend a moment
00:43:55
reflecting
00:43:57
on the gentle possibility
00:43:59
that you can become a different version
00:44:01
of yourself that you needn't continually
00:44:05
be occupied by the thoughts that you've
00:44:07
had that you are more
00:44:09
than a vessel for concepts and ideas
00:44:12
particularly if these concepts and ideas
00:44:15
are painful for you
00:44:17
step two
00:44:19
is embarking on this journey with hope
00:44:23
with optimism with the fragile belief
00:44:26
that you may be beautiful that there may
00:44:28
be a wonderful life for you that you
00:44:31
needn't live in the tethered misery of
00:44:36
post-enlightenment rationalism if i may
00:44:38
be so bold
00:44:40
we are born we are material we die we
00:44:43
live in a bag of skin we are organs
00:44:47
functioning in some delicate inner
00:44:50
ballet that will one day necessarily end
00:44:53
what is behind this cosmology what is
00:44:57
behind it how is the material world
00:45:00
suspended
00:45:02
held continuing is there a way that we
00:45:05
can access it through ritual through
00:45:08
prayer through practice all we need to
00:45:10
do is invite these possibilities into
00:45:13
our mind to
00:45:15
let the drawbridge down to allow
00:45:17
yourself to be bare to hope to dare to
00:45:21
feel to look for a moment beyond the
00:45:24
fear of self-prohibiting belief and to
00:45:27
accept that there is another way this is
00:45:30
where this program will take you
00:45:32
spend a moment
00:45:34
believing that it is possible for you to
00:45:36
change
00:45:38
then you will be ready to do step three
00:45:42
[Music]
00:45:49
step three is are you on your own gonna
00:45:52
unfuck yourself or put another way
00:45:56
if the answer to your problems was in
00:45:58
your own head you would have found it by
00:46:00
now
00:46:01
in the original formulation step three
00:46:04
is written we made a decision to turn
00:46:06
our life and our will over to the care
00:46:08
of god as we understood god this is an
00:46:12
acknowledgment that our plan is not
00:46:14
working that what we've been doing up
00:46:16
till now whether it's habitual drinking
00:46:19
habitual drug use or obsessive looking
00:46:22
at the phone is no longer a successful
00:46:25
method for dealing with the problem of
00:46:27
being you it's a willingness to let go
00:46:30
of your plan
00:46:32
the first three steps are creating the
00:46:34
conditions laying the foundation for the
00:46:37
more mechanized and dare i say academic
00:46:41
aspects of this program step four and
00:46:44
five are about inventory and confession
00:46:47
but step three is an aspect of this
00:46:50
program that i continually return to
00:46:52
because whenever i've got a problem
00:46:53
whenever i'm in pain whenever i'm
00:46:54
unhappy i have to at least be open to
00:46:57
the possibility that the reason for it
00:46:59
is that i think i'm in control of the
00:47:01
universe it's often that whether i'm sat
00:47:05
in traffic ranting and raving or if i'm
00:47:08
trying to control my personal
00:47:10
relationships this
00:47:12
mistaken belief that i am personally in
00:47:15
charge of the world leads me to conflict
00:47:18
and discomfort like so
00:47:22
once i admit there's a problem
00:47:24
it's possible that the problem could
00:47:26
change
00:47:27
i'm now
00:47:29
ready for a bit of a kicker that and and
00:47:31
that is that it's not me that's going to
00:47:34
bring about these new conditions not
00:47:37
using the techniques and methods i've
00:47:39
been using up to now that's very obvious
00:47:41
when like if your plan is what's your
00:47:43
plan russell well what i thought i'd do
00:47:45
is i'd smoke crack and heroin every day
00:47:48
and create psychological conditions i
00:47:50
can live with is the plan going well oh
00:47:52
not really actually i've become
00:47:54
unemployable and no one can ever love me
00:47:57
okay and with a less obvious example
00:48:00
like the phone news what's your plan
00:48:02
russell oh i'm gonna make myself feel
00:48:03
good because hopefully someone on
00:48:05
twitter will have said that they like my
00:48:07
hair is it working
00:48:09
is it is there enough compliments do we
00:48:12
need to dig shelley from the cold dead
00:48:15
earth so that he can write some ode to
00:48:18
your hair that might finally fill you up
00:48:21
or is your plan not working do you need
00:48:24
another plan are you willing to we know
00:48:27
that i've admitted that there's a
00:48:28
problem we know that i've come to
00:48:30
believe that a power greater than myself
00:48:31
can restore me insanity i've done those
00:48:33
worksheets and you shouldn't be even
00:48:34
watching this if you haven't done those
00:48:36
things so you're there too you've
00:48:37
admitted you've got a problem you know
00:48:39
it's possible for that problem to change
00:48:41
and now we're ready to accept a new
00:48:44
system now we're ready to step out of
00:48:46
our previous modality our personal kubla
00:48:50
khan of domed authority where we are our
00:48:54
own personal jesus our own deity
00:48:58
making free wishes to ourselves and
00:49:00
never remembering to wish for infinite
00:49:03
more wishes with the last one trapped in
00:49:06
an infinite loop of misery so for me
00:49:11
step three is essentially like oh
00:49:14
man as i wrote it are you on your own
00:49:17
gonna unfuck yourself no i'm not i've
00:49:20
looked at my life i've seen what's going
00:49:22
down what happens is this i have
00:49:23
unfulfilling relationships i get kicked
00:49:25
out of jobs i piss people off i'm lonely
00:49:29
i'm unhappy now like i've had the gift
00:49:31
of living
00:49:33
up to the point when i stopped taking
00:49:34
drugs a pretty extreme life and then if
00:49:36
bloody hell to be honest
00:49:39
it continued being extreme because i was
00:49:41
dealing with things like fame and
00:49:43
celebrity which
00:49:44
believe me are pretty toxic and
00:49:47
addictive in themselves what is fame
00:49:50
other than
00:49:52
placing an image of yourself in the
00:49:54
world and then having some relationship
00:49:56
with this mad abstraction over which
00:49:58
you've got no bloody control
00:50:02
but every so often like all forms of
00:50:04
addiction throws you a bone gets you
00:50:06
into a restaurant and other forms of
00:50:09
reward which hardly need further
00:50:12
explanation the evidence is that i need
00:50:15
help
00:50:16
i need
00:50:18
help
00:50:19
it's a
00:50:20
it's a step that i've noticed people
00:50:22
don't like taking
00:50:24
people don't like accepting that
00:50:28
they don't have the resources to change
00:50:30
their own life people don't like being
00:50:33
humbled
00:50:34
i suppose there's a correlation between
00:50:38
humility and humiliation
00:50:41
i've experienced quite a lot of
00:50:42
humiliation in my life my life has led
00:50:44
me to these sort of
00:50:47
junctions of despair where i felt
00:50:49
annihilated and worthless and i found it
00:50:53
difficult to discern between
00:50:56
humility and humiliation
00:50:59
the dictionary definition and geez why
00:51:02
not go with that of humility is
00:51:04
awareness of one's relative
00:51:06
insignificance this needn't be a tool
00:51:09
for berating the self oh i'm scum i'm
00:51:12
not good enough it's just a kind of
00:51:14
awareness that within the scope of the
00:51:16
limitless
00:51:17
my hopes and dreams and aspirations and
00:51:20
my fears and my self-flagellation and my
00:51:22
self-loathing
00:51:24
are
00:51:25
not of absolute
00:51:27
value they are not
00:51:29
sublimely valuable they are not
00:51:32
ultimately valuable
00:51:33
the humility becomes a kind of uh
00:51:38
fulcrum a launch pad for a different
00:51:41
perspective
00:51:43
the acknowledgement the acceptance that
00:51:45
my plan isn't working whether my plan is
00:51:49
become famous take loads of drugs have
00:51:52
loads of sex
00:51:54
look at the phone all the time whatever
00:51:56
this plan is
00:51:58
is not working
00:52:00
what's kind of beautiful
00:52:03
is the recognition that the drive the
00:52:05
wanting the yearning behind it is not
00:52:08
inherently bad
00:52:11
that it's a kind of in a sense
00:52:14
neutral force that we can guide and
00:52:18
direct
00:52:20
that
00:52:20
of our own
00:52:22
metal of our own steam
00:52:25
we've not directed particularly well
00:52:27
like myself i always have a tendency to
00:52:29
believe that other people's approval
00:52:32
money fame celebrity power prestige
00:52:34
privilege these things will make me
00:52:35
better my experience is none of them
00:52:37
ever do and whenever i arrive at the
00:52:39
desperation that i'm deposited at when
00:52:41
all my plans go wrong i became i become
00:52:43
once again willing to be taught that
00:52:46
seems to be my journey
00:52:49
for me
00:52:50
as soon as i succumb to pride and
00:52:52
self-centeredness
00:52:54
i'm vulnerable the journey is begun
00:52:56
sooner or later i'm gonna be
00:52:59
cut down i'm gonna be disappointed i'm
00:53:01
gonna be hurt once i'm in pride once i'm
00:53:03
in ego pain is coming to have a more
00:53:06
specific understanding of step three
00:53:07
look at your worksheets ask yourself am
00:53:09
i unsatisfied in my personal
00:53:11
relationships am i unsatisfied in my
00:53:13
work
00:53:14
well
00:53:15
obviously at this point we've admitted
00:53:17
we've got a problem we've come to
00:53:18
believe that power grating ourselves can
00:53:20
restore us to sanity and now we're
00:53:22
starting to accept that we're going to
00:53:24
need a new plan that this
00:53:27
that authority
00:53:29
can be
00:53:30
benevolent kind and compassionate this
00:53:33
is where this conception of a higher
00:53:35
power starts to play a significant role
00:53:37
in our progress a power grating
00:53:39
ourselves that isn't
00:53:41
a negative
00:53:43
authoritative power not some personal
00:53:46
despot that's going to ensure continuing
00:53:49
punishment but loving authority it was
00:53:52
only when i started working this program
00:53:55
and started to
00:53:56
attend support groups
00:53:59
based around the 12 steps that i began
00:54:01
to encounter
00:54:03
authority
00:54:04
that was
00:54:07
compassionate and kind
00:54:09
mike's early life experiences of
00:54:11
authority were either inefficient
00:54:14
negligent incompetent or downright
00:54:17
malevolent
00:54:19
but when you're working a 12-step
00:54:20
program you are
00:54:22
participating in a mentality and our
00:54:25
ideology and a community that is about
00:54:28
reaching beyond the self by its very
00:54:30
nature it's about overcoming the
00:54:33
pitfalls of an egocentric lifestyle of
00:54:37
an egocentric world view
00:54:39
so
00:54:40
it's a pl it's safe to accept this plan
00:54:44
we don't need to have that kind of um
00:54:48
fee braille
00:54:49
anxious
00:54:51
resistance to other people's ideas that
00:54:54
i know that i personally felt my
00:54:56
assumption was
00:54:58
i can't trust nobody i can't trust
00:55:00
nobody but the conditions and codes of
00:55:04
the program that i had prior to work in
00:55:07
this program will become clearer when we
00:55:10
apply the tools of inventory that step
00:55:13
four and five comprise for now we're
00:55:16
still preparing the conditions to embark
00:55:18
on this journey that because that's
00:55:21
rigorous the inventory process is
00:55:23
difficult the inventory process is where
00:55:26
this program becomes distinct from
00:55:30
tools
00:55:31
in personal development that i've found
00:55:33
less effective because they've amounted
00:55:36
to a kind of faith-based
00:55:39
sense that come on things are going to
00:55:42
get better life will improve be positive
00:55:44
all things that are you know necessary
00:55:46
and helpful but are not
00:55:50
administratively reliable it's the
00:55:52
pragmatism of this
00:55:54
12-step approach to spirituality that i
00:55:57
like even though i'm really down with
00:56:00
the
00:56:01
metaphysics
00:56:02
and the reflection and the mental
00:56:05
pirations
00:56:06
and spiritual masturbations is when it
00:56:09
comes down to
00:56:11
make an inventory let's try to truly
00:56:13
understand what's been going on why have
00:56:15
you lived this life whenever you stopped
00:56:17
and reflected and looked at the
00:56:19
conditions of your childhood the actions
00:56:21
of your adolescence but before we get
00:56:24
into that
00:56:25
let's become willing to accept another
00:56:27
plan because
00:56:29
this is the plan that we're about to put
00:56:31
into action in steps four and five all
00:56:34
the way through to step twelve so we
00:56:36
have to be absolutely sure that we have
00:56:38
fully accepted conceded to our innermost
00:56:42
selves that we are no longer in control
00:56:44
and that's a very very difficult thing
00:56:47
to do because most people that i know
00:56:50
who are
00:56:52
declared addicts
00:56:53
don't trust other people
00:56:55
don't feel good enough feel worthless
00:56:57
but the more that i've explored this
00:56:59
program and its principles outside of
00:57:02
the confines of acknowledged 12-step
00:57:05
support groups
00:57:06
the more i found that these are human
00:57:08
conditions that most people are
00:57:11
operating on a program of a kind in fact
00:57:13
to be a human is to have a program the
00:57:16
personality in itself is a set of
00:57:18
coordinates and beliefs behaviors and
00:57:21
systems that we live by we're not
00:57:23
choosing between having a program and
00:57:26
not having a program we're choosing
00:57:28
between a conscious program and an
00:57:29
unconscious program we all have a
00:57:32
program we have the pro program of our
00:57:34
race our class our sex gender the time
00:57:37
we were born in our familial program our
00:57:39
social program we've been conditioned
00:57:41
the very fact that you can understand
00:57:43
this language is evidence of your
00:57:45
programming a program is a deep code
00:57:48
most of us are unaware of the way we've
00:57:50
been coded unaware that if a particular
00:57:53
person says a particular thing at a
00:57:55
particular time suddenly we're
00:57:57
incandescent the fuse has been lit
00:58:01
you
00:58:02
press my buttons easily if someone says
00:58:04
the wrong thing to me or someone says
00:58:06
the right thing to me i'm an automaton
00:58:08
that's it i'm like the
00:58:10
action is set in motion
00:58:13
but this can be arrested and changed by
00:58:15
admitting it's a problem coming to
00:58:17
believe that it can change handing over
00:58:18
my will and my life there's no point in
00:58:21
living in the suspension of yeah i know
00:58:23
there's a problem yeah i reckon it could
00:58:25
become different it could improve
00:58:28
[ __ ] you i'm not willing to accept
00:58:29
another plan step three is where a lot
00:58:31
of people dismount a lot of people
00:58:32
disembark because people don't like
00:58:35
asking for help people don't like
00:58:37
accepting that
00:58:40
that
00:58:41
well for me the acceptance that my life
00:58:42
up until that point
00:58:44
had been a kind of mess
00:58:47
was difficult and to continue to accept
00:58:49
that you know it was really obvious when
00:58:51
i was dealing with cracking heroin it's
00:58:52
really obvious when i was dealing with
00:58:53
like excessive promiscuity
00:58:56
less obvious when it was like well what
00:58:59
do you mean i'm obsessed with fame and
00:59:02
therefore self these things keep
00:59:04
re-emerging they reform they
00:59:06
re-coagulate you think you've dealt with
00:59:09
addiction you think you've dealt with
00:59:10
the ego but
00:59:12
it
00:59:13
re-emerges it rebirths itself the kind
00:59:16
of this sort of this um the zombie able
00:59:20
to re-awaken continually it's very very
00:59:24
difficult to keep a clear perspective
00:59:26
impossible i would argue that's why step
00:59:28
three is necessary because you begin to
00:59:30
acknowledge no the problem was never
00:59:32
external it was never these objects that
00:59:34
i was fixating on it was the phenomena
00:59:36
itself the craving itself the self the
00:59:40
self-centeredness the perspective from
00:59:42
which i view the world is the very thing
00:59:45
that needs to change
00:59:46
viewing the world through a lens of
00:59:48
ideas a grid an unconscious grid of
00:59:51
perception it's only when i i'm willing
00:59:53
to say i don't want that anymore okay
00:59:56
and like at first it feels phony at
00:59:58
first it feels like some facsimile
01:00:01
something that it feels like a pageant
01:00:03
but once you've taken step 3 you realize
01:00:06
that the pageant is what's being
01:00:07
replaced that the illusion is where you
01:00:09
were previously living that the self is
01:00:11
the illusion
01:00:12
so by making a decision to turn our will
01:00:15
in our life over to the care of god as
01:00:17
we understand god
01:00:18
we are saying
01:00:20
i am willing to accept that the way that
01:00:23
i see the world that the thoughts that i
01:00:25
think that the actions i take may all be
01:00:28
entirely wrong this is a difficult point
01:00:30
for alcoholics and addicts because we
01:00:32
usually think oh i thought we were just
01:00:34
going to stop drinking and taking drugs
01:00:35
oh no that's merely the entry point to a
01:00:39
journey that leads you to total
01:00:42
surrender of the self a willingness to
01:00:44
say the way that i approach
01:00:46
relationships the way that i approach
01:00:48
work the way that i approach thought
01:00:51
is
01:00:53
incorrect
01:00:54
in urgent need of amendment
01:00:58
requires surrender
01:01:01
people don't like doing it because
01:01:02
essentially what you're letting go of is
01:01:04
yourself and no one wants to let go of
01:01:06
that but that's
01:01:07
what is required that is the requirement
01:01:09
but so that it doesn't seem so
01:01:12
overwhelmingly potent like some
01:01:15
metaphysical tide sweeping you away into
01:01:19
the limitless spilled cosmos let's break
01:01:23
it down into some things that are a
01:01:24
little more manageable some simple
01:01:26
interrogative inquiry
01:01:31
this is me and my silly little life am i
01:01:33
suffering from misery depression
01:01:35
unhappiness or low self-worth
01:01:37
yes
01:01:38
that's exactly what it feels like i've
01:01:40
got low self-worth
01:01:42
am i suffering from anxiety doubt or
01:01:44
perfectionism perfectionism that's an
01:01:46
easy one to mask it all behind isn't it
01:01:48
no i just want things to be right no you
01:01:49
don't you want to be in control you want
01:01:51
to be in control of reality you maniac
01:01:54
have you looked at the amazon whether
01:01:56
it's on fire or not it's beyond our
01:01:59
control great infinite tundras of nature
01:02:03
instantiating themselves without our
01:02:05
will where is it coming from where is
01:02:08
reality coming from where is it going
01:02:10
it's beyond my comprehension it's beyond
01:02:12
my understanding
01:02:14
yeah i'm trying to control it like as if
01:02:16
it was sort of dominoes as if it was
01:02:18
something simple as if it was something
01:02:19
that could be managed how ridiculous it
01:02:21
is to try and control our problems and
01:02:23
our own using the methods that have led
01:02:25
us to the problem in the first place i
01:02:26
know what i'll do i'll carry on any
01:02:29
version of self-reliance is that it's an
01:02:31
inability and unwillingness to step
01:02:33
outside the sort of cr not crucible the
01:02:36
kind of
01:02:37
what do i want to say sort of like the
01:02:38
limited pod of your own being
01:02:41
not accepting that the self is an event
01:02:44
not an object
01:02:45
that we are
01:02:47
continual
01:02:48
kinetic potential am i projecting
01:02:51
imaginary future scenarios then worrying
01:02:53
about i'm just a [ __ ] am that's all i
01:02:55
do i'm worrying about stuff i'm
01:02:57
fantasizing about something i don't want
01:02:59
to happen and then living in that mad
01:03:01
negative fantasy is it becoming clear to
01:03:03
me my plan is not working yeah that's
01:03:05
why i'm here that's why i'm willing to
01:03:08
do this video on my phone that's why i'm
01:03:11
willing to sit and listen to this this
01:03:12
is why i'm willing to consider an
01:03:14
alternative thankfully this desperation
01:03:17
has delivered me to a point where i'm
01:03:19
actually willing to change
01:03:21
like
01:03:22
man have you met happy people i see him
01:03:24
from time to time i don't know what the
01:03:25
[ __ ] to say and people that are together
01:03:26
that got their [ __ ] together i'm amazed
01:03:28
by him i'm amazed by him i sometimes
01:03:31
don't feel like i have the [ __ ]
01:03:33
authority to conclude a conversation let
01:03:35
alone get engaged in some didactic
01:03:38
self-help course but the only thing that
01:03:41
keeps me going is the knowledge that i'm
01:03:43
simply a conduit for some information
01:03:46
that's from elsewhere and i don't even
01:03:48
mean that in a mystical way like oh the
01:03:50
almighty i am his vessel although i do
01:03:52
mean that a bit i mean that there is a
01:03:54
program that's already been written that
01:03:57
works that works for me for severe
01:03:59
issues crack addiction heroin addiction
01:04:01
how many more [ __ ] times and also for
01:04:04
minor issues because any of us that have
01:04:06
gone through serious substance misuse
01:04:08
discover as soon as that's out of the
01:04:10
way that our behavioral addictions are
01:04:13
ultimately just as painful
01:04:15
is it clear that i need a new plan that
01:04:17
is not sourced from my own head and
01:04:19
drives if i'm to find fulfillment yes
01:04:22
this works is easy this plan of mine is
01:04:24
like a mind virus of self-obsession can
01:04:27
i surrender it am i open to a different
01:04:28
plan am i open to being guided i suppose
01:04:31
a key component of step 3
01:04:33
is becoming willing to be teachable
01:04:37
people don't want to be teachable
01:04:39
do they
01:04:40
it's quite nice now i look for
01:04:42
opportunities to be teachable in my life
01:04:44
i'm like oh please teach me brazilian
01:04:46
jiu jitsu teach me how to speak spanish
01:04:48
teach me anything i put myself in the
01:04:51
role of student
01:04:53
continually there is a kind of safety in
01:04:56
it there is a safety in this faith there
01:04:58
is a safety in this surrender there is a
01:05:01
safety from liberating myself from the
01:05:03
prison of my individualism that i
01:05:06
thought would ultimately bring me
01:05:07
salvation
01:05:09
they say don't they isaiah i mean he's
01:05:11
not a day he's a he presumably
01:05:14
fear not for i've redeemed you i have
01:05:16
called you by your name you are mine i
01:05:18
saw it on the wall brixton prison before
01:05:20
i was about to do some poetry man in a
01:05:23
prison i wasn't in the prison as an
01:05:24
inmate i'm let me urgently tell you no
01:05:26
disrespect if you are watching this in a
01:05:28
prison i hope you are and god knows i've
01:05:30
met enough people that have come from
01:05:32
behind the door to use a bit of prison
01:05:34
slang there to a life outside of
01:05:36
fulfillment there is no full stop there
01:05:38
is no end there's nothing that we've
01:05:39
done that can separate us forever from
01:05:41
god but my point is that i was there as
01:05:42
a tourist in the chapel brixton prison
01:05:45
about to participate in some
01:05:47
well-intended bitter nonsense and
01:05:50
nervous anxious before the performance
01:05:52
or a tablet on the wall i saw
01:05:55
the verse from as i fear not for i have
01:05:56
redeemed you i have called you by your
01:05:58
name you are mine fear not i'm down with
01:06:01
that i don't want to live in fear
01:06:02
anymore i want to be
01:06:04
free of the fear of the shame that have
01:06:06
defined me my whole life
01:06:08
fear not for i have redeemed you i have
01:06:10
called you by your name you are mine
01:06:12
redeemed i always assumed to mean
01:06:14
redemption salvation forgiveness
01:06:16
but i understood that redeemed means
01:06:19
can mean reclaim the same way that we
01:06:22
would redeem a voucher fear not for i've
01:06:24
redeemed you i've called you by your
01:06:25
name not
01:06:26
you lot i've called you by your name
01:06:29
russell fear not for i've redeemed you
01:06:31
i've called you by your name you are
01:06:32
mine the reason that we don't need to
01:06:34
fear is because we no longer belong to
01:06:36
ourselves my life i'll do what i want
01:06:38
with it who told you it's your life
01:06:40
where did you get the idea this is my
01:06:42
life these are my hands these are my
01:06:44
thoughts these are these things that
01:06:46
i've been given this multi-million
01:06:48
dollar inconceivable machine i can
01:06:51
control with my consciousness it's mine
01:06:54
it's my life to do what i want and what
01:06:56
i've decided to do is some version of
01:06:58
finding pleasure some version of
01:07:01
accepting external cultural coordinates
01:07:04
a rubric an external rubric designed by
01:07:07
other people that are already dead
01:07:09
that's perpetuated still and then i'll
01:07:11
establish my own ideas of what my worth
01:07:14
is in relation to those external
01:07:16
coordinates culture is not your friend
01:07:18
culture is your prison
01:07:21
so i'm willing to be redeemed
01:07:25
i'm willing to let go of myself i'm
01:07:27
willing to become teachable because i've
01:07:29
seen the results of my life and if you
01:07:31
are embarking on this course then
01:07:32
evidently you've seen the results of
01:07:34
your life up till now too you've become
01:07:37
willing you've accepted that you're
01:07:39
powerless that your life has become
01:07:40
unmanageable you've come to believe that
01:07:42
a power greater than yourself can
01:07:43
restore your sanity and now you are
01:07:46
willing to turn your life and your will
01:07:47
over to the care of god as you
01:07:48
understand god and if your god is not a
01:07:50
god that is benevolent and benign then
01:07:52
create one that is because wba said all
01:07:55
artists create their own religion will
01:07:56
become an artist because what choice do
01:07:58
you have create your own structures your
01:08:02
own culture your own way that loves you
01:08:05
the beauty of the 12-step system is that
01:08:07
there is no dominant didactic authority
01:08:11
telling you how to be merely the
01:08:13
acceptance the faith the belief that
01:08:14
within you truer than the egoic
01:08:17
construction of you is a divine aware
01:08:20
wisdom waiting to be awakened waiting to
01:08:24
be delivered but before we can live some
01:08:27
utopian life of bliss and if you want
01:08:29
any further evidence look this way
01:08:31
there's a lot more work to be done some
01:08:34
serious inventorying some
01:08:36
acknowledgements of patterns plots
01:08:39
foibles and flaws that need to be
01:08:41
exposed and undone and surrendered then
01:08:44
you will see the damage done the chaos
01:08:47
the wreckage of your life
01:08:49
once you've done some serious work in
01:08:51
that area it becomes quite simple stay
01:08:52
aware never switch off never go active
01:08:55
never go back into it through prayer and
01:08:57
meditation continually reach outward
01:09:00
outward but inward inward no subject
01:09:02
object suddenly beyond dualism limitless
01:09:05
oneness limitless oneness like i already
01:09:07
told you and there's no point realizing
01:09:09
god only to sit around
01:09:12
like either in a cave living off a
01:09:14
spoonful of rice a day or some other
01:09:16
form of masturbation realize god to be
01:09:18
of service
01:09:19
realize god to realize that oneness the
01:09:23
reason that heroism looks so beautiful
01:09:25
because in that moment of sacrifice
01:09:27
there was no me there was no you there
01:09:29
is only the oneness this can be realized
01:09:32
through this simple system what begins
01:09:34
as a process of letting go of very
01:09:36
obvious problems such as alcoholism or
01:09:38
addiction or looking at your phone too
01:09:39
much leads you
01:09:41
ineluctably
01:09:42
inevitably indefatigably too the
01:09:45
realization that the addicts the thing
01:09:47
that you were most addicted to was the
01:09:48
mirage of self that there is no self
01:09:51
there the experience of self the
01:09:53
awareness the consciousness itself this
01:09:56
is it
01:09:57
consciousness is not just one more
01:09:59
phenomena but the sea of all phenomena
01:10:02
and that we can access it if we free
01:10:04
ourselves of the illusory beliefs that
01:10:06
we are some kind of solid mental object
01:10:10
pecking through reality like a sort of
01:10:12
hammer nail relationship to the world
01:10:15
that none of it is real
01:10:17
none of it is real
01:10:19
so do your worksheet
01:10:21
have a little sit down and a little
01:10:22
think and then get back to me
01:10:25
go and read some sophiaism or
01:10:28
some scroll somewhere unpack it unroll
01:10:31
it
01:10:32
and then you know we'll see how we get
01:10:34
on but i tell you what i've spent ages
01:10:35
thinking about this stuff and it's um
01:10:38
i can't get beyond it i can't get out of
01:10:40
it it will meet you where you're at if
01:10:42
you just want to approach this very
01:10:43
simply you can approach it very simply
01:10:45
if you want to wank around in the
01:10:47
[ __ ] outer reaches of the cosmos i'll
01:10:49
see you up there either way the the
01:10:52
results are the same
01:10:53
the reason that the outside problem
01:10:55
world is a problem for you is because
01:10:57
the inside world is a problem but
01:10:59
luckily it's a problem that you've
01:11:00
constructed and that we can now
01:11:01
dismantle
01:11:02
thank you for watching the first three
01:11:05
steps of recovery with russell brandt
01:11:07
you can access the full 12-part course
01:11:10
with russell including worksheets and
01:11:11
bonus videos with a free 14-day trial of
01:11:15
commune membership just go to
01:11:18
onecoming.comtrial to sign up
01:11:20
here's what a few commune members have
01:11:23
been saying
01:11:24
about russell's course
01:11:27
from kiki
01:11:28
i have been in recovery clean and sober
01:11:31
for 28 years and russell's refreshing
01:11:34
position and perspectives are insightful
01:11:36
and tremendously helpful in an old
01:11:39
familiar way
01:11:40
yet brand new again thank you for this
01:11:43
precious gift and from carrie anne
01:11:46
russell stirs my soul with his twists
01:11:48
and turns articulating this crazy
01:11:51
material world and human experience
01:11:54
so if you want to continue with russell
01:11:56
into step 4 and all the way through step
01:11:58
12 this is your invitation just go to
01:12:01
onecommune.com
01:12:03
trial to finish the course i hope to see
01:12:05
you there
01:12:06
hey thanks for watching if you liked
01:12:09
this commune master class then i think
01:12:11
you'll love this video right here and if
01:12:14
you're interested in learning more about
01:12:16
commune you can find all of our courses
01:12:19
to help you live a healthy
01:12:20
purpose-filled life at one commune dot
01:12:23
com